​ASCOT NEWS
24 May 2024, Term 2 Issue 1

Ascot Vale Primary School
‘Unique Learning Community’
Where we value:
RESPECT      RESPONSIBILITY      EXCELLENCE      EMPATHY      GRATITUDE

"Hands up, hands down. We are on Wurundjeri land."

5/6 Canberra Camp 2024

Please click on the headings below to discover more. 
REMINDER: You can change the language at the top left hand corner of the webpage

HELLO FROM THE PRINCIPAL TEAM  - Canberra camp

Dear parents, carers, staff, and students,

Congratulations to our wonderful Year 5 / 6 cohort of students who represented Ascot Vale PS so very well in the first week of term two on the Canberra Camp, which occurs every second year. They participated in a jam-packed week of travel, touring and learning about Canberra and all the features of this vibrant Australian Capital City. 

Staff (including the bus drivers) noted the exemplary conduct of all students, who are to be commended on their friendly, helpful and mature approach to the entire experience.

Features of this special school trip included:

• Laying wreaths at the Australian War Memorial.
• Watching a case being presented at the High Court.
• Viewing classic art pieces by the likes of Vincent Namatjira and creating pieces inspired by the artist at the National Art Gallery.
• Learning about Marion and Walter Burley Griffin.
• Role playing the voting system at Parliament House. 
• Getting close to nature at the glorious Australian National Botanical Gardens, representing dry deserts to tropical rainforests and everything in between.

We hope you enjoy the pictures in the slide show below. There are even more images and accounts on class DoJo. Go to DoJo School Story in April  to be reminded of this spectacular Year 5 / 6 school trip. 

Thank you to the following  staff team members who gave up their personal &/or family time to enable this important school camp to go ahead in 2024:

• Ben Kline - teacher in charge - Year 5 / 6 Teacher and co-ordinator
• Michelle Rangott - Year 5 / 6 teacher Unit 4b
• Zara Mason - Year 5 / 6 teacher Unit 6b
• Rozeena Sen - Year 5 / 6 teacher Unit 2b
• Ellen Waters- Year 3 / 4 teacher Unit 4a
• Jason Simpson - Year 3 / 4 teacher Unit 6a
• Bridie Naughtin- Year P / 1 / 2 teacher Unit 3

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​Enjoy the images below.
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Kind regards,​
From the Principal Team
Sue & Michael

Sue Osborne, Principal

Michael Downing, Assistant Principal

canberra camp slideshow 

Click in and out of the title to access the slideshow below. 

KEY DATES & EVENTS 

Please access our AVPS Key Dates & Events page AT THIS LINK.

Upcoming Pupil Free Day and Public Holidays  - Students do not attend school on these dates:

TERM 2 - 2024 

• Friday 7th June - Pupil Free Day - Please make alternative arrangements for the care of your child / children on this day. Log in to Camp Australia here https://www.campaustralia.com.au/ to book into the care program which HAS BEEN CONFIRMED (at 4:10pm on 24-5-24) to go ahead on this day.  
• Monday 10th June - King's Birthday Public Holiday - School closed 

TERM 4 - 2024

• Monday 4th November - Curriculum Day (Staff Report Writing Day) - please make alternative arrangements for the care of children on this day.
• Tuesday 5th November- Melbourne Cup Day  Public Holiday -  school closed​

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2025 enrolment - now open

AVPS is now accepting 2025 sibling enrolments for prep/foundation 2025. These are due by 26th July 2024 - full details about the state wide enrolment timeline and procedures can be found online at: https://avps.vic.edu.au/prep--foundation-transition.html 

Sibling enrolments differ slightly from other enrolments - you may be living inside or outside our school zone. This does not matter as we prioritise siblings being together at the same school.

We would encourage you to consider completing any sibling enrolment forms as soon as possible (before the due date preferred) as this helps us plan for 2025 sooner than later, as well as potentially offering places to families outside our current school zone after the 26th July 2024.

