Tjuringa

Term 4 Week 1


Acknowledgement of Country

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. 



Important Dates

Important dates: 2024 Calendar 
EventDate
Last Day - early dismissal20th December
Year 6 Final Assembly starts at 12pm
Early finish at 1pm


2025 Calendar 
EventDate
Student Free Day 28th January 
Student's first Day 29th January 2025


From the Acting Principal Term 4 Week 1

Hello everyone and welcome back to Term Four!

I hope you were able to spend some time over the September holidays with the people who bring you joy. Congratulations and commiserations to those who had sporting teams win and lose over the break. We did have some staff members with very big smiles on the first day back of school!

 

Teaching and Learning

It’s been terrific to see our students settle back into their learning routines over the first week of the term. This is a testament to the work our staff and students have done over the first three terms. Units of inquiry have either continued from last term or commenced this term.

Here is a snapshot of the central ideas across the school:

Foundation The waste we produce and what we do with it impacts the environment

Year One Stories can be conveyed through different media

Year Two People create organisations with the purpose to support communities

Year Three People use creativity to solve problems and express ideas

Year Four Thinking beyond ourselves empowers us to act as agents of change

Year Five Scientific knowledge is continually developing

Year Six Individuals or groups inspire actions or change to solve problems

Our Year Six unit of inquiry is their PYP Exhibition unit. They will each lead their own inquiry and we look forward to them sharing their learning journey with us later in the term.

 

Facilities

It’s been lovely to return from holidays to find our new front door installed and the internal carpeting completed. Thanks to Amelia Mastorakos and Amber Demmler for managing the logistics of the improvement of our facilities.

 

Division Athletics

Tomorrow we have 30 senior students representing our school at the Division Athletics. We are looking forward to them seeking their personal best and put into practice the training they have done with Ms Scott and Mrs Hale over the last two terms. Great work everyone!

 

Student Movement

We are turning our minds towards 2024, in terms of workforce planning and school structure. If you know that your family is moving next year, or your child is moving schools, could you please let the office know as soon as possible via the school email address: aspendale.ps@education.vic.gov.au This will help us to make informed decisions when planning for 2024.

 

World Teacher’s Day

World Teacher’s Day is celebrated internationally today. This date normally occurs in the September school holidays. As a result, Australia celebrates later in October. This year we will highlight the wonderful work our teaching staff do on the 27th of October. It is timely though to thank all of our staff for their ongoing support of our students every day.

 

I’m looking forward to continue to work together this term,

Tom



Aspendale Disco



PYPX Blog 2024



1 week to go!


We are days away from our PYP Exhibition Evening on Monday and our students are busy fine tuning their ideas and organising how they would like to present their ideas.

It is a very exciting time with A LOT or printing and hands on building happening. Check out this week's Acknowledgement of Country to see Mali's PYP action. 

It has been a very busy 6 weeks and we are very proud of what our students have created. The event will run from 4:00pm to 6:30pm on Monday the 11th of November. Year 6’s will be set up in the gym and in 6M and 6D classrooms. We warmly welcome the whole APS community to come and view the culmination of Year 6’s Primary School PYP journey.







 

PYPX Blog Week 4:  
Abi and Ollie F

Hi we are Abi and Ollie F both from 6W. Our inquiry unit is researching different issues. ‘How bee extinction will affect the food chain’ (Abi) and ‘An inquiry into how hydropower and how this could replace fossil fuels’ (Ollie F). We are counting down the days till PYPX… 11 sleeps! Powering ahead, this week is our making week and we have been busy creating 3D models, trifolds and games to name a few. 

We also voted on the design for our PYPX invitation. Well done to Anna and Surina on their winning design!




Who were our Guest Speakers this week?

We have also been lucky to have 3 guest speakers since our last blog! We are very thankful to Dans Bain, Mayor Jenna Davey Burns and Ms Fletcher. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come and chat with us.


Dans Bain 

An artist that advocates for respect and equality in the community and striving for a future free from violence. Dans spoke to Year 6 about her art piece called ‘The Lost Petition’ that was created in  2021 for International Womens’ Day. It was great to hear about the amazing work Dans Bain is doing in the community.

