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. 

Story Dogs

Story Dogs is a fun and unique reading support program that improves children’s reading and communication skills by children reading to an accredited companion dog and its handler.

Division Cross Country:

Congratulations to the students that participated in the Division Cross Country earlier this week and to Miss Scott for her organisation and support.

Here’s Liam’s (one of our Cross Country captain) report on the day:

On Tuesday, 15 cross country runners headed off to Karkarook Park in Heatherton to represent APS at  Kingston Division Cross Country. The races were challenging and the runners showed determination and enthusiasm while running. Our students also demonstrated great sportsmanship by cheering on each other.

Tom B from year 5 came in third place  and qualified through to South East Metropolitan Cross Country Championships.

Well done to all runners for giving it their best effort!

Curriculum Day: Friday 2^nd June- Professional Learning Day for staff.

Students do not attend school on this day. The staff will be undertaking a professional learning day with Di Siemon around Big Ideas in Number.

Curriculum Day: Monday 19^th June- Student Led Conferences.

On this curriculum day students will have the opportunity to attend school for a scheduled Student Led Conference to showcase and talk about their learning with their families. More information about booking your conference time will be emailed to families next week.

Attitudes to School Survey:

Next week our students in year 4, 5 and 6 will take part in the annual Attitudes to School Survey.

The AtoSS is a student survey offered by the Department of Education to assist schools to gain an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school. We value student voice as a means to improving student engagement, wellbeing and quality instruction and are conducting a survey to find out what your child thinks of their school. Students will be asked about their thoughts and feelings in relation to their school, their learning, peer relationships, resilience, bullying, health and wellbeing, physical activity, and life in general.

Dear families in Yr’s 5 & 6,

The Term 2 School Working Bee will be held on Saturday 3^rd June at 10.30am for the parents and students in your child’s class

Each term the Buildings and Grounds Sub-committee of the School Council organises a working bee aligned to 1 or 2 levels of the school. You are asked to attend just one Working Bee each year. Any amount of time you can contribute will be greatly appreciated, even one hour would be great, as a number of labour-intensive tasks are planned for these mornings.  It’s also a great way to catch up with the other Year 5 & 6 parents!

The convenor for this Working Bee will be Kevin Riant .Please see Kevin upon your arrival, to go through the OHS Volunteer Induction.

Light Refreshments will be provided at 12:30pm for all adults and children!

What’s happening in Year 2?!

In Year 2 we have stated a new Unit of Inquiry, where we are exploring the Central Idea ‘The features of our local area are impacted over time’. During this unit we have been looking at the history of Aspendale and in particular Aspendale Primary school.

We were visited by Heather Scott from Chelsea Historical Society, who also has a long family history at Aspendale Primary School as her father started here when the school first opened. The students got to ask lots of questions as well as play with and observe many artifacts Heather brought in with her.

The Year Fours have been working hard to build their understanding of biodiversity, investigating the central idea: Survival is linked to balanced ecosystems.

The students have also created dioramas to show their understanding of their chosen ecosystem, and on Friday, they showed their models and shared their knowledge with their Year One buddies.

Last week our Year 6 School Captains Ella, Hugo, Kai and Maddi attended the Junior Mayor competition at Kingston Town Hall.

All four of them had spent weeks preparing a speech to present to a large audience on the topic ‘What three initiatives would you adopt to support young people across the Kingston network?’ Ella volunteered to be our head speaker and she spoke incredibly well for the two minute speech. The speech was definitely a hit, as Ella was voted into the student council by the audience. Well done Ella, Hugo, Kai and Maddi. We are all so proud of the four of you!

  


Big Green Conference
Two Fridays ago, the Year 6 Environment Leaders were lucky enough to be invited to the first day of the Big Green Conference at Carrum Primary School.They were shown around the school - visiting the chicken pens, goats and worm farms. They also explored their garden and heard about all the sustainable initiatives that Carrum Primary is involved in. APS then had time to plan their project, which will be presented at the second conference, later this year. The Golden Chook Award is up for grabs!

Thank you to Emily, Jayden and Ruby who presented the ideas for our project, on behalf of all the students. They spoke about raising awareness of our Nude Food challenge, Emu Bob, Forks at the Canteen and rubbish/recycling programs.  It was delightful to see and hear how the students reflected on what we do well at school, which programs they lead and what their focus will be. They decided that they want to support the school to tackle the growing rubbish in the yard and in the classrooms.  Watch this space as the Enviro warriors will be back with more updates. Amazing job Environment Leaders!