Please email us now at [email protected]  to request an electronic copy of our enrolment form or visit the office to collect a hard copy. All sibling enrolments MUST have copies of an up to date immunisation status certificate and birth certificate/passport provided along with the enrolment forms.  

THE RESILIENCE PROJECT (TRP)

PART 4 – MINDFULNESS

Today’s presentation from The Resilience Project is all about Mindfulness.  

Mindfulness is an intentional awareness generated by paying attention to a whole experience; being present in the moment. It’s important to explore what mindfulness strategies are helpful for you.

Thousands of studies have proven benefits include reduced stress, reduced rumination, increased memory, increased cognitive function and physical health benefits through improved immunity.

View Part 4 of the series here:
Part 4 - Mindfulness:  https://theresilienceproject.com.au/2023-parent-carer-hub-inspire-hugh-martin/

Hugh highlights some things that mindfulness improves; concentration, quality of thoughts and equanimity (ability to let go). He also shares some mindfulness strategies to use and implement yourself and with your children.

For mental health resources and support information, visit The Resilience Project’s Support Page.

TRP - Digital wellbeing FOR FAMILIES - FREE WEBINAR - REGISTER HERE

Digital Wellbeing for Families Free Webinar - TRP

Leah and The Resilience Project (TRP) Team are looking forward to presenting a Digital Wellbeing for Families Webinar (with other schools) on Tuesday 4th June from 6:30 - 7:30pm AEST.
What you can expect.
This 60-minute presentation gives parents/carers the opportunity to reflect on their family’s digital wellbeing. They will explore practical tips and strategies to create healthy habits around screen time to positively impact relationships and strengthen connections within the home. Throughout this presentation parents and carers will:

• Gain insight into the latest research around family screen time and its impact on individual and collective wellbeing in the home.
• Be provided with ideas and strategies to enhance their own digital wellbeing to be role models for their family.
• Feel equipped to support their children’s device usage with practical strategies without screen shaming, banning, or removing devices.

Accessing the webinar.
Please register for the webinar at this link
See the attached flyer below for more information

trp_flyer_digital-wellbeing-for-families-webinar.pdf
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seeking a volunteer to run Avps second hand uniform

We are seeking a volunteer or volunteers to run the AVPS second hand uniform shop. 

This role entails:

• Organising donated second hand uniforms in the cupboards in the hall.
• Discarding items of no use.
• Scheduling regular times to sell second hand uniforms in the hall for a gold coin donation per item. This  usually takes place after school but sometimes during orientation programs. 
• Liaising with office staff to schedule and advertise opening times. 
• The volunteer/s must have a current Working With Children’s Check

Please contact the office if you are interested in taking on this role.

Education Support Personnel Day

Education Support Personnel (ESP) Day is celebrated on 16 May each year.

This is a day to honour and recognise the extraordinary contribution education support staff make to public education.

Please thank an AVPS Education Support Staff member (pictured below) in your own special way to honour ESP Day​. 

We couldn’t get by without our dedicated Education Support Staff.

​AVPS extends gratitude every day to our wonderful support staff.

sTAFF NEWS

STAFF LEAVE 
UNIT 1
Annie Cuthbert will be on personal leave until at least the beginning of term 3 2024, following knee replacement surgery. 

We wish Annie all our very best wishes for a prompt and successful recovery.  

We also say 'hello' and 'thank you' to Sarah for replacing Annie for the period of her absence.  

Here they are, pictured below, getting to know eachother prior to Annie taking leave. 

STAFF LONG SERVICE LEAVE 
OFFICE 
Our Admin Assistant, Christina Micucci, will be on Long Service Leave for the duration of term two 2024. We wish her well for great adventures during this period of leave. We also congratulate Christina on recently performing the very important duties of 'Mother of the Bride', which was a very special occasison for Christina and her family. 

​Maria Scarpaci will be working five days per week in the office for the remainder of term two. Thank you Maria. 

Stephanie Florentino, who is better know for her role working at Before and After School Care, will be replacing Maria's Integration Aide duties on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, whilst Christina is on leave. 

We are most fortunate and grateful to have such dedicated staff available to fill in when needed. 

