Dear Parents and Guardians,

Assalamu Alaykum Wr. Wb.

Welcome Back!

I would like to welcome you all to our first newsletter for 2022. I am looking forward to an exciting year ahead.

Alhamdullilah, we’ve had a wonderful start to the year so far. It has been great to see our students’ smiling faces during the first few weeks of school, especially after the turbulent year they had last year due to the constant lockdowns. Despite some apprehensions, setbacks, and struggles to get the school ready for the start of 2022, I can confidently say that the term has begun on a positive note. Students have displayed enthusiasm inside and outside of the classroom and are enjoying on site learning once again.

A very big welcome to all our new students across all year levels, and their families. I hope your time at our Campus will be a positive and enjoyable experience. I hope everyone has a wonderful year, and I look forward to working with you all at different stages throughout 2022.

As always, we use the first couple of weeks to build relationships and set expectations and routines. There has been plenty of evidence of this happening in all classrooms across the school. This is very important as it sets us up for a successful year. It provides comfort for students; they develop relationships with the people they interact with and gain a sense of belonging and self-confidence. Not only is this an important aspect for school, but it is just as important for the home enviornment. Establishing expectations and routines may take some effort to create at home, however once set up, they include endless benefits such as feeling more organised and in control to help your family get through daily tasks more efficiently.

My focus for this year is to continue establishing and delivering an exclusive and innovative educational approach. This will provide our students with the means to achieve the best outcomes throughout their curriculum. Our aim is to ensure every student receives an engaging, stimulating and high-quality education from our highly professional and committed staff. This aligns with the vision of the Academy “to have graduates who are well prepared and self-motivated to advance Australia and to participate effectively as world citizens with Muslim Values”. We will achieve this by setting high expectations for all, starting with myself and extending to the leaders of the school, our teachers and students.

AIA-CSSC

Last year, we endeavoured on a journey to separate the Primary and Secondary Campuses due to space limitations and a high number of enrolments. We applied for accreditation to become a Senior Campus that offers both the VCE and IB programs. With the will of Allah (swt), we were successful in both applications, becoming a Senior campus catering to Years 6-12 and also receiving accreditation to offer our students the choice of either studying VCE or IB in Years 11 and 12. Our Campus is now known as AIA Caroline Springs Senior Campus (AIA – CSSC).

Thank you to everyone who helped with the mammoth task of separating the two Campuses, as well as the successful achievement of the IB accreditation. In addition to this, a big note of appreciation to our professional staff for the time and effort they have dedicated to ensure everything was ready for the new school year. It was an extremely smooth transition, and we are fortunate to have such a wonderful team.

Information Night 2022

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all parents and students that took time out of their busy schedules to attend the Information Night session via Zoom. I hope it was informative and that we were able to give you an insight into the year ahead, as well as answer all your queries. I cannot stress enough how important it is to have your continuous support and attendance in all planned school events. Being involved in your child’s school events allows them to develop a sense of pride and makes them feel valued. I’d also like to acknowledge and thank our presenter Ashane from Elevate Education for the impactful information he delivered on the importance of parental support and guidance to their children. The tips, resources and strategies that he provided during his presentation will no doubt help you and your children achieve great outcomes and success.

School Improvement & Innovative Projects

We have many new innovative projects and school improvements taking place in our school. Last year, we purchased a robot which our students have started programming and this year, we intend to explore this project further by allowing more students to work with the robot and come up with new programs for it. We also introduced Virtual Reality into various subject areas of the curriculum. More subjects will be using this technology to explore their subject content and make learning more interactive and enjoyable.

The Esports club was successfully established last year and continues running this year.

We intend to give our year 9 students the chance to experience real life learning through ‘The City Experience’, a program we are hoping to join this year.

The new portables which consist of 2 classrooms and a wudu area were completed last year and are currently in use. Our students enjoyed the facilities last year and will continue using them this year.

We have finally transposed the home economics room so that it is facing our new sports oval. Work on both projects will be completed by the end of next week and will be ready for our students to use and enjoy.

These are all the exciting new initiatives and improvements for our students that will provide not only a positive learning enviornment but also a place to achieve and enjoy during their learning journey at AIA-CSSC.

Year 12 Graduates 2021

Congratulations to Aycha El Haouli- SCHOOL DUX for 2021, and the year 12 cohort for graduating from our Caroline Springs Senior Campus. We are so proud of their achievements, especially as they all managed to successfully complete their VCE. They all received first round tertiary offers, and we wish them continuous success in all their future endeavours.

Distribution of Rapid Antigen Tests to Staff & Students

We received Rapid Antigen test kits from the Government to issue to our staff and students. Each student has been issued with 2 kits of (5 tests) to take home.

Testing twice-a-week is strongly recommended for both staff and students at home; results only need to be reported if it is COVID-positive. A COVID-positive result must be reported to:

• The school via email or by phone; this is so the school can provide necessary support, record absence while in 7-day isolation, and let the rest of the school community know there has been a positive case onsite, and that they should monitor for any symptoms.
• The Department of Health via the COVID-19 Positive Rapid Antigen Test Self-Reporting Form or their call centre on 1800 675 398.

Students needing to isolate will be able to access their day-to-day tasks through their AIA Compass Portals. As required, staff will add tasks for independent home learning, as it is not practical to provide both onsite and home learning concurrently.

Welcome to our New Staff

At AIA-Caroline Springs, we are delighted to welcome the following new staff members joining our growing team of dedicated Teachers at our Senior Campus:

Mr. Anthony Zarka- Mathematics, Design & IT

Ms. Aisha Patel- Physical and Health Education & Science

Ms. Sumaiah Al Shakhshir- Psychology, English & Arabic

Ms. Rabia Sonvadi- Administration office

Ms. Rouba Alameddin- School nurse

2022 Staff responsibilities and contacts as listed:

Campus staff can be contacted via email: csc@aia.vic.edu.au or phone 8372 5446.

Important Calendar Reminders for Term 1, 2022

Ali Harba
Head of Campus