We acknowledge the traditional Aboriginal custodians of the lands, waterways and skies of the Bunurong Peoples of the Kulin Nation where we gather, learn and grow at Aspendale Primary School.

We pay our respects to past and present Traditional Custodians and Elders of all nations,  and their ongoing cultural, spiritual and educational practices.  

We extend this respect to all Torres Strait Islanders and any First Nations peoples who learn or visit these grounds. We thank you for sharing and caring for the land we are learning on.

New version of the Acknowedgement of Country
Above is an updated Acknowledgment of Country that has been written in consultation with staff, students and members of our community. We recieved positive feedback and approval from our friends at the Bunurong Land Council in 2023. 



Aspendale Primary School commemorated Reconciliation Week.
We understand that for many members of the APS community, this is a challenging time.

Reconciliation Week is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.

Now more than ever, these conversations are important to be having. 

As a school, we commemorated the week by focusing on developing our sense of community and connections with a whole school event. 

Our School Captains made a video during camp to commemorate the week. It starts with our school's Acknowledgement of Country. You can watch the video here. 


Thank you to Gus, Surina, Warren & Edie for helping create the video. You all did an amazing job understanding the purpose of the week. 

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2025 Calendar 

E vent	Date
Year 4 Camp Rumbug	21- 23rd May
Year 6 Excursion to China Town	21st May
Year 6- Waratah Beach Camp	28th May - 30th May
Reconciliation Week	27th May - 3rd June
Year 5  - The Ranch Camp	4th - 6th June
Kings Birthday Public Holiday - no School	9th June
Year 6 Courage to Care incursion	10th June
Marine Ambassador second excursion	12th June
Year 5-6 Winter Lightning Premiership	13th June
South Metro Regional Cross Country	18th June
Student Led Conferences - Curriculum Day	30th June
Last Day of Term 2	4th July

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Dear parents and carers,

It was a pleasure to return from leave last week to our students working in calm learning environments and enjoying the many activities occurring across the school. 

I would like to thank Amelia Busuttil for her role in leading this as our Acting Principal and our members of our School Improvement Team who supported her. It is terrific to be back and I’ve enjoyed connecting with many members of our school community.


PYP Exhibition

Monday saw the culmination of our Year Six students individual unit of inquiry with our Exhibition. It was impressive to see our students share their knowledge, opinions and actions with their peers, other schools and our community over the day. I hope the unit encourages our students to continue to pursue understanding and take action to contribute further to our society. Thanks to everyone involved, with a special thank you to our Year Six staff for their planning of the learning, numerous valuable experiences and their individual support of each student.

 

Bayside Peninsula Area Principal’s Forum

On Tuesday, Amelia and I attended the Bayside Peninsula Area Principal’s forum. We continued to discuss the implementation of the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0. The model is informed by our current understanding of the science of learning. Several elements of the model have already commenced implementation at our school, including synthetic, systematic teaching of phonics in F-2, development of retention and recall through spaced retrieval practices and enabling learning through effective classroom routines. You can click here if you’d like to see more about the Department of Education’s model.

 

Continuous Reporting

Yesterday, our sixth round of continuous reports were published via the Sentral Parent Portal. This year we have refined the way we communicate learning progress across the year. I would like to thank our teaching staff for the way they have moved to this format and we hope our changes have made our reporting easier to interact with and understand.

 

2025 Class Creation

This week our students have reflected on what helps them to learn and which of their peers may support this. Students have completed a friendship wheel, where they have suggested five peers who they feel would support their learning in 2025. This is an important part of our class creation as staff will ensure one of these students is in their 2025 class. I want to thank our staff for the care and consideration they show in creating 2025 classes, using a variety of factors to create balanced groups for effective learning.

 

Canteen Volunteers

Last week, we met Meg Wheelhouse, our new Canteen Manager, through the school newsletter. Meg is a past parent and valued community member and I would like to welcome her to the role. Meg is keen to continue to build her team of volunteers so please get in contact with her via the form in the newsletter.

 

Enjoy the rest of the week,

Tom

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Parent and carer School Saving Bonus code distribution.
The Victorian Government is delivering the School Saving Bonus – a one-off $400 support for government school students from Prep to Year 12 in 2025.
From Tuesday 26 November 2024, you will receive an email from the Department of Education with your unique $400 School Saving Bonus code.
The School Saving Bonus will help families cover the cost of uniforms, textbooks, excursions, activities and more.
If you have multiple children enrolled in Victorian government schools for 2025, you will receive one School Saving Bonus code email per child. These emails might arrive on different days. Please make sure to check your spam/junk email folder.
Parents and carers can use the School Saving Bonus code in store at school-nominated suppliers.
Parents and carers can also choose to access the School Saving Bonus online system, where they can allocate part or all the $400 bonus to use at school nominated-online suppliers or for school activities. 


To learn more about the School Saving Bonus, visit School Saving Bonus | vic.gov.au
(www.vic.gov.au). A step-by-step user guide will be available on the webpage on 26 November.  

If you have not received your School Saving Bonus code via email by Friday 29 November, please
contact the Department of Education by emailing school.saving.bonus@education.vic.gov.au

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Hi, I’m Hudson. We went to the market in Shanghai. After arriving in the city, we headed straight there. The market was huge, with lots of shops, and everything was very affordable. I ended up buying AirPods, a fan, and a Kobe Bryant jersey. All the items I bought were under 10 Australian dollars each. We had to bargain for everything, which was actually a lot of fun. For example, I managed to negotiate the price of my Kobe jersey down from 350 yuan to 80 yuan. 

Hi, I’m Sam. When I visited the market, I saw tons of shops selling soccer jerseys, and bargaining was a lot of fun. There was one T-shirt priced at 480 yuan (the Chinese currency), but I managed to get it for just 100 yuan, which is about 20 Australian dollars. Most of the stores were selling bags, shirts, chopsticks, and knock-off items. I ended up buying a few Brazilian football jerseys and a China football jersey.

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Hi, we are excited to tell you about our experience at Tiananmen Square and Forbidden city from our school trip to China.

On day 3 we visited Tiananmen Square. It was a great opportunity to learn all about Mao Zedong (the president of China from 1949-1954). When we first walked in we got to see the soldiers that marched around Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen means peace and it was originally designed and built in 1651. It is part of the national emblem,appears on passports and banknotes, and it is visited by millions every year. It is the most important square in China as well as being the largest est in the world. We got to see a big massive flag that some people wake up around 5:50 am each morning to see it being raised to show respect towards the soldiers that fought for them. We thought that Tiananmen Square was amazing and really interesting to look around.

We also went to the Forbidden city. There were lots of temples that you could walk through and you could even touch the bells which signaled good luck. We found it very beautiful as well as the garden that was filled with trees and birds. The only person that was allowed in the garden was the Emperor. Overall we enjoyed this so much and it was a great experience.

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Our names are Gracie and Matilda, and we are here to tell you about our adventure on Monkey King Mountain. We started our journey by arriving at a car park at the base of the mountain. From there, we transferred to a mini bus that took us to a small gift shop area where we could use the bathroom and get ready for the hike.

After a quick stop, we hopped back on the minibus. The guide warned us about the red monkeys, saying they can be quite dangerous and advised us not to look them in the eye. Once we reached the starting point, we began our hike up the mountain, climbing stairs and then walking through a waterfall that led into a cave filled with glowing lights.



Exiting the cave, the real adventure began. We walked a little further, only to get startled by Adele making monkey noises! Eventually, we spotted the actual monkeys — baby monkeys swinging in the trees and larger ones lounging on the rocks and stairs along our path.

On our way back to the mini bus, we noticed other children carrying special monkey king staffs, which we thought were really cool (and we wanted them too!). After some convincing, we managed to persuade Miss Fletcher to let us stop by the gift shop. We spent some money on ice creams, Monkey King  staffs, and lots of adorable teddy bears.

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Week 6 PYPX Blog

Thank You for Supporting Our PYPX Exhibition!

 

We are so grateful for your support of our PYPX and for joining us to view the students’ work on Monday afternoon. The students had an exciting and rewarding day sharing everything they learned over the past six weeks with the school community. They presented their projects with enthusiasm, deep understanding, and a genuine passion for their topics, answering all questions thoughtfully.

Thank you to those who came along for being part of this memorable experience!

On Tuesday we reflected on the learning journey and what worked well as well as challenges and things that could have been done differently. Students have a list of tips for Year 5 students to help them next year. Congratulations Year 6’s on a very successful PYPX!

PYPX Reflection By Tilly 

I am proud of the way I can speak to people who approach my store confidently and could explain my topic in a way that made sense. I enjoyed putting my store together and making the posters pop on my pin board. It was difficult to fit everything on my table as me and Emily had to share a table. If I did PYPX again I would have a card for what I would say so I could be confident from the start and have something to say when the little kids came up. I learnt that not many people know what queer is and dont understand what transgender is. My advice for year 5’s would be to do an interesting issue and make your store themed with your issue and have big posters and questions.

PYP X Reflection

By Adele Kerr

I am most proud of my model which took me a long time to make and turned out great! I would probably start designing and making a little earlier so I could have time to make a game or quiz for people to have fun. I learnt how much you can do to help by doing simple things and how important everything is and that our environment always needs helping. Start designing and planning at home early, be ready to change your issue or ideas as you go, choose an issue you like or stands out, use bold words/colours and make games and quizzes.

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The Year Fours were thrilled to have a crew from Melbourne Stars, along with WBBL players Yastika Bhatia and Deepti Sharma come and teach them some cricket skills. They practised making runs, and did some catching, bowling, and taking wickets. 

This session complemented the work Mrs Scott has been doing with the Year Fours in PE sessions, and definitely inspired some interest in playing cricket or following the Melbourne Stars games from now on.

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