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Alpha News 2023, Term 2, Week 2

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Term 2, Week 2 2023

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From the Principal

Mother’s Day High Tea 2023

Our 9th Annual Mother’s Day High Tea was held at The Sofi Lounge at The Sofitel on Collins at the Paris end of our beautiful city. 

The Mother’s Day High Tea at Alphington Grammar School is one of our showcase events that brings us together to celebrate as one community, and to celebrate Mother’s Day and all that it entails. 

The sell-out event saw 150 guests celebrating Mother’s Day. This year I joined the celebrations as a first time Grandmother of Zoe (10 months) and Jack (8 months). What a wonderful afternoon we all had. We also took the time to remember those mums and special women in our lives who aren’t with us anymore and thank them for all they have contributed to our lives by lighting a candle in their memory. 

High Tea at the Sofitel this year had a slightly different twist to other years. There was no guest speaker and no overarching theme other than “It’s chic to be French” for a day. I thank everyone who attended and for dressing up for the occasion and getting into the spirit of the day.  

We enjoyed some light music throughout the afternoon brought to us by Simran Sood-Saleem, Year 11, and Angelique Athanasopoulos, Year 12, accompanied by our very own Ms Stephanie Atwa – past student and now member of the Music Staff at our school. 

The beautiful photo wall allowed everyone to create their own memories and our photographer was roaming, available to take professional photos. 

We had 3 major raffle prizes drawn and the winners were announced during the event. We would like to congratulate our three winners:

First place: Upeksha Liyanage Dona – Apple Macbook Air

Second Place: Dimitria Katris – Bespoke Portrait Session

Third Place: Angela Pousoulis – Thalassea Crochet Bag

I would also like to take this time to thank our major donors:

  1. Trident Technologies
  2. Piccoli Portraits
  3. Voula Stamatakis – Thalassea

We also allocated many spot prizes including the best dressed, best shoes, longest serving AGS family, grandmother with most children and a prize for the youngest mum.

The afternoon was for us all to sit and enjoy each other’s company: enjoying the music, sharing good food, and sipping some bubbles.  

It would be remiss of me not to mention my Mother’s Day subcommittee who worked tirelessly with full passion, creativity, and energy. Something of this size and magnitude takes many months to pull together and I thank our Marketing and Communications Manager, Miss Adelle Greenbury. She has been assisted by Miss Zoe Zapantis and Mrs Brooke Koutroulis. This event could not have come together without the help of these ladies.

The lead up to Mother’s Day on Sunday 14 May will be celebrated this week with many classroom activities in the Primary School, including a special morning that the Parents and Friends Association have organized and the Annual Mother’s Day Stall. 

From all of us to all of you. Happy Mother’s Day everyone.  

New Business Manager 

We welcome our new Business Manager Mrs Louisa Johnstone who joined us after 15 years at The Methodist Ladies College in Kew. She has a wealth of experience in Administrative, Financial Planning and Asset Management alongside Financial Accountability, Corporate Governance, Risk and Compliance, Facilities and Technology as well as Project Management. Louisa will be working with our current Business Manager Mrs Pippa Birch until Mid July, when she will then retire to spend more quality time with her husband Gavin travelling the world. We will farewell Mrs Pippa Birch closer to her retirement date.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Dr Vivianne Nikou  
Principal
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tracey

From the Assistant Principal, Head of Primary

Welcome back to our second term for 2023. It promises to be a busy one with quite a few events scheduled for students and families in the coming weeks.  

We finished Term 1 on a very happy note with our Primary School Hat parade on the last day of term. A big thank you to children and families who got into the spirit of the day, as well as our staff. A special thanks to Year 11 student Pantelli Saris, who was our Easter Bunny, and Anastasia Mouratidis who was his helper. It was a lot of fun and a lovely way to end the term.

While we do love having lots of things happening for our families, our main purpose at school is education and our teachers are kept very busy in this respect. For this reason, we do need to ask for parent or family help from time to time, otherwise we will not be able to run some events. I encourage all families to read the newsletter and bulletin and to see if there is any way they can assist when we put the call out for helpers. I know we all lead busy lives, but even a ‘once off’ involvement in an event would be very much appreciated. Please look out for communications from me, and from the PFA, as we will be sending out details of various events that require support in upcoming weeks.

