Dear Parents,

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

2023 Has Been Our Best-Every Year

What a year 2023 has been at Auburn North Public School!

This week all Auburn North staff and students have been celebrating their many 2023 outstanding achievements. This morning’s K-2 assembly and this 3-6 assembly are part of our school-wide celebrations.

Thanks to Ms Hamm, our school saying this year has been:

“At Auburn North we never rest,

So let’s make 2023 better than the best.”

From the beginning of this year all members of our Auburn North family were determined to make 2023 better than the best and planned to make 2023 better than the best.

 In the 24 years I have been at Auburn North, I believe this year has been our best in areas such as:

• Leadership
• Teaching
• Learning
• Student and Staff Wellbeing.
• Parent Involvement and Participation.
• School Climate and Cohesion.
• School Performance.

I’m very pleased that a range of evidence supports my opinion that 2023 has indeed been better than the best.

Our student learning results have been the best we have ever achieved:

1. Our K-6 students have demonstrated great progress in all areas of their learning.
2. In the state’s ‘Check-In Assessments’ our school outperformed Similar schools and All schools.
3. In NAPLAN, from the more than 1.600 primary schools in NSW, our school was in the TOP 1% of all schools of all NSW schools in terms of learning growth from Year 3 to Year 5. This is a truly extraordinary result.

This year’s exemplary student wellbeing programs and practices have resulted in a record number of students receiving our student wellbeing awards. These include:

• All students were presented with at least one principal’s award during our morning assemblies.
• 613 students or, 95% of students, were presented with their gold badges by their very proud parents. This is the highest number and percentage since this program was introduced 24 years ago. These students received awards at the end of each term, and K-2 and 3-6 gold badge students went to the movies this week.
• This year, 122 students received at least 60 of our school’s values-based commendations. This is a school record. Last week, these students enjoyed a special principals morning tea or afternoon tea with their proud families and teachers.

This year, our parent involvement and participation programs have gone from strength to strength. This has led to more parents developing the confidence, knowledge, and skills to be active participants in their school and their children’s learning.

 In the area of parent involvement:

• We developed a different and improved format for our ‘Meet the Teacher Program’. This resulted in more parents participating in the program than ever before.

• More parents than ever before participated in our fabulous ‘Parents as Partners in Learning’ program.

• Our Three-Way Conferences were attended by a record number of parents.

• And more than ever before, teachers have used apps such as ‘sea-saw’ to regularly inform parents of their children’s learning.

Thanks to Mrs Ashfaq, our Harmony House programs have again become overwhelmingly popular with our Auburn North parents and parents from the wider Auburn community. These programs have been in the educational, health, cultural, and recreational areas.

Some other reasons why I believe 2023 has been our school’s most successful year are:

• We moved ever closer to realising our school’s 2021 – 2025 Vision, Mission, and Targets.
• Our very special Community Festival Day, that involved every student performing, was our best-ever.
• Our 7th External School Review and its recommendations provided us with clear directions for future improvement in the areas of leadership and maths.
• We were selected to receive two Secretary’s Awards. One was the School Achievement Award for ‘Assisting all teacher's become their very best. The second was the Secretary’s Initiative Award for our ‘Developing the Mathematician Project’.

• Our school was selected as the Winner of the ‘Susan Ryan Family Engagement Award’. This is an annual, Australia-wide award.
• Our students performed in two festivals this year. They were the ‘The Pulse Alive Dance Festival’ at the Ken Rosewell Arena and the ‘Arts Alive Choral Festival’ at the Opera House.
• Our Incursions & Excursions program was bigger than ever, with each event providing our students with unique learning experiences.
• We had more fun, Mufti Days than ever before. They included our ‘Denim Day’, our ‘Crazy Hair and Sock Day’, our ‘Colourful Clothes Day’, and the ‘Matildas Green and Gold Day’.
• Our K-6 sports program was bigger and better than ever before. The program included our school-based program, our PSSA program, and our ‘Cross Country Carnival - Running, Reading & Picnic Day program.’

