Principal's Report

Book Week Celebrations

Book Week day has the ability to bring the school together in such a unique way. The joint focus of books and dressing up is a recipe for success. Last Tuesday our school hosted a range of mythical, fantastical, original, endearing and inspiring book characters, as our students took great pride in taking on a character from the pages of a book.

In typical FPS style, the day started by checking the weather forecast and crossing our fingers in the hope that we could have an outdoors whole-school parade. The rain just about held off with students and teachers displaying their colourful costumes to the gathering crowds.

After recess, students worked in mixed-aged groups, spending time with new faces, on a range of book activities. There was a lovely atmosphere as I visited classrooms.

Thank you to everyone for getting into the spirit of the day. A special mention to Cathy and Prue for their coordination.

Busking for Change

As if Book Week day wasn’t enough, we were treated to more memorable experiences with last Wednesday’s Busking for Change event. It is wonderful to see the Choir and Concert Band practices come to fruition when they perform in front of an audience. This event, held at the Fig Tree Courtyard at 3.30pm, pulled a large crowd of families.

The performance commenced with the song, ‘Words Make the World Go Round’, sung beautifully in English and Kriol – a First Language. We thank all our generous families for donating to our buskers and supporting the Indigenous Literacy Foundation – we are thrilled to have raised over $1,368, which will be used to support more remote Communities to access books and write, illustrate and publish their own stories in languages of their choice.

Congratulations to our performers and thank you to our Performing Arts teachers, Keri and Olivia, for providing us all with this opportunity.

Staffing Update

We have two new faces to introduce. We recently appointed two new integration aides to our staff; Andres Guerra and Prue Romeo. Welcome to FPS!

Curriculum Day Learnings

On Monday 18 August we held our third curriculum day of the year. We were very fortunate to have four members of the Regional Supports Services present information on supporting students with autism, ADHD and/or anxiety.

It was an incredibly rich day, with staff coming away with new learnings and ideas. Each staff member will have their own ‘takeaways’; I found one video  particularly powerful, with students explaining how their neurodiversity impacts their learning, and how ‘traditional ways of teaching’ can cause a barrier. 

Please take a moment to watch 'Dear Teacher: Heartfelt Advice for Teachers from Students'.

Having the opportunity to unpack the impact of autism, ADHD and anxiety was very powerful, and it allowed us all to consider the adjustments that we already make, and further adjustments that we could consider.

Teachers have a very complex job in trying to meet the diverse learning, social, emotional and behavioural needs in a classroom. I am very grateful for the daily efforts of all of our staff to support all of our students. During a walk through the school you will see students having brain breaks, using fidget toys, sitting on wobble stools, having visual aids, utilising breakout spaces – all to assist with their learning and wellbeing.

This work will be further supported by the Department of Education’s Disability Inclusion. This additional funding will enable our school to employ a Wellbeing and Inclusion Leading Teacher, commencing 2024. More information about Disability Inclusion and this new role will be shared later in the year. 

Yard Redevelopment

Plans for the redevelopment of the school yard continue to progress. The Draft Concept Plan has been shared with the Buildings Grounds Committee, with staff, and with parents at last week’s Principal’s Morning Tea. This feedback will be shared with landscape architects this week.

Once we have a confirmed Draft Concept Plan, this will be submitted to the Victorian School Building Authority for approval.

Trivia Night Fundraiser

We are excited to announce that the 2023 Trivia Night raised a total of $13,971. These funds have been allocated to purchase theatre-style lighting for the Performing Arts room.

The Next Two Weeks

There are some exciting events to look forward to over the next couple of weeks. 

• On Thursday night our Year 1 and 2 students will be performing their concert ‘It’s a New Season’ Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar School.
• Next week our Year 5 students are heading to Anglesea for their three-day camp.
• ART FOR ALL continues to ramp up with meetings and planning well under way.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

~ Paul Wallace, Principal