Cait Fletcher 

On Tuesday 28th of October Ms Fletcher, who is a great teacher from our school and has been here since 2016 spoke to us about how she became a teacher. She spoke about her passion for history, traveling and inclusion for all. She did a great job at sharing her life journey and how she ended up at APS. She also told us how she teaches and her style.



Mayor Jenna Davey Burns

Last week, the mayor came to speak to us about what it means to be the mayor. She talked about how you take action when you are the mayor and how you can get elected. She values input from kids and is very open about aspiring change. Jenna was very excited to hear all of our PYPX issues and offered solutions on how we can take action.


Year 6 Actions are happening…
Hudson and Gus have been proactive in getting in touch with 1millionTurtles and the Executive Director of the Tasmanian Devils.They were able to ask questions that they wanted to find out about these organisations.

Hudson was able to ask the webex meeting with 1millionTurtles how many different species of Freshwater Turtles there are in Australia and if the new net protectors are helping to keep the foxes away. He found out about Turtle Island in NSW and initiatives that are happening like TurtleSAT and extra road crossing signs in the hot spot areas.

Gus met with Kathryn McCann she answered all 7 of his questions! 
- What imapct will the Tassie Devils have on Tasmania?
- How will you chnage the negativity around the building of an expensive stadium?
- Does Tasmania really need a footy team? 






PYPX Blog Week 3:  Lucy C & Charli

Hi we are Charli and Lucy and we are going to tell you about this week of PYPX. This is our last week of doing research on our PYPX issues. Also this week we have been adding information to our padlets and brainstorming ideas. We drew a visual of our dream exhibition set up for what we want our exhibit to look like.



Guestspeakers: Lisa & Mr Powell

Lisa

Last Friday we were lucky enough to have Lisa McHugh visit the Year 6’s. She talked about how deaf/hearing impaired people communicate. She also shared her experience with how deaf/blind learn sign language - they either hold their hands and sign following the actions, you sign on their hands or their backs. Sometimes you might draw the outline of a room on someones back so that they can try to work out where you are going. It requires a lot of trust! 

Lisa shared her personal experience as someone operating in a hearing world when she is half deaf. Lisa drew a picture to show us what the ear canal looks like and which parts she can hear with and without aides. It was interesting to her how people can be born deaf and others develop it - even people with the same condition can hear and others cannot! We had a lot of questions about people who are deaf and deaf/blind students and how they dream.


Jack

On Tuesday we had Jack Powell come in to talk to us about his job as a firefighter and what he had to do to achieve that goal. Before he became a fighter he had to do an academic test, social skills test, beep test, an interview, training skills, saving skills and try on a uniform all before he could become a professional firefighter. Before he could become an official firefighter we have to do a ceremony with lots of marching. When he was a trainee firefighter they were very strict at the academy. They would yell at you because they know you could do better and to see if you could handle the pressure. He was also a teacher here at Aspendale for 11 years before creating his dream of being a firefighter. We thank you Mr Powell for coming and sharing what it is like to be a firefighter.

Change Makers, Action & More checklists

One of our lines of inquiry is a spotlight on change makers and individuals who are acting for change. We have been researching the Sustainable Development Goals as well as Kingston Council and Aspendale Beach Patrol. We have been trying to think of actions that we will take, I think my action will be ‘participation’ and Charli is thinking about ‘lifestyle choices.’ 

Each week we get a checklist that has everything to keep us on track, things like creating a blog, video and information that we can transfer to our padlet. We can also chat with our families about what we can do at home. We’ve been checking in with our mentors and coaches and we thank them for their time in helping us to have a successful PYPX!






PYPX Blog Week 2


Hi, I’m Niels S - a Grade 6 student, and we are doing PYPX which is an independent inquiry into something that interests us. 

My issue is exploring the challenges of a sustainable future and how we can support animals - so I have made a place on a website called Padlet where everyone can put their ideas down. 