We are always excited to hear about the achievements of our students outside of school so please feel free to share these with me, or your child’s teacher. Recently, Year 6 student Charlie Johnson competed in the National Marathon Kayak Championship in Geelong, against children from all states.  He achieved a silver in the K1 (singles), and a gold in the K2 (doubles).  He also took part in a relay doubles race against older children and came fourth. Well done, Charlie…a fabulous effort indeed.

Our Enrichment program continues this term with a new addition. Year 4 teacher, Ms. Zoe Elliott, with be starting the new ‘Walky Talky Club’ each Monday at lunchtime. Students are invited to join in and get fit with a short walk around the local streets with friends and have a chat! Don’t forget we also have Greek Dancing, Martial Arts, Chess, Soccer, Environment, Running and Homework clubs at various times throughout the week as well as sport training for Years 5 and 6 one lunchtime a week.

Wishing all our mothers and grandmothers a very happy celebration on May 14th for Mother’s Day. I hope you feel loved and very much appreciated by your family. 

Mrs Tracey Nicholson 
Assistant Principal, Head of Primary
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Recent Publications

Flowerdale Autumn 2023: Across Generations

The most recent edition of our school magazine, Flowerdale Autumn 2023: Across Generations, is now available for you to read. Featuring stories of and by alumni, current students and staff, as well as community updates, Flowerdale is not a publication to miss! You can read this latest edition by following the link below. Physical copies are available to browse in the school Library or Front Office.

Read Here

From the Secondary School

Secondary Production: Into the Woods

Into the Woods is an entertaining musical that reimagines the world of fairy tales. As the performance dates draw closer, our fantastic production crew and teachers are doing their best to ensure that the audience will fully enjoy the performances. It’s truly amazing to see how much work has been put into the show behind the scenes. We can’t give too much away, or else it would give away the magic of the show, but tickets are available now and selling fast. We recommend booking early to avoid disappointment.

Book Tickets Here

Debating

The Alphington Grammar Debating A Grade Team closely lost out to Ivanhoe Girl’s Grammar School on Thursday night. The team was debating that they do not regret the rise of artificial intelligence with a number of excellent points made by both sides. The team was complimented on their energetic debating style, called “curiously charismatic” by the adjudicator, and the school’s own Adam Patane won best speaker for the night (for the second week in a row – go Adam!). The team covered the ideas that AI would streamline smaller roles in machine-focussed jobs, the benefits of AI in terms of learning, and the idea that human-error needs to be improved before AI itself can be improved. Well done Alphington!

Sports Assembly

The recent sports assembly was a great success, thanks in no small part to the hard work and dedication of our sports captains, Marcus Chatzitrifonos and George Andriotis. These two exceptional students took the lead in organizing and running the assembly, and they did an outstanding job. Marcus and George are both passionate about sports and have been excellent role models for their peers. They have worked tirelessly to promote sports at our school and have been instrumental in organizing events and activities that encourage participation and engagement.

At the assembly, Marcus and George took to the stage and led the proceedings with great enthusiasm and professionalism. They welcomed everyone and set the tone for what turned out to be an inspiring and energizing event. They then introduced the guest speaker, Tess Kirsopp-Cole.

Tess Kirsopp-Cole is an accomplished athlete who has achieved great success in her career. She has competed at the highest levels of her sport and has been recognized for her talent and dedication. Tess’s passion for sports began at a young age, and she has worked hard to achieve her goals ever since.

Tess’s journey in sports has not been without its challenges. She has faced setbacks and obstacles along the way, but she has always remained focused and determined. Her resilience and determination are qualities that we can all learn from.

Tess spoke at our school’s sports assembly, where she shared her story with the students. She spoke about her experiences, the highs and lows of her career, and the lessons she has learned along the way. Tess’s speech was inspiring, and it left everyone feeling motivated and energized.

Currently, Tess is in the US, competing in trials for the World Championships. We wish her the very best of luck and are confident that she will do us proud. Tess’s achievements in sports are a testament to her talent and hard work, and we are grateful to have her as a role model for our students.

At the end of the assembly Marcus and George introduced a new lunchtime activity starting next week. The activity will be Volleyball, and we are excited to offer this new opportunity for our students to get active and have fun during their lunch break.

Secondary Interschool Sports

We are excited to announce that the secondary interschool sports season is officially underway. Our students have been working hard to prepare for their respective sports and we are thrilled to see them represent our school in the upcoming competitions.

