Principal's Report

In this week’s newsletter:

Appreciations and News

• Appreciations
• Construction works
• Traffic and road safety reminder
• Punctuality

Coming Up 

• Assembly and first Pupil of the Week Awards
• Prep Newsletter
• Swimming Trials
• Curriculum day next Monday, 10th February (week 3)
• Parent /Carer Information Sharing Forums [grades 1 - 6] (week 3)/ Preps Wednesday, 26th February (week 5)
• Grade 3 Zoo Snooze Camps
• School photo day on Thursday, 20th and Friday 21st of February (week 4)
• Inform and Empower - Raising Kids in a Digital World Cyber Safety (now) online information session on Thursday, 27th February 
• TK Tuckshop food delivery service started yesterday

In Other News

• Hoodie Up for Autism

Reminders

• Curriculum contributions
• Photo and video permission form

Appreciations and News

Appreciations

Visiting classrooms over the last few days, I feel comforted that despite the late holidays challenges with building and repair works, the classrooms look so prepared with the children and staff settling into their new learning spaces.  With so much movement for teachers and their resources, there was much to do. Teaching team members really did put their shoulder to the wheel to set up and we should all appreciate their passion and professionalism. It is also worth noting that our new teachers and classroom based education support staff really have impressed us all. Great people and caring teachers (and support staff). It is a privilege to work with the wonderful team at our school.

Construction works

During the holidays the first duty completed by our building contractor, Bowden Construction was to move the Parents’ Association second hand uniform container from behind the Gecko to a new location at the front of the Bilby building at the front of the school. Pictured is the container on its journey and then a before and after shot (following it being spray painted on the weekend).  Our Parents’ Association have some advanced ideas for a professional mural to be created on the four visible sides of the container.  We will keep you posted.

We met for our fortnightly meeting with members of the construction team today.  The project is within the expected timeframe and we can expect to see demolition of Gecko continuing as the major priority over the next few weeks. The team is experienced in working in primary school settings, so we will continue to manage the competing needs of construction and running our school effectively as our major priority.

Traffic and local road safety

Unfortunately, a downside of returning from holidays can be challenges around the busy start and end of the school day. This year this issue has been exacerbated by the loss of our school car park, no doubt increasing the requirement for local street parking. Please be mindful of these additional challenges and give yourself ample time to ensure you and your children arrive and depart school safely. We have already witnessed too many examples of unsafe and discourteous driver behaviour. An example pictured from last week of a motorist in Blandford Street blocking a neighbour’s street access.  

Punctuality

Now we are back to school we are focussing to start the school day in an organised and calm manner.  Gates open at 8.40am and the reminder music prior to the bell starts at 8.48am.  Once the bell goes at 8.50am we expect students (and teachers) in line and ready to go into class.  

Students arriving after the grade have moved to class, are required to sign in at the office. This is the Department of Education policy, reinforced last year for all government primary schools.  It is an issue of child safety and one that we fully support.  Students must be signed in by their parents or carer, so please ensure that you accompany your child to the office if you are likely to be running late. Failure to do so will result in a call from a member of the office team asking you to comply, prior to your child attending class.

Coming Up

First Friday Assembly

Our first assembly for the year will be held from 2:40pm tomorrow.  At this first assembly we will announce who the 2025 school captains are and hold our first grade assembly presentation showcased by 6MI. Remember that assemblies are held by preference outdoors at the green shade sail and if weather intervenes we will present assembly from the gallery space in Dingo and as a webcast to classrooms. Parents and carers with a vested interest in attending assembly are welcome to attend the indoor assemblies as well.

Prep newsletter 

Thanks to Brooke and the team for preparing a comprehensive specific prep newsletter that will be forwarded on Friday. This will be the first of 2 newsletters reinforcing important information for our newest families.  

Swimming trials

Our annual trials are due to be held tomorrow at Vic Uni Pool.  The team of 48 swimmers from grades 4, 5 and 6 will be transported at the start of the day by coach and accompanied by our PE teacher, Stratos and Troy from the grade 4 team.  The swim team will be formed following the trials and will compete at the Footscray Primary Schools’ Sport District Carnival on Friday of next week (Friday, 14th February) at the MAC.  

Curriculum day

This Monday, 10th February (week 3) there will be no school for students due to the staff curriculum day being held to provide our third professional learning day, as we implement the Berry Street Education Model across the school over a two year roll out. While all staff last year participated in the 2 days of BSEM training, we will ensure that new and returning staff are able to participate in catch up sessions. This may involve your child’s teacher being absent from the classroom over 2 additional days this semester to enable this to happen. TheirCare have over nearly 40 students already registered for this day and as places are limited, please remember to book today.

