In this week’s newsletter:

Appreciations and News
- Happy news!
- Welcome back Mikala
- Bon voyage Carolyn
- Ready, Set, Go school readiness presentation - appreciations to Parents Association
- 2023 FWPS Annual Report to the Community public meeting
- The annual Parent/Carer Opinion survey opens on Monday
Coming Up
- Grade 2 Connecting to Country excursion tomorrow
- Assembly tomorrow
- Grade 3 and 4 swimming program starts next week
- AFL Regional Round Robin event
- Berry Street parent and carer information session (online) 7.00pm Wednesday, 31st July
Repeated (and Updated) Messages

Appreciations and News

Happy News! - Congrats to grade 6 team member Kieren Ryan and partner Sera on their wonderful news. Orla Mae Ryan was born last week. Orla, Sera and (a very proud) Kieren are doing well.

Welcome back Mikala - We are very pleased to welcome back grade 6 team member Mikala Connor today after a significant period recuperating on medical leave. We were fortunate to be able to employ Kate Rochon as the one CRT over this time. Kate has done a fine job effectively teaching Mikala’s program and her work was appreciated by the class and Mikala.

Bon Voyage Carolyn - We all wish Assistant Principal Carolyn Lockie bon voyage as she heads off on a European adventure with partner John. Carolyn’s last day of work was today and she will return officially at the beginning of next term. While we may be a little jealous, we will miss all she brings to our school and community and I know all who work with Carolyn will miss her company and support. We are fortunate that with amazing middle level leaders and the flexibility of our staff, in Carolyn’s absence, Libby, Towela and Karri will step in to manage her many roles in leadership and wellbeing.

Ready, Set, Go! School Readiness information session - Thanks to the financial support of our Parents Association, the school readiness information session held at school on Tuesday evening was a valuable one for 2025 prep families. FWPS leaders, Liz and Karri expressed their gratitude for the quality of the presentation.

Prep Enrolments 2025 deadline - Tomorrow (26th July) is the deadline for all 2025 Prep enrolment or application forms to be received at the office. This is to enable us to make offers within the following fortnight. If this message is relevant to your family, please act now and if you have any questions, please contact the office team.

The FWPS 2023 Annual Report to the School Community - The Annual Report provides an opportunity to share the school’s achievements and progress with the school community.

The preparation and publication of an Annual Report is a legislative and regulatory requirement for all schools under the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic), the Education and Training Reform Regulations (2017) and Ministerial Order 1280 (Constitution of Government School Councils) (DOCX).

The Annual Report is prepared in 2 parts:

the performance summary, which details the school’s performance from the past year and trends over time. This is compiled by the department and provided digitally to schools for inclusion in the document.
the ‘About our School’ commentary, which is prepared by the principal team and outlines the achievements of the school in the previous year.

The Annual Report must be endorsed at a meeting of the school council and attested to by the principal and school council president. This step was completed last term.

The report is available for viewing on our website here: 2023 Annual Report

This then provides us with the opportunity to share the report in person. This will occur with a brief verbal report online prior to our School Council meeting next Monday, 29th July at 7:00pm sharp. If you wish to attend, click the link at the available time: https://eduvic.webex.com/eduvic/j.php?MTID=meec9b41806a0e2cabee1afa538925d86

If you have any questions they will needed to be posted by midday on Monday at: https://forms.gle/9CZ6oeYU5D16nBJJA

The Annual Parent/Carer Opinion Survey opens on Monday - The annual Parent/Carer Opinion Survey is made available to all families at this time of each year. The survey opens on Monday when all families will receive an email addressed to the parent/carer listed first on our database. If you do not receive this email, please contact the office team to check on the email address we have listed. Please read the letter in the Coming Up at FWPS section in today’s newsletter providing an explanation of the purpose of the survey.

Coming Up…

The Grade 2 Connecting to Country excursion tomorrow at the Royal Botanical Gardens - For the grade 2 cohort parents and carers, please make sure your child is dressed appropriately for a Melbourne winter’s day (regardless of the forecast) and remember to bring a packed lunch, as there will be no opportunity for the children to purchase food at the venue. The coaches will return to school between 2:30pm and 3:15pm.

Assembly tomorrow will feature 1JM’s turn to present their assembly item and I know from speaking to class members they are excited to be presenting about a very current sporting event. As usual at this time of the year we anticipate assembly is likely to be held indoors in the gallery space of Dingo. We expect that parents/carers of 1JM students and recipients of the Pupil of the Week Awards will be keen to secure the limited seating available. Please enter via the main gate after 2:30pm and aim to be seated by 2:40pm ready for our assembly. This week due to the Connecting to Country excursion, grade 2 students are not expected to be return to school in time for assembly and consequently no POTW awards were selected for the grade 2 grades this week.

Grade 3 and 4 intensive swimming lessons start next week - Please remember that swimming starts on Monday for students in grades 3 and 4 who enrolled in the program.

AFL Regional Round Robin event - Our AFL team that was successful in the Divisional Round Robin event last week, are looking forward to wearing the school jumpers again next Tuesday at the Regional Round Robin Final at Werribee. The squad of 27 are required to bring a snack, lunch and football gear. The competition will comprise of 3 (shortened) games being held at 10am, 11:20am and 12:40pm. The grand final will be held at 2pm for the teams that finish on top of their group. Due to the high cost of coach transport, FWPS will subsidise each participant to reduce the travel costs to a more manageable $25. Students need to arrive at school at 8:20am sharp, for an 8:30am departure. The team will be accompanied and coached by Marco. We also appreciate such events cannot occur without the assistance of parent/carer volunteers to enable adult/child ratio compliance.

Berry Street Education Model parent and carer information session (online) 7:00pm Wednesday, 31st July - The introduction of the BSEM is a very important one for our school as we transition from the phenomenally transformational TRIBES approach to our new model. We strongly encourage all parents and carers to attend this online session next Wednesday, supported by our Parents Association. The flyer is again included in today’s newsletter.

Athletics Carnival in Week 4 - With the Olympics in full swing we will all be primed to cheer on our students (grades 4, 5 and 6) to do their personal best at Aberfeldie Athletics Track on Wednesday, 7th August (Wednesday week). The deadline for the completion of the Compass permission form and payment is Friday of next week (Friday, 2nd August).

Cheers,

Brendan

Repeated (and Updated) Messages…

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