Welcome back for Term 2

We have had a fabulous start to Term 2 with students quickly settling back into the routines of school and clearly ready for a bumper term of learning.

Before we launch into this week’s newsletter, I wish to bring your attention to a Go Fund Me page that has been set up for the Ficarra family.

Over Easter, as many of us were enjoying the Easter break with loved ones, the Ficarra family suffered a devastating house fire. The family now face the overwhelming challenge of starting from scratch. While insurance has provided temporary accommodation, they will soon need to find a new place to live and buy all the essentials for their family.

Please consider donating to help them through this difficult time. Every little bit can make a difference as they begin to rebuild their lives. You can find the donations page here:

Go Fund Me

Currently within our community, many families are facing their own challenges and being supported by friends and family within the FPPS community, whether that be the preparation of meals, offers of support, childcare and helping with school pick-ups and much more.

A reminder that our school is also an avenue to access support during times of need. Please do reach out to me, if I can ever be of support.

Thank you all for your care and kindness.

Japanese Children's Day - Monday 5th May

A reminder to families that this coming Monday we are celebrating Japanese Children's Day with a variety of activities throughout the school day. Children are encouraged to wear Japanese inspired clothing or colours. Weather permitting, we will be holding a dress up parade at 9.15am on the basketball courts so families are welcome to stay and join in the fun.

SWPBS Update

In this edition of our newsletter, I am pleased to share with you an update on our school’s SWPBS (School Wide Positive Behaviour Support) implementation.

Many of you will already be familiar with the FPPS Expected Behaviours, of which students supported in the creation. Our FPPS Expected Behaviours are now prominently displayed in classrooms and learning areas across the school.

In addition, for students, staff and families we now have a clear and documented process for how we, the staff at Fyans Park, will manage minor and major unexpected behaviours at school. Please see below.

Finally, and again with the input of students and teachers, we have developed bullying prevention resources, and a framework aligned to our Bullying Prevention Policy. The resources include a common language for both students and teachers – STOP, WALK, TALK.

I would especially like to acknowledge Sylvie F in 56T for her fabulous artwork representing STOP, WALK, TALK that is now visible in all areas of the school.

The below graphic titled “Is it Bullying?” is being used to support students, staff and families in generating a shared and consistent understanding of what bullying is and isn’t. Our Bullying Prevention Policy ratified by our School Council last year outlines the schools process in preventing, while also managing incidents of bullying.

All current policies are located on our website at https://fyansparkps.vic.edu.au/our-school/policies/

Our current data (2024 – see below) from student, staff and parent surveys indicates results across all fields as above those of Network and State (% positive responses) however there is always room for further improvement and we seek to continue to empower our students and gather feedback from students, staff and our families.

Whole School Acknowledgement System

As part of our implementation of School Wide Positive Behaviour Support, we are now at the stage in our work to introduce a school wide acknowledgement system, with core practices, such as these, grounded in behavioural science.

At Fyans Park, we have adopted this framework to ensure a positive and supportive learning environment for all students.

As well as our students being learners of reading, writing and mathematics, they are also learners of behaviour.

Classroom teachers are now using Class Dojo and awarding students’ ‘Dojo’ points to reinforce positive behaviours, while providing targeted assistance to students who need extra support, to ensure an inclusive learning environment.

Experienced based rewards have been established across the school including things like, lunch with a favourite teacher, extra play time, being a helper in another department across the school, an extra specialist session in a week, an item from the prize box and a movie ticket that will be redeemed twice per term for any student who has earned 100 ‘Dojo points’. Dojo has other features, however we are solely using this platform for student and teacher use while at school.

I encourage you to speak with your child/ren about their Dojo points and the reward they are aiming to experience and redeem their points for.

Any other questions regarding our whole school acknowledgement system, please don’t hesitate to see any member of staff.

GRIP Leadership Day

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of accompanying our four School Captains – Mara, Ned, Willow and Harry to the GRIP Student Leadership Conference held in Geelong this year.

Rather than hear about the conference from me, our student leaders have all collaborated on a reflection piece – see below.

On Tuesday this week the School Captains and Mrs Cameron travelled to the Geelong West Town Hall for a Leadership Day. One of the presenters showed us to our seats and we found booklets we would later complete and look back on as precious holders of leadership knowledge. One of my favourite parts of the day happened in the first session. We were learning about the 4 responsibilities of a student leader. They were Being an example to others, Being a helper to others, Being a voice for others and Being willing to do what the school needs. I am going to exaggerate on Being an example to others. A catchphrase one of the presenters made up was Responsibility is more than following a rule, it’s about taking ownership for the standards of our school. A way they displayed this was that the presenter asked us to mirror him as he mimed baking a cake. We did this and then he told us that whenever he starts using a spoon we had to freeze. Even after he told us this some people still mirrored him when he was using a spoon, therefore displaying that actions speak louder than words and when you are following the rules they are more likely to catch on.

Later on in the session we were asked to identify which Responsibility the highlighted character in a movie clip was showing. It was a great way of showing us how to do these things and the effect it has.

We then went outside for 25 minutes to have a snack and then we re-entered the building with excitement about what we were going to get up to next.