Our year of outstanding successes in these areas are the result of the way in which all members of our multi-award-winning Auburn North Public School Learning Community have worked together tirelessly and in perfect harmony.

Each one of our students deserves to be congratulated on a year of hard work, a year of always doing their very best, and a year where they were always kind and respectful.

Congratulation girls and boys.

I would like to thank and congratulate our parents for being such delightful people who always support our school and who have worked so hard this year for their children. The way in which our parents are raising their children is a model for parents in other schools.

Thank you and congratulations Parents.

SEMESTER 2 REPORTS – A ‘CELEBRATION OF SUCCESS’

Semester 2 student reports went home yesterday. I read and signed each of the 640 reports and each one is a ‘CELEBRATION OF SUCCESS’. The reports reflect your children’s progress over the past six months and demonstrate how effectively and successfully our students, teachers, and parents have worked together collaboratively and cooperatively all year to facilitate student success. Congratulations girls and boys.

I hope you sat down with your children yesterday to join in their celebration.

EXCITING STAFF NEWS

I am very pleased to share with you the following exciting news:

Mrs Simon recently gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. His name is Lucas.

Mrs McIntyre also gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. His name is Louis.

Mrs Mehr was selected as our school’s new Assistant Principal.

Ms Wilkins was selected as our school’s new permanent teacher.

I know you share with me in congratulating each of these teachers.

THANK YOU all ANPS STAFF

The quality of education that a student experiences in a school is very much dependent on the quality of a school’s leaders and teachers. Auburn North students have been blessed this year to have been nurtured and taught by truly outstanding leaders and teachers.

I would like to thank and congratulate all K-6 classroom teachers and specialist teachers for their commitment to maximising the wellbeing and learning outcomes of our students and for working so very hard this year.

I would also like to thank our teachers for making learning fun and rewarding for our students and for assisting our students love their school and love learning.

Thank you and congratulations, Teachers. You have been an absolute pleasure to work with this year and I wish all of you a relaxing and happy holiday.

I would like to thank and congratulate all members of our leadership team for their inspiring leadership, for their unrelenting pursuit of excellence in everything they have done this year, and for developing their high-performing teams using their exemplary leadership knowledge and skills.

Our leaders have ensured that Auburn North's high expectations have underpinned all 2023 programs and initiatives and the quality of their management and organisation this year has been truly outstanding.

Thank you and congratulations, Leaders.

 Our excellent “Ambassadors of First Impressions” (ie our office administrative officers) have continued to provide the very best service to and support for our students, parents, staff, and visitors, and always with a big smile.

Thank you and congratulations, Ambassadors.

Our two general assistants, Mr Frank and Mr Ray, have worked so well together as one team to ensure our school grounds and equipment were well maintained to facilitate high-quality teaching and learning, and to enable children to play in attractive surroundings.

Thank you, Mr Ray and Mr Frank.

And Johnny, our pedestrian crossing friend, has ensured our students, parents and staff were always able to safely cross Adderley Street.

Thank you, Johnny.

STAFF FAREWELLS

Ms Edwards has been an excellent teacher at Auburn North for five years. Not only has she had a great impact on the learning of our students but, as our sports coordinator, Ms Edwards has very successfully collaboratively led our school sport program and our PSSA program.

Ms Edwards has decided that it is now time to move back to her substantive school where she is Assistant Principal.

I would like to thank Ms Edwards for everything she has done for our students and staff and wish her all the very best in her future career.

Also,we wish Ms Hindmarsh all the best. She will be on leave next year but we hope to see her in 2025.

Mrs Brennan will be taking maternity leave. We wish her all the best.

HAPPY HOLIDAY

After our school’s best-ever year it is now time for students, staff, and parents to enjoy a well-earned holiday. On behalf of my staff, I wish you a safe and peaceful holiday.

Students return to school next year on Thursday 1st February.

Our new 2024 Kindergarten students commence Tuesday 6th February

Mark Harris

Principal