Principal's Message

Principal Report 

Musical

Our 2023 Musical Production planning and rehearsals for ‘The Primary Production Problem’ are well underway, with costumes, dances, ticket arrangements and more being developed currently. We have been delighted with the support of many parents, some of whom have offered sewing skills, costumes, help with props and transporting some of the resources on the nights. Of course, our Parents Association is already organizing food and drinks to be sold during interval at the venue.

This big event is both a major fundraiser for the school and a special opportunity for students to have a real-life experience of stage performance. 

Our Year 5 and 6 students perform on both nights (Wednesday and Thursday), all other classes are grouped into ‘Night 1’ and ‘night 2’. We aim to ensure families have all siblings from Foundation to Year 4 on the same night. Notices about which night each student will be performing will come home soon. We ask parents to check these carefully, and let us know if any adjustments to performance nights needs to be made, promptly.

Last week, the Musical production team visited the venue to ensure we have a good understanding of the management of all aspects of performance on stage. We are sure the venue (Wellington Secondary College) auditorium will provide an excellent space for our performance!

Our Year 5/6 students will have a special opportunity to see the venue in operation on Thursday 30th August when the cohort visits Wellington Secondary College to see the Matinee Performance of ‘Frozen’. This is a fabulous transition experience as well as an opportunity to see a performers in action on a live stage. We are very pleased to be able to provide these many experiences for students as part of their Performing Arts Curriuculum.

Reminder: Working Bee Sunday 13th August 9am-12pm followed by BBQ

We have a range of tasks that parents/carers/volunteers can help us with for our next working bee. There is quite a bit to do in our ‘Frog Bog’ area, with plants to plant and some mulch to spread around. Other tasks include:

• Spreading soft fall under playground areas
• Trimming hedges
• Clearing storage areas 
• Sorting & labelling costumes
• Cobweb removal
• Gutter clearing

And so much more! We would love to see a few new faces at our next Working Bee- please look out for the notice coming home this week!

National Tree Day Friday 28th July

Last Friday, students in every class took part in National Tree Day. We planted 8 new shrubs and a number of succulents across various areas in the school. It was wonderful to see so many students engaged in this Nation Wide event.

Community Connections

Last night, four of our year 5/6 students travelled with Ms Vastbinder to a community support group called ‘Supporting the Battlers’ to help feed homeless and disadvantaged persons in our community. The group of for students were part of the Cooking Club group from Term 2, who had raised money to donate to those less privileged. Here is what the children had to say about their experience:

On Wednesday we went to Supporting the Battlers to fed the homeless after school in the city. We went in Ms V’s huge car and we raised $305 to donate. We donated the money to the homeless.

I gave out water, I handed out scones. Miliana handed out chips and I handed out honey mustard chicken with vegies.

All the money was raised by cooking club. It was an experience of a lifetime.

2023 Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey:

WE WANT OUR PARENTS / CAREGIVERS / GUARDIANS TO TELL US WHAT THEY THINK!

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.

All families are invited to participate in the survey.

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.

Last year we used the survey results to develop our Annual Implementation Plan for 2023. More information, and the link to the survey will be available through Dojo next week on Monday. We strongly encourage all parents to take part!

Staffing

This week we are excited to introduce our new Music Teacher for 2023. Mr Daniel Redfearn has joined our school this week, and has already taken each class and been involved in our Musical production planning. Mr Redfearn has a background in Arts education, and will be a strong asset to our staff team. We hope families welcome Mr Redfearn as you see him around the school. 

Uniform- Hoodies, Jackets, black pants/shorts -ARE NOT PART OF OUR SCHOOL UNIFORM

At ARPS we encourage and build pride in our identity by ensuring that students wear the correct school uniform every day.  We do understand that  there may be days in cooler weather where occasionally getting washing dried can be a challenge. However, we  urge families to contact the office or teacher where, for any reason, their child is not wearing correct school uniform on any day. 

The wearing of hoodies, non-school jackets/jumpers and pants is not appropriate at school, and these items are not part of our school uniform. 

Where possible, staff will be providing uniform items when students wear non-uniform items to school repeatedly.

Parents experiencing hardship in relation to school uniform are asked to please contact the school. 

School Wide Positive Behaviours and Code of Conduct

At ARPS, all students are expected to adhere to our Code of Conduct, which includes a matrix of the positive behaviour we expect at school. The Code of Conduct outlines the ways our school provides positive reinforcement for appropriate behaviours, and responds to behaviours of concern.

One of our expectations in relation to RESPECT is “We are polite in our words and actions”. This includes using appropriate language at all times at school. We encourage all families to reinforce this at home, so that all students have an understanding of our expectations.

Currently, our Code of Conduct is being reviewed as part of our School Council cycle of policy updates. Parents who would like to view the current Student Code of Conduct, and provide feedback to staff at the school, are encouraged to do so.

Work at the Referendum.

As you may know, Albany Rise Primary School hall is a venue for an allocated polling facility for the upcoming Referendum. 

As a token of appreciation for our school’s participation in such a historic electoral event, the AEC will endeavour to prioritise our staff and/or community members as polling assistants.

Please find a promotional poster in this newsletter.

Once they have registered their interest, there is no other action required other than to wait for us to reach out. 

The AEC will endeavour to provide opportunities to everyone who applies, the spots do fill quickly. The AEC cannot guarantee that they will be recruited. 

Year 5/6 Camp

Our Year 5 and 6 students and staff are off to Camp Kangaroobie next week! We know that they will have a great time and enjoy all the landmarks and features of the southern coastline. Keep your eyes out for photos and updates on Dojo next week!

STEM ( week 14th – 18th August)

Our Plans for STEM week are currently being finalised. The week includes our Book Character Parade on Friday 18th August, as well as our annual Spelling Bee on the same day. On Thursday 17th August, we are planning a whole school ‘Construction Competition’ from 2.40pm. Families are welcome to come along. There are a range of challenges that will be given to the students to work in teams to try and ‘win’.

We will share more about this in upcoming communications.