Important dates:

Event	Date
School Disco Yrs 3-6	11th October
Kingston Division Athletics	11th October
School Council	15th October
ACMI Foundation Excursion	30th October
Curriculum Day	1st November
Foundation 2025 Transition Sessions:	31st October, 7th,14th, 21st November.
Melbourne Cup Day (Public Holiday)	5th November
PYPX	11th November

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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. 

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Good afternoon families,

I'm currently enjoying the view of rolling hills from Gundiwindi Lodge in Silvan with our fabulous Year 3 students on their first school camp. There's been smiles all around as the students have taken on challenges, soared at great heights and demonstrated risk taking and persistence during each activity. I'm sure they'll all sleep well when they get home Friday after sharing their successes of camp with their family. A big thank you to the staff and parents for supporting our campers!

Thank You and Farewell

Tomorrow is our Canteen Manager Peta Forward’s official last day. Peta has been our Canteen Manager for over eight years and before that contributed in this space as a volunteer as a parent. Over many years Peta has made sure that students across the school have enjoyed delicious lunches at the end of each week. She has also overseen special food days, including very popular sausage sizzles!

We will take time tomorrow to thank Peta on behalf of the school community. Jen Shovelar will continue in the Canteen Manager role in 2024 and we will communicate later about plans for 2025.

Jiangsu, China Teacher Delegation Visit

Yesterday we hosted 19 teachers and assistant principals from Jiangsu, China at Aspendale Primary School. Our school leadership spent the day communicating our work around curriculum, wellbeing and school improvement. The delegation engaged in classroom observation and appreciated our student leaders spending time explaining their roles in the afternoon.

Kinder Visits to APS:

Over the next few weeks we will welcome children from our local Kindergartens into our Foundation classrooms. This is a great opportunity for our 2025 foundation students to become familiar with the school grounds, staff and other students.

Student Health

Please continue to pay attention to communications from the school regarding student illness. If your child is unwell, please make sure you keep them at home and seek medical advice if needed so that we can prevent the spread of illness.

Thanks, 
Amelia Busuttil

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What a week we have had! There has been a lot of collaborating this week and the Year 6 students have been amazing. 


PYPX Provocations 

Do you know what is hidden away in the mountains of Norway? Do you know how to build a bridge with beautiful aesthics?  Have you ever noticed that First Nations peoples from around the world have similar facial tattoos? How are pencils sharpened before we buy them? What are human rights? (and why do the Rights of the Child exist too?) 

Ask a Year 6 student, they will know. 

For the past two weeks, Year 6 students have been preparing and unpacking ideas for their Exhibition, also known as PYPX. They have been learning about how the Exhibition process is a journey of learning - with the Exhibition being the time to share 6 weeks worth of independent inquiry.

Alongside discussions around open and closed questions, students have also been finding out about the differences between a topic and issue. A topic is something that is closely linked to closed questions - it might be a students favourite animal for instance - a sloth being the best example.

An issue is what we aim with the PYPX. It allows students to unpack an idea, find a problem that exists in the world and try to find a solution. An example of an issue might be deforestation and the impact it has on sloths. 


Spotlight on Year 6 Leadership



Every Thursday afteroon in Year 6, students are hurriedly completing tasks and brainstorming ideas for their leadership roles. This week, some of our students were able to share their roles with teachers from Jiangsu Province Chinese delegation.  Thank you Ms Ma for translating the student's speeches!



This is a snapshot of what our student leaders do and only a handful of the roles that we have. 

