Dear Parents,

The other members of the Auburn North staff and I hope you and your families are well.

HAPPY EID

If you recently celebrated Eid, we hope it was a very special time for you, your family and your friends.

AN OUTSTANDING START TO THE 2025 SCHOOL YEAR

Next Friday 11^th April is the final school day for this term. I would like to congratulate all students, all staff, and all parents on working together so cohesively and effectively this term to ensure this term has been so successful for all members of our Auburn North FAMILY, especially our wonderful students.

I believe this term has laid the foundation for what will prove to be our school’s most successful year in the past 26 years.

Early indicators of a highly successful 2025 school year include:

• Inspirational and innovative leadership and teaching taking place in every classroom and every learning space every school day since the beginning of this school year.
• Motivated and engaged students trying very hard every single day to STRIVE and achieve their learning goals and to live and breathe our school’s values of honesty, kindness, respect, fairness, friendship, and responsibility.
• Achieving some of the Targets from our school’s 2021 – 2025 school plan.

Some of this term’s highlights include the following:

• Meet The Teacher program
• Three-Way Conferences (next week)
• Harmony House program
• Gold Badge Assemblies
• Harmony Day program

But, of course, the major highlight this term has been the excellent teaching and learning that have taken place in every classroom every minute of every school day because that is the Auburn North way.

“EVERY DAY AT AUBURN NORTH IS HARMONY DAY”

While my colleagues and I believe “Every Day at Auburn North is Harmony Day”, it is important to celebrate Harmony Day one particular day each year.

Our 2025 Harmony Day program last week was a great success. The program included:

• Students participating in activities based on 'Harmony Day'.

• Each class producing a display. All displays had a theme that was chosen by the class. Themes included ‘Everyone Belongs’, ‘Diversity is Our Strength’, ‘Variety is the Spice of Life’, ‘Diversity Helps Us Bloom’ and ‘We Thrive Together in Harmony’.

• Harmony Day awards being presented during Tuesday and Friday morning assemblies.
• Student leaders presenting a Harmony Day address during the morning assembly.
• Many students and staff wearing cultural clothing or orange clothing on the day.
• Many parents visiting the hall to view the Harmony Day class displays.
• Parents attending Mrs Ashfaq's ‘Parent Harmony Café’.

OUR SCHOOL VALUES

Our six school values underpin everything we do and say at Auburn North. They are one of the main reasons why Auburn North is such a harmonious and happy school environment for our students, staff and parents.

Explicit teaching has always been a focus at Auburn North because children are able to successfully complete tasks if they receive direct instruction from their expert teachers.

Clear explanations are also a focus in our school. We need to ensure our students understand important words and phrases.

This is the case with our values. Each week we focus on just one value. Up until this year, we would discuss the value during our morning assemblies and classes would discuss them in their classrooms.

Mrs Mehr, our assistant principal, believed we could improve this process so all Auburn North students developed a clearer understanding of what each value meant.

Mrs Mehr developed two short statements to describe each value. This year the values and these statements have been discussed with students during morning assemblies.

You may like to discuss the values and the statements with your children.

VALUES and STATEMENTS

Kindness

• Choosing to do something helpful or positive towards someone.
• Creating a warm feeling in your heart or the heart of someone else.

Friendship

• Including peers inside and outside of the classroom.
• Being kind in the way we speak and act towards others.

Fairness

• Considering other people’s feelings when making choices.
• Making decisions with a clear mindset.

Honesty

• Being truthful in the way we speak and act.
• Matching what we see with what we say.

Respect

• Treating others in the way they would like to be treated.
• Treating others in the way you would like to be treated.

Responsibility

• Taking accountability for your words.
• Taking accountability for your actions.

AUBURN NORTH’S 2025 PARENT’S and CITIZEN’S (P&C) ASSOCIATION – EXECUTIVE

We recently held our first 2025 Parents and Citizens (P&C) Association meeting. I would like to congratulate the following parents on being elected to be members of the 2025 P&C executive team.

Nes Apaydin        President

Lara Barazi          Secretary

Vanessa Smith    Treasurer

FAREWELL and BEST WISHES Ms HAMM

Unfortunately, next Friday is Ms Hamm’s final day at Auburn North. Ms Hamm has decided to leave Australia to move to England to live with her family.

Ms Hamm started teaching at Auburn North in 2017. Since then, Ms Hamm has been a classroom teacher, a grade leader and a vital member of our school’s executive leadership team as the supervisor (facilitator) of Stage 3.

In each role, Ms Hamm has used her excellent teaching and curriculum knowledge and skills, her exemplary personal and interpersonal skills, and her strategic planning skills to have a profound positive impact on our students, staff and parents.

