Dear Parents/ Carers,

WELCOME

Welcome back to the new school year. I’d like to especially welcome new families that have enrolled at Fairvale PS this year. I hope your time at our school is very rewarding. We also welcome sixty-one Kindergarten students so far this year!

STAFF NEWS

We welcome one new staff member:

Miss Mine Macaroglu—School Psychologist

We also welcome back Mrs Taryn Graham and Miss Tamara Marjanac to Fairvale PS this year.

From this Friday, I will be having some minor surgery which I am required to have and will need some time at home to recover. I will return to school on Friday 1 March, 2024. During this time, Miss Fletcher will be relieving Principal and Mrs Rosic will be acting Deputy Principal. Members of our school executive may also take on some additional roles during this time. The school is certainly in safe hands, and I know that our community will support the leadership team in my absence.

BIKE VISITS WITH MR PITT

I am super excited to be continuing my bike visits in 2024. This remains a great opportunity for me to spend some time in classrooms speaking to the children about their learning – it really is my favourite part of the week! I will also include a few photos of my visit in each edition of the school newsletter. Miss Fletcher will be borrowing my bike until I return.

SCHOOL LEADERS 2024

I would like to take this opportunity to officially welcome our new school leaders for 2024. Congratulations! I look forward to working these students this year.

SCHOOL CAPTAINS – Calvin N and Sofia S
PREFECTS – Brael A, Selu F, Demel K, Emily N, Christina P and Liam T.

MEET THE TEACHER AFTERNOON – TO BE CONFIRMED

Every year the staff look forward to meeting families at our annual ‘Meet the Teacher’ afternoon. This year’s dates are - Tuesday 27 February (K-2 + 5S) and Wednesday 28 February (3-6). A note will be going home next week with more information.

NOTES HOME WEDNESDAY

This year we will continue to send notes home on WEDNESDAYS. Always ask you child to empty their bags on Wednesdays. A school envelope will be provided for notes that require money. This means that families can complete the envelope at home, and when back at school just place it in the silver box located at the office. All spare copies of notes are placed on the office verandah. Sometimes, notes will go home on different days due to the importance of the information. Also, all notes are placed on the parent portal app for quick, easy reference. Don’t forget you can pay for events using School Bytes - a much faster, safer way! Have you signed up for School Bytes?

CLASS ORGANISATION

Thank you to everyone for your support over the last few days with students returning to 2023 classes. We have done this again this year because our student enrolment numbers change from year to year and this impacts on new classes. It has certainly worked in our favour this year, as some minor changes have been made to our 2024 classes. Yesterday afternoon, children visited their new classroom and met their new teacher and class friends. Parents/ carers received a note yesterday – this note tells you more about your child’s 2024 class and strategies to help children settle in a new class, with new friends, a new teacher and on most occasions a new classroom as well.

STUDENT NUMBERS

From today - Thursday 8 February, we formed 2024 classes. We have 21 classes in 2024, with 492 students enrolled at the school. This is very close to what we expected, but it was still important to make sure we knew how many students were enrolled before we formed classes. History tells me that this model works best. Please find information regarding 2024 class names and staff roles in my Principal’s Report.

2024 CLASSES

This year our classes are named after female Australian Olympians - past and present. Many female Olympians have made significant strides throughout Australia’s history and continue to inspire a new generation of female athletes with their achievements and resilience. The children will be learning more about their Olympian in class time. When writing your child’s name for different things you can still use the initial of the class. For example, Miss Diep’s class is called 6 Kerr. You can still write 6K.

We also have many teachers in specialist roles in 2024.

NON-TEACHING STAFF

An important part of our school is our highly valued staff that work in the office, in classrooms, taking care of the school grounds and generally making sure that everyone in our school is well looked after.

COMMUNICATION

If you have concerns about any issue, and it is classed based, please contact your child’s teacher – usually this is done at the office so that a suitable time can be organised. We also have an executive team who guide the teaching and learning programs and wellbeing for all members of our school. At times you may find it necessary to organise to talk to one of the executive members of staff - contact the office if you would like to arrange to speak to a school executive.

NEW SECTIONS TO THE NEWSLETTER

We have created three new exciting pages in 2024. Each fortnight Frankie will be given a series of photos that have been taken from around the school. It will be his job to select one photo to be published in the newsletter - ‘Frankie’s Pic of the Week!’

Our 2024 school captains, Calvin and Sophia, will have their very own page in the newsletter - ‘The Fairvale Staff Olympic Quiz’. Every week they will quiz staff about the Olympics - the results will be published in the newsletter.

We will also have a ‘Female Australian Olympians - past and present Focus Page’ - here you learn more about Female Australian Olympians, laugh at Miss Fletcher’s jokes and see if you can win a gold medal and a free $10 canteen lunch by being the first person from your class to solve my Olympic torch challenge. Check out these three sections in this edition of the newsletter.

REMINDERS TO START THE YEAR

We are just about over the busiest time of the year, so I thought it was important to remind families of a few important issues—updating of details, family court matters and allergies/ medications. You will find information regarding these issues on the last page of the newsletter.

HEALTHY FAMILY BULLETIN – FEBRUARY EDITION

Click on the link below to learn more about health star ratings, 2024 Active and Creative Kids vouchers, alternate screen time, free books from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, free gyms in parks, a healthy lunchbox recipe and celebrating Lunar New Year festivities with home-made oven-baked spring rolls.

Click here >>> https://bitly.ws/3cubW

Have a great fortnight,

Anthony Pitt

Principal

I respect and acknowledge First Nations people as the traditional owners of the land on which I work, live and visit.

https://education.nsw.gov.au/about-us/rights-and-accountability/complaints-compliments-and-suggestions/guide-for-parents-carers-and-students

Acting Deputy Principal -Miss Fletcher