Dear families,

It’s been terrific to see our students settle into their learning across the school. All year levels are establishing learning routines to facilitate calm, orderly learning environments. Teachers have been teaching what is expected and supporting this with visual prompts.

PYP

Aspendale Primary School is proud to be an authorised International Baccalaureate World School. Our teaching and learning follows the framework of the Primary Years Programme.

One element of this is our students work through six units of inquiry (four in Foundation), with each unit exploring one of the six transdisciplinary themes.

Each year level has commenced exploring their first unit of inquiry. The central ideas for each unit are listed below:

Foundation Every day we learn more about ourselves (Who We Are)

Year One  It is our responsibility to build a positive learning community.

Year Two Our connections with self and others help us maintain relationships (Who We Are)

Year Three Individuals think, feel, behave and respond in different ways (Who We Are)

Year Four Happiness is linked to your mindset (Who We Are)

Year Five A nation’s identity is shaped by people and place (Where We Are In Place And Time)

Year Six Transtions affect people’s lives (Who We Are)

Reading

One of our Key Improvement Strategies in 2024 is to further develop our understanding of how students learn to read and refine our teaching and learning practices. You may have heard in the news this week about the Grattan Institute report into the teaching of reading. This is affirming of our improvement work during this year and across the current School Strategic Plan.

To begin this work, we have increased our resourcing of decodable readers in the junior school. If families are able to help with contacting these, please let Mel McSweeney know (the contact details are later in the newsletter).

You will also see in our dates that we have a curriculum day on the 12th March. We will work with the Primary English Teacher’s Association of Australia to further understand current research and practice regarding reading acquisition.

District Swimming Trials

Today students across Years 3-6 participated in our District Swimming trials. Thanks to the staff and parents involved in organising and supervising the day. Special thanks to Katie Scott, our PE teacher, for coordinating the event.

GTKY Interviews

Our Get To Know You interviews will take place on Tuesday 27th Feb (3:40-5pm) and Wednesday 28th Feb (3:40-7pm). This is a great opportunity for families to share information about their children and for teachers to share how each student has commenced the year. You can book your timeslot via the Parent Portal on the Sentral app. Please contact the school office if you are having difficulties.

Night on the Green

Our annual Night on the Green will take place on Friday 15th March from 5-7pm. This is a wonderful community event. There will be musical performances from some of our musical tuition teachers and one of our performing arts teacher, Stela Matthews. There will be food trucks and a book and bake sale. We look forward to seeing families at this event.

On 12th February, our Year 6 leaders hosted a dragon parade to celebrate the Lunar New Year, bringing the school together with traditional Chinese music, engaging quizzes, and the distribution of red envelopes symbolising good luck. Special thanks to our Mandarin leaders and Year 6 students for their dedication and hard work in bringing this event to life.

Nominations are now open for School Council elections!

There are four parent positions open for the standard term of 2 years for the period of 2024 and 2025 and one parent position for a casual vacancy term of 1 year in 2024. School council monitors the school’s finances, establishes or renews policies and ensures the facilities are well maintained. School Council also involves Sub-Committees such as Community Events, Finance and Education.

For those considering re-nominating or nominating, official forms can be obtained from the school office.

Timeline:

Thursday 15^th February 2024: Notice of Election and call for Nominations

Thursday 22^nd February 2024: Nominations close at 4.00pm

Monday 26^th February 2024: List of Candidates

Thursday 29^th 2024: Ballot papers prepared and distributed

Thursday 7^th March 2024: Close of ballot

Friday 8^th March 2024: Vote count and declaration of ballot

Wednesday 13^th March 2024: First Meeting of new Council

We look forward to parents being involved in our community either at School Council or at Sub-Committee level. If you seek further information, please don’t hesitate to contact Coby Larrieu, Principal or Amelia Mastorakos, Business Manager at the office.

• Please note that donations of books and baked goods have now been closed. Further details about where, when and how to donate your baked good prior the event, will be provided in next weeks Newsletter.

• We are overwhelmed by the community support and response to our event and thank you for this.

Volunteers Needed!

We are thrilled to have a large collection of new library books and decodable readers this year for our students to read.

But, before they can be added to our collections we need them contacted to protect them from wear and tear.

Can you help?

Please contact Melissa McSweeney or our school office to collect a bag of books and some contact to take home and help us get these books on shelves as quick as we can!

Thanks,

Melissa McSweeney

Literacy Learning Specialist

APS - VIOLIN AND VIOLA LESSONS 2024!

Introducing Peter O’Shea

Aspendale Primary School has a new violin and viola teacher this year!

Our new violin teacher is Peter O’Shea. Peter is a vibrant local string teacher. Peter has experience in teaching both individuals and groups, and is currently working both in schools and home studio settings.

Peter has studied at Monash University and University of Melbourne. He enjoys playing a teaching a diverse range of World Music (Fiddle Music) AMEB, ANZCA and Suzuki repertoire and pedagogy.

He has produced is own Elementary Violin teaching Book “Violin Fever Volume 1”.

We look forward to having Peter become part of the Instrumental Teachers’ team at APS and part of the community.

Please contact Peter directly if you would like to find out further about our program run by Peter.

Peter O’Shea (B.A. Music, Grad Dip Music, Dip Music.)

Email: posheamusic@gmail.com

Phone: 0409193004

APS - VIOLIN AND VIOLA LESSONS 2024!

Introducing Peter O’Shea

Aspendale Primary School has a new violin and viola teacher this year!

Our new teacher is Peter O’Shea. Peter is a vibrant local string teacher. Peter has experience in teaching both individuals and groups, and is currently working both in schools and home studio settings.

Peter has studied at Monash University and University of Melbourne. He enjoys playing a teaching a diverse range of World Music (Fiddle Music) AMEB, ANZCA and Suzuki repertoire and pedagogy.

He has produced is own Elementary Violin teaching Book “Violin Fever Volume 1”.

We look forward to having Peter become part of the Instrumental Teachers’ team at APS and part of the community.

Please contact Peter directly if you would like to find out further about our program run by Peter.

Peter O’Shea (B.A. Music, Grad Dip Music, Dip Music.)

Email: posheamusic@gmail.com

Phone: 0409193004