Principal's Report

Engaging Maths

We all had our favourite subjects at school; lessons that we looked forward to and where time would pass quickly. The steps for any teacher when planning a lesson is to understand where their students are at with their learning, provide lessons that are engaging and that consolidate or build upon the students’ current understandings.

In the Learning Specialist section of this week’s newsletter, you will read about the Maths work that our teachers are involved in, working alongside Hannah Marino from the Mathematical Association of Victoria. This works supports our focus on the four Maths Proficiencies of: 

1. Fluency
2. Problem solving
3. Reasoning
4. Understanding

Find out more about the proficiencies in a newsletter from last year.

Lesson Model for Teaching Maths

This work sees teachers delivering lessons through the Launch, Explore, Summarise model as described below.

Launch

• Pose the main task without instructing students on any solution path.

Explore

• Allow the students to think and interact with peers when responding to the prompt.
• Tasks will include enabling prompts for students who require support, and extending prompts for students who require this.

Summarise

• Sharing of work samples and solutions.

This lesson model heavily incorporates two of the Department’s High Impact Teaching Strategies – Explicit Teaching and Worked Examples.

In the Classroom

Hannah Marino is currently working in Foundation classrooms to develop the skill of subitising (the ability to look at a small set of objects and instantly know how many there are without counting them) using the lessons below. You can read more about these lessons in the Foundation Spotlight section of this newsletter.

Lesson One:

Lesson Two:

Neurodiversity Day

Congratulations to Sadie, one of our Year 6 School Community Leaders who organised last week’s Neurodiversity Day. The school was awash with a range of colours and outfits, including plenty of sequins, sparkles, sporting kits and fun headbands. Students dressed to show their ‘inner you’ – with their outfit describing their personality and what is important to them. Across the classrooms, there were interesting conversations, with students growing an awareness that we are all unique, including in the way we learn. 

Thank you to everyone for supporting this event.

Welcome Laurence

Laurence Barré has officially started as our new French teacher, replacing Emily Lindsay-Smith who is on maternity leave. Welcome Laurence!

Opening of School Gates

There is a slight change to the opening of the school gates at the end of the day. They will now be opened at 3.20pm instead of 3.15pm. The gates will continue to be opened at 8.45am in the morning.

Please note, the gate on the oval is only partially opened to prevent balls going onto the road. Please do not fully open this gate when walking through.

Parent Contributions

Thanks to the many families who have made Parent Contribution payments. If you are still looking to make payment, you can do so via Compass. Details are in your Compass newsfeed, just scroll to the bottom of the page.

To make a payment in Compass:

• In the app: look for "Course Confirmation" at the top of your newsfeed.
• On the web: Click on the grid/cube icon and chose "Course Conformation/Payments".

Mother’s Day / Special Person’s Breakfast

A reminder that we will be hosting our Mother’s Day / Special Person’s Breakfast this Friday. We have changed the time, so that it is less of a rush for families in the morning. The event will run from 8 - 9.30am. 

Families are able to remain on the school yard with their children until 9.30am, with staff supervising.

School Tours

It might be just the start of term two, but places for our school tours for 2025 enrolments are filling up fast. If you know of any families who are interested in enrolling their child in Foundation at FPS next year, please direct them to the Enrolment page of our website. School tour dates and bookings can be made here.

Curriculum Day – 17 May

A reminder that next Friday 17 May, we have our second curriculum day of the year. For staff, this is a professional development day and will be led by our Maths consultant Hannah Marino (mentioned above). TeamKids will run their program on that day. 

Enjoy the rest of your week.

~ Paul Wallace, Principal