We also got to make our own website that would be featured at the end of the school year’s PYP Exhibition.


On Wednesday, this week we hadtwo people visit us. The first guest was Sammy Vella, a relief teacher who is regularly seen at school with a passion for art. She is now a professional artist- who creates, exhibits and sells her art to our community. She showed us her amazing ocean artwork and the deep midnight zone’s creatures painted with care.You can visit her artwork here: https://www.sammyannstudio.com/shop-home 

  

The Second visit was by Ms Bourke, also from our school, and her dog Dave. Dave is a therapy dog which means he is trained to help support humans - he understands more things than the average dog. Ms Bourke also explained how whenever you see a dog there is a chemical reaction that makes you feel happier and calmer.

This week we’ve been focused on mentor meetings as well.

Our mentor is a teacher in the school who will schedule meetings with us, to talk a bit more about PYPX and get to know us more and the issues we’ve been doing.  Coaches are different from mentors. They are Year 6 teachers who help you with your PYPX learning, help us organise our week and with our own website.

Families in Year 6 have also been shared a few key facts of information to help their students at home:




Year 6 students have been experimenting with the Key Concepts when helping set up their research in Cornell notes.
We are asking:


PYPX Blog Week 1 


Hi were Evie , Keeley Isabel and Freya Year Six students from 6M & 6D. We are here to tell you what we have learnt and done this week for our PYPX. We hope you enjoy reading about what we have done this week! The four of us have decided on our issues

- An inquiry into the animals endangered due to climate change and their habitats and how it affects them (Keeley)

- An inquiry into the effects of social media on younger people (Issy N)

- An inquiry into how the climate affects the growth of different crops in different seasons & countries (Freya N)

- An inquiry into how fast fashion has an effect on the world (Evie)

 

We will be finding out more about the checklists we got, our padlet, google site and our coaches and mentors. 



Do you know why different liquids and solids do not mix together? (Willow) or How animals evolve based on climate change (Harry D) Why actors get paid more than nurses when nurses are saving people? (Molly) How fast does climate change happen? (Elod)

What are the causes of mutations? (Sean) and Why is yawning contagious? (Huddy)

This week as part of our PYPX journey we have been able to choose our coaches from the year 6 teachers and get a mentor from the other teachers from around the school that are interested in our topic. Our mentor and coaches will guide us through PYPX. We will check in with our coaches every few days and we will check in with our mentors only a few times throughout the 6 weeks.


Padlet and Google Site

This week for PYPX we have been working on all sorts of things but something we have been focusing on in every session is our Padlet, our Padlet is like a fun way to brainstorm all your ideas, add links to websites, images and anything else we can think of. We are also working on a google site to make a blog about what we have been doing in our sessions.






PYPX Blog Week 2


Hi, I’m Niels S - a Grade 6 student, and we are doing PYPX which is an independent inquiry into something that interests us. 

My issue is exploring the challenges of a sustainable future and how we can support animals - so I have made a place on a website called Padlet where everyone can put their ideas down. 

We also got to make our own website that would be featured at the end of the school year’s PYP Exhibition.


On Wednesday, this week we hadtwo people visit us. The first guest was Sammy Vella, a relief teacher who is regularly seen at school with a passion for art. She is now a professional artist- who creates, exhibits and sells her art to our community. She showed us her amazing ocean artwork and the deep midnight zone’s creatures painted with care.You can visit her artwork here: https://www.sammyannstudio.com/shop-home 

  

The Second visit was by Ms Bourke, also from our school, and her dog Dave. Dave is a therapy dog which means he is trained to help support humans - he understands more things than the average dog. Ms Bourke also explained how whenever you see a dog there is a chemical reaction that makes you feel happier and calmer.

This week we’ve been focused on mentor meetings as well.

Our mentor is a teacher in the school who will schedule meetings with us, to talk a bit more about PYPX and get to know us more and the issues we’ve been doing.  Coaches are different from mentors. They are Year 6 teachers who help you with your PYPX learning, help us organise our week and with our own website.

