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: 2024 Calendar 

Event	Date
Student Free Day	9 December
State Transition Day, F-5 Up day. Foundation 2025 Final transition day	10 December
Year 6 Big Day Out	11 December
Year 6 Beach Swimming Make up Day	12 December
Meet your Teacher morning Year 5 Beach Swimming Make up Day	13 December
Christmas/ Festive Singalong Class Party and Festive Dress Up Day	16th December 2.15 - 3.15pm
Year 6 Graduation 6pm	17th December
Year 6 - Big Day In	18th December
Last Day - early dismissal	20th December Year 6 Final Assembly starts at 12pm Early finish at 1pm

2025 Calendar 

Event	Date
Student Free Day	28th January
Student's first Day	29th January 2025

---

Dear parents and carers,

It has been a lovely time of year at Aspendale Primary School, with our 2024 Foundation students visiting every Tuesday morning giving us a glimpse into next year whilst we reflect on how far each of our 2023 students have progressed as we finalise the last round of reporting for the year.

2024 Classroom Structure

After consultation with staff and discussion at School Council, I would like to share with the community our class structure for 2024. We have kept in mind our school community’s desire for straight classes and to keep student numbers in each class relatively small. The Victorian Government School’s Agreement aims for an average ratio of 1:26 across the school and 1:21 across the junior years. The funding we receive is in alignment with these ratios. We will have an average class size of 1:21 across the school and 1:19 across the junior years. I know our fabulous staff, made up of our teachers and education support staff, will again support the learning and wellbeing needs of all of our students in 2024.

Year Level	Student Numbers
F	19, 18, 18
1	17, 17, 17, 17
2	23, 23, 23
3	24, 24, 23
4	21, 21, 20, 20
5	24, 24, 24
6	23, 23, 23, 22

 

2024 Camps

Our 2024 camp schedule has been finalised. We are looking forward to returning to our Year 3 & 4 camps and to visit a new Year 5 and a new Year 6 camp. Please see the schedule below. Thanks to our staff for attending camp this year and for their forward planning for next year.

Year Level	Camp	Dates
3	Gundiwindi Lodge	Aug 28 - Aug 30
4	Camp Rumbug	May 15 - 17
5	The Ranch	Jul 31 - Aug 2
6	Waratah Beach Camp	May 22 - May 24

 

Year Two Enchanted Adventure

Our Year Two students had a terrific day on Friday at the Enchanted Adventure in Arthur’s Seat. The experience of challenging themselves and building their independence was important to help them prepare to head off on Year Three camp next year. I spoke with a lot of proud students on Friday afternoon who shared their achievements from the day. Thanks to our Year Two team for organising this.

Courage to Care

On Monday morning I had the opportunity to join our Year Sixes in their Courage to Care incursion. This is part of the Holocaust education program and the students learnt about stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination and racism. They had the opportunity to hear from a Holocaust survivor and to ask questions. Our students were commended for the respect, kindness and attentiveness they demonstrated. I’d like to thank the team from Courage to Care for the way they facilitated the sessions.

 

Showcases

Friday afternoon saw the next two showcases take place in the school courtyard. The Year Threes delighted us with an orchestra performance of Ode to Joy and our Year One students grooved the afternoon away! Tomorrow our Foundation students will have their turn. This will be the culmination of our performances for the year, starting with our ⅚ production in Term Three. Thanks to Nat Tideman and

Stela Matthews and the rest of our staff for providing these opportunities for our students.

Year Four Bike Ed

Bike Ed is underway. It’s great to see the bike shed full! A reminder to students to continue to walk their bikes and scooters in the school and along the front of the school, especially during times of high congestion.

 

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

---

In Year One We are Thinkers!

This term in Year One, our students are ‘workin’ hard for the money’, as we explore the difference between wants and needs, and the systems that are in place to exchange goods and services.

To ignite our creativity, we took a delightful detour into exploring what it might be like to live a day in the world of Willy Wonka – imagining and designing products that would satisfy even the fussiest of consumers. Through a highly engaging workshop titled ‘The Chocolate Shop’, the Year One students designed some crazy, wild, cute and delicious Hot Chocolate Creatures.

We were very much looking forward to enjoying a hot chocolate at the end of the session, and can’t wait to grow and extend our thinking as we dive deeper into this Unit of Inquiry together.

---

On Monday, our Year 6 students were given the opportunity to attend a Courage to Care workshop. They learnt about being an upstander in situations that might be challenging. 
Courage to Care is a unique program because it incorporates real life testimony to help students understand the real world impact of prejudice, racism and discrimination. 

To challenge what we know and the differences and overlaps of stereotypes, discrimination, prejudice and racism; students worked in groups to participate in many activities. 

       


The workshops ended with students hearing first hand accounts of Holocaust survivor stories and the stories of their families. 

