Playground Update

It's been a frustrating journey for all of us as we negotiate the very unfortunate series of events around our Junior Playground redevelopment. Following on from the administration of our contractor, we have subsequently been liaising with the Victorian School Building Authority and new contractors to deliver the project. We are looking to receiving some new design plans and be able to plan for construction starting sometime next term. I will keep you updated when we have more information to share. 

Visit from our local member

Today I had a chance to meet with our local member for State Parliament, Matt Fregon. It was a good chance to both show off our school but also to discuss with him the needs of our school community and how the government can help our families with resources and facilities. 

Specialist Awards

If you can't attend our fortnightly assemblies, you may not know that each time our specialists teachers select one class each to be the recipient of their own Specialist award. Each of Physical Education, Visual Art, Performing Art, Japanese and a combination of STEM/PMP are on the lookout for a class that has worked well together, put in extra effort or achieved some thing great. This week's we celebrated the following classes - 

Cold weather and sniffles

Even though we continue to see beautiful, clear sunny days, the mornings have turned quite cold and that means we will soon enter Winter. At the same time we are also seeing not only a number of students absent due to illness, but quite possibly a number of students who should be absent. If your child is unwell it is important for them to stay home. Recovery from illness is much easier when resting at home, and how well your child can get through a school day is severely compromised by illness. 

Further more, it's important not to spread the various colds, flues and sniffles to other students and staff. Schools can be a breeding ground for illness so we all need to do our part to prevent that. We want all our children at school everyday, but only if they are healthy!

As the weather does turn cold, it's a good time to ensure your child comes to school in sufficiently warm clothing. Many kids like to wear shorts or skorts all year round, but please make sure they come to school with a jumper or jacket. Single digit temperatures will be the norm for many mornings until Spring, so rug up!

Justin Hone Principal

Year 5 Newsletter Update

It’s been a busy and exciting couple weeks in Year 5. 

We had a special visit from Zavier as part of a Graffiti incursion run by the City of Boroondara Council. He delivered an energetic and engaging performance, helping students learn about the legal, social, and personal consequences of graffiti. The students really enjoyed it and took away some valuable lessons.

In our Connected sessions, we’ve been exploring Indigenous perspectives by learning about the seven Wurundjeri seasons. Working in small groups across all three Year 5 classes, students created colourful and informative posters to show how these seasons differ from the ones we usually know.

Some of our students took part in the second round of cross country and did an amazing job representing our school. A big congratulations to all who participated—and good luck to those heading into the next round. 

During Japanese Cultural Day, Year 5 teamed up with their Prep Pals to make bright and cheerful pinwheels. It was a fun and creative way to celebrate Japanese culture while spending time with our buddies.

We also had a sushi-making incursion, where we learnt about the history of sushi and even got to make our own. The best part? Tasting our delicious creations. Some of us were surprised to discover that we now really enjoy sushi!

This week, we’ve been getting ready for our two night camp in Mt Eliza next week. There’s been lots of excitement and questions about the activities we’ll be doing. We can’t wait to head off on our first school camp and enjoy the adventure ahead!

Students in Year 4 have had an eventful couple of weeks!

We have:

• Taken part in Japanese Cultural Day by participating in an incursion and creating pinwheel crafts.
• Engaged in the Yarra Valley Water Watchers incursion that aligns with our Connected Learning unit ‘Harmony with H20’.
• Been practicing our multiplicative skills to solve multiplication and division problems in both equation and worded problem form.
• Used our understanding of expositions to brainstorm, plan and write our own exposition
• Continued making inferences from a range of sources including pictures, short texts and our novel study (The Explorer)
• Started investigating different types of data displays, how to collect data and how to present it
• Explored the idea of water filtration and how we can conserve water

Coming up we are:

• Using our additive and multiplicative skills to solve problems in a financial context
• Choosing a research question to collect data on and then representing it in a data display
• Beginning to explore explanation texts, their purpose, features and structure
• Practicing our reading fluency whilst continuing to make inferences about a text
• Exploring the Amazon Rainforest, natural disasters (including droughts and floods) and will commence researching information for our water cycle diorama.

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 towards the end of term.

