Altona Green Primary School Newsletter

A Message from David...

It has certainly been a cold and wet start to winter and we are experiencing a large number of student and staff absences due to a wide range of nasty colds and viruses. I would like to thank our school community for being so vigilant and supportive with keeping students home when unwell and for keeping us informed about absences due to COVID-19. I know it is frustrating for students to miss out on more schooling considering the challenges of the last 2 years but keeping students home when unwell is vital to ensure the overall health of our community.

 

The Victorian Government has recently announced free flu vaccinations. Please see the attached letter from Deputy Secretary Stephen Fraser for more information about this: 

Free Flu Vaccine.pdf

Zones of Regulation

The Zones of Regulation is an approach we use at AGPS to teach emotional regulation by categorising all the different ways we feel into four coloured zones. 

 

The purpose of teaching the Zones of Regulation is to help students learn about their emotions, recognise how they are feeling and begin to learn self-regulation strategies. Teachers explicitly teach the Zones of Regulation and discuss strategies with the students to help them identify how they are feeling and what they can do to help them move towards the Green Zone. It is important to highlight that there are no right/wrong, good/bad Zones - all the Zones are okay! https://www.socialthinking.com/Articles?name=all-the-zones-are-ok 

 

There is a common language across our school using the Zones and we encourage you to also use this language when discussing emotions with your child. We also encourage you to discuss strategies that they can use when they have moved from the Green Zone as this will support them to become more familiar with recognising their own emotions and help them adjust to challenging situations.

 

You can read more about the Zones here: https://zonesofregulation.com/index.html 

Reports & Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences

Staff have been busy working on the student reports for Semester 1. They are currently being revised, edited and proofread and final assessment data is being collected.  The Semester 1 reports will include the level of achievement and progress that your child has made against the Victorian Curriculum in the subject areas taught and information about participation, effort, and behaviour. 

 

Reports go live on Thursday 23rd June and can be accessed via Compass. An opportunity to discuss your child's report will be provided during the Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences in the first week of Term 3. Further information about the conferences and how to book will be communicated via Compass in the near future.

Cross Country

Last Thursday, our cross country team travelled to Presidents Park in Werribee to compete in the Hobsons Bay and Wyndham Division Cross Country. The top 12 runners from each age category progress to the Western Metropolitan Cross Country competition at Brimbank Park.  I would like to congratulate all of the athletes that made it to this event and acknowledge the tremendous efforts that they all put in for their races. A special mention to Harriet (5th), Jensen (1st) and Sam (7th) who will progress to the next stage!

STEM

The Year 6 students have been learning about the different forms of renewable energies during STEM lessons this term and were tasked with collaboratively designing and creating their own renewable energy prototype. The finished products are on display in the corridor just outside the STEM room or you can see some of them in action here. It is great to see and hear the students growing scientific knowledge and design skills!

Planning Week

Next week is planning week and as per our regular school planning cycle, the teachers from each year level will have one day where they will begin to plan out the Term 3 teaching & learning program. The students will still have their specialist subjects, with the difference being that they will have all of the specialists on one day:

  • Tuesday - Grade 6
  • Wednesday - Prep & Grade 1
  • Thursday - Grade 4/5
  • Friday - Grade 2/3

KEFAR Shop

We have opened the KEFAR shop more regularly over the past fortnight and it was great to see so many students with so many KEFAR tokens! The preps and Year 1 students had a great time perusing all of the options to spend their hard-earned tokens - with some even choosing to have a hot chocolate with me (which was the highlight of my week!).

Beanie Design Competition

We are looking to introduce a new AGPS beanie to be worn during the winter months! We have found a company that will make custom beanies and we have put it to the students to come up with the design. So far we have a huge number of entries and I will work with the JSC to shortlist and then put the shortlisted designs to a vote. There has been a lot of excitement from the students and we cannot wait to gee the new beanies when they arrive!

Writing Competition Winners

I received a pleasantly surprising phone call from a colleague at Altona College recently to inform me that Eliza and Briar were two winners of their writing competition at their recent open evening. Students were charged with the task of creating a micro story of twelve words or less and of only THREE prizes, two were taken by Altona Green Primary School students!

 

Eliza's story: "*Whoosh* went the old, rusty train past the old, crooked dark house!"

Briar's story: "The train crept out of the dark tunnel like a pouncing cat."

Congratulations, Eliza and Briar!

Reminders

  • Events and Excursions: Compass is our main form of communication for all important information about events and activities - including due dates for permission and payments. We ask that you ensure that all event payments and permissions are completed prior to the due date so we can plan appropriately and ensure that all students are able to attend.
  • Uniform: A reminder to ensure that your child is wearing the correct school uniform, particularly the AGPS bomber jacket/jumper. Hoodies and other non-AGPS jumpers are not permitted. Non-AGPS jackets, such as puffer jackets and coats, over the uniform are permitted to be worn when outside during the cold weather. Please also remember to label everything as there is always a growing mound of lost property!
  • Riding/Scooting on School Grounds: We encourage students and their families to get to school by walking or riding but please remember to walk your bike/scooter when on the school grounds.