TJURINGA ‘Message Stick’

Term 2 Week 10 Thursday 18 June. 2020

Laura Street ASPENDALE 3195

9580 3255 www.aspendale.vic.edu.au

aspendale.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

From Tom Pearce Assistant Principal,

Dear Parents and Carers,

We have been very lucky with the sunshine during the

first month of winter. It has been terrific to see so

many families taking advantage of this and walking,

riding or scooting to school. Thank you to those

students who are riding or scooting and walking their

bike or scooter in the school grounds and in front of

our school. This keeps everyone safe.

Pick Up/Drop Off Arrangements

Thank you for continuing to support our efforts to

keep everyone safe by following our pick up and drop

off procedures. We appreciate families dropping their

children and leaving promptly in the mornings, and

the same in the afternoon. Thank you for being

mindful of physical distancing when doing this. It has

been pleasing to see the maturity of our students when

saying goodbye to their loved ones in the mornings

and their beaming faces when you greet them in the

afternoon.

Please note:

As Friday the 26th of June is the last day of Term 2,

the school day will finish at 2:30pm. There will be a

staggered pick up timetable.

As per our current arrangements, please collect all

children in your family at the time of the youngest

child’s dismissal.

Lost Property

Several families have made enquiries about looking

for clothing in lost property. Our Year 6 students are

sorting through the lost property each afternoon and

returning labelled items to students in their

classrooms.

Reports On Monday, your child’s Semester 1 report will be

available via the Sentral Parent Portal. A letter has

gone home today outlining the differences with this

year’s Semester 1 reports, as per the Department of

Education’s directions. The letter is included at the

end of the newsletter.

Three Way Conferences Our three way conferences will take place on Tuesday

the 23rd and Wednesday the 24th of June. The

conferences are an opportunity for your child, and the

classroom teacher to have a conversation about their

experiences of remote learning and areas for them to

focus on in the following terms.

The conferences will take place via WebEx, a

videoconferencing platform. You can make your

appointment with your child’s teacher via the Sentral

Parent Platform. Please contact your child’s teacher if

you are having difficulties.

Camps

We received exciting news from the Department of

Education and Health over the weekend that school

camps will resume in Term 3. Our camp coordinators

at each year level are liaising with our camps to

continue planning our visits. If your child is in Years

3-6, look out for upcoming correspondence about our

camping program.

New Shade Sails At the end of 2019, Aspendale Primary School was

awarded a Local Community Grant by the Federal

Government to construct shade sails in our courtyard

area. This will provide shade during play times and

facilitate even more outdoor assemblies. Construction

on our shade sails will commence at the start of the

holidays and we look forward to them being

completed early in Term 3. We would like to again

thank Anita Weller and Amber Demmler for their

work in obtaining the grant and organising the works.

ICT Equipment Finally, thank you to families across the school for

returning the technology equipment you borrowed to

help your child access their learning during the home

learning period. Thank you also to Steve Gammon for

his work in coordinating the borrowing of this

equipment and getting it back into the classrooms so

quickly. Warm regards,

Tom Pearce

Assistant Principal

Foundation 2:00pm

Year One 2:10pm

Year Two 2:20pm

Years 3-6 2:30pm

DIARY DATES 2020

June

Tuesday 23 W11 Student Led WebEx Conferences

3.40pm – 7.30pm

Wednesday 24 Student Led WebEx Conferences

3.40pm – 5.30pm

Friday 26 End of Term 2

Early Staggered Finish 2.00-

2.30pm

July

Monday 13 W1 Term 3 Begins

Tuesday 14 Yr 1 Wicked Weather Incursion

August

Tuesday 4-7 W4 Yr 5 Coonawarra Camp

Yr 6 Valley Home Stead Camp

Friday 14 W5 Curriculum Day

Tuesday 18 W6 School Council M’tg 6.30pm

Wednesday 19 ICAS – Science

Tuesday 25 W7 ICAS Digital Technologies

Wed 26-28 Yr 3 Gundiwindi Camp

Thursday 27 ICAS English

Monday 31 W8 ICAS Spelling Bee

September

Mon-Friday W8 BOOK WEEK

Tuesday 1 Yr 5 SECASA

Thursday 3 ICAS Maths

Wednesday 9 W9 Yr 6 SECASA

Every day counts – school attendance

We all want our students to get a great education, and

the building blocks for a great education begin with

students coming to school each and every day.