For the past eight years Ms Hamm has been such an important member of our Auburn North FAMILY and we will all miss her.

We thank Ms Hamm for everything she has done for all members of our school community and we wish Ms Hamm all the very best in her future career.

FAREWELL and BEST WISHES Ms CASEY

Next Friday is also the last day Ms Casey teaches at Auburn North before she moves to Western Australia. 

Ms Casey started teaching at Auburn North at the end of last year. She has taught all K-6 grades and most of our K-6 classes. 

Ms Casey is a very talented teacher who has been able to develop mutually respectful relationships with students and staff.  

Ms Casey has used her positive, happy and engaging personality to assist students achieve high-quality outcomes. 

We wish Ms Casey all the best in her future career. 

HAPPY HOLIDAY!!

This term has been an exciting, productive, and successful term but it’s just about time to enjoy a two-week holiday, which starts next Friday afternoon. I would like to thank our Auburn North office team, our leaders, our teachers, and Mr Frank, Mr Ray, and Johnny for their commitment to the wellbeing and learning of our students.

THANK YOU ANPS STAFF TEAM.

I would like to thank our parents for their support this term and I would like to congratulate our students on their commitment to always doing their best and wanting to achieve excellence in each of their school pursuits.

I hope all members of the Auburn North FAMILY enjoy a happy and safe holiday and we look forward to all students returning to school on Wednesday 30th April.

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CLASS REPORTS 

For your reading pleasure, please find in this newsletter class reports from 4P and 6I. I would like to thank and congratulate 4P and 6I students and their teachers, Mrs Porter and Mrs Irrgang.

Mark Harris

Principal

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4P students have truly had a magnificent start to the 2025 school year and every student has already made individualised progress in all areas of their learning. I am extremely proud of their continual effort to achieve their very best. This really is the year to thrive.

Literacy

In literacy, 4P has been learning to craft a book report. This process cohesively links our reading and writing lessons. In reading, students are learning to identify the language and visual features of a text, whilst also learning to make connections, read fluently and answer comprehension questions.

For writing, students are engaging in the process of summarising the plot, analysing the key characters, sharing personal opinions of the text, and concluding with a recommendation. All students have successfully written three book reports this term.

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Numeracy

4P has been busy developing their maths skills through a range of engaging lessons and activities, including hands-on learning tasks and problem-solving challenges. 4P students are building their confidence in maths and becoming skilled mathematicians.

This week, we have been exploring length by measuring objects and distances using rulers, tape measures and the class favourite, trundle wheels.

The additional process of estimating, measuring, comparing and ordering lengths has enhanced students’ understanding of measurement and created opportunities to think critically.

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ANCLIC

4P has been making fortnightly visits to the library to borrow a variety of texts to enhance their literacy skills. These visits not only foster a love of reading but also help 4P students develop their comprehension and vocabulary skills. By engaging with diverse texts, 4P students have been expanding their knowledge and deepening their appreciation for literature. Our visits are making reading an enjoyable and essential part of our learning journey.

What an incredible start to Year 6 we have all had. We have started our journey to ensure we thrive in 2025. Some of our highlights include learning together as a class, helping one another, respecting our school and class agreements, completing a class Harmony Day artwork, PSSA and delving into high-quality texts in Literacy groups. We have also been learning about how Australia became a Nation, how we can be safe online, and all about the elements of dance.

Literacy

This term, in our literacy groups, we have been writing narratives. We have further developed our skills in using figurative language, including personification and metaphors, to enhance the quality of our writing. We are looking forward to sharing our narratives with our families during conferences later this term.

In our groups, we have all been extending our vocabulary through engaging spelling  programs, as well as focusing on vocabulary after the initial read of a new text each week. Some of these texts are ‘The Little Big Book of Happy Sadness’ and ‘Cyclone’.

During our reading lessons, we have enhanced our reading fluency, analysed the author’s purpose for writing the text, provided evidence when discussing themes in a text and demonstrated the ability to sequence events in chronological order.

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Numeracy

At the beginning of the term, the students of 6I completed assessments in four areas of numeracy including representing numbers, additive relations, multiplicative relations and representing fractions.  The data from these assessments was used to strategically implement maths mentals at the beginning of numeracy lessons. We are looking forward to completing these assessments in the next couple of weeks to see how we have grown in our learning this term. We are even more excited about sharing our growth with our families.

In addition, the students of 6I have actively participated in all numeracy lessons, with fractions being a highlight for all students. The students reflected on these lessons and used words such as 'fun' and 'engaging'. Some students stated that they felt more confident when completing independent learning activities.

The students and I are looking forward to a year where we see everyone thrive, further develop into active learners, and continue with our mindset of reaching for the stars.

Mrs Irrgang