After our first break we returned to our seats to do the next session, Leadership Through Friendship. We started off by filling in the next page of our booklets. They taught us 3 friendship tools using a leader's qualities. Conversations are more effective than instructions, sharing responsibility is more important than showing off responsibility and fun is more effective than feeling forced. To begin with they taught us that “conversations are more effective than instructions” by nominating 3 attendees to wear a Buzz Lightyear costume t-shirt over their clothes and inviting them on stage. Then they had a member of their team named Andy dress up as Woody and sing "You got a Friend in Me" and solve a problem between the buzzes using the tools we had learnt. “Sharing responsibility is more important than showing off responsibility,” and “fun is more effective than feeling forced.” We then got to do a little quiz where they showed us a written scenario and we had to write what friendship tool they were using. We then had a 30 minute break where we went outside to eat then returned to our seats ready for the final session of the day.

At the end of the day they taught us how to achieve our ideas before the end of the year and what is a good idea. They taught us to prioritise an idea that helps others the most. With that they told us that if you’re struggling to decide who’s idea is better, think about which one helps others the most. “Be realistic from the start,” they said you have to be realistic and serious about your idea from the beginning. “Break down the idea into stages,” they said that stages are like if you’re planning to plant 20 trees, plant five first so that if something gets in the way you’ve still done something good. “Work on the idea together,” work together with others to accomplish your ideas. And finally “many leaders don’t achieve what they intended because time goes by quickly and the year has ended.” After this happened we got to ask them questions and they answered. Lots of people had great questions, Ned asked “how do you make talks fun?” And their answer was to act like you’re enjoying yourself and be confident.” It was a great talk to end the day with.

At the end of every session there was an activity called loud noises. It was a brain break type competition where they split the room in half and had each side compete. There were three loud noise sessions and every time they would select two-three representatives from each side. We were lucky enough to have Ned be selected in the second session to play a game called postcards. The game worked like this, two people per side of the room went up to the stage and one faced off against one of the other side's representatives. There was a screen behind them and the screen showed three pictures that represent the country name displayed on the screen. The audience then had to freeze in the shape of one of the pictures and the representatives had to race to guess the country name first. It was first to five and although our side did an incredible job the other side won. They played reverse charades in the first session which we won then in the last session we had a dance off. They were fun, interactive and creative games that got everyone making some loud noise. Every representative got a pin that said loud noises on it. You may see Ned wearing his as well as the other captains pins which we bought.

Overall we all really enjoyed the day and we hope to get more amazing opportunities like this one!

Inclusive Schools – Building works Update

Slowly but surely the building works are coming together, and we anticipate construction being concluded at the end of Term 2. The footings for the new structure were created over the school holidays with a few items found underground that were not on the original plans. This is to be expected and did slow progress slightly. Next up will be the concrete pour and then the new structure being built in the coming weeks. It has been exciting for students this week

State Swimming Finals Update

Congratulations to both Tayla H and Hugo E who represented Fyans Park at the end of Term 1 at the regional swimming competition. Hugo competed in the 50m Backstroke and Tayla in the 50m Butterfly and Breaststroke, both proudly representing FPPS.

A further congratulations to Tayla whose swim times have now taken her to the State competition held today where she placed 7th in the 50m Breaststoke with an incredibly fast time of 40.30. Congratulations Tayla on achieving your goal of making the State finals in primary school. We are all very proud of you. Please see below a reflection from Tayla.

School Swimming

On the 1st of April I participated in a regional school swimming competition.

I raced in the 50m breaststroke and butterfly at Kardinia Aquatic Centre.

Leading up to this event I was feeling quite nervous as I was racing two of my good friends. My friends (Kiara and Claire) had the same qualifying time as me (34 seconds). It was a very close race and in the end I placed second by 1.5 seconds with a time of 34.1 to Claire with a time of 32.6.

My first race was the 50m breaststroke, I was seeded first with my entry time and I felt pretty confident about that race. When I dived in the pool I felt a sudden burst of energy and I went as fast as I possibly could. I reached for the wall. I looked up, down and around and saw that I had won! I was so happy with myself after I hit that wall I realised that I would be progressing to the school swimming State championships!

2026 Transition

Despite it being early in the year, we have already received requests for school tours for 2026. With this in mind, the following school tours have been arranged for new families who are residing in our local neighbourhood zone as we continue to be at full capacity with regards to enrolment numbers.

Families can very quickly access the Find My School website to identify their local neighbourhood school at https://www.findmyschool.vic.gov.au/

Our student leaders will be assisting me in facilitating school tours this year and welcoming new families and students to our school.

Our School Tour dates for Term 1 and 2 are listed below:

I welcome new families from all year levels to attend.

Friday 9th May at 9.30am

Friday 23rd May at 9.30am

Save The Date

Thursday 15 May

8.15-9.00am - Family activities on the basketball courts

9-00-9.30am - Open classrooms

Coffee vans will be in attendance and fruit and breakfast will be provided by our F&F Association.

Girls Football

Prior to the end of term, I had the privilege of attending the Division Girls' Footy Carnival and invited coach Georgia Tyrell, School Captain from Western Heights Secondary College. The girls’ footy skills and teamwork also evident on the day and more importantly the sportsmanship shown. A big thanks also to Tim Clark who supported with coaching and encouraging our team on the day and to the many parents and grandparents who attended to support the team.

Have a great week everyone

Mrs Cameron

Secondary School Open Days