Mother of the Bride, Christina, who will also be enjoying Long Service Leave in Term 2

Maria Scarpaci - thank you for replacing Christina for the duration of term 2.

Stephanie Florentino - thank you for replacing Maria in the classroom for the rest of term 2.

Britt Stephenson - Baby News 
We are pleased to announce the safe arrival of Mackenzie Fia Stephenson (pictured below), born on 10th May, just in time for Mother’s Day.

For newcomers, Britt is our part time Drama Teacher, who was once a full time AVPS teacher (maintly in charge of all things Sports and PE) prior to taking family leave. 

Congratulations to Mum- Britt, Dad- Joey and big sister- Hailey.  And, welcome to baby Mackenzie. 

Baby Mackenzie

Britt Stephenson - Drama Teacher

BOTTLE TOP ART iNSTALMENT

Finally, after hiding out in a pandemic, awaiting a playground build and problem-solving wire fence issues, our beautiful Bottle Top art piece has been installed, and doesn’t it look amazing.

This piece was designed by our Art Teacher, Lucy and created by the children of AVPS in 2019 through the inspiration of a then Year 6 student, Isaac Macaulay, who undertook a project which involved the mass collection and repurposing of bottle tops. This prevented them from going to landfill and the artwork was the product of leftover bottle tops.

The whole school and wider community were encouraged by Isaac to collect bottle tops, which were sent to Envision Hands, an organisation that turned the throw-away plastic into life-changing prosthetic hands for children.

Isaac’s project was featured in our school newsletter, which caught the attention of Channel 9 News. Isaac and his project were subsequently featured in the “Little Kids, Big Ideas'' segment, hosted by Livina Nixon, who visited the school. Here is a clip of the news segment featuring Isaac and AVPS.  If you look closely, you will spot a young Kezia, Isaac’s sister, who is now in Year 6.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/ascot-vale/aec16909-386c-4ee0-8567-b47b123d6e3c
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Isaac was thanked at a school assembly on Monday, where a ribbon cutting ceremony took place in the hall in front of a digital slideshow of Isaac’s project and the beautiful art piece that is now on display on the brick wall behind the Community Room. We all agree it looks amazing installed on the brick backdrop and it is a much better location than the wire fence originally planned. Enjoy these images of the bottle top artwork 

SLIDESHOW - BOTTLE TOP ART 

Click in and out of the title to access the slideshow below. ​ 

pEDESTRIAN SAFETY

A child narrowly avoided being hit by a reversing car at drop off time on Friday 17th May 2024.

The Year Prep child was crossing Bank Street with her parents when a car unexpectedly reversed from the staff car park into the family’s path, very narrowly avoiding collision with the child, who would have been hidden from the driver’s view.
Please refer to the attached brochure from the Moonee Valley City Council for safe movement around schools.

In addition, we urge all community members to avoid:

• Completing U turns on Bank or Moonee Streets close to the school.
• Using the staff car park on Bank Street as a drop off zone for students or for completing U turns.

Thank you for helping to keep the children of our school community safe.

mvcc3264-getting-to-and-from-school-brochure-november-2018-3__2_.pdf
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safety-around-schools-flyer-updated-september-2022__2_.pdf
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Mental health and Wellbeing

Dear AVPS families,

I would like to take the opportunity to reintroduce myself to our school community, especially to our 2024 Prep families and other families who have enrolled at AVPS in the last year. My name is Jamie Saggers, and I have had the privilege of working in a variety of classroom and specialist roles at AVPS since 2020. 

This year is an exciting transition for schools in our region as we roll out the Department of Education's Mental Health in Primary Schools (MHiPS) Program. As part of this initiative, I have been assigned the role of Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader (MHWL), a role which I will fulfil alongside that of Disability Inclusion Leader. Good mental health supports children in building positive thinking, emotional, behavioural and communication skills and healthy relationships with family and friends. 