   

In 6F, Sabrina guided us with images to bridge the gaps between what seem to be small stereotypical comments, to what happened during the Holocaust. Henry, spoke about being born in Poland 1936 and the challenges facing his family. He credits his survival to the unique and unexpected actions of a Christian doctor, who first saved his mother and later hid Henry and his father throughout the war. Henry would later travel to Australia and become a celebrated doctor specalising in blood disorders  at the Royal Children's Hospital. Eva went on to share her families survival from Hungary and their first encounters with locals in an Australian pub!  

Kay helped 6M understand definitions and answered questions before Louis shared his story. He was very grateful for being in Australia and shared how he felt lucky he was to be in the right place at the right time. He wanted our students to be empowered by his story and empathetic, but not sympathetic. 

While Phil helped students in 6P, understand that prejudice is the pre-judgement of something or someone. A comment echoed across Year 6.  Ros gave her families testimony to the class, which left an impact.

The actions of bystanders and upstanders filtered through all the testimonies. The workshops allowed students to understand the power of small upstander actions: asking a friend to say something differently, sitting with a friend who feels others are being unkind and reaching out to trusted adults when its hard to navigate. Being a bystander might be the easier choice but being an upstander is often the quiter brave choice. 

We want to say thank you to the Year 6 students who were so respectful during this incursion. We have worked hard to make our spaces culturally safe and to hear the Courage to Care team acknowledge this was delightful.
 

We also want to thank the Courage to Care team; Thank you Sabrina, Fay, Phil, Eva, Henry and Louis for coming to Aspendale Ps. Thank you Marc too for helping set up! 


Below are a selection of reflections from 6F:

Lilith said:



Sam said:

We had an incursion today; Courage To Care came in and talked to us about discrimination a holocaust survivor also came and talked to us about his experience in World War Two. It was quite interesting, I liked the story that he told because I was learning something new. It was quite sad as well thinking that millions of people died back then, I struggle to think how scary it would have been back then, especially as a child.

Dorothea said:


Molly said:

---

---

Marine Ambassadors Excursion - Fighting Extinction 

Last week, the Marine Ambassadors were invited to the Fighting Extinction Schools Showcase at Melbourne Zoo. Thank you Ms MacNally for organising this. 

We saw many animals such as monkeys, seals, elephants and many more, but our favorite was definitely Bella, the fur seal who showed us some of her tricks and tried to eat our hats through the glass.

We were invited to see the 'Fighting Extinction' presentations.
When we arrived at the presentation, we saw many incredible things that schools are doing to help to stop extinction. Some schools were making badges and bookmarks so people could show their support for animals becoming extinct. Another school did a nurdle hunt and collected over 65,000 nurdles to help save marine animals from eating them and getting sick.

We also saw St. Louis there and they were explaining how they helped Gorillas by recycling phones so more of the Gorillas’ habitat isn’t being cut down. There were games run by some schools and even face painting!

We would like to give our huge thanks to Ms MacNally for getting us invited and taking us on the train and around the zoo all day. This was an incredible day and we hope next year’s Marine Ambassadors will get to go too and even present something to the other schools!

- Marine Ambassadors

 

---

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.

---

---

---

SATURDAY, 2^nd December 2023, 10.30am –12.30pm

Dear families in Yr’s 1 & 2,

Term 4 School Working Bee will be held on Saturday 2^nd December 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 1 & 2 parents!

The convenor for this Working Bee will be Mr 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!

TO ASSIST WITH PLANNING, PLEASE CLICK THE LINK PROVIDED BELOW TO RSVP

https://forms.gle/LqKXyhsnaVJ4ApX27

Thank you in advance for contributing to the maintenance and beautification of our grounds to the benefit of all students.

Yours sincerely,

2023 School Council Buildings and Grounds Sub- Committee        

AREA	STANDARD JOBS LIST JOB	EQUIPMENT REQUIRED School has a lot of equipment. If bringing your own, please clearly name this.
Grounds & entrances	Removing sand, rubbish, leaves, from all asphalt & yard areas, paths, entrances, steps	Brooms and rakes, gloves wheelbarrows
School Hall (if required)	Sweeping/blowing around exterior, clearing/killing weeds as required	Brooms, Blower, gloves, smaller container for weeds
Sandpits	Raking and removing debris, tidying edges on long jump pit as required.	Rakes, forks, wheelbarrows, spades.
Play equipment areas	Spreading/turning over soft-fall mulch	Spades, forks, wheelbarrows
Weeding (if required)	Killing/clearing weeds –a) around fenceline; b) within play equipment areas c) around all steps, porches, concrete areas.	Gloves, brushcutter, wheelbarrows, Smaller containers, gloves
Drains	Clean out/sweep all drains.	Shovel, broom, gloves
Gardens	Pruning, weeding, spreading mulch if required, some watering (from tanks)	Wheel barrow, spade,

 

 

---