Welcome back for Term 2! I need to give a big shout out to Mrs Roberts for standing in for me over the first two weeks of the term as I took long service leave after the Easter holidays. As always, Mrs Roberts did a wonderful job in making sure everything ran smoothly. I also need to continue to thank Nicole Ralph in our office as she extends her working week covering Mel in the office who is on leave. 

While continuing the thanks we need to thank the organisers of the recent Democracy Sausage Sizzle and Cake Fair, specifically Anna Uliando and Yuen Fong for their leadership. They were able to organise various groups - Ash Howarth and Marshall White for their very generous financial donation, volunteering, and use of marquee for the day. They also liaised with the local Lulabelle’s Cafe, Le Croissant, Brumbies, Coles and Woolworths for their contributions. I was so disappointed that by the time I arrived on the scene at 2pm, they had sold out of everything. I was most disappointed that I was unable to taste the baking of Emma Binks and her army of bakers. We thank everyone for donating their time and energy and everyone who dropped by to eat and vote!

On Tuesday night we held our 2026 Prep Information Night in the Prep Pod. We outlined what Prep is about at Ashy and what the process of enrolment is. Along with our weekly school tours led by Year 6 students and this week's Prep Storytime, it forms our transition and promotion for the 2026 Prep cohort. Thank you to Mrs Roberts, Miss Cath and Parents' Association spokesperson Bec Bishop for speaking to the assembled new families. 

This morning's Mother's Day event was a huge success with a great turnout. I want to thank everyone who was able to attend, but big thanks out to Dana Sattler, Kristin Williams, Sarah Day, Kate Wright,  Samantha Tan, Jaya Adimulam, Lucy Scorer and Gemma Koo!

This week we were visited by playground builders as we look to get our Junior Playground re-development back on track after the terrible situation with our original builders. Hopefully we will be able to get underway with the project in the middle of the year (fingers crossed!).

Justin Hone

Principal

Go Dees!

On Monday, April 27th we were lucky to be visited by a group of players from the Melbourne Demons AFL team. Students heard from Clayton Oliver, Tom McDonald, Bailey Laurie, Caleb Windsor, Tom Fullerton and Will Verrall as they answered questions about their careers and what it's like to be an elite athlete. Afterwards students were able to have items signed and quite a few of the Demon loving staff members took the opportunity to have a selfie with the players!

Term 2 is off to a fantastic start for our Year 5s. 

We were excited to have players from the Melbourne Football Club visit our school. They answered some of our curious questions and even signed a few treasured items. 

We also took part in our school cross country event. The whole Year 5 cohort walked to Hartwell Park, where everyone got involved by running 3 kms alongside cheering families, friends, and teachers. It was a beautiful morning. 

Some of our learning experiences have been:

• In Maths, our focus has been around data and graphs. We decided to involve our Prep Pals by coming up with questions to ask them. We worked together to create our class question, collected the data from the preps and then created graphs to represent this. We are excited to share our completed column graph next week. 
• In Writing, we've been exploring explanation texts, with a focus on sustainability. Students have developed innovative ideas for programs and machines to help Ashburton Primary become more environmentally friendly and they’ve done a great job explaining the process and how these would work.
• Literature Circles have been a valuable experience, giving students the chance to engage in rich discussions based on their group novels. This will continue throughout Term 2, providing further opportunities for students to explore texts in more detail and expand their thinking. 

Camp is just around the corner, and the excitement is building. Students have been full of questions and are counting down the days.

We’re looking forward to a fun and busy rest of Term 2!

It was such a great turn out today at the Mother’s Day event in the hall. From 8am families enjoyed a coffee and a delicious scone before becoming artists when they made cards, crafts and lots of other gifts for mums and special people. We need to thank a lot of people for making it happen. Thank you to Team Kids for the coffee cart, Ash from Marshall White for the scones and Officeworks for the arts and craft items. 

We need to thank the organisers for all of their hard work - thank you to Dana Sattler, Kristin Williams, Sarah Day, Kate Wright,  Samantha Tan, Jaya Adimulam, Lucy Scorer and Gemma Koo!

We've had a fantastic start to Term 2, and the students have already accomplished so much in just a few weeks! Recently, they have been:

• Diving into algebra in maths, exploring patterns and applying their knowledge through our creative "chicken box" project. Students have been building 3D models to figure out how many walls their chickens would need—an engaging and hands-on way to bring maths to life.
  
   
• Creating explanations about cyclones for our Year 2 buddies, with the younger students providing some amazing illustrations to match. It was a great opportunity for collaboration across year levels.
  
   
• Taking part in our school cross-country, where every student gave their best effort—something they should all be incredibly proud of!
  