Within this role, collaborating closely with our dedicated wellbeing team, our focus will be on enhancing our understanding of mental health and wellbeing. This involves implementing strategies for identification, promotion, and prevention, supporting our staff in recognising and assisting students with mental health concerns and further developing our referral pathways for assessment and intervention. To be clear, the role is not one of counselling or diagnosing. I have included an image below to help summarise the varied layers of the MHWL role. 

​

AVPS currently has many excellent evidence-based wellbeing practices and programs, including Respectful Relationships, The Resilience Project, Dogs in Schools program, lunchtime clubs and Zones of Regulation. This year, we will continue building staff capacity to implement these programs and monitor the personal and social capabilities of our students. 

At AVPS, prioritising the wellbeing of all members of our community has always been a priority, and I look forward to learning, growing, and developing in this space alongside all of you.

Best regards,

Jamie Saggers
Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader

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lost property

Hello AVPS Parents/carers,
 
Hope you all are doing great! 
I am here to inform you all that I will be managing the lost property from this term. Hope I successfully fulfill this responsibility. Wish me luck!!😄
 
Over the course of term 1 and term 2, we have accumulated a large number of lost property. In order to return these items to the rightful owners, I will be displaying everything in front of the assembly hall every Friday from 3:15pm to 3:45pm. If your child has misplaced something, you all are welcome to come and have a look. 
 
As an alternative, you or your child can also collect the new "Lost property forms" which will be available at the lost property area from next week. This lost property form is a new process I have initiated and designed to capture basic details of the lost property. 
 I am going to arrange one storage organiser for "lost property forms" and another storage organiser for the forms to drop in. You can collect a form, fill in the details and drop it in the lost property drop box, which are both available near the lost property location(between Unit3 & Unit2). I will look into the filled forms during the week and act accordingly. 
 
Hope this idea works and I get to help most of the parents to save some dollars.😄
 
Please give me some spare time this week to sort everything and I will set up ready with this plan from next week. 
 
Important note: You can help me by ensuring that all your children's belongings are clearly named so that if lost, I can handover them directly to your child. 
 
Thanks & Regards

Swapna Ballireddy
​Education Support 

MISSING NECKLACE
It would be greatly appreciated if students and visitors to the school could keep an eye out for a missing necklace that is a special family heirloom (see attached photo). If you find this distinctive piece of jewellery, please hand it in to the office. 

community connections

parent reps

Gratitude is extended to our Parent Reps who have been busily working behind the scenes on activities that include: 

Mother’s Day - breakfast and gift activity. 
The rain stayed away to allow our Mother's Day  breakfast event to be a great success on Friday 10th May, where coffee and pastries were enjoyed by the gathering crowd of mums, kids and dads. 

Thank you to the dads, pictured below in our favourite team colour (purple aprons) for helping run this event. 

We hope the mums and mothers at heart enjoyed their special magnet keepsakes from the kids. ​

Special Lunch - the children certainly enjoyed the Subway Special Lunch day on Wednesday. 

Our  next special lunch day will be Pastries (pies, sausage rolls etc) in term 3, week 10 - 18th Sep. This will be held on our Sports Colours Day in honour of footy finals fever that grips Melbourne during this time. 


Farmers’ Market  - Save the date  - Sunday 16th June. This will be a whole school bake sale, where all families will be invited to contribute to this very popular stall at the regular Sunday Farmer’s Market that takes place each week at Ascot Vale PS. Bake Packs will be distributed to all families on or around Tuesday 11th June (the day after the King’s Birthday long weekend). 

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Fresh Fruit Friday (FFF) Term 2 

Week 7 - U 4 /5
Week 8 - NO FRUIT
Week 9 - U 2/3
Week 10  - U 1 /6
Week 11 - NO FRUIT

​

FFF volunteers must have a current Working With Children Check (or receipt), which can be obtained online here: https://www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au/individuals/applicants/how-to-apply-1. 
Applications need to be lodged at an Australian Post Outlet. 
​
Full FFF instructions appear in the file below.

fresh_fruit_friday_-_instructions.pdf
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2024 Parent Reps
Thank you to the following volunteers who will share the Parent Rep roles in 2024.

