It’s only two weeks into the school year - and it seems a bit like the holidays never happened!

We’ve already had our Grade 4-6 Swimming Carnival - with the students heading to Fitzroy Pool on Thursday in perfect weather for what was a wonderful morning. Congratulations to all the students for their efforts in the pool - I felt exhausted just watching them! A huge thank you to our PE teacher Ben who worked tirelessly to organise the event - and to all the teachers who made the event run so smoothly. It was also great to have so many members of the community in attendance, both in a volunteer capacity and as spectators. No doubt we’ll be sending a large contingent of swimmers to represent FNPS at the district level later this month. Best of luck to all our district swimmers!

Preps and buddies

It’s been lovely watching the Preps settle in at Fitzroy North over the last couple of weeks, with the support of the Grade 6 buddies. The Grade 6s have shown impressive leadership skills, supporting their buddies in the playground and classrooms. A number of times I’ve seen a Grade 6 student walking around with their buddy and helping therm to join in games with other Prep students. I chatted with some of the Preps and their buddies while they were doing an activity together on The Block to find out how it was going:

Ruby (6BM): “Being a buddy involves listening a lot, you really have to focus on what the younger kids are saying. I enjoy being a buddy because Indigo is lots of fun and she’s taught me new things, like how to help look after another person. I’ve been playing with her at lunchtime, looking after her and doing activities in the classroom, like teaching her about our school values of kindness, resilience and respect. Indigo told me that she was learning how to count and all the different numbers, and how to be a part of the school community.”

Indigo (PZP): “I like having Ruby as my buddy. Also, I like the monkey bars and the playground. So much! That’s the best thing about school.”

Olivia (6TR): “Poppy is my buddy. We’ve done lots of drawing together in the classrooms and I’ve also spent time with her in the playground and helped her make friends.”

Poppy (Prep): “My buddy is Olivia. I like when she comes to my classrooms sometimes and we make things together.”

Around the Classrooms

As I’ve said before, as a parent it’s sometimes tricky to know exactly what our kids have been up to at school… some of them love to talk about the school day when they get home, while others don’t give you so much.

In light of this, I spoke to some of the kids across the school to find out what they’ve been up to so far this year. A more formal summary of what each year level will be focusing on in the classroom this term will be sent to families very shortly.

Matthew (5SE): “So far this year, I like doing maths. We wrote in binary numbers. You can only write in 1s and 0s. Kathleen told this joke to us: there are only 10 different types of people on Earth, those who know binary and those who don’t.”

Nat (5SE) “It was kind of hard at the start of the year because we were still in holiday mode, but it’s a lot easier now. In the first week we got to choose who to sit next to and I sat next to Matthew.”

Otis (5SE): “Learning is fun this year. I like writing because we’re doing free writing and we can work with a partner. I’m working with Louis. It will involve a superhero bunny rabbit, we think.”

Ruby (Grade 4, 34ST): “It’s fun being in a 3/4 class. When you have the just the same grade level you usually know everyone - but now you can meet more people. I’ve met Izzy!”

Izzy (Grade 3, 34ST): “We actually met in the last session, we were doing Writers’ Workshop and we sat together. Ruby was doing a comic and I’m doing an information report. My information report is about the different types of leopards. In Writers’ Workshop we pick our own theme, like an information report, narrative or comic and at the end of the term all the 3/4s will come together and share.”

Ruby (Grade 4, 34ST): continued… “I’m writing a silly comic, with characters named after food, including Mr. Egg! I’ve enjoyed all the writing I’ve done this year; I love writing stories. When I have free time, I just write!”

Izzy (Grade 3, 34ST): continued… “I really like that we have done lots of learning, but also had lots of fun so far this year. Like we’re doing a division activity in maths, and then we’ll pause and do a quick maths game, and then return to the activity.”

Matilda (Grade 2, 12MC)...“This year I’ve really liked making new friends. I’ve made friends with Halliday. I really like doing art; we did portraits of ourselves using paints. We started by drawing and then we painted on top, colouring it in.

Rufus (Grade 1, 12MC)...“I like being in a 1/2 class. I like having Maddi as a teacher because she sometimes let’s us choose what we do. So far this year I’ve made friends with Jude. I like that I can choose different things to do at recess and lunchtime; I’ve pretty much been playing in the sandpit.”

Lost Property

Only 2 weeks in and we’ve already accumulated a whole rack of lost property!

I would strongly encourage you to label you children’s clothes - particularly their jackets / jumpers and hats, which are the most likely items to come off during the day. Fabric marker does the trick - or of course iron-on or sewed-on labels for the more crafty among us.

In the meantime, encourage your child to look at the lost property rack if they have lost something… most items end up there. It’s located between the entrance to hall and the toilets in the junior building. Periodically, lost property items are donated to charities if they are unclaimed for an extended period of time.

Quick Build Update

We can reassure you that the build is still progressing, and we’re on track to have the senior students in the renovated space by mid-year. Recently, staff have been providing input into the furniture order for the new classrooms, which is very exciting. Be on the lookout for the new windows that are being installed soon.

Welcome Picnic next Friday

A reminder that the Welcome Picnic is on next Friday. All members of the school community and invited. The Block will be open from 3.30pm for those who want to arrive straight after school, with the picnic formally beginning at 4.30pm. Check out the flyer from the Community Engagement subcommittee in this newsletter. We look forward to seeing lots of families there!

All the best

Toby