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 parents and carers,

This week is Harmony Week and at Aspendale Primary School it is a terrific opportunity to reflect upon our cultural diversity and continue to work towards everyone feeling a sense of belonging.

On Wednesday, students took the opportunity to wear orange, teal or cultural dress and we had year level picnics, due to the weather, where students listened to the book, ‘Whoever You Are’ by Mem Fox.



Each day our RR Media Leaders have created short informative videos for our students to learn more about the different cultural backgrounds in our community. On Monday, Louis and Keeley spoke about what it feels like to belong to a group or community. On Tuesday, Lucy and Hayden informed us of the most common languages spoken amongst our community. These included English, Russian, Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese and Hubei), Spanish, Korean, Hindi, Singhalese, Hungarian and Hebrew. They also told us that some of these languages are spoken in multiple countries. On Wednesday, Zac and Mali told us about different celebrations students at our school participate in. Some of these included Christmas, Easter, Lunar New Year, Rosh Hashannah, Yom Kippur, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Eid, Holi and Diwali. Mali explained what people are celebrating when they participate in Diwali. On Thursday, Matilda and Finn answered the questions that everyone had about Harmony Week: Why the colour orange? and why is it celebrated this week? On Friday, Curtis and Gracie will be exploring what has happened all this week. 

Thanks to our Global Awareness team, led by Cait Fletcher, and our RR Media Leaders for organising our Harmony Week events.

Night on the Green

Last Friday evening we enjoyed our annual Night on the Green welcome event in the courtyard. It was wonderful to see so many of our school community gathering together to enjoy a picnic, a dance and a chance to meet new people.

Our local member, Tim Richardson, joined us on the evening and welcomed everyone to the school year. Stela Matthews, one of our Performing Arts teachers, Luke and Peter, two of our instrumental teachers, entertained everyone with their musical performances. We were very lucky to have our Senior Band also perform.

Chrissy Morgan and Louise Warren organised our Book and Bake Stall to raise money for outdoor seating. Thank you to families who donated books or baked goods or were able to help on the evening. We raised $963.20 on the evening.

Thanks to our staff and community involved in organising the evening, especially Sarah Cornell, Amelia Mastorakos and Sam Morris.

Continuous Reporting

Based on feedback from our school community we have made a change to our continuous reporting.

This year in the continuous reports, you will receive a description of the unit, the skills or knowledge the students were developing and then a tickbox making you aware of your child’s progress for each of the skills or knowledge. We hope that this helps parents to better understand at a glance their child’s progress.

The first round of continuous reports will be published via the Sentral Parent Portal next week.

School Council

On the 13th of March we held our Annual Report to the School Community, followed by our March Council meeting. The Annual Report was tabled and endorsed by Council.

The Council meeting saw us welcome Sarah Cornell, as a Department representative, and Jen Shovelar as parent representative. We welcomed back Sam Morris and Nicole Kerr as parent representatives. Sam Morris was elected our new School Council President. We thank all our School Councillors for their ongoing support.

Please keep an eye on future newsletters for our various sub-committees as you may be interested in adding your expertise to one of these.

Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal

On Tuesday 26th March, our Student Representative Council will be holding a casual clothes day, where students are encouraged to wear their favourite colours and bring a gold coin donation. The money raised will be donated to the Good Friday Appeal. Our SRC will inform our students of the work of the Royal Children’s Hospital in the lead up to the day.

One of our students, Shanaia Caspersz, has taken her own action to support the Royal Children’s Hospital. Please find more information later in the newsletter as to how we can support her.

Early Dismissal Next Week

A reminder that Term One will finish on Thursday 28th March. There will be an early dismissal at 2:30pm. TheirCare will be running their normal program on this afternoon.

Enjoy your the rest of your week,

Tom

This term in Year Five we have been inquiring into the central idea, “A nation’s identity is shaped by people and place.’ We have discovered information about lots of historical figures who influenced the time between European settlement and Federation, and have recorded reasons for whether they had a positive or negative impact on Australia’s history. We have also examined the impact that various geographical features had on the development of settlements. A highlight was when storyteller, Jan Wozitsky visited our school and provided information about William Buckley and the Victorian goldfields gold rush time. We look forward to the final task for our unit where each class will create an A-Z book of Australia’s history sharing all their new learning. In the meantime here are some student comments related to our unit.

It has been around 10 years since the Bring Your Own Device program started for Years 4, 5 and 6. We’re considering what this will look like in 2025 and beyond. It may look a bit different for the Year 4s in 2025.

We wanted to share this with the community in case you are planning on making a purchase of a device in the near future. Please hold off for the moment, and we will communicate a decision by the end of Term 2.

Hi APS Families,

This is call out for any spare, outgrown and unwanted uniform you would like to donate to resupply our stock in sickbay.  We are specifically after a few pairs of shorts in the smaller sizes, 4, 6 and 8.  Coming into the colder months, a few pairs of tracksuit pants would be very much appreciated in the above sizes also.

If you could please bring them to the office that would be greatly appreciated.

As mentioned at the Night on the Green by Mr Pearce, we welcome any parent helpers who might like to get involved in any of our Community Events through out the year.

If this is something you might be interested in and have some time to spare please email Mrs Cornell: 

sarah.cornell@education.vic.gov.au

Shanaia will be cutting her hair again and donate it for a wig (for a patient suffering from hair loss) and in the process is also running a fundraiser for the Good Friday appeal of the Royal Children’s Hospital. 

The Hospital has been looking after all her needs from birth and the support we get from them is just amazing and it’s all been free. Shanaia would like to, in her own little way, raise awareness and some money to say Thank You and also help support other kids more who are struggling with more serious stuff than her. 

This time around the sacrifice seems a little more because she loves having long hair and loves when her friends at APS do  her hair during recess… but her heart is even bigger so she is looking forward to help make a difference. 

If you would like to support her, please click on the link below ??



Alternatively, please donate here:  Good Friday Appeal - Soshana Caspersz

Library Volunteers!

A big thank you to all the people who have taken books home to contact, protecting them from wear and tear.

If you still have some at home can you please let me know if you will be returning them before or after the holidays?

We still have a few bags of books waiting to be covered, so if you’d like to take another bag home, come by the library and collect some more. Just remember to let me or our school office know that you have taken them and when you hope to get them back.

Thanks again for helping us get these books on shelves as quick as we can!

Kind regards,

Melissa McSweeney

Literacy Learning Specialist