Principal's Report

In this week’s newsletter:

An Important Message from our School Council President

News, Appreciations & Acknowledgements

• End of Term Appreciation
• Caity's News
• Special Assembly Official Opening of the Eagle Building
• Kids' Share Afternoon
• Liz on Leave

• Welcome back Ryan

   

Coming Up Tomorrow

• Sporting Colours Day
• Assembly
• End of Term
• Facilities Update

An Important Message from our School Council President

To everyone in the school community, a short note to let you know that, working with representatives from the Department of Education, we are commencing the process of recruiting a new Principal for FWPS.  As you would have heard, Brendan is taking the big step to retire from the role at the end of the year. With his support, we are moving forward to run the process for a new Principal to take over from Brendan at the beginning of the 2027 school year.

I want everyone in the school community to know that this is an extremely thorough process that will be run to fill this key role for our community. Two members of our School Council will be members of the selection panel, alongside a school principal from a nearby school in the inner west.  Additionally, a member of the FWPS staff will be selected through a process open to all staff and chaired by Karen Harris, our network Senior Education Improvement Leader (SEIL).  Karen will be guiding us through the full process. We expect to be able to advertise the role at the start of next term with an application and interview process to follow. Her advice is that we can expect the process to be completed before the end of the school year. 

On behalf of the school council I’m happy to answer any questions, or discuss this important process with anyone who is seeking more information. The school council had a briefing by Karen this week, thoroughly taking us through the process and providing a genuine opportunity for input. I think we can be really confident that the process will give us a strong opportunity to appoint an excellent candidate before school finishes this year. .

Lastly, I want to acknowledge Brendan’s great support in helping to kick off and run this process before he heads off at the end of the year.  I know he will be just as invested as the School Council in supporting us through the process.

Warm regards,

Andrew Newman

School Council President

News, Appreciations and Acknowledgements

End of Term Appreciation

As we wrap up Term 3, I would like to acknowledge our wonderful staff and students. During this busy term, we saw our students shine during Concert Week and build their water confidence through the Prep–3 swimming program. We also reached a major milestone with the official opening of our brand-new Eagle Building.

From our community’s point of view, the Parents’ Association has been active throughout the term, with highlights including the return of the student disco and a terrific Father’s and Special Person’s stall.

School Council has also had a constructive term, highlighted by the 12-month extension of our contract with OSHC provider TheirCare and, more recently, the commencement of the process to select our next Principal. This is a major and important responsibility that will continue into next term.

Behind the scenes, our teachers have been working hard to refresh and strengthen our core maths curriculum. Their energy, teamwork and dedication to giving our students the very best education is never surprising, but it is always heartening.

I hope all of our families have a safe and enjoyable term break. With recharged batteries, we look forward to seeing everyone refreshed and ready for a successful Term 4.

Caity’s News

Caity and her partner Jess are delighted to share the news of the safe arrival of their beautiful baby boy, Sunny.

Special Assembly Official Opening of the Eagle Building

We were delighted to finally and literally cut the ribbon and officially open the Eagle Building, a development that has provided so many additional opportunities this year. A very big thank you to all who assisted, in particular our specialist teaching team members Jess Russell-Davies, Susie Belcher and Kerrie Ahrens, along with our Facilities Manager, Taleb Sleiman. They worked together to prepare the memorable student presentation.

I particularly appreciated that, despite the long wait before we could manage the opening, our construction partners showed such great enthusiasm and made the effort to attend and share in the pride of this collaborative achievement. 

Kids’ Share Afternoon

It was great to see many families visiting yesterday for our twice-yearly Kids’ Share visit to classrooms. It was evident that many students really enjoyed the chance to showcase work they are proud of and demonstrate the procedures and resources within their classrooms.

Liz on Leave

Our principal class colleague, Liz, is enjoying a few days of leave this week with family. All who know of Liz’s commitment to our school will be pleased to know that she is having a few days to recharge. 

Welcome back Ryan

We were delighted to welcome Ryan Cox back this week after an extended period of leave. Ryan has been living and teaching in the UK and making the most of the opportunity to travel through Europe. Next term Ryan will be working closely with the Year 6 team and may be attending several school camps next term. Here he is pictured (R) with fellow comedian Dan Whiting, proudly displaying the second-prize ‘meat tray’ from the Year 5 end-of-term literature trivia quiz. 

Coming Up Tomorrow

Sporting Colours Day

We have a tradition stretching back two decades of supporting a very worthy and relevant charity, State Schools’ Relief stateschoolsrelief.org.au, which works with schools to help remove financial barriers to education.

We know that when we don our colours, the holidays are nearly here!

We encourage members of our community to support the day by wearing their favourite team’s colours, or perhaps the uniform or costume associated with their favourite sport or hobby, along with bringing a gold coin donation.

As Sporting Colours Day is a Junior School Council-planned event, one of the responsibilities of our JSC members is to collect donations from their classrooms and from the Prep grades. The amount raised will be shared in a JSC report at assembly.

Assembly

Tomorrow’s assembly will be held an hour earlier, as is our usual practice on the final, shorter day of term. Gates will open at 1:30pm following recess assembly and students will begin moving across to the Eagle Building at 1:40pm. Assembly will start no later than 1:50pm. This week we will return to our usual routine, with a class presentation (4MP) and our final Pupil of the Week Awards to all classes. At the conclusion of assembly students will return to their classrooms for dismissal.

End of Term

School will conclude at 2:30pm on Friday, 18th September, the final day of Term 3, following our early assembly. TheirCare will operate from this earlier time. Please ensure that your family has made plans for the earlier dismissal. 

Facilities Update

During the holidays there will be plenty of work being done.

• New carpets will be laid in the Koala and Kangaroo classrooms and upstairs in 3HH. There will also be several classrooms and shared spaces where carpets will be repaired and/or re-stretched.
• The new ‘glass room’ (small group teaching space in what was formerly the kitchen) in the Dingo building will be completed, as will the former Year 5 team office space as a new staff area. Electrical, plumbing and painting will see a very useful renovation completed.
• New drainage lines will be installed in the area of the gazebo, Platypus building and along the east - west spoon drain that currently bisects the synthetic surface from asphalt in the yard. These works are necessary before the redevelopment of the gazebo area and resurfacing of the basketball court, which is planned for January. 
• Repainting of yellow safety lines on asphalt, concrete, play equipment and poles in yard areas.
• Additional concreting within bike and scooter enclosure in order to extend the usable space.

These projects will be managed by our Facilities Manager, Taleb. Safety will remain a priority, particularly as our school buildings and grounds will continue to be used daily by students attending the TheirCare holiday program. 

Best regards,

Brendan

Repeated and Revised Messages