Principal's Report
Principal: Brendan Millar
In this week’s newsletter:
News and Appreciations
- Meet the Teacher
- School Funding and Voluntary Contribution
P&F Second Hand Uniform Stall Volunteers
Coming Up
- Swim Carnival Years 4-6 Qualifiers tomorrow
- Assembly Tomorrow
- TheirCare Program
- School Council Information Update
Repeated Messages
News and Appreciations
Meet the Teacher Parent/Carer Information Sharing Forums
It has been great to see our yard busy after school as many parents and carers take the opportunity to meet face to face with their child’s class teachers from Monday to Wednesday this week. The option for parents and carers to have this early meet and greet onsite or remotely hopefully meets the needs of all families. We urge every family to avail themselves to this opportunity, as the importance of building relationships with the key adults in your children’s life is hard to overstate. Early positive interactions are a great way to start the school year. Meet the Teacher afternoons will continue for an hour after school from Monday to Wednesday next week as well, so there are still opportunities for every family to log on via the pinned Compass post.
School Funding
I have been somewhat surprised to see that our two city newspapers have strongly endorsed the Education Union and industry federations’ demands for our State Government to walk the walk on school funding. That sort of shared view is historically unusual.
In essence, every government school student in Victoria is now less well resourced than any other government school student across the country in terms of per-student funding. The irony is difficult to fathom, given that the State ALP Government fought successive federal governments for over a decade to address this issue. When an agreement was finally reached over a year ago, Victoria was the only state yet to fully commit the funding required to meet that agreement.
This parlous situation is compounded by the State Government’s failure to keep pace with industry standards for staff wages. Again, Victoria sits at the bottom of the table in this regard. As “The Education State” - a state that annually tops the table in NAPLAN results - the sense of disappointment is strongly felt. Industrial action now appears to be an unfortunate but likely consequence of the current situation.
Family Voluntary Contributions
In light of the above, I encourage families to pay the voluntary contributions when they are posted to Compass next week.
While the principle of a “free education” remains a right, the politicisation of parent contributions has had a significant impact on government schools. Prior to a strong crackdown on the use of terms such as “fees” rather than “contributions”, FWPS received parent payments from approximately 95% of families. This figure now typically sits between 65% and 70%.
Although we have worked hard to keep contributions low and ensure value for money, receiving approximately 25% less revenue has a very real effect on our ability to provide the quality and range of resources we believe are necessary. In recent years, we have introduced programs such as Spelling Mastery, the Explicit Maths Program, and Inform and Empower. Each of these programs carries a per-student cost. When family contributions are not received, we must find funding elsewhere.
As I write this, I am very conscious that a number of families are experiencing financial hardship. Contributions may be made as a part payment rather than in full. If you are in a position to do so, please support the school by contributing to the best of your capacity.
P&F Second Hand Uniform Stall Volunteers
Appreciations to Bec Gregg and Eleni Kakoulidou for running our first second hand uniform stall for the year after school today.
Coming Up
Year 4 - 6 Swim Carnival will be held tomorrow
A team of approximately 30 students from years 4, 5 and 6 who qualified at last week’s swim trials at Vic Uni will journey tomorrow to the Maribyrnong Aquatic Centre along with teachers Marco Pitisano and Mikala Connor. They will be competing against students representing the schools in our Footscray Sports District. We wish the students the very best and will look forward to hearing about it during our assembly.
Friday Assembly
Our first assembly proved to be an exciting opportunity to showcase the marvellous new presentation space that the Eagle gymnasium provides for us all. I was particularly chuffed by the use of the 2 large video screens which were utilised by the students in 6MT, who provided a marvellous first assembly item for the year and bravely embraced the opportunity to use video in a clever presentation.
TheirCare program relocation
Bit by bit the TheirCare team are moving their goods and chattels to Emu Corner this week. The relocation of the actual program will now take place next week.
School Council Information Update
Thank you to current members; School Council President, Andrew Newman, Treasurer, Alison Thistlethwaite and Vice President, Paul Gregg, along with general member, Kate Riley who all renominated for positions on our 2026 School Council. Welcome to new parent member, Natalie Cassar (Heath Buck in 1JL) who will join our new Council this year. We are in the process of filling the staff position vacated, with Joanne Inness moving onto her new role. I am pleased to declare that parent positions have been filled and there will be no requirement for an election, or further advertisement for additional candidates. Protocol requires the ‘old’ Council to attend for the first meeting of the year - this final meeting will be held online Monday week, prior to the ‘new’ Council meeting, in person later in term. School Councils are required to meet annually 8 times during the school year and we manage this by holding the first meeting each term online and the second meeting in person. By scheduling the Communications and Policy (ComPol) sub committee immediately before the Council meeting we have been able to reduce the number of dates that Council members need to attend. The other sub committees are Finance, membership made up by the Council Executive that meets during school hours and the Facilities subcommittee which meets online on the Wednesday prior to Council meeting.
Best regards,
Brendan
Repeated Messages
Inform and Empower Cyber Safety Program
Photographing, Filming and Recording Students
Our annual reminder that if you wish to adjust your current level of permission for photographing, filming or recording of your child to contact the office. Please see the Policy page on our school website for more information:
https://www.fwps.vic.edu.au/page/222/Policies-and-Child-Safe-Standards
Annual Privacy Reminder
Our school collects and uses student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ privacy policy and the Schools’ privacy collection notice.
Our Photographing, Filming and Recording Students policy, available on the Policies page on our website: https://www.fwps.vic.edu.au/page/222/Policies-and-Child-Safe-Standards, describes how we collect and use photographs, video and recordings of students. The policy also explains when parent consent is required and how it can be provided and withdrawn.
We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use the Google Suite (G Suite Information for Parents & Guardians) safely at the school and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns regarding your child using Microsoft 365/Google Workspace for Education, please contact the school.
For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ privacy policy: information for parents. This information is also available in eleven community languages: Amharic, Arabic, Chinese, Dari, Gujarati, Mandarin, Somali, Sudanese, Turkish, Urdu and Vietnamese.
Camps, Sports and Excursion Fund Applications for Families
Please also make sure you look at the flyer in the newsletter regarding Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund applications for 2026. Applications close in June and are a great help for families.