   

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• Launching into our sustainability unit, where we’re beginning to explore how our actions impact the environment and how we can make a positive difference.
  
   
• Settling back into the routine of interschool sport each Thursday, representing our school with pride as they compete in their chosen sports.
  
   

It’s been a vibrant and productive start to the term, filled with creativity, collaboration, and enthusiasm. We’re excited to see what else Term 2 has in store!

Election Day, Saturday May 3rd was a beautiful sunny day for the APS Democracy Sausage and Cake Stall, and the turnout was fantastic!

Current and former APS families, along with the wider local community, gathered to support our fundraiser, showcasing the incredible

community spirit that defines Ashburton. It was a perfect occasion to showcase our wonderful school grounds and the dedicated APS community of parent and

student volunteers! 

We are thrilled to announce the outstanding success of the fundraiser. Together, we raised an impressive $5,200, a testament to the generosity and spirit of our school and community.

A special thank you goes to Ash Howarth and Marshall White for their very generous financial donation, volunteering, and use of marquee for the day. We also thank our local Lulabelle’s Cafe, Le Croissant, Brumbies, Coles and Woolworths for their contributions.

The cake stall was particularly successful, raising over $3,000, thanks to the incredible baked goods donated by our talented APS families. We cannot give enough praise or thanks to the amazing Emma Binks, who led an army of bakers to produce an amazing variety of delicious treats! Thank you to the families who generously donated ingredients for the bakers.

Final thanks to APS staff who helped with setting up, coordination, volunteering and support – special thanks to Claire Bartlett, Geoff Butcher and Mark Brisbane.

Thank you to everyone who participated and contributed!!

Ashburton Primary School Parents Association

Year 2 has had a wonderful start to Term 2. We have enjoyed finding out about our new learning for this term and catching up with all our friends. We also enjoyed spending Pyjama Day getting to know the Year 6 students. 

Year 2 have been working on:

• /g/, short /o/ and /u/ phonemes.
• Planning and writing an information report about a topic of your choice.
• Re-establishing reading and writing expectations and habits.
• Researching a topic and sharing new information with others.
• Using our prior knowledge to think about what sustainability means before we launch into our Term 2 investigations.
• Reading about and designing a sustainable Frog Bog
• Partitioning numbers.
• Trading using MAB blocks.
• Making, naming and recording numbers.

As part of Visible Wellbeing this term students are learning about the six different SEARCH pathways to build their wellbeing. This includes Strengths, Emotional management, Attention and awareness, Relationships, Coping and Habits and goals. Kindness is a key part of building our own and others wellbeing. The act of kindness also allows us to build meaningful relationships that contribute to our wellbeing.

We are asking our Ashburton Community to join us in making wellbeing visible. As part of our whole school Milestone Marker which celebrates our journey as a Visible Wellbeing school, we are asking families to get involved. Choose activities from the random acts of kindness grid, take a photo of the completed task or process and upload it to the google form to share.

Opening Statement:

The Year 4s have made an excellent start to Term 2! 

We have:

• Started reading our Term 2 novel study book, The Explorer by Kate Rundell and have been exploring characters and their perspectives. 
• Been exploring what exposition writing is, the text structure and the important features. 
• Been learning about multiplicative thinking and applying our mental strategies to solve multiplication problems. Students are beginning to understand that multiplication and division are inverse. 
• Identified what area is and used this understanding to find the area of regular and irregular shapes. 
• Students have started our Term 2 Connected Learning unit - Harmony with H20. Students have begun learning about water sources, the water cycle and the impact  our actions have on the environment around us.
• Students are also developing an understanding of their own impact on our environment 

On Tuesday our Year 3,4,5 and 6 students walked to Hartwell Sports Ground to compete in our House Cross Country Event. Our younger students run on a 2km loop while the older students compete across 3kms. Students pushed themselves beyond their comfort zone as the crowd of parents and students cheered them on. The top 10 from each age group will now represent the school in the forthcoming District Cross Country event where they will compete against the local schools to make the District team. 

Well done to all those who ran - no matter if you received a ribbon, ran a personal best or just gave it a go, we love it when students engage with all the aspects of school, including physical education. Thank you to Mr Worlley for his organisation and for those who attended. 

Japanese Cultural Day 

Friday May 16th

On May 16th, our school is celebrating Japanese Cultural Day! You can wear red or white, like a red skirt, red ribbon, white top, or white runners. You can also wear clothes featuring characters like Pikachu, Naruto, or Hello Kitty and even bring Pokémon or Hello Kitty plushies!

Hong Sensei has planned a special incursion for the whole school and fun activities in your classrooms. Don't miss out—it's next Friday! Mark your calendars and get ready for a fantastic day!