Principal's Message

SCHOOL FINISHES AT 2.30 TOMORROW.  

OFFICE CLOSES at 2.45pm but all office staff will be at assembly from 1.30pm

End of Term Farewells!

After a busy and eventful term of learning, now is a great time to reflect on all our achievements for this term. There have been so many wonderful opportunities for our community to come together, from the Book Fair and open night, to the Disco, parent/teacher meetings, interschool sports events, Healesville Sanctuary excursion, and so much more.

Work on our facilities continues, with 2 major programs currently in motion; Our toilet upgrade program is about to commence, with a timeline ready to present to our community by early next term. Additionally, roofing and woodwork (eg window frames) repairs are occurring early next term- more about that in the next newsletter.

Of course, one BIG event for this term, is the departure of our amazing Mrs Jenny Lang. Mrs Lang’s experience in teaching spans over 40 years, with specialist skills in Music, Visual Art, Drama (thanks again Mrs Lang for this year’s Musical script!), languages other than English, tutoring, classroom teaching- the list goes on and on! Mrs Lang has revamped the choir this year with huge levels of participation, and opportunities for students to perform. She has spent countless hours of her own time creating opportunities for students to rehearse scripts and musical items, and she has been a caring and compassionate teacher to students from Foundation to Year 6. 

We hope members of our school community will join us at Assembly at 1.30pm tomorrow to say a fond, final farewell to Mrs Lang, as she heads into retirement and more time to spend with grandchildren, friends and family.

This week, we also wish farewell to Mrs Lisa Tavella. Mrs Tavella is taking a new opportunity and role as Office Manager in another school. Mrs Tavella has undertaken many roles at ARPS, her primary role being integration support for students with special needs. Mrs Tavella has also regularly undertaken the role of office assistant. She has been a wonderful leader of our garden club and sustainability program at ARPS, often coming in on weekends and encouraging her own family lend a hand to create a much-improved garden space for our school. We wish Lisa all the best as she takes on this new role!

Home – School Partnerships

The value of strong home-school partnership to support each child’s education cannot be underestimated. Students whose family have a greater involvement and understanding of what is being learnt at school, make far better learning progress than those students wholse families have limited interactions at school.

Over the past 2 weeks, parents have had access to Student Mid-year Reports, which have been carefully and diligently written and scored by teachers to provide the most accurate involution possible for parents/carers to understand the learning progress each child is making.

We know families understand the value of these reports, and the importance of every family having access to the reports and regularly communication with classroom teachers to support children’s success at school. For families who need additional support to access reports on Compass, I urge you to make a time to discuss your child’s progress with the teacher, or ask for support from the school office to access reports online. Our school will continue to reach out to these families to ensure home-school communication is regualy undertaken in the interests of the learning needs of each student.

Parents may like to complete the survey currently available regarding reporting and communication (Thank you to those who have already taken this opportunity): Link: https://forms.gle/GxgWvEPwNhdo31xf9

Results so far from one selected item (20 Reponses):

Lego Masters Day at ARPS

We are really excited about our Lego Masters Day at ARPS during the KidsCo holiday program on 5th July. Danni from Lego Masters (TV show) will be at ARPS and working with students who are enrolled in the program for the day.

We do hope families take the opportunity to be involved!

Link to enrol: https://oshc.kidsco.net.au/oshc-albany-rise/ 

AFL fun and competition

Our ARPS interschool sports AFL team has moved into the next level of Competition through their wonderful efforts in WESA interschool sports rounds. Despite the limited number of games played, our overall scores allowed the team to move to the next level. We are so proud of this group, their team work, resilience and the wonderful sportsmanship they have shown.

Today, Miss Kelsall lead our Year 5/6 AFL team through a one-day AFL competition in Ringwood. The EMR Primary 9-a-side AFL competition will further support the growth of skills, values and healthy, active minds for this group of students. No matter the result, we are sure the team will represent our school wonderfully!

STOMP!

Our rehearsals for our whole school musical begin in earnest next term, with every student in the school taking part in the STOMP dance company lessons as part of our preparation for the on stage performances. Parents can view details of the sessions on Compass, and complete permissions and payments, ready for the commencement of Term 3 dance & movement lessons. This is such a valuable part of our Performing Arts program and musical learning for our students. I am sure every student will gain much from the experience.

Policies and Information

One of the many important functions of School Council, is to update, review and endorse policies and practices that directly impact the learning, function, facilities and direction of the school. Twice each term, members of the School Council Education Suc-Committee meet to review and develop policies (with input from community/staff/ students as needed), which are then presented at the next School Council meeting for endorsement.

At last night’s School Council Meeting, several policies were endorsed that relate to regular practices occurring at school. Policies we endorsed last night included:

• Mobile phone policy
• Inclusion and Diversity policy
• External providers policy
• Student portfolio policy.

One endorsed at School Council, the policies are then uploaded to the school website here: https://albanyrise-ps.vic.edu.au/about-us/policies/

School Council agreed at our meeting last night, to ensure that policies are regularly provided to parents through the newsletter, as part of our efforts to ensure clear communication regarding policies and practices at ARPS. From next term, we will have a regular feature in each newsletter, including various policies which may support our community better understand the culture, expectations and practices at our school.