Families in Year 6 have also been shared a few key facts of information to help their students at home:




Year 6 students have been experimenting with the Key Concepts when helping set up their research in Cornell notes.

We are asking:


PYPX Blog Week 1 


Hi were Evie , Keeley Isabel and Freya Year Six students from 6M & 6D. We are here to tell you what we have learnt and done this week for our PYPX. We hope you enjoy reading about what we have done this week! The four of us have decided on our issues

- An inquiry into the animals endangered due to climate change and their habitats and how it affects them (Keeley)

- An inquiry into the effects of social media on younger people (Issy N)

- An inquiry into how the climate affects the growth of different crops in different seasons & countries (Freya N)

- An inquiry into how fast fashion has an effect on the world (Evie)


We will be finding out more about the checklists we got, our padlet, google site and our coaches and mentors. 



Do you know why different liquids and solids do not mix together? (Willow) or How animals evolve based on climate change (Harry D) Why actors get paid more than nurses when nurses are saving people? (Molly) How fast does climate change happen? (Elod)

What are the causes of mutations? (Sean) and Why is yawning contagious? (Huddy)

This week as part of our PYPX journey we have been able to choose our coaches from the year 6 teachers and get a mentor from the other teachers from around the school that are interested in our topic. Our mentor and coaches will guide us through PYPX. We will check in with our coaches every few days and we will check in with our mentors only a few times throughout the 6 weeks.


Padlet and Google Site

This week for PYPX we have been working on all sorts of things but something we have been focusing on in every session is our Padlet, our Padlet is like a fun way to brainstorm all your ideas, add links to websites, images and anything else we can think of. We are also working on a google site to make a blog about what we have been doing in our sessions.



Positive Behaviour for Learning – Bread Tags Needed      

This year our students have been eagerly collecting tokens and redeeming them for a large variety of activities as part of our PBL program. We have had students using them to wear free dress, have some extra recess time, popcorn parties at lunchtime and sit in the teachers chair for the day to name just a few.

 

Noah (Yr 1) – Teacher for the day                     

 

Lakaia and Pia (Yr 2) – Teachers for the day   

Having a tangible reinforcement to accompany teacher praise has been invaluable in assisting to reinforce the behaviours we expect students to display at our school. Along the way however we have broken or misplaced some of our tokens. If any families are able to collect their plastic (not cardboard) bread tags over the next couple of months we would love them to come to school to be recycled for use as part of our token system. Tags can be sent to Mrs Peterson or via classroom teachers to forward on.



                         

 



Performing Arts Showcases



Multiplication Toss

Multiplication Toss is a game that is suitable for students from Year 2-6.

It is a great game to investigate arrays, commutative property and when students are ready, partitioning. 

All that is needed is grid paper, a spinner or 10 sided dice (these can be found online) and two different colours.

Please check out the video on how to play and label the arrays.

This game helps to develop multiplicative thinking.

https://vimeo.com/400490263

https://balakr7.sa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Muliplication-Toss.pdf 



Math Minds Competition

Last month, Edie, Adele, Maddy, and Anna competed in a Girl Maths Minds Competition at Mentone Girls Grammar. It was the first time Aspendale Primary had been invited to compete in this competition. The day was lots of fun. We were asked to participate in a range of math activities and games. As a team we all worked really well together, but unfortunately, we didn’t place in the top 3.

We still worked our hardest and it was all worth it, we learnt a lot and the day helped us to improve our math and leadership skills. It was great to be able to compete against different schools and learn some new things along the way. We worked as a team by communicating and sharing our ideas in order to come up with solutions for the games and activities.

Overall, the event was super helpful in supporting us to develop our maths and teamwork skills. It was a great experience, and we are all so happy and proud to be given a part in it.

  • Edie 5M and Maddie 5B




From the Art room in Week 1



Breakfast Club Is Back!



Emma Bowd



Silvers Circus

Flyers are at the office if you are interested.



Mordialloc Life Saving Club Open Day



Football Star Academy



Mentone Little Athletics



Soccer Joeys