Missing school can have a major impact on a child’s

future – a student missing one day a fortnight will

miss four full weeks by the end of the year. By Year

10 they’ll have missed more than a year of school.

There is no safe number of days for missing school –

each day a student misses puts them behind, and can

affect their educational outcomes.

Coming to school every day is vital, but if for any

reason your child must miss school, there are things

we can do together to ensure they don’t fall behind:

- Speak with your classroom teacher and find

out what work your child needs to do to keep

up.

- Develop an absence learning plan with your

teacher and ensure your child completes the

plan.

Remember, every day counts. If your child must miss

school, speak with your classroom teacher as early as

possible.

From 1 March 2014, new laws have meant that

parents can be fined for not sending students to school

without an acceptable reason.

If you’re having attendance issues with your child,

please let your classroom teacher know so we can

work together to get your child to school every day.

The Sentral Parents App is coming….

Aspendale PS will be changing it’s parent communications from Flexibuzz

to the Sentral App in Term 3. Information about when and how to download will be available shortly.

Watch this space!!

Aspendale Primary School

Dear parents and carers,

I am writing to provide an update on changes for the Semester 1 student reports at Aspendale Primary School.

The Department of Education and Training has adjusted the expectations of student reports for Semester 1 in recognition of the transition to remote and flexible learning during Term 2.

While our school has continued to deliver its teaching and learning program and monitor the achievement and progress of each student, there have been some unprecedented changes to our usual program.

At Aspendale Primary School, we know it is vital to involve students and their parents/carers in learning. This process includes providing reports on student learning.

Aspendale Primary School will provide a written report for the parent/carer of each student enrolled at the school for Semester 1. The reports will include information on student achievement for each curriculum area taught, however, there are some changes from our usual Semester 1 reports.

Student reports for Semester 1 2020 will include:

a description of the areas of the Victorian Curriculum F-10 taught

comments regarding student learning achievement, based on the Victorian Curriculum F-10 for the subject areas taught

a comment on how the student has adjusted to the remote and flexible learning environment.

Aspendale Primary School will not be including teacher judgements and a five-point scale due to the unprecedented changes to our program due to COVID-19. We will report on progress at the end of the year.

If you have queries regarding your child’s report, parents/carers may contact the classroom teacher via email to arrange an appropriate time to discuss this further

Thank you for your continued support during remote and flexible learning.

Coby Larrieu

Principal

June 2020

Re: UNSW ACADEMIC COMPETITIONS – For Years 2 to 6

Dear Parents,

Aspendale Primary School has traditionally had lots of entrants over the years and many have done very well with completing the ICAS assessments. The competitions this year are: Science, Digital Technologies, English, Mathematics and Spelling. There is no writing assessment available. This year all student entries will again be offered in an electronic / online format in the same way NAPLAN has for Year 3 and 5 students. Also, the assessments are now open to all year 2 students. Please see the entry details below and each of the key assessments which the University of New South Wales is offering in Term 3 2020. If you wish to register your son or daughter please follow each of the instructions by using the link and key access details below. The link will take you to a portal where you need to enter your child’s name, year level, age, which tests you would like them to complete and how to make payment electronically. The ICAS Website for ordering is:

https://shop.unswglobal.com.au/pages/pps The Aspendale Primary School Unique Access Code is:

WDW410 *It is not a requirement when you register to put in a Student ID number for your son/daughter. All of the details you complete online will then be provided to the school so that your son/daughter can complete the relevant test(s) on the test sitting days and dates listed below.

Name of Competition Entries Close Testing Sitting Dates here at School

Science 26TH July 2020 Wednesday 19th August 2020

Digital Technologies 26TH July 2020 Tuesday 25th August 2020

English 26TH July 2020 Thursday 27th August 2020

Spelling Bee 26TH July 2020 Monday 31st August 2020

Mathematics 26TH July 2020 Thursday 3rd September

***Digital Technologies is only available for students in years 3, 4, 5 and 6. If you have any questions regarding the UNSW competition please contact me. John McHaffie Coby Larrieu UNSW Competion Co-ordinator School Principal