Term 2 Expo 

The Term 2 Expo will be running after school Tuesday, July 1st and before school, Wednesday July 2nd. As always it's a great opportunity for families to visit their child's classroom and explore the term's learning. We open sessions before and after school to allow for greater family flexibility. As part of our Expo, we encourage families to visit the Conference Room and see what APS students have been learning and doing as part of our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). There will be displays from each class showcasing their contributions, as well as highlights from school-wide events such as our Campfire and Smoking Ceremony.

Our Koorie Engagement Student Group (KEG)  and Koorie Education Staff Team (KEST) will digitally guide you through our RAP journey, showcased items and displays.

We’re excited to also welcome the Murnong Gallery with a special cultural display. We hope you can join us to celebrate learning, culture, and community.

Milk bar Lunch Order System

We have updated our lunch order system for our local Milk bar. Students who bring in a brown paper bag lunch order with money are asked to pop their order in the plastic tub in reception before going to class. Lunch orders are then delivered back reception around 12.50 pm- ish.

Curriculum Days for 2025

Each school has an allotment of 4 curriculum days/student free days to use on dates where the school staff will focus on professional development. There is also an additional Professional Practice Day where staff undertake individual development that is also a student free day. So far in 2025 we have taken 2 days (the first two days of the school year). Each of these days needs to be approved by School Council beforehand. We will inform the community of the timing of the remaining 3 student free days when we can confirm their dates. As best we can, we try to schedule these days to be adjacent to the weekend or connect with a public holiday. This isn't always possible when we need to book a guest speaker or event. Look out for information about upcoming dates next term. 

CSEF

For those families who currently hold a Government Health Care/Concession Card, don’t forget that you are eligible to access $154 which can be put towards camps and excursions also. If you have not already applied for this funding please contact the school office for more information. From 1 January 2026, families eligible for CSEF will see an increase in support to $400.

King's Birthday

Don't forget, with the public holiday on Monday, June 9th, there will be no school! Enjoy the long weekend.

Justin Hone 

Principal

Opening Statement:

What a busy couple of weeks it has been for Year 4 students! 

We have:

• Used our additive and multiplicative skills to solve problems in a financial context 
• Created a research question, collected relevant data and representing it in a data display 
• Started exploring explanation texts, their purpose, features and structure 
• Been practicing our reading fluency whilst continuing to make inferences about a text 
• Used our additive and multiplicative skills to find the area and perimeter of regular and irregular shapes (on grid squares).
• Used information in dot point form to generate interesting groups of sentences
• Researched  the Amazon Rainforest to help us better understand the setting of our novel study, The Explorer. 
• Learnt about droughts and floods in our Connected Learning unit 
• Been learning about and discussing  boundaries - what this looks like in an ICT context as well as personal context 

Coming up we are:

• Developing our research skills  and note taking skills 
• Using gathered  information to write explanation texts 
• Consolidating our understanding of area and perimeter by applying it to real life experiences, including worded problems 
• Continuing to demonstrate our comprehension skills whilst reading a text 
• Using our understanding of place value to assist us in solving additive problems
• Researching the water cycle to prepare for our dioramas 

Once again, thank you to all the families that have bought cardboard boxes and/or materials that the Year 4s can use to create their Water Cycle dioramas. Please keep these coming as we start preparing for our dioramas in Week 8. 

Year 2 have had a busy and fun-filled time the last few weeks with many highlights including our Market Fresh Incursion and Wear It Yellow Day.

 Year 2 have been working on:

• /l/ and long /e/ phonemes.
• Planning and writing a narrative
• Editing and publishing our posters on a topic of our choice.
• Viewing texts about plants and animals in our environment.
• Summarising and responding to our text ‘Charlotte’s Web’. 
• Working through strategies for addition.
• Revision of o’clock and half past on analogue and digital clocks.

Thank you to everyone who got into the spirit of World Environment Day on Thursday. Thanks to your donations we raised $373 for the Victorian Wildlife Fund and the Junior School Council fund! Not only did we raise money for a good cause, students enjoyed bringing in desk toys of animals big and small. You can see Miss Dooley loves them!

Preps to Year 2 at 5:30-6:30pm 

Year 3 to 6 at 6:45-8pm 

Theme: Come dressed as something starting with the first letter of your name (first, middle or surname). 

The cost per student is $5. 

We are calling for parent volunteers as well - we need about 15-20 and I have attached the sign up link below. We also ask that parents who have a child with specific needs who might need to be there also sign up and note they will be supporting their child. 

https://signup.com/go/kBCLEwv

Save the date! Trivia Night is coming on Saturday August 16th. 

Prep the group chat, get the babysitter booked and start planning your outfit. 

We can’t wait to see you all there… look out for more information on tickets! 

We can’t believe it’s already Week 8 next week – time is flying by! It’s been fantastic to see the Year 6 students’ growing confidence, leadership, and collaboration as they take on new challenges and experiences. Recently, they have been:

• Completing the ASPIRE program, where students used a variety of leadership skills to work through a full day of teamwork challenges and strategy-based activities with a range of different peers.
  
   
• Getting started on their information reports, which they will soon turn into a BTN-style video. The term will wrap up with a special screening of their work for everyone to enjoy.
  
   
• Diving into animal adaptations and exploring endangered species as part of our Connected unit – students have really enjoyed learning about how animals survive and the challenges some species face.
  
   
• Competing in Interschool Sport during Week 7, with the Year 5s now back from camp and ready to join in the fun.

Overall, the Year 6 students are thriving and really enjoying their time. We’re so proud of the way they’re embracing every opportunity this term!