Upcoming Important Dates

Term 3

6 September: Year 1 & 2 Concerts

8 September: Premiers Reading Challenge (closing date)

15 September: Last Day Term 3 (2:00pm dismissal

Term 4

2 October: Term 4 Starts

6 November: Teacher Professional Practice Day (student free day)

7 November: Cup Day Public Holiday

22 November: Parent Forum: Numeracy at ASPS with Prof. Peter Sullivan

12 December: End of Year Concert

18 December: Year 6 Graduation

20 December: Last Day Term 4 (1:00pm dismissal)

Change to Camp Australia

Camp Australia will be running their program in the Year 5 area and foyer in the Main Building on the following date:

Wednesday p.m. Sept 6 (Junior Concert)

2023 School Disco

A huge thank you goes out to our Parents Association and Year Level volunteers for organising this year's School Disco! As you can see from some of the photos below, this was definitely one of the highlights of 2023!

Reconciliation Assembly

Special thanks are extended to our Always Was, Always Will Be student team and Ms Emily Hui for organising this week's Reconciliation Assembly. A full report is included in the Always Was, Always Will be page in the newsletter.

FINAL REMINDER: 2023 Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey

Survey Link: https://www.orima.com.au/parent

Survey Access Code: 376048

The Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey will be open from Monday 7 August to Friday 8 September 2023.

Our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents / caregivers / guardians think of our school. The Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education that is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behavior, and student engagement. The survey is optional but we encourage all families to participate. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies.

Academic Excellence

While ASPS prides itself on providing a balanced and well-rounded education for our students, we also strive for academic excellence. Despite the challenges of the past 2-3 years, our students perform as well or better in assessments such as NAPLAN than students from statistically similar schools (by student family occupation). With a current strategic focus on further developing teacher practice in Numeracy, the sky is very much the limit for our students.

2023 Improvement Strategies

As part of the school's Annual Implementation Plan and Strategic Plan, we have prioritised the following actions which speak directly to the results of previous survey results:

1.) Valuing parents and carers as valued partners in learning (effective communication).

Celebration of Learning Events to complement Parent Teacher Interviews
Parent Information Forums (Dr Justin Coulson, Reading @ ASPS and Numeracy @ ASPS)
Providing opportunities for parents to support learning programs and activities (including camps!)
Building community spirit via a number of social and whole school events

2.) Understanding how children are assessed.

Redeveloped Student Report Cards with the use of 'rubrics' to help articulate learning targets, student achievement and next steps.
Celebration of Learning events
Parent forums as described above

3.) School approaches to improve student behaviour and wellbeing

Development of a School-Wide Positive Behaviour Matrix and the Prevent, Teach, Reinforce approach (see below, noting that these are currently being trialed and developed with students)
Visible Wellbeing approach (school nominated for a Victorian Excellence in Education Award)
Respectful Relationships program

The survey will be conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the survey period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. The online survey will be available in English and 10 other languages including Arabic, Greek, Hakha Chin, Hindi, Japanese, Punjabi, Simplified Chinese, Somali, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

Afternoon pick-up by 3.45pm

The expectation is that all students are collected from school by 3.45pm unless they are enrolled in Camp Australia or another after-school program.

Staff supervise pick-up areas between 3.30pm and 3.45pm and need to move into professional learning sessions and other school meetings at 3.45pm.

Please contact the school office if you are running late and if there is a risk of your child being left unattended.

Families are of course welcome to use the front playground but children must be supervised.

Congratulations to our young musicians!

A huge congratulations to all of the students who performed at the 2023 Junior and Senior Instrumental Music Concerts. The two events were a great success!

It takes commitment and courage to prepare and perform in front of a live audience. We could not be more proud of our students!

A very big thank you to our instrumental teachers Felix Thiang, Yeung Ng, Jennifer Choo, Lucia Liu and Chris Dunn for their support and making this event a success.

If you are interested in enrolling your child in the ASPS instrumental program - head to the Instrumental Music Program page in this newsletter!

Topic: Numeracy at ASPS with Prof. Peter Sullivan

Date: 22 November (6:30pm - 8:00pm)

This engaging session, run by our school's numeracy consultant, Professor Peter Sullivan, will help families to understand the approaches taken by the support, challenge and engage students in Mathematics. Our aim as a school is that our students see themselves as mathematicians who are able to solve complex, real world problems; taking into Secondary School, the confidence and motivation to study Mathematics all the way through to Year 12 and beyond.

Topic: Cyber Safety Project Webinar

Please note that all of the Term 1, 2 and 3 sessions are now available on-demand to ASPS families .

Click on the image below to access past and upcoming webinars.

Extra-Curricular Programs

Aerobotics Global

Soccer X

The Brick Kit

Sportwise

The Amazons

Kids Unlimited - Chess

Art Thematic

Karate

Code Camp