  

It is a time for all Australians to pause and learn about our shared histories, cultures and achievements. We have had a lot of tough conversations in the senior school over the week.

Lucas, Ella, Ky and Alex talked about some of the issues they have been learning and discussing.

- Reconciliation Week helps us try to recognise and accept our history. We started with the Apology on Friday. We watched the Apology by Kevin Rudd when he apologised for the Government's policies around the Stolen Generations. It was such a long time to have this policy between 1910-1970.

-We learnt about the 'Uluru Statement from the Heart' and how that is an invitation with the Voice to Parliament being the response.

- The 1967 Referendum was massive moment in our history as it meant Aboriginal (and Torres Strait Islanders) were given the same rights to vote in their/ our country. Big changes.

-By not learning about this, we are sort of saying it wasn't there, it didn’t happen and it's not happening now. And that is not okay. First Nations members of our communities might think that we don't care and don't want to learn about it. That it not the case. Reconciliation Week is a good time for us to come together and talk about it.

Acknowledgement of country ‘Voice’

The Year 6 students came together on Tuesday to discuss changes to the Acknowledgement of Country on the schools website. The Global Awareness team has previously shared a version with staff who have given their feedback. This was our chance to hear the voices of the students and their understanding of its importance. It was amazing to hear the students' perspectives and debate about word usage and details of who is included, what is needed and what we want to say. 

Their greatest concerns were:

  - Will the use of the word ‘their’ leave members of our community who are not from the Kulin nation, out of the Acknowledgement? 

- When it says ‘learn’ on the grounds, what about families who visit but aren’t in classes?

• We don’t ONLY ‘learn’ at school. How can we include all the stuff we also do here? 
• Who are the Elders we are referring to?

- Could we have this written in Bunurong Language?

As the leader of the Global Awareness Team, I would also like to ask to hear the voices of those in our community. Below is a QR Code that will take you to a Google Form with a proposed Acknowledgement of Country. This Acknowledgement would be listed on our school website. As part of our Professional Development, our teaching staff have learnt about how to write an acknowledgement, what needs to be included and how to create culturally safe spaces to discuss this with our students. If you attend assemblies, you may hear the versions that staff have written to share. The Google Form will take you to our recent proposed Acknowledgement, this is one that we would consider our more formal and school wide Acknowledgement. 

~ Cait Fletcher 

 
A reminder from the Visual Arts Leaders..... 

The Act for Peace Ration Challenge is about raising awareness for Refugees all around the world.

A refugee is someone who has left their home or their country due to conflict. 

During the challenge, you eat similar rations to Syrian Refugees. The rations include rice, lentils, dried chickpeas, tinned sardines, tinned kidney beans and vegetable oil. This is all you get for 3-5 days!

This year Ella Ryan in Year 6 will be participating in the Act for Peace Ration Challenge.  She will be doing this with her family, Mrs Jones and Mr Pearce, under the banner of Aspendale Primary School. 

Dates: - Monday 19th - Wednesday 21st June

For more information about the challenge, go to the Act for Peace Ration Challenge website:

https://actforpeace.rationchallenge.org.au/

If you would like to support us and donate to the cause, the link to our fundraising page is below:-

https://schools.rationchallenge.org.au/t/aspendale-p-school

Statement of commitment to child safety

Aspendale Primary School is a child safe organisation which welcomes all children, young people and their families.

We are committed to providing environments where our students are safe and feel safe, where their participation is valued, their views respected, and their voices are heard about decisions that affect their lives. Our child safe policies, strategies and practices are inclusive of the needs of all children and students.

We have no tolerance for child abuse and take proactive steps to identify and manage any risks of harm to students in our school environments.

We promote positive relationships between students and adults and between students and their peers. These relationships are based on trust and respect.

We take proactive steps to identify and manage any risk of harm to students in our school environment. When child safety concerns are raised or identified, we treat these seriously and respond promptly and thoroughly.

Particular attention is given to the child safety needs of Aboriginal students, those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, international students, students with disabilities, those unable to live at home, children and young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) and other students experiencing risk or vulnerability. Inappropriate or harmful behaviour targeting students based on these or other characteristics, such as racism or homophobia, are not tolerated at our school, and any instances identified will be addressed with appropriate consequences.

Child safety is a shared responsibility. Every person involved in our school has an important role in promoting child safety and wellbeing and promptly raising any issues or concerns about a child’s safety.

We are committed to regularly reviewing our child safe practices, and seeking input from our students, families, staff, and volunteers to inform our ongoing strategies.

Click here to view our school Policies