We are still looking for one more School Council nominee. If you are interested you now have until Monday, March 2nd 4pm to nominate. If we have no nominations, we will place the position into hiatus for two years. More info is here. 

Lights, Camera, Action!  News from Performing Arts Week 5

This term in Performing Arts, our focus has been on Drama, and students have enthusiastically immersed themselves in a range of engaging Drama Circle activities. Through imaginative role-play, storytelling and collaborative games, students are developing confidence, creativity and communication skills. 

They are learning how to use voice, facial expression, movement and space to bring characters and situations to life, while also practising active listening and respectful teamwork. Drama lessons encourage students to think creatively, solve problems, and express their ideas in a supportive environment. It has been wonderful to see students take creative risks, build resilience and grow in confidence as they perform and share their ideas with one another.

The Year 5 students have been working incredibly hard on their News Reports in Writing, showing wonderful creativity and passion as they explore topics that genuinely interest them. It has been fantastic to see students researching, planning and beginning to draft engaging articles while developing their understanding of audience and purpose.

In Maths, students participated in their first problem-solving session using task boxes. Working collaboratively in pairs, they challenged their thinking and applied a range of strategies to solve complex problems. The rich discussions, trial and error, and persistence demonstrated throughout the session were fantastic to see. Students showed excellent teamwork and resilience when faced with challenging tasks.

In Reading, our Year 5s have been exploring different types of questioning to deepen their comprehension skills. They had the opportunity to share their new knowledge with their Prep pals by reading stories together and engaging in thoughtful discussions about their chosen books. It has been heartwarming to see the strong bonds and positive relationships continuing to grow between the Year 5s and their Prep pals as the term progresses.

The playground continues to edge closer to completion. This week new softr mulch was spread across the ground which really spruced up the look. Soon we will have a new rubberised pathway under the wooden fort. 

To include students, our JSC members polled the Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 students on their preferred colour. Look for the result when the rubber is laid soon!

It’s been a great fortnight in Year 3!

We have been enjoying our lovely class spaces and using them to do lots of group work, independent work and games. We have also been exploring the new grass on the oval and our luscious new play space. 

This term, we have been working hard across Maths, Writing and Reading, building confidence and creativity in our learning.

Maths

In Maths, we have been exploring large numbers beyond 10,000. The children have been:

• Learning how to name and record numbers greater than 10,000 correctly.
• Understanding the value of each digit in five- and six-digit numbers.
• Ordering and comparing large numbers.
• Placing large numbers accurately on number lines.

We have been encouraging the children to explain their reasoning clearly, especially when comparing numbers or deciding where they belong on a number line.

Writing

In Writing, our focus has been on planning and crafting narratives.

The children have been learning how to:

• Plan a clear story structure.
• Create exciting openings that grab the reader’s attention straight away.
• Introduce a clear problem for their characters.
• Develop the story by showing how the problem unfolds.
• End with an interesting and satisfying resolution.

We’ve been working on making openings dramatic, mysterious or action-packed, and ensuring endings feel complete rather than rushed.

Reading

In Reading, we have been developing our prediction skills.

The children have been:

• Using clues from the front cover, including the title and illustrations, to predict what a story might be about.
• Making thoughtful predictions during reading.
• Explaining their ideas using evidence from the text.
• Checking and adjusting their predictions as new information appears.

This helps to deepen understanding and keeps readers actively engaged with the story.

We are very proud of the effort the children are putting into their learning.

Thank you for your continued support!

Courtney and Sasha

On Friday we had a special visitor at assembly. Jasmin Fleming, current Hawthorn AFLW player, former No.1 Draft pick and former Ashy student! 

Jas spoke of her time at Ashy and at the Ashy Redbacks as a junior player. After, Jas and a number of other players took a girls only footy session on the oval. 

A big thank you to our local footy club, Ashy Redbacks. Below is a flyer on how to join one of the many age group teams this winter. 

The Year 1 students have been learning how to write detailed recounts (a piece of writing that tells about something that happened to them) including the 5Ws - who, what, where, when, why/feelings. They have also been learning about time connective words that can keep their recount flowing. These are words such as first, next, after that and finally. The students have had some fantastic school experiences that they have then been able to write recounts about, such as Pancake Tuesday and viewing photos of some dinosaurs visiting Ashy after school! 

Other learning experiences this past fortnight in 

Year One have been:

• learning when to use a C or K at the start of a word and reviewing the CK at the end of words in our phonics sessions. 
• practising fluent reading monitoring meaning during our Reading sessions. 
• displaying data in pictographs and bar graphs. 
• learning about consent and conflict resolution during Connected sessions.  
• practising our number bonds to 10 so we can be automatic in our number fluency of these facts and skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s in Maths

n a few weeks, Year 3 and 5 students will participate in the NAPLAN assessments. This will take place over a two-week period starting Wednesday March 11th with the Writing session.

NAPLAN sessions will take place on the following dates:

Wednesday 11/3/26 - Writing (handwritten for Yr 3 and iPads for Yr 5)

Thursday 12/3/26 - Reading (iPads for Yr 3 and 5)

Tuesday 17/3/26 - Conventions of Language (iPads for Yr 3 and 5)

Wednesday 18/3/26 - Numeracy (iPads for Yr 3 and 5)

All sessions will begin around 9.15am so it is important for students to be at school on time.

In Year 3, students will complete their writing session by handwriting directly into a supplied booklet. In Year 5, students will type directly into iPads using supplied keyboards. iPads will be used for all other sessions for both Year 3s and 5s. Students in Year 3 will use the school’s class sets of iPads.

Headphones are also required for the NAPLAN test window. They are required to enable students to listen to prompts and to have questions read to them if needed. We have a limited number available at school and it is preferable that they bring their own set with headphone jack (if available).

We also ask students to ensure their iPad is charged up the night before any NAPLAN test sessions they are due to undertake.

There is time to allow students who miss tests to sit for a make up session later in the week. We will try to catch all missing students up within the given time frame.

Students will be given time in the next few weeks to familiarise themselves with the test format, particularly in understanding the types of questions they will be asked and the different ways they can respond. 

Please remember to encourage your child to try their best during these upcoming sessions, but at the same time, it's important to emphasise that it's not the most important event in their lives. Their results from four days in the year do not reflect them - they are much more than that.

If you have any questions, please find the NAPLAN Parent Information attached or reach out to your child's classroom teacher via Compass Connect.

We are seeking nominations for School Council. 

School Council meets twice as term, usually Tuesday from 4.30pm to 6pm on site at school. School councils play a vital role in Victorian government schools and are established and operate under the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic), the Education and Training Reform Regulations 2017 (Vic) and Ministerial Order 1280 (Constitution of Government School Councils) 2020 (DOCX) (Ministerial Order 1280).

Nomination Forms maybe be obtained from the school, and are attached here, and must be lodged by 4.00pm on Wednesday, February 25th either in person at the office or via email to ashburton.ps@education.vic.gov.au 

Please also find attached the Information for Parents and Notice of Election and Call for Nominations. 

Parent Members – Number of Positions Vacant is 6.