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. 

PRICE DAY 

The school was buzzing on Monday with the PRICE Day celebrations. Students moved into multi-aged groups to participate in their selected activities. There was something for everyone with opportunities for building, creating, cooking, crafting, mindfulness, coding, team building, sports, scrapbooking and loads more. A big thank you to all the teachers and students for displaying our values of Passion, Respect, Integrity, Commitment and Empathy throughout the day.  

Division Athletics:

Congratulations to the 30 students who participated in the Division Athletics last Friday. Great determination and commitment have been shown from this team. We are excited to cheer three students on at the Regional Championships next Wednesday after they placed in their events: Tilly Curnow (District Champion), Harry Irlam (District Champion) and Angus Nevans.

Breakfast Club and Running Club:

It was lovely to see the Community Leaders with Mrs MacDonald at Breakfast Club on Wednesday morning in the courtyard.  They had lots of hungry customers after the return of Running Club with Ms Scott and Ms Hale. If you weren’t able to get there this week, we look forward to seeing you next Wednesday before school. 

Life Education:

Students across the levels have been excitedly participating in the Life Education program over the last two weeks, with some looking forward to their upcoming visit next week. Healthy Harold has been sharing many adventures about friendship, safety rules, broadening and developing emotional literacy and building positive, safe and respectful relationships. 

Play Leaders:

Our first two groups of Play Leaders took to the playground on Tuesday and Thursday at lunch time to facilitate a range of games in both the junior and courtyard. After rounding up some keen participants the Play Leaders introduced, ran, and monitored different games like Poison, Ships! and Hey, You! Let’s hear from some of the year 3’s who got involved:

River: It was so fun, I hope they do it again.

Isla: I liked how the Play Leaders were kind and didn’t argue.

Edie: Thank you for making my lunch time special!

Charlie B: Thank you for giving us chances and more opportunities to be in the game!

Elsie: It was so fun, they were kind and its great for our mental health and to be active. 

Oskar: The games were really fun and I want them to run them again. They made it fair for everyone to get a turn. 

Charli R: I liked that they let people choose if they wanted to ‘it’ in the games. 

Performing Arts Showcase – Foundation to Year 4. 

Ms Tideman and Ms Matthews last week shared information about the upcoming Performing Arts Showcase for students in foundation to year 4. This is set to be a fabulous opportunity for our students to perform to an audience. Make sure you have marked the dates in your diary! See the article later in this newsletter.  

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.

For those heading to the disco, have fun grooving away to your favourite tune! 

Amelia Busuttil

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.

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.

Year 5 Update

In Year 5 we have been conducting experiments as part of our How the World Works unit of inquiry. Before our test began, we had to come up with a range of question we would like to know the answer to. After we had chosen one question, we were required to write up the beginning of our scientific report, which we had been practicing writing during our writing sessions. We had to include a title, aim, hypothesis, materials, method, results, discussion and conclusion.

In the experiments we need to have a control and a certain number of variables.

Experiment day came and we were all very excited! 

When we did our experiments, we saw how some of the experiments were proving that the hypothesis was right, some proving the opposite. A great example of one of the experiments that took place in our class was Kobi's. She was trying to figure out what liquids would change the size of gummy bears (when left to soak). The liquids were coke, water, vinegar and control. She thought that the coke one would grow the biggest but was surprised to see the water grew by .4 of a cm in length. All in all, it was a fun and great learning experience that allowed us to inquire into different areas of science that we are interested in. 

We are Storytellers!

This term in Year One, our students are investigating the wonderful world of storytelling, as we explore the many ways ‘stories can be conveyed through a variety of media’.

To spark our thinking and ignite our curiosity, last Thursday we took a deep dive into the magical world of blacklight puppetry through a delightful performance of ‘Dreamer in the Deep’ by Dream Puppets.  Students laughed, cheered and engaged with the story of Dreamer as he adventured to save a leafy sea dragon from the evil scorpion fish at the bottom of the ocean. Students were intrigued by the wordless storytelling and the expressive nature of the different styles of puppets. They were given opportunity to ask lots of questions and explore the mechanics behind the scenes that made the puppet show come to life.

We are so excited to see where our curiosity takes us next!

This year we have seen 45 Year 5 and 6 students successfully participate in Victorian High Ability Program. Through the governments funding for high abilities, students are selected externally, for the program based on NAPLAN results and teacher judgements. They participate in a terms online learning. The Primary Maths program focuses on coding and number and the English program ‘Power of the Pen’ encourages creative thinking when writing.

In August we had over 100 students from Years 3-6 complete the Australian Maths Trust’s competition. They had to answer a range of unique problems designed by leading educators and academics to challenge and extend students’ problem-solving skills. We are waiting for the certificates to arrive and students receiving a credit or distinction will be presented at an assembly later in Term 4. An overview of results is as follows

Year 3 11 credits and 4 distinctions

Year 4  5 credits and 2 distinctions

Year 5 8 credits and 11 distinctions

Year 6 12 credits and 3 distinctions.

Eric Stancu of Year 4 was awarded Best in School. This award recognises the student with the highest AMC score in a school (after statistical calibration), based on the minimum achievement of a Distinction award. Congratulations Eric.

Throughout the year we have been able to provide a number of opportunities for high ability students to participate in a range of workshops. Coral Vass, an author, worked with groups from 3-6  aiming to further develop the students’ writing skills, particularly focusing on sentence structure, generating ideas and story development. Various virtual maths sessions have been facilitated this year by Monash Tech School. At the end of Term 3 a group of Year 5s enjoyed a virtual maths games day with the Mathematical Association of Victoria and the support of Mr Grindley.

A lunchtime club provided students with the chance to explore the University of Melbourne Statistics and Research competition. The competition offered the opportunity for students to work collaboratively on an open-ended research question. They worked in teams and identified a question to work on for the term. The aim of the competition is to allow students to use their creativity and problem-solving skills to make choices about how best to ask and answer questions about their chosen project. Congratulations to Matilda and Milla in Year 6 for their submission. We look forward to hearing how the judging of the 560 entries progress.

Carla Youngs

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.