Principals` Message

Splashing, diving, floating, swimming have been constants of the last two weeks as the swimming/water safety program has taken place for students in Year 1-6. Our students have had a great time in the pool learning new swimming strokes, as well as improving and refining their existing skills. Being able to swim is so important for everyone who lives in Australia, and it always saddens me to hear of preventable drownings that take place at our beaches, rivers and lakes every summer. Swimming and being in water are also a fun, joyous activity for everyone and helps to nourish our wellbeing. Thank you to staff and families for their support of this program and I encourage families to follow on and continue to have their children have swimming lessons outside of school.

 Next week the NAPLAN (National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy) testing will begin on Wednesday 13th March. These annual assessments take place every year for students in grade 3, 5, 7, and 9, and will assess reading, writing, language conventions/spelling and numeracy. NAPLAN is a good opportunity to take a snapshot of student ability and achievement on that day at that time. 

At school we find the NAPLAN results a useful indicator and use them alongside classroom assessments to make professional judgements on student progress. 

We do want all students to do their best and encourage them to put in their full effort in all assessments. Having a good sleep and eating breakfast before coming to school on the assessment days can help them to focus and be ready for the day. We wish all participating students well and I know they will all try their hardest each day.

The schedule for NAPLAN assessments is:

Democracy was recently in action in our school with the school council ballot for our vacant parent representative position taking place. We were fortunate to have 3 excellent parent candidates and had many families placing their votes in the ballot. 

Congratulations to Mohamed Wairah who was the successful candidate and will join our school council as a parent member for the next two years. Thank you to all our candidates for their nominations and for their interest in contributing to our school through council. 

Another platform for leadership and community voice is through out student leadership roles and junior school council. Over the past few weeks our year 5&6 students have submitted strong applications for student leadership positions and have made some very good arguments for their selection. It has not been easy to choose our new student leaders but the process is almost complete and our new leaders will be announced at the next assembly on Monday 18th March. 

Our junior school council has also gone through a selection process and the student representatives will also be announced at the same assembly. This year we want our junior school council to grow and become more focused on making positive change in our school – becoming a student action team. Our vision is for these students to take on shared projects focused on making improvements and bringing a strong student voice to our school. I look forward to working with our new student leaders across the year to come and seeing what we can achieve together. 

Upcoming Events

As we head towards the Easter holiday break we will move into a very busy time in our school with a number of events taking place in week 8 and 9.

We will be celebrating and acknowledging Harmony Day on Thursday 21st March with activities during the day and inviting students to wear cultural dress or the colour orange. Harmony Day is part of Harmony Week and is the celebration that recognises our diversity and brings together Australians from all different backgrounds. It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. One great strength of Fitzroy Primary School is our diverse community and Harmony Day is a great opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate this together.

Francophone Week will also be taking place in Week 8 from 18-22nd March. This week provides an opportunity for French speakers from around the world to celebrate French language and culture. There will be activities at lunchtime and learning in class during this week to make connections to French language speakers across the world. 

In Week 9 we invite our school community to join our fasting families to celebrate the breaking of fasting at our Iftar dinner on Tuesday 26th March. Many of our families and students who follow the Islamic faith will be fasting during daylight hours for Ramadan and will not eat or drink until sunset. As a community we would like to come together to join this meal and celebrate our diversity. The Iftar meal will begin at sunset (7.20pm) and families who would like to join in are asked to bring a plate to contribute to the communal meal (please bring vegetarian or halal foods). Families can also bring their own picnic dinner (for those who do not wish to share food, e.g. due to concerns regarding virus spread or dietary needs) to enjoy on the night alongside the Iftar meal. 

Please note that this is a non-alcohol event with families welcome to bring non-alcoholic drinks to consume. We are also planning on having a learning expo on the same evening where families can see some of the great learning that has taken place. Further information on this event will come out next week in Compass.

Lastly, on Thursday 14th March our colleagues from Collingwood College will be hosting an information session about their new Secondary School Middle Years Program that has launched this year. The new program is a challenging framework that encourages students to make connections between their studies and the real world. 

The session will start at 3.45pm in our Staff Lounge and all families are invited to attend to learn more about the Secondary School pathways available at Collingwood College. 

-Nathan Moore & Andrea Hennessey