Year 6 Week 5

We can’t believe we’re already halfway through Term 2! The students are doing super well, and the Year 6s are thoroughly enjoying their time as they settle into their routines. It’s been wonderful to see their confidence, independence, and leadership skills continuing to grow as the term progresses. Recently, they have been:

• Launching into our fractions unit - completing hands-on activities and even teaching each other things they already know about fractions.
• Taking part in a graffiti incursion with Xavier - the kids were super engaged and really enjoyed learning about graffiti as an art form.
• Publishing their Cracking Contraptions explanation texts - they’ve done a fantastic job, and it’s been so exciting to see the creativity behind their imaginative inventions.
• Participating in the Ashburton cross-country - with a select few also heading off to GIDSSA cross-country. All students did a great job and should be really proud of their efforts and sportsmanship.
• Getting involved in their new leadership teams for the term - they’ve taken on their responsibilities with enthusiasm and are doing an excellent job supporting our school community.
• Celebrating Japanese Day - the students had a fantastic time creating colourful pinwheels with the Year 2s and learning more about Japanese culture together.

It’s been a fun and rewarding term so far, and we can’t wait to see all the exciting learning and growth that continues in the weeks ahead!

Parent Zone Newsletter: 'Parenting in the East-What’s On Term 2 2025' 

News and Information on Programs and Services to Support Parents across the Eastern Region of Melbourne. This issue includes:

Rachel Roberts

Assistant Principal

Celebrating our wonderful Education Support Staff

On Monday we marked Educational Support Staff day with a special morning tea in the staff room. Our ES staff do so much across our school - working with students in class, running our office, bandaging cuts and looking after our library, ES staff go over and above in so many aspects to make our school great. So thank you to Claire, Nic, Mel, Inger, Jen, Sarah, Olivia, Deb, Carolyn and Sue for all that you do!

2025 District Cross Country 

Congratulations to our 60 runners who headed off to District Cross Country on Tuesday at Hartwell Sports Ground. Across 6 different age and gender groups, students ran either 2kms or 3kms across challenging course. As always our students' behaviour reflected excellently on our school! Six of our students were lucky enough to make it into the top ten in their races. We wish Taylor and Riley (Yr 6), Will, Callan and Steph (Yr 5) and Chloe (Yr 4) all the best for the Division event next week at Ruffey Park Lake.  

Thank you to Mr Worlley, Mr Purdy and Miss Reese for taking the team, as well as parents who cheered them on.

It’s been a wonderful two weeks in Year 2!

Year 2 have been working on:

• The soft /g/, long /a/ phonemes and using LLLL to sing and read with our buddies. 
• Practising reading with fluency to a partner and giving each other feedback. 
• Planning and writing an information report about a topic of our choice and are now publishing posters. We have written rich paragraphs and have drawn detailed diagrams to add meaning to our texts. 
• Consolidating our understanding of Place Value using MAB to trade. We have demonstrated our knowledge of numbers showing them in expanded form, ordering them and writing them in words. 
• Developing our communication skills with the Year 6s to make a pinwheel on Japanese cultural day. 
• Responding to a non-fiction text by designing frog bogs using our knowledge of animal needs. 
• Understanding connection to country and the Wurundjeri Seasons when listening to Reuben, Jirra and Kalinga; our guest speakers. 
• Making a Year 2 calendar using the Wurundjeri seasons as a display in our classroom. 

APS Speaks at Wellbeing Conference

Recently, APS was invited by the Department of Education's Inner East Respectful Relationship's Team to present at the Respectful Relationships 2025 Forum. 

Yesterday, Phoebe Whitehead (Respectful Relationships Coordinator & Year 1 Classroom Teacher) and myself, presented in front of an audience of other schools within our region. Our focus was on how we redefined our Wellbeing 'SMILE'  approach to authentically connect Respectful Relationships, Visible Wellbeing, and Diversity & Inclusion within our well embedded SWPBS Framework. This included how we collect and analyse data to inform our focuses and teaching practice. 

This presentation was well received and reflects our schools' dedicated approach to student wellbeing and implementing the DE's initiatives. 

Rachel Roberts

Assistant principal

Wear it Yellow fundraiser 

Tuesday 27th May 2025

Wear a touch of yellow and bring in a gold coin donation to help fund education and wellbeing programs for children and families, on country and in community.