Message from the Principal

Dear Families,

At Albanvale PS we all know we like to do things a bit differently. We don't settle for the normal. That's why while other schools do Book Week, we are gearing up for our annual LITFEST!

This is one of the absolute highlights of our school year (I can't help that there are so many at our school). If this is the first time you've experienced "Book Week" at Albanvale PS, you are in for a treat. 

LITFEST26 - Monday 17 August to Friday 21August

"Let the wild rumpus start" - Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

We kick things off on the Monday by coming dressed as your favourite. Not just students but parents and siblings across the whole Albanvale PS community is invited to dress up and join our Book Character Dress Up Parade in the gym starting at 9:05am. We love seeing how everyone chooses to celebrate this day. Remember you don't need to buy new things for your costume! Have a look around the house and see what you can put together. We've got some ideas further on in the newsletter to help if you are aren't sure where to begin.

"Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift." - Kate DiCamillo

On Thursday we will host our Reading Cafe. We can't wait to welcome our families into our school for a morning of reading with your children with a warm drink and special treat to help set up a special moment of stroies together. Once the Reading Cafe closes we will head in to the gym for coverted Albanvale PS Spelling Bee Championship - Congraulations to all the students have won their classroom heats to qualify for the main event. 

And who could forget the High 5 Book Fair, running across the week. Students convert their positive behaviour into high-quality reading material using their High 5 Cards. This week is all about celebrating and instilling a love of literacy in not just our students, but our entire community.

2026 NAPLAN Results - Albanvale Achieving Excellence Again

Each year, students in Grades 3 and 5 undertake assessmenta in Literacy and Numeracy alongside their age based peers across the country. There is much discourse in the media about NAPLAN, however at Albanvale Primary School we hold firm beliefs that this assessment, alongside the work of our teachers, helps to build a full picture of indivudal student learning at a point in time. More importantly we use the cohort data to evaluate the effectiveness of our teaching program. 

I am very proud to share that for the fifth year in a row our students have had a clean sweep, achieving higher than the State Average, Network Schools Average and Similar Schools Average in all assessments for both Grade 3 and Grade 5.

I congratulate our students who sat the assessment this year for their outstanding success and, of course, their parents and teachers for the work in ensuring every students reaches their full potential.

Sustained Success

Excitingly, this year the Department of Education has published what is known as a 3-year average report. This helps measure the impact of our teaching program and evaluate if it's having a lasting positive effect on all students in all year levels. The data shows the average percentage of students acheiving Exceeding or Strong (At or Above Standard) in each NAPLAN assessment across the last 3 years. I am very proud to share that Albanvale Primary School again has achieved higher than State, Similar and Network schools.

After sharing with School Council earlier this year, I am pleased to share with you the data below.

 (Albanvale represented in Orange) 

• How we performed against others this year (LEFT) 
• How we performed over a 3 year average (RIGHT)

Reading

Numeracy

Writing

This is an incredible achievement for our community and one that is only possible when students, families and staff all work together to set high expectations for every student and commit to the full range of supports to help every student achieve excellence.

When families look to enrol at our school we often talk about the 'Albanvale Advantage'. These achievements highlight what we mean by demonstrating our belief of equity and excellence for every student every day.

Prep 2027 - 6 places remaining!

First round offers have been made and we have already been getting to know so many of our future Preps at our Little Learner sessions. 

Demand has been amazing and has allowed us to open up another six spots! Even this week, with first round enrolments finished, we have had multiple enquiries. It is rewarding to see the effort and care our teachers and staff put into our school be so highly sought after.  If you have a child in your life who is due to start Prep in 2027, or know of someone who wants to experience the Albanvale difference, please encourage them to get in touch with the school as soon as possible either via our website or calling the front office on 9367 2197.

The Albanvale Difference in practice

It was a pleasure to host over 60 Principals, Assistant Principals, Learning Specialists and Teachers at Albanvale PS today as they attended a proffessional development workshop lead by Brand Nguyen, a leader in maths instruction in Australia . We pride ourselves on not only educating your children, but furthering the education of our staff to ensure they are providing the latest developments in teaching. Being able to collaborate with schools in our area for these opportunities benefits our whole community, and we hope to continue to build on these relationships.

This has been a lot longer than usual, so if you've made it this far, thank you! Enjoy your weekend and I look forward to seeing you around the school during our LITFEST celebrat

Achieve Excellence, Together. 

Michael Uzunovski

Principal