UNIT 1 PARENT REPS Kathy Faulkner ​ ​​	UNIT 2 PARENT REPS Sarah Wauters ​ ​	​UNIT 3 PARENT REPS Lily Jiang Meike Koenig Mutlu Yurdal  Helen Radloff ​Karen Villanueva
​UNIT 4 PARENT REPS  Katherine McConnell ​Sue Macaulay ​ ​ ​	​UNIT 5 PARENT REPS Erin Katsavos Kerryn Herman Danielle McKeown Kate Harris Kyra Low Kirsten Deruddere Jemima Flego	​UNIT 6 PARENT REPS Jayasree Pushpa Raghunadhan  Kurt Gleich ​Shelley Smith ​

school council 

Annual Report - Public Meeting 20th May 2024

The School Council held a public meeting on Monday this week, which was attended by eight additional parents. A workshop was held where feedback was captured on the following: 
Parent Opinion Survey 
Sections of the Annual Report 
Ideas for AVPS’s 140th Birthday in 2025

Thank you to school councillors and visitors for taking part in these workshops. Lots of ideas were captured on the night and we plan to review these in staff and school council teams in the future. 

The Annual Report will be published on our website and distributed to the community once it has been endorsed by the Department of Education. 

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FINANCE  Matt Vitins  Joseph Egan Michael Downing Rozeena Sen Sue Osborne ​	EDUCATION & POLICY Annalise De Mel Elizabeth Jones Ken Willis Bianca Bertolacci ​ ​
BUILDINGS & GROUNDS Phil Burn Michael Downing Ben Kline ​	OUTSIDE SCHOOL HOURS CARE Melanie Quin Nicci Bilinsky Sue Osborne ​

MUSIC NEWS

mvimp - mOONEE VALE INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PROGRAM

Amanda McClure - MVIMP Liaison Teacher

Jason Simpson - MVIMP Liaison Teacher

​The MVIMP program is providing us with beautiful music every fortnight at our assemblies and the audience are loving it. Well done to all of the students who happily perform and a very special mention to Sam Popp and Patrick Quin for playing our anthem. They are doing a fine job. At our next assembly some of our cellists will be playing. 

We would like to thank Janet Butler, our cello teacher for all of the hard work that she has done for the MVIMP program over the years. Janet has resigned and will be leaving us this term. Her work has been amazing and the musicians that she has taught and influenced have been very lucky. We will  keep you posted about a new teacher in the very near future. 

MVIMP camp will be in Term 3, August 6-9th. If your child has been invited we hope they are excited.  Please stay tuned for more information over the next few weeks. 

As part of  MVIMP performances AVPS will be holding a Soiree on Wednesday September 11th. On this night every MVIMP student is expected to play with the support of their tutor. Put the date in your calendar, 6pm start. (TBC)

Keep playing everyone and don’t forget to bring your instrument and music to your lessons. 

Amanda and Jason

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PIANO - LAMPLIGHT MUSIC

Private piano lessons are available on request (vacancies permitting). 
The company providing this service is Lamplight Music. 
Director:  Joshua Cowie
PH 0413 884 067 Email:  [email protected] 

OUTSIDE SCHOOL HOURS CARE (oshc)

OSHC phone:​​ 0423 795 247
Coordinator:​​ Dee Seneviratne

VACATION CARE
The OSHC Sub Committee is pleased to report that the inaugural vacation care program, run by Camp Australia, was a great success.
The April 2024 Vacation Care enrolment numbers were:   25, 30, 12, 26, 24, 17, 40, 16. 
The Camp Australia staff in attendance reported that it was a great pleasure to run the program at Ascot Vale PS, noting that the children engaged well with each other, including children from neighbouring schools. 

Camp Australia Contract - Expression of Interest process 

The OSHC Sub - Committee will be working towards managing an Expression of Interest process, which is necessary as we near the end of our five-year contract with Camp Australia. It is anticipated that this process will be completed before the end of term 3. ​

ASCOT VALE COMMUNITY NOTICEBOARD
Please peruse the community notices in the files and slideshow below: