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. 

Dear parents and carers,

Night on the Green

What a delightful community event on Friday night, with our annual Night on the Green taking place in the courtyard. It was a wonderful experience to tour past students, staff and parents at the beginning of the event. They shared their memories of their time at our school and how much they valued being a part of our community. After this, there was a wonderful feeling in the courtyard, with families enjoying our musical performances and the opportunity to connect with each other.




We appreciated the visit from Tim Richardson, our Member for Mordialloc, and having him acknowledge the significant occasion of our 100th year of operation.

We are grateful to the many people who played a part in the success of the event. Thanks to Chrissy Morgan, Belinda Greenbury, Rhiannon Martin and their team of helpers for organising our book, Pokemon and sock stall. Thanks to Katie Stokes, Sam Kenney and their team of volunteers for our sausage sizzle stall. $1781.85 was raised from these stalls and these funds will go towards our soon to be installed playground equipment.

Thanks to Dana Meyer and her company Dude&Dana Parties for creating and donating our fantastic balloon display and our one hundred balloon flowers.



Thanks to our musicians who organised our entertainment on the evening, including our Performing Arts teachers, Stela Matthews and Natalie Tideman, our singing teacher, Julia Low, the members of our school band and our special guest performer and past student, Nik Matthews.

Thanks to our staff for the different odds and ends that you contributed in the lead up to and on the day. Finally, an extra special thank you to our Community Events Leader, Sarah Cornell, for your long-term vision with this event and attention to detail that allowed it to be a terrific occasion.

Get to Know You Interviews

Our Get to Know You Interviews have wrapped up for most classes this week. This is a valuable opportunity for parents and carers to spend time with their child’s teacher and share important information to set up the year of learning. Thanks to our teaching staff and parents for making the time to collaborate with each other.

School Council

In last week’s newsletter we opened nominations for our 2025 School Council. Thanks to those parents or carers who have nominated. We still have vacancies available on council so if you are interested please contact the office for a nomination form or more information.

Staffing Update

Our First Aid Officer, Chelsea Ford, has moved to a position at the Royal Flying Doctor’s Service. We were very fortunate to have Chelsea as part of our school community and our students appreciated the way she cared for them. She has updated and documented our First Aid procedures and plans. This will help with the transition as we seek our next First Aid Officer. Whilst we are recruiting for our next First Aid Officer, we appreciate our Admin team and Educational Support staff who are looking after the sick bay. Matt Bird continues to oversee our First Aid policies and procedures.

School Student Broadband Initiative

The Department of Education is offering NBN access to eligible students through their School Student Broadband initiative. For more information, visit this link.

Thanks everyone,
Tom

A huge thank you to our community for once again coming along and supporting our first event for the year. Night on the Green was a huge success from musical performances from the band, talented students and even dance sessions with many students having a fabulous time doing the Hokey Pokey (always a favourite!).

Thank you Dana
A massive thanks to Dana Meyer from Dude & Dana Parties, for her very kind, generous and amazing donation of balloons to help us with celebrating and recognising our 100 Years of APS. They looked wonderful!

Tours

We had a lovely turn out of past students, staff and families for our school tours and look forward to seeing more special guests at our special Assembly afternoon on Friday 16^th May. Stay tuned for more information to come.


 

How would you go identifying these significant Australian historical figures?  How many could you identify and why were they significant to our history?

This was a challenge given to our Year 5 students recently! They were able to use tools and resources to help them find out if they didn't know and some went a step further to investigate why they were famous, with some very interesting stories to tell.

As part of our Where We Are in Place and Time PYP Unit of Inquiry, students have been learning about key historical events and figures in Australian history from British settlement and colonisation. They have been exposed to and encouraged to consider different perspectives of Australia's history, and it has been amazing to hear they are engaging with discussions about their learning, at home with their families too.

Last week, we also took part in an Australian history incursion where students learned the story of William 'Murrungurk' Buckley (an escaped convict who lived with an Indigenous community for 32 years) and then learned about the Victorian Gold Rush and historical stories about this. Jan Wozitsky (our incursion presenter) was very engaging and entertaining and involved many of our students in telling these stories. He even managed to get all of our Year 5 students to sing along to some of his songs!