As we gear up for the season, we wanted to share some important information with you regarding the fixtures, venues, and ladder for the interschool sports. The EISM website is the best place to access all this information in real time. This website provides up-to-date information about the latest fixtures, venues, results, and ladders for all the different sports in the competition.

Please note our division is Eastern North: https://eism.org/index.php/fixtures/ 

To access this information, simply visit the EISM website and navigate to the relevant sport section. From there, you can view the latest fixtures, including dates, times, and locations of each game. You can also access information about the venues for each game, including directions on how to get there and any other relevant details you may need to know.

In addition to the fixture and venue information, the EISM website also provides live ladders that are updated in real-time. This means you can keep track of your child’s team’s performance throughout the season and see how they stack up against the competition.

We encourage you to visit the EISM website regularly throughout the season to stay informed about the latest news and updates related to interschool sports. We wish all our students the best of luck in their competitions and hope to see a great turnout of parents at the games to support our teams.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Ms Olivia Rahme
Head of Sport, PE & Health P-12
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From the Primary School

From the Library

Real booklovers love bookmarks. These can be fun collectibles but are also essential as they help you keep track of where you are up to. Some common everyday objects you can use for a bookmark include receipts, slips of paper, ribbons or paperclips. There are other strategies, besides bookmarks, people use to remember their page number. For example, writing down or memorizing a page number, leaving a book open face-down or folding down the top corner of a page. Folding corners (also called ‘dog-earing’) is frowned upon as it damages pages and looks messy.

The library has created its own bookmarks which are available to students. These fun and colourful bookmarks have proved to be extremely popular and has saved many a book from tatty corners. Recently, it was decided to give the bookmarks a makeover and have them more student focused. The Primary and Secondary art teachers were approached for student artwork that could be used as images for bookmarks. The results are stunning.

Mrs Angela Mare
Head of Library
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Whole School

From the LOTE Faculty

Greek Library Sessions

The Year 4s and 6s took part in their very first Greek Library session this week, where they explored the Greek sections of the library. Students were excited to see the variety of books available, including books translated from English that they grew up with. Students enjoyed finding books appropriate to their level of Greek, practicing reading and identifying key words that they already know with their friends. The Year 6s particularly enjoyed exploring the older readers’ section, where they discovered many novels of interest (including about some prominent soccer figures). After borrowing a Greek book of interest to them, we then read a Greek book as a class.

It was lovely to see students engaging so well with Greek books! Happy reading to all!

Apodimi Compania visit Alphington Grammar School

What a treat to have much loved local legends and international musicians ‘Apodimi Compania’ at Alphington Grammar School last week! The musicians treated our students to a wonderful performance of regional Greek folk songs. In addition, it was an absolute honour for our Greek Band students to join the band in a number of songs. It didn’t take long to get everyone up and dancing! 

These opportunities to engage with Greek music and dance reinforce and enrich our Greek lessons and give the opportunity to students of both Greek and non-Greek background to experience Greek culture for themselves. We warmly thank the artists for their time and for helping to bring a little bit of Greece to our school. Thank you to Mrs Jenny Iliou for putting us in touch with the band.

We wish them a safe return to Greece and hope to see them again!

Farewell, Kyria Anita!

This week, we bid a temporary farewell to much loved teacher and colleague, Mrs Anita Kolaitis, as she commences her Maternity Leave. We wish Kyria Anita and her husband a happy and exciting chapter ahead, as they become parents for the first time!

Ms Effie Bindevis
Primary Greek Coordinator
Ms Denise Diakodimitriou
Head of LOTE
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Updates

Canteen Menu

For the full Term 2 menu, Click Here.

Upcoming Events

Morning with Mum

Click here to secure your place. 

Art Classes

Sporting Minds

If you’re looking for school holiday programs that will educate, engage and excite your children these upcoming school holidays, look no further than Sporting Minds. Improve your skills, have fun, and make new friends whilst learning from qualified teachers and expert coaches. Get your kids moving and making memories these school holidays.  
Program 1: 12 – 14 April 
Program 2: 19 – 21 April 

All programs are run by Alphington Grammar PE teachers Andrew Diviny and Blair Runnalls.  

To find out more or to book, visit the website: http://www.sportingminds.com.au 

Term Dates 2023

Term Dates 2023

Semester 1 Key Dates - Secondary

Semester 1 Key Dates - Primary

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