Assistant Principal's

Report

Behind the Scenes Support from Our Wonderful Community

I want to begin this week’s newsletter by acknowledging our community members for the incredible work they do behind the scenes to support our staff and school - which of course helps us collectively support our students’ learning.

On Tuesday afternoon a group of families worked tirelessly with Michael, our librarian, to move, sort and organise books and shelving in the library. Michael told me on Tuesday afternoon that the parents, carers AND students - ‘just got a month’s work done in an hour!’ What an amazing effort! The work on Tuesday has helped us get that much closer to having the library ready to go for student borrowing… we can’t wait!

Also on Friday there was a ‘contact party’ in the multipurpose room. A team of parents and carers worked hard through the morning to contact a set of new decodable readers ready for our young readers. As Tania mentioned last week, we have recently purchased more than 1000 new readers with funds that have been donated by the community to the Library Fund and will replace many of the older texts here at the school. Thanks to everyone who helped out.

This work is in addition to the endless support provided by families: supporting learning in the classrooms, helping out at school events, contributing to fundraising activities and much more. We are truly grateful for all the community members do to help make FNPS the wonderful place it is.

Important Dates Coming Up Soon

We will have our end of term learning celebration on the second last day of Term 1: Wednesday 27th of March. On that Wednesday, from 3pm to 3.45pm, family members are invited to visit our classrooms to explore some of the wonderful learning that’s been happening across the school this term. We look forward to seeing you there! 

There will be a curriculum day on the first day of next term: Monday 15th April. This is a pupil free day, with Their Care available on the day. During this day staff will be continuing to grow their professional knowledge of restorative practices, working alongside experts from Real Schools.

Students will begin Term 2 on Tuesday 16th April.

21 - A Maths Game for the Long Weekend!

During the week I took Amy’s class outside to do some maths in the sunshine. After collecting as many gumnuts as we could in two minutes (some pairs got close to 100!) we began playing the game ‘21’. This is a super fun strategic maths game (a ‘nim’ game) that I’ve played with children as young as Grade 1/2 - and adults much older than that!

Each pair started by counting out 21 gumnuts and putting these in a pile in the middle. To begin, the first player removes one or two gumnuts (and counted these as they went). For example, they took two gumnuts (and counted ‘one, two’). The other player then had the same choice, they picked up one or two gumnuts (again counting as they picked them up). In this example, player two picked up one gumnut (and counted ‘three’). 

Players continue taking turns until someone picks up the twenty-first and final gumnut - and this person loses!

It starts as a simple game, but after a few goes the strategy kicks in. This is a great way to practice counting - and it can also lead into a deep exploration of number patterns and multiples.

A few weeks ago I mentioned the value of being playful with maths when exploring concepts at home with your children - and the power of maths games. You might want to have a go of this game over the long weekend if you’re looking for a few minutes to kill. You can use gumnuts, lego pieces or anything really - or just play by just saying the numbers.

If your child thinks they have worked out the patterns, you can always modify the rules, for example each player can now say 1, 2 or 3 numbers (or even 4). How does this change the game? What patterns do you notice? What if the number is 31 not 21? I’m looking forward to challenging some ‘21’ experts in the yard!

International Women’s Day

Finally, yesterday we celebrated International Women’s Day at school. IWD is an opportunity to reflect on the incredible contributions that women make to the Fitzroy North Primary community every day. It is also a chance to acknowledge our ongoing challenges in working towards a fair society, and our shared responsibility to continue on this road to ensure equitable access to opportunities for everyone, regardless of gender.

I wish you all the best for the long weekend and look forward to seeing you back at school on Tuesday.

Toby