Principal's Report

Dear Parents, Families and Community members,

Multi Award Winning ACS!

Multi Award Winning ACS if you don’t mind!!

 

Last Friday night our school was recognised at the Victorian Education Excellence Award (VEEA) by taking out not just one, but two awards on the night including the overall Excellence in Education Award, the Lindsay Thompson Award!!

 

Starting the night as one of three finalists in the Outstanding Inclusive Education Award category was great recognition alone of what our school has been able to establish and achieve in the 4 years since opening.

 

But to win the category and then to win the Lindsay Thompson Award is next level!

The Lindsay Thompson Award for Excellence in Education is awarded to one overall winner (out from the 14 award categories) whose contribution was judged to be the most outstanding to Victorian school education.

 

Our school community should be so proud of what we have achieved and recognition at the highest of levels only reinforces that further!

Well done everyone at ACS!!!

 

Full details of the awards and award winners can be found link below;

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/awards/Pages/veeawinners.aspx?fbclid=IwAR2HpqiguMXk5v3JpZjLSpsPpTYBzRpGjQPpBrycgOrdT0n2q11mEKmP5Aw

 

The Geelong Advertiser have been keen to feature our 'award winning school' in their paper. I'm not sure if this will run on the weekend or next week but keep an eye out! Today Georgia, Poppy and Matilda joined Kathryn and I to pose for some 'happy snaps'; perhaps one or two might even make it into the paper!

Returning after School Closure

Today, whilst long overdue, was an exciting day for our School Community and we were so glad to have the vast majority of our students and staff back as our school officially re-opened.

 

Our community has been extremely resilient, understanding and supportive in this challenging period and I cannot thank you all enough.

 

We all understand that as difficult as the situation was, it was necessary to ensure that we were able to maximise safety and re-open in a supported and safe way.

 

Our thoughts and best wishes continue to be with those students, staff and families that are required to still isolate or quarantine. I am aware that many students, families and staff have a range of emotions knowing that members of our community have tested positive for COVID-19. Particularly for our students, it is important to note that whilst we hope that no one gets 'COVID', that the students we know of who have, have also not really experienced any significant symptoms or had any complications. This might be reassuring to share if your child is concerned about this.

 

We already have a lot of 'COVID Safe' practices and supports in place and over the last couple of weeks we have been able to consider these further and make some enhancements. We will share a document with families to highlight some of these additional things that are in addition to existing practices.

Change of Curriculum Date

Thursday, November 4th was due to be our 3rd Curriculum Day which was re-scheduled due to Lockdown. 

 

Given the recent school closure, I have consulted with our school's leadership team and the School Council and we have made the decision to re-schedule this again. We all know the disruption our students have had this year and last and we want to maximise getting back into school routines and learning programs without further disruption.

 

As a result, this Curriculum Day will now be on the second last day of the school year, Thursday, December 16th (focus of the day is on 'Evidence Based Explicit Writing Instruction'). 

 

This is in addition to the pre-planned final day of the year, Friday December 17th which will also be a Curriculum Day. The final day for students will be Wednesday, December 15th and students will be dismissed at the normal school finish time.

World Teacher's Day

Today is also World Teacher's Day where we recognise and celebrate the wonderful work our Teachers do and how they have a major influence on the life and learning of our students.

 

Never more so than the last two years, has it been more evident just how committed and professional our ACS Teachers are! We thank them for making our school the great school it is!

 

Thank you to all students, families and staff who sent in messages to celebrate our wonderful teachers today.  They loved receiving their books of messages and I am sure their emotional buckets are overflowing with appreciation and gratitude.

Staffing Updates

We congratulate Alison Balchan who at the beginning of Term 4 moved from Leading Teacher to Assistant Principal of our Secondary School. Alison has been with us since the school opened and has already contributed an amazing amount to ACS.

 

I know Alison will continue to lead our Secondary School strongly as well as taking whole school leadership responsibilities as part of her work.

 

Well done Alison.

 

 

Take care and enjoy!

 

Evan Savage

Principal