Assistant Principal Update

Welcome to week 5. Another very busy week at APS. We had several events and activities happening all around the school. We have 32 students travelling to Northcote Aquatic Centre tomorrow for the District Swimming Carnival. There have been incursions in Year 2 and Year 3, and the Year 4 Chess Competition is happening this week. Our Prep students have had their first full week at school and are settling well into school life. As we move into the second half of the term it will continue to be busy with several events happening across the school. Please make sure you keep an eye out on Compass and keep up to date with the diary.

Speech Pathology - Colourful Semantics

Speech Pathologist Mary is implementing Colourful Semantics this week in the Prep classes. Colourful Semantics is an approach used to improve spoken language. It aims to support children develop skills with structuring sentences, understanding questions, developing narrative, understanding written text and expanding vocabulary. Colourful semantics uses visual aids to support sentence building, breaking down the elements of a sentence into colour-coded blocks. Colours are fantastic visual aids for encouraging children to make connections. Over the next few weeks, the Prep students will learn how to create ‘who’ + ‘doing’ + ‘what’ sentences in a colour-coded manner. Feel free to support learning at home with specific ‘who’ and ‘doing’ questions at home. 

NAPLAN Online 2024

NAPLAN Online will be held for students in Years 3 and 5 from Wednesday 13 March through until Friday 22 March. Teachers in Years 3 and 5 have been supporting students in preparation for NAPLAN by working through the online platform, practising the different tasks that are assessed during NAPLAN and covering wellbeing topics related to NAPLAN. It’s just a one-off point in time test. It can help us with what to teach next. Just do your best. 

Families of students in Year 3 and 5 should have received a Compass Post last week with the parent information sheet attached. You will receive the draft NAPLAN timetable early next week via Compass. 

A final reminder that if you do not wish for your child to participate in NAPLAN then you need to contact the school by March 8 so that we can provide you with the documentation to withdraw your child from the tests.

Whole School Evacuation – Thursday 7 March 10:50am

We are advising families of our first emergency evacuation drill for the year so that they can prepare their children if this may be known to cause anxiety. On Thursday 7 March we will have a whole school onsite evacuation from all classroom buildings to the outdoor basketball court. The purpose of this drill is to support students in understanding the processes for evacuation from their new classrooms for 2024. Teachers will advise their classes of the procedures and when the evacuation will occur. Following the evacuation on Thursday 7 March we will modify the plan if necessary and conduct a second unannounced drill prior to the end of semester one.

Please speak to your child’s teacher if you require further information or support. 

Spelling & Reading with Phonics 

Alphington Primary School uses a phonetic approach to consistently teach reading and spelling across the school. SMART spelling is a phonics-based approach to the teaching of spelling which supports students to learn the 44 phonemes (sounds) of English and identify the possible grapheme options to help spell words correctly.

Students are taught how to segment a word into its individual phonemes using their fingers to identify the number of sounds in a word. Following this, students are explicitly taught the graphemes which match the phonemes in the spelling word. The teacher will support students to identify the part of the word they may need to remember or work on during their weekly spelling activities.

The teacher and students analyse the word using sounds and letters. For example, the word rain has three phonemes. ‘r’ ‘ai’ ‘n’. In this word the long ‘a’ sound made by the digraph ‘ai’ (two letters representing one sound) is the likely focus phoneme/grapheme representation that students will need to learn.

Monday:

Whole class explicit lesson of approximately 20 minutes, made up of 10 minutes of the teacher up the front and 10 minutes of guiding the students using the SMART Spelling teaching process.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday:

A spelling activity of around 10 minutes duration. These can be done individually or in small groups. The aim is not to ‘finish’ an activity but to use this time to study and learn the words they have chosen.

Friday:

On Fridays, approximately 20 minutes is timetabled, to do both a spelling test and then dictation.

In Prep students use the SMART Spelling program as the basis for learning High Frequency (Common) words. It is also the basis for the teaching of phonics to support reading. With a systematic approach outlining how and when phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters/combinations) are introduced that supports students to learn how to decode words written in English.

Class Liaison – Desperately seeking volunteers for:

• Year 6 
• Year 3
• Year 2

Class liaison parents fulfil an important social and cultural role within our school community. The role is a link between parents in the class, in relation to school social events, and between parents and school committees and subcommittees. Communication involves the organisation and management of such events, being cognisant of privacy and confidentiality. It is often easier and more fun to have 2 class liaison parents per class. 

The tasks typically carried out each year include:

• Organising a social evening or occasion for the parents of the class on occasions throughout the year
• Organising events for students to collectively participate – class playdates at Alphington Park.
• Coordinating assistance at other school events, if requested e.g. 2024 APS Fair
• Coordinating acknowledgements for staff – e.g., World Teachers’ Day
• Encouraging parent participation at social events organised by the school community e.g., collecting names for a class table at a Trivia Night event, Comedy Night, end of year picnic arrangements.
• Disseminate information/requests in relation to class events e.g. costumes for school concerts.

Many of the activities above are also performed in collaboration with class liaison parents from the other classes within the year level.

Please note that the Parent Liaison is not expected to attend each event.  However, the Liaison is encouraged to ensure that there is appropriate representation from the class when required. In addition, Parent Liaison email addresses will be made available to teachers, other class liaison parents and fundraising committees as required.

2024 APS Ski Camp                                         

In 2024, we will be providing students in Years 5 and 6 with the opportunity to attend ski camp at Mount Buller.  The Ski Camp program complements the APS Health & Wellbeing, Sport, and Education program by providing students with opportunities to expand their learning and social skills in an alternative outdoor environment. It promotes independence, resilience, self-esteem, leadership, and cooperation and allows students to step outside their comfort zones.

2024 Ski camp dates: 

Ski Camp: Tuesday 23 July – Friday 26 July.

Parent & Student Information Evening: Thursday 18 April

Expression of Interest Forms Due: Friday 3 May 9:00am

Further details about the parent information evening and expression of interest forms will be provided towards the end of Term 1. Please make a note of the above ski camp dates in your diary if you are interested in nominating as a possible parent volunteer.

Have a great week.

Shane Wilkie

Assistant Principal