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,

The last week of Term Two is upon us and we have made sure to finish with a flourish of fun. Across the term there have been lots of events to celebrate our school and to provide extra-curricular opportunities for our students. Thanks to everyone across our school community who has organised and/or volunteered their time to support each of these activities.

Please note with tomorrow being the final day of Term Two, students will be dismissed early from their classrooms at 2:30.

Turn Back Time

On Tuesday we jumped aboard a time machine and headed back to circa 1925 to continue our school’s centenary celebrations. It was fun to see students and staff enjoying the opportunity to dress up, practise taking the oath followed by singing ‘God Save the King’ and experiencing lessons in a different way. When the weather allowed, students got outside with their buddies and played games from yesteryear, including elastics and hopscotch. Thanks to our Wellbeing team for organising the fun across the day.

Fun fact: In the early days of photography, it took several minutes to take a photo. If subjects moved at all, the image turned blurry. A smile was challenging to hold  for a long period of time, so people grimaced or looked serious. 

Crazy Hair Day

Yesterday our Student Representative Council organised a fundraising event to support cancer research with our Crazy Hair Day. Spiders, cupcakes and wigs filled the corridors atop the heads of our students and staff. It was lovely to hear the students complimenting each other on the different creations they had devised with their families. We want to share a special shout out to Stela Matthews, our Performing Arts teacher, and Shanaia Caspersz, one of our Year Three students, who cut their hair to donate to people in need of wigs.

Student-Led Conferences and End of Semester Reports

Our students shared their learning achievements across Semester One and spoke through their future learning goals with their families and teachers on Monday at our annual student-led conferences. We appreciate families and our staff attending these conferences to further build our connection between home and school with the aim of helping our students to achieve.

Yesterday our Semester One reports were published via the Sentral Parent Portal. These reports contain an assessment of your child’s progress against the curriculum, a personal comment regarding their learning habits and our third round of continuous reports for 2025. The report builds upon the previous two rounds of continuous reports already published this semester. Thank you to our staff for their work compiling these reports to provide further information to parents and carers about their child’s learning progress.

Semester One Improvement Work

Last Friday Amelia and I had the opportunity to share our school’s improvement work across first semester. In preparation for this meeting, it was pleasing to reflect with our School Improvement Team on the work that has taken place in the first half of the year. We have implemented three whole school routines that are increasing learning opportunities in the classroom, increased the consistency of how staff encourage expected behaviours and discourage unwanted behaviours and relaunched our expected behaviour matrix. We have developed staff understanding of the science of learning and utilised literacy teaching resources to align our practice with this research. Over first semester we have implemented learning walks to share best practice across the school across both these areas. Thanks to all staff for their collective buy-in to this important improvement work as we implement the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0

2026 Foundation Enrolments

It’s been great to receive enrolments for our 2026 Foundation cohort over Term Two. Enrolments continue to be open over the holidays and for the first two weeks of Term Three. Please contact the office if you have any questions regarding the enrolment process.

First Aid Position

In Term One, our 2024 First Aid Officer, Chelsea Ford, finished up at Aspendale PS. Since then we have tried several times to find a replacement for Chelsea. We have readvertised the position. If you know of someone in your network who may be suitable for the role and able to work the required hours, please point them towards this advertisement.

https://www.careers.vic.gov.au/job/first-aid-officer-20774#:~:text=PART%20TIME%20FIRST%20AID%20OFFICER,Support%20Level%201%2C%20Range%202.

Please contact the school office if you’d like more information about the position.

I hope your term finishes well and the winter school holidays goes well for you and your family.

Tom

On Tuesday we had a fabulous time experiencing what schooling was like in the past. We started the day as a whole school in the courtyard saying the oath of allegiance in the courtyard and Ms Mathews performed the anthem, ‘God Save The King’.

Students then returned to their classrooms for some literacy activities while experiencing what classroom life was like back then. Many students enjoyed trying to form the letters of the alphabet in the old script and commented how time consuming it was. Other activities included dictation, reciting poems, and reading stories from the past, all without the use of technology.

During the latter part of the day students headed outside with their buddies for some old fashioned games. Activities included quoits, hopscotch, elastics, marbles, hoop rolling and games such as Drop the Hanky.  Maths and geography activities such as reciting times tables and drawing maps were also on offer.

Yesterday, the SRC proudly hosted their second fundraiser of the year - Crazy Hair Day! A huge thank you to everyone for your generous support and donations, which will go toward helping people living with leukemia. 

We were also blown away by the creativity and effort that went into all the students' fantastic hairstyles, especially having two dress up days in a row!

Unfortunately, due to the weather, we weren't able to gather as a whole school to watch Shanaia and Ms Matthews cut their hair. However, we were still able to draw raffle tickets and invite those students to the gym to witness and support the haircutting. We are incredibly proud of Shanaia and Ms Matthews for their bravery and their generous donation of hair to support people living with cancer.

These question cards are designed to be used in a family setting to start everyday conversations about online safety. The cards cover topics such as identifying online risks, using technology safely and reporting unsafe behaviour.

If you would prefer to have a look at the link: 

https://www.esafety.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-03/eSafety_Ed%20Conversation%20S%20%20Kids.pdf?v=1747876996668

Thanks,

Lina Pietrasik

ICT Coordinator

The Victorian Government is delivering the School Saving Bonus (SSB) – a one-off support of $400 for eligible government school students from Prep to Year 12 in 2025.

The SSB can be used for uniforms and textbooks until Monday 30 June 2025.

Any funds remaining after 30 June 2025, including online voucher amounts that have not been redeemed, will become a credit to use on school activities. However, the credit will not be available on your family account at our school until late July.

To use any remaining SSB funds to cover the cost of school activities in July, please refer to the SSB online system and allocate the funds to school activities before 30 June 2025.

To learn more about the SSB online system, download the step-by-step System guide for parents and carers (DOCX, 945KB) or watch this School Saving Bonus video. System guide translations are also available in 14 languages.

The Department of Education’s SSB contact centre will remain available until 30 June 2025. The contact centre can be reached by:

• completing the School Saving Bonus enquiry form
• calling 1800 338 663, between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm on weekdays.

After this date, please contact our administration team for any SSB related questions.

Thank you,

Tom Pearce

Another huge THANK-YOU to Dana & Dude Balloons and Events for supplying the wonderful balloon displays for our 100 Years Celebration afternoon on Friday 16^th May.

Thank- you Dana!

Premiers’ Reading Challenge

Well done to all the students who have been recording their PRC books on the website.

The challenge finishes at the beginning of September, but it would be great to have everyone’s book data in by the middle of August. Students who complete the challenge will then receive a book and certificate later this term. Any questions or problems with logging in, please contact us as soon as possible

Leanne Peterson, Sarah Cornell and Caitlin Beer

Challenge Coordinators