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. 

Dear Families

What a wonderful job our staff   do in ensuring a smooth orderly learning environment begins from the very start of each day. Part of inclusive practices is to provide visual cues such as learning routines on the whiteboard.

Last Friday I attended the whole school assembly at  Mordialloc college, for their one hundredth year celebration. A huge congratulations to Michelle and the centenary planning committee for the outstanding work towards this celebration.  As a past student, it was lovely to reminisce  and listen to the significant changes and growth the school has had over the years. Next year we will be celebrating our one hundredth year here at APS.

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

Our Foundation students are well and truly settling into school life and we are so proud of the way they are approaching their days with enthusiasm. 

As part of our learning, we have been inquiring into the central idea Everyday we Learn more about Ourselves. This week we have looked at the ‘Zones of Regulation’ as a framework for naming and understanding our emotions. We have been exploring the function of rules and why we have rules in the classroom. We ventured out to the oval to play a game with no rules and we saw how tricky that can be. We decided on some rules for a game with a ball and saw it was safe, fun and fair when rules were in place to help us.

We look forward to the foundation students starting full time in March.

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