Principal's Report

NAPLAN

Congratulations to all our Year 3 and 5 students for their efforts in completing NAPLAN during the past week. Our Year 5 students completed all of their assessments last week, with Year 3 due to finish their testing tomorrow (Wednesday). 

There has been a lot of news and publicity about the NAPLAN server technical issues that affected all schools on the first day of testing last Wednesday. 

At FPS, our Year 5 students attempted to complete the online writing test at 9.30am on Wednesday morning, then the system crashed. Our students and staff were incredibly calm and patient at this time, recognising that sometimes we have to overcome barriers by waiting. After recess, the technical issues had been resolved and students were able to complete the writing test that morning. This meant that we have been able to maintain our testing schedule. 

Thank you to everyone involved in overcoming this challenge in such a positive way.

Parking Around the School

There appears to have been an increase in the number of cars being parked illegally around the school. Parking restrictions are in place for everyone’s safety. Please see an email below that I received from a family that cycles to school.

There are a number of cars double parking along Langridge St and also waiting in the No Standing zone, as well as parking in the No Parking zone, at pickup time. We are a bike family and this is incredibly dangerous as it's hard to see around the double parked cars. When pulling out to go past, we have nearly been hit by oncoming cars on more than one occasion. 

There has been an increase in the presence of parking inspectors, particularly on Langridge St, as the local council is aware of this issue. 

The safety of our community is everyone’s responsibility. We encourage families to walk and ride where possible. I recognise that this isn’t practical for all families, so I ask that when driving to school, park in a manner that ensures our surrounding streets are safe.

Stop-Work Action – 24 March

You may be aware that Victorian public teachers represented by the Australian Education Union (AEU), are planning a statewide 24-hour strike on Tuesday 24 March 2026.

Keep an eye out in Compass for updates in relation to this.

School Council Nominees

Earlier this month the school announced that we have six vacancies for school council. We received six nominees for these positions, meaning that there was no requirement to go to a ballot.

We thank the following parents for their nominations and election to school council:

• Alistair Chapman
• Rebecca Collins
• Renee Dislakis
• Shae Hunter
• Emily Novatsis
• Patricia Stanton

At our March school council meeting, we will determine office bearers. We will use our next newsletter to provide you with a full list of our new school council, including an acknowledgement to departing councillors.

Dogs on School Grounds 

Thanks to all the families who have tethered their canine friends to the school fences at pick-up and drop-off times – we appreciate your support of our new signage. 

We are hopeful that the non‑FPS visitors who use the school yard on weekends/beyond school hours will also take note of the signs and leave their dogs at home rather than treating the space as an off‑leash area.

Regional Swimming Carnival

This week, 13 FPS students are heading off to WaterMarc to compete in the regional swimming carnival. Congratulations to the swimmers who made it through district, division competition – and now regionals.

We wish our swimmers the best of luck at this next round of competition.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Paul Wallace

Principal