Parent-Teacher/Carer Information Sharing Forums 

Sharing forums will be held in the afternoon/early evening next week from 12:30 to 6:30pm in an online format for grades 1-6. We appreciate that many families have already made a booking. On Tuesday, forums will be held for parents and carers of students in Years 1, 5, and 6. On Wednesday forums will be held for families of students in Years 2, 3 and 4. The reason for the irregularity comes with the complex nature of use of our limited indoor spaces due to the building works.  For the same reason we will only be able to provide the forums next week in an online format.

An in person opportunity for prep families will be provided during the day on the final Wednesday of February (26th February).   

The relevant post and booking link is pinned on your personal Compass feed and there are booking slots available for all families.

Grade 3 Zoo Snooze camps

The Grade 3 camps will start in week 4 with 3MP (Marco’s class) attending. The remaining Grade 3 Zoo Snooze camps will be held the following week.

School photo day

Please try and avoid student appointments if possible, on Thursday, 20th and Friday, 21st February. Due to the limited spaces for group and individual photography, we have extended the time for taking our class, individual and student representative group photos to 2 days. Photo day(s) is always a complex operation, heightened by our limited access to additional spaces both indoors and out. As noted last week there will not be the capacity to provide sibling photos - this decision will not be revisited. An information flyer included in last week’s newsletter is replicated in today’s newsletter. 

Raising Kids in a Digital World online information session for parents

With the financial support of Inner West Enterprises (the community outreach for the Seddon branch of the Community Bendigo Bank), FWPS is delighted to launch our relationship with Inform and Empower www.informandempower.com.au.  The team at I&E are local educators who experiencing the concerns most of us feel about the ubiquitous nature of the internet and the negative impact it can have on our kids, started an online active education program for primary schools. This is webcast live each term in a series of programs catering for all age groups. We will be starting the program at FWPS from week 4. Thanks to the 58 families who, based only on the link provided in our return to school information post and some flyers that had been placed around the school, had already booked for what had been advertised as an onsite presentation from the I & E team.  This quick uptake has created a nice problem for us!  Remember all we have been sharing about the space challenges during our big build? Well, we have decided that the gallery space is not big enough to meet the interest already shown, so with few alternative venue options and with the agreement of our sponsors and the I&E team, we will switch to an online presentation - same date Thursday, 27th February running from 7:30 to 9:00pm.  The booking link has been changed and families that had already booked have been emailed with the new link. Here it is: bit.ly/FWPSwebinar. I booked my spot this morning and it only took a few seconds. If you have a couple of minutes, presenters Marty and Carley provide a brief video introduction. Digitally presenting their content in an engaging way is a key element of what they do.  

I hope we have a huge influx of our community online on this date.

A flyer with all relevant information and a QR code is included in today’s newsletter and at key locations around the school. Please note that this is an event presented for adults.

Lunch delivery service launched on Wednesday

We had our first successful food delivery yesterday when TK Tuckshop provided lunches for 39 students.  There weren’t too many glitches and the students were excited to be the first to try. Feedback was positive on the quality and presentation of the food. You can check out the information on how to order by checking out the Compass post from December which remains pinned on your feed, or cut out the middle person and download the Spriggy app from your app store, locate Footscray West PS and start ordering. Lunch will be delivered daily by approximately 11:00am and student monitors will deliver directly to classrooms in time for lunch.

In Other News

Hoodie Up for Autism 

Our annual acknowledgement and appreciation for families managing autism will be our Junior School Council first themed casual clothes event and gold coin donation day. It will be held on Wednesday, 2nd April, the final week of term 1.  More information will be shared closer to the day.

Reminders

Curriculum Contributions

A parent/carer payment contribution Compass post was sent to all families on Monday.  There has already been a pleasing response. We really appreciate your support in making this payment for each of your children as soon as possible. Funds received are directed to subsidising the many curriculum costs in managing a school of this size. There is an opportunity to pay by instalments. Please contact the office team if you would like more information or assistance.

Photo and Video permission form 

The Department of Education now requires parents and carers to sign this permission form annually (this used to be a requirement only when students started school or moved to FWPS). If you haven't done this yet, please make this a priority to complete and return to the office (or classroom). We really wish to encourage parents and carers to tick all 3 boxes to enable pictures or videos from class events (incursions, excursions, assemblies, sporting events and camps) and special moments (such as presentations and reports from assembly) to be able to be shown (or linked) in the newsletter and official school Facebook page.

Warm regards,

Brendan`