Principal's Message

Dear Parents/Carers,

This has certainly been an unusual start to the school year.

Thank you for your understanding regarding masks and the 1.5 metre distancing requirement.

Our class meetings that we schedule in the first half of the term may need to be moved to the Library if the 1.5m rule remains in place. We will keep you up to date with any advice forwarded to us by the Department.

Staff thoroughly enjoyed catching up with students in our first week. An email sent on the weekend before enabled us to make an initial contact with families in each class. Could I ask that if you didn’t receive an email that you check that the school has your current email contact details? Some emails may have gone to a work email if that is one of your contacts.

Our thanks to the cleaning and gardening staff who worked during the Break to prepare the classrooms and Grounds. 

Grounds and Buildings work.

You will notice that we have had many outside areas repainted and work undertaken on our entrance portico. A small parking area at the entrance on Watkins Street is in progress and rooms 9-12 have now a new partition acoustic wall to allow for rooms to be opened up to provide new teaching possibilities.

Shortly we will be putting in place new desks for rooms 12-8 with the view that all classes will eventually have a range of single and double desks to create interesting learning spaces. This is part of our remodelling of the classrooms on Hope Street.

[If you are interested in one of the tables we will be replacing we will have a supply of them that will be surplus to our needs. Other schools will be offered them initially but there is sure to be at least 40 ranging from PP to year 3 size that we will offer to parents. They will be all in very good condition and will come with a tray. I will let you know what will be available in the coming fortnight.]

Our numbers for the commencement of term are up 23 from last year and we welcome all new and returning families as well as staff back for 2021.

We were successful in obtaining an extension to our Speech Pathologist initiative for this year which the school funds. The school has contributed funding to increase our school psychologist time to one day a week which we will share with Hazel Orme Community Kindergarten. Extra Education Assistant time has also been allocated to the year 1 groups for the early part of the term

Our term planner has two events that I would like to share with you. The first is the celebration of Book Week and a parade to be held in Term 1 as part of our 120th Anniversary activities. The second is the postponed Colour Fun Run last held in 2019 which we will run at the end of the Term.

Reminders

Could we ask parents/Carers to assist us with the following:

• Please check that all items of clothing are clearly labelled. Could this be extended to drink bottles and lunch boxes?
• The School Board endorses hats with a wide brim or those similar to a legionnaire hat with a flap at the back. Baseball type caps are not part of our school dress code.
• Bike riding on the grounds before, during or just after school is discouraged for safety reasons. All students riding to school must have a helmet.
• Any mobile phones must be handed to the teacher during the day for safe keeping and any smart watches need notifications to be switched off or be handed to the teacher for safe keeping.
• Parents are asked to not bring dogs onto the school grounds before, during or just after school. This is a safety precaution for all students.
• For those of you who provide a treat for a class to celebrate a birthday could I ask that in these current times that you buy something already prepared rather than a home cooked treat and where possible consider the traffic light recommendations that our canteen has in place. Thank you for your understanding.
• Our thanks to all of you who have paid the 2021 Voluntary contribution of $60.00. If you have not had the chance to pay as yet could you forward this to the school as funds raised assist with the running of programmes and the provision of resources for some of our Curriculum initiatives?

News from Fremantle College

Fremantle College began the new school year with over 1325 students.

In 2022 the college will grow to include another cohort of students in their Gifted and Talented Selective Academic Program. In response to the Week 1 lockdown the Department of Education has extended the application deadline for current Year 6 students to apply for inclusion in the 2022 intake to Sunday 14 February. Families can access the online application via the following link: https://www.education.wa.edu.au/gifted-and-talented.

The college was excited to begin the year by celebrating the successes of their 2020 Year 12 students who, as the third cohort to graduate from Fremantle College, have achieved the highest Median ATAR. A number of students gained access to the top universities and courses in Australia. They also achieved 99% Year 12 Attainment, which is higher than the DoE mean, as well as improving upon previous WACE achievement figures by more than 11%. These excellent results are a reflection of the students’ hard work and the dedication of the teaching staff. Many of these successful students were graduates of our local schools. 

This term the college will be hosting their popular Specialist Expo, at which they showcase their fantastic Specialist and Academy programs to the community, and enable students to view the opportunities that are available to them at Fremantle College. 

Donation

Our school recently received a kind donation from our local Hilton IGA off Carrington Street. They have been wonderful supporters of our school for many years through their Community Chest program.

Our appreciation goes out to Gino and his staff for the $1500 which will go towards game markings for the playground and other facilities for our students.

Events coming up before our next newsletter include: Elections for Year 6 Councillors and Faction Captains, P&C AGM on Wednesday, 24 February and the Room 1 Assembly.

The school is hosting a Booth for the State Election in March. This will be held in the Wet area of the lower teaching block on Saturday, 13 March.

A Term Planner will be available on our website.