I am an Environment Leader. At our school, we are in charge of keeping the school clean. Each week, we take the recycling bins out. We went to the Big Green Conference and we are beginning house points challenge, called EB pints relating to rubbish. We sometimes run a whole school competition called Nude Food. 
~ Josh 

We are two of the Community Leaders and here are some things that we do. we raise and take down our three flags every day. We wrote to a local politician earlier this year to get a new Torres Strait Islander flag. On Wednesday we have a Breakfast Club to help out the community in case anyone is in need of some food or if people are hungry after running club which is also on every Wednesday. 
~ Molly & Liv

 I’m one of the Marine Ambassadors and as a MA I help run beach patrol. Beach patrol is where we take each grade to the beach and clean up the rubbish to help out our community and schools environments. We make beach patrol a competition so everyone is engaged and we have a goal of how much rubbish to pick up, our goal is 75 kgs! There is a display in the library. We also run Emu Bob on Fridays. Each term, we have a learning day - we go somewhere different with Mrs Thompson and we find out about ways we can keep our oceans and rivers clean. 
~ Chilli 

I am one of the Visual Arts Leaders and we host an art club for the younger year levels every week. On Fridays, two of the Visual Arts leaders present a Artist of the week at assembly.  During leadership time we help clean up the art room or display students' artwork around the school.
~ Grace 

I am one of the Library Leaders, and we organise Book Week, with Mrs Jacobs. Book Week is a week where we dress up as a book character and have lunchtime workshops. We also run lunchtime clubs each week in the library and clean up the books.
~ Anna

We are the Respectful Relationships/Media Leaders and our job is to put the spotlight on groups in our community.  We share information with the community through Monday Morning announcements before school. These announcements let everyone  know what excursions are happening in the week, when hats are to be worn and if something is happening around the school. The two bigger events we are known for are NAIDOC week-  a chance to recognise the First Nations Australian peoples. And Harmony week-  a chance to recognise different cultures and heritages. We make videos to share with our community and have games in each episode.  
~Finn & Mali 

Afterschool program for the China Tour
For the past few weeks, studdents have been meeting Ms Ma, Mr Dowling, Mr Pearce and Ms Fletcher in the Chinese classroom after school. They have been preparing for their adventures to China. They leave in 9 days!



We will share more informatioin over the coming weeks and an official photo of the whole tour group shortly!

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PBL NEWS

PBL NEWS

Tokens

Lots of students have been steadily redeeming tokens for a variety of ‘treats’ as part of our PBL (Positive Behaviour for Learning) framework. Already this term many students have chosen items from the prize box, obtained ten minutes extra recess time, watched a movie at lunchtime or worn free dress to name just a few. Here are some photos of students enjoying their well earned reward.

      

Bread Tags Needed

Over time our tokens get lost or broken so we are keen for families to be saving their plastic (not cardboard) bread tags and sending them into school to help boost our supplies.

 

PBL Matrix Review

Over the next few weeks all classes will be involved in examining our current behaviour matrix and suggesting areas for improvement. Our staff have been developing and voting on what our matrix could look like moving forward and we look forward to trialling this during Term Four.

 

Parent and Community Feedback

We would like to invite parents to complete a very short survey (under 5 mins) regarding our PBL framework. Your feedback is especially valued as we embark on our review of our matrix and responses to both appropriate and inappropriate behaviours. Please click on the link below if you are able to assist.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1h7gWdPgs0KN0UjpfBidb7SeHnkhWOBTCiuLOGrdYE94/edit

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The courts are back in action!
Edie and Kobi were the first to take a shot on the new courts.   
This week we have been allowing students accross the school to enjoy the courts with a timetable for year level sessions. It's been great to see all the courts and all the rings getting used. We look forward to our students contining to use the courts. 

Mrs Scott has been using their court as much as possible! Classes have been enjoying relay races, netball, basketball, golf and bombardment, on the courts. 

Thanks to Jack & Bonnie in Foundation who created this amazing artwork for the National History Challenge. Their entry was inspired by the recent development of the courts...otherwise known as The Basketball CRISIS.

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Premiers’ Reading Challenge

 

Well done to all the students who have been recording their PRC books on the website.

The challenge finishes at the beginning of September, but it would be great to have everyone’s book data in by the middle of August. Students who complete the challenge will then receive a book and certificate later this term. Any questions or problems with logging in, please contact us as soon as possible

Leanne Peterson, Sarah Cornell and Caitlin Beer

Challenge Coordinators

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