Principal Team Report
Upcoming Important Dates
Term 3
24 August: School Disco
28 August: Instrumental Music Concerts
28 August: Whole School Photo
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)
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)
Dr Justin Coulson Parent Night
Thank you to the 130+ parents and staff who attended last week's presentation by Dr Justin Coulson. Justin's message in its simplest form focused on ways in which our parenting style can either support or diminish our children's basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness (self determination theory).
How we engage with children's behaviour was highlighted as key ingredient in what Justin describes as an autonomy supported approach whereby we appraise behaviours as reflections of unmet needs that we seek to understand as opposed to deviant behaviours that we aim to control. See below for how our school enacts this via our Prevent, Teach, Reinforce approach.
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 dates:
- Thursday p.m. August 24 (student disco)
- Friday a.m. August 25 (student disco)
- Monday p.m. August 28 (Y3 - Y6 Instrumental Concert)
- Wednesday p.m. Sept 6 (Junior Production)
REMINDER: 2023 Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey
Survey Link: https://www.orima.com.au/parent
Survey Access Code: 376048
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.
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 Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey will be open from Monday 7 August to Friday 8 September 2023.
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.
The school has elected to invite all families (one response per family) to participate in this year's survey.
Survey Link: https://www.orima.com.au/parent
Survey Access Code: 376048
Morning drop off - 8.45am
An critical reminder that children are not to be dropped off to school before 8.45am.
The school gates open at 8.45am and students may enter classrooms during 'soft-start' between 8.50am & 9.00am.
There is no supervision before 8.45am.
Students are not be dropped off or left unsupervised to play at the Tooronga Road playground and Burgess Street entrance in the morning.
Please also note that parents & carers are welcome to enter the school grounds and wait for their children from 3.15pm onwards.
Instrumental Music Concerts are back!
Students enrolled in the Auburn South Primary School instrumental program are invited to perform at our up and coming instrumental concerts:
Prep to Year 2 - Monday August 28
2.00 - 3.30pm
Year 3 to Year 6 - Monday August 28
5.30 - 7.30pm
Please see the attached information letter below for further details. Those students not enrolled in the ASPS instrumental music program but are interested in performing at the concerts are encouraged to contact one of the ASPS instrumental teachers.
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.
