I feel so honoured and privileged to be appointed as the Acting Principal of our wonderful school. Whilst I am saddened by Lisa’s departure, I am excited by this opportunity and feel confident that I will be able to keep continuity for our school in our pursuits towards our school vision and goals. Thank you for all the kind words and encouragement that many of you have shared with me. I will work tirelessly to make our school even better.

I would also like to acknowledge the tremendous work that Lisa Conibeer has done for our school. Lisa began at AGPS in 2016 and has led the school through many changes. Under Lisa’s leadership, AGPS has improved in many areas where we have outperformed our goals in student achievement and health and wellbeing. I personally have loved working closely with her during my time at the school and will miss her greatly (I know I am not the only one!). Lisa was swamped with gifts and kind words on her last day and we celebrated her time as a staff via Webex. We would like to invite her back to AGPS for an assembly when we are able to meet again as a whole school.

Return to School & Thanks

It has so wonderful seeing all of the smiling faces coming to school in the morning (kids and relieved parents!). We have finally transitioned back to have all students back on-site and as I wander through the school there is that exciting buzz of students that all of our staff have desperately missed. I would like to say THANK YOU to all of our parents and carers. This has been a really challenging time for many families but the level of support from you all has ensured that remote learning has been as successful as possible. Thank you also for your ongoing understanding and support as we have transitioned to on-site schooling. Everyone has been patient, understanding and respectful during this time.

Attendance

It is expected that all students are to attend school unless they have medical advice stating that they should not. We understand that many families have complex situations where their child may have complex medical needs or are living with medically vulnerable people. The Department has developed an 'Advice for schools and families on medical

vulnerability during the coronavirus

(COVID-19) pandemic' fact sheet which provides further information about this.

We would like to see as many students at school as possible as non-attendance can have negative impacts on academic achievement, social and emotional wellbeing and engagement with school. Every day counts.

If you have further questions or concerns about your child attending school at this time, please contact me or your child's teacher.

Feedback

Thank you for completing the remote learning feedback form to give us further insights into what remote learning looked like at your house. We made adjustments based on feedback throughout the time to make this time as effective as possible for as many families as possible.

There is another follow up feedback form that was published via Compass last week. The aim of this form is to capture some of silver linings from this experience from a parent perspective. We are also spending some time gathering input from our staff and students about what they saw as positive aspects of remote learning. Our School Improvement Team will be looking through this information in the coming weeks and looking at how we can develop and integrate some of these ideas into our regular program. If you haven't completed the form you can find it here.

Reports

The Department of Education and Training has adjusted the expectations of Student Reports for Semester 1 in recognition of the transition to remote and flexible learning during Term 2. Teachers are currently working on developing a modified Semester 1 report for all students. Please note that they will look different to what has been produced in previous years. I will publish a letter to the community with further details about reports via Compass in the near future.

Semester 1 reports will be published via Compass on Thursday, 25th June.

Staffing

I am very pleased to announce that Cameron Andrews has been appointed as the Acting Assistant Principal at our school. Cameron has been the Learning Specialist at Altona Green for the last two years and has held a range of leadership roles within this time. We have appointed Jemma Robson to the position of classroom teacher for 3/4C. Jemma is a familiar face to many students in our school and has also been an active member of our parent community. Congratulations, Cam and Jemma.

It with great disappointment that I announce that Felicity Debenham has decided to resign from her position and will no longer be the Kitchen Specialist. Felicity brought great enthusiasm, passion and creativity to the SAKG program and made many improvements that will continue long into the future. We are currently looking to recruit a new Kitchen Specialist to begin in Term 3.

Parent Teacher Conferences

The usual parent teacher conferences have been postponed until Term 3. We wanted to give our students and staff some time to settle back into on-site schooling before we had the conferences. Further information about this will be provided early next term.

Camps, Excursions and Events

At this stage, the Department guidelines state that camps, excursions and events need to be cancelled or postponed. We have unfortunately made the decision to cancel the Year 6 Canberra camp and are in communication with the Year 4 Camp provider. We will inform those families about the plans for the camp as soon as possible.

We are also unable to host events, such as assemblies, until further notice. Hopefully we get further guidance about this soon so we can begin planning whole school events again. In the meantime, our staff are coming up with creative ways of continuing to engage students and support our learning programs.

Kids are back! Footy is back! Everything is looking up!

Kind Regards,

David King

Altona Green Primary School Newsletter

Issue 4 · 11 Jun 2020

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