Principal's Report

Another Busy Term

Welcome back everyone to term three! We have had a great first few days at the start of the term. Well done to all of the students for such a smooth start. When visiting the classrooms I have seen the students focused and ready to learn – they are listening to the teacher, sharing their thoughts and ideas, or working through tasks with their peers. It is always great to see this learning in action.

We have only had six days of school and already:

• Foundation students have had a visit from the firefighters.
• Year 5 and 6 have participated in their Project Rockit incursion, focusing on how to manage online challenges.
• Our Eco Club students attended a Sustainability Summit at Kew High School.
• Lunchtime clubs started this week – see the timetable below.

If you have a look at the Compass calendar, you will see lots to look forward to throughout the term, including the Foundation – Year 2 swimming program that starts tomorrow.

Year 6 Camp

Congratulations to our Year 6 students for their teamwork, responsibility and effort when on their five day camp at Camp Jungai. I heard such positive reports about how the students approached every element of the camp – the activities, the sleepout, night time routines, and general everyday tasks.

Thank you to our teachers: Gemma, Daniel, Anneliese and Tom. Thank you to the volunteer parents: Quimby Mills, Sarah Dobson, Andrew Binns, Alex Henderson and Shane Cameron. I know that your coordination and support of the camp was appreciated by everyone.

You can read more about the camp in the Year 6 Spotlight.

Curriculum Day Learning

Last Monday was a pupil-free day as we had our third (of four) curriculum days for the year. The day was focused on student wellbeing, in particular supporting the mental health of students.

We had a representative from the Department’s Health and Wellbeing team present about mental health illnesses that are prevalent amongst primary aged children, in particular anxiety and depression. Staff learnt about how students experiencing anxiety and depression can present themselves, and how to effectively work alongside families to support the child.

The other focus for the day was School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS). As communicated in past newsletters, the school was successful in applying for coaching and training from the Department of Education in this program. This session was run by some of our teachers where we analysed behaviours of concern and drafted what positive behaviours should look like in different areas of the school.

Whilst we are in the early stages of working through SWPBS, staff are excited and see the great potential that this framework has to increase positive behaviour and relationships, and to improve social-emotional wellbeing for our students.

Library Book Borrowing

One of my favourite places in the school is the library. The north facing windows, the original curved ceiling and the overall cosiness of the place makes me want to revisit. And of course, thanks to the parent donations, we have a tremendously well stocked book collection (there's something for everyone), which is coordinated by our wonderful librarian, Paula.

Towards the end of last term, I was covering a class during their library session and I was surprised by how few of the students were borrowing books. With such a great book selection, I couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed by this. When I asked the students why they weren’t borrowing, they explained that they didn’t trust themselves to return the books. This led me to wondering how regularly students were borrowing from the school library, and Paula kindly put together the following table to show how many books were being borrowed in May (our last full month at school):

• Foundation: 329 books
• Year 1: 215 books
• Year 2: 235 books
• Year 3: 271books
• Year 4: 133 books
• Year 5: 93 books
• Year 6: 56 books

It is quite easy to see the trend of the older years borrowing less. 

Teachers will be talking to the students this week, encouraging them to borrow. It would be great if you could also encourage your children to borrow books so that we make the most of this wonderful resource. A reminder that you can view the books that we have in stock at  https://au.accessit.online/FRF05/

ART FOR ALL

You would be forgiven for thinking that we are hosting ‘Wear It Yellow’ days at the moment. However, the incandescent sparkles of colour throughout the school are the result of our fabulous new ART FOR ALL t-shirts. The students are so proud of them, with someone saying to me, “I don’t like my t-shirt, I love it!”.

The appearance of the t-shirts tells us that ART FOR ALL is not far away (6th – 8th September). The ART FOR ALL Committee continues to work tirelessly towards planning for another memorable event and continues to communicate updates and requests for volunteers via Compass. You can read their latest newsletter here.

ART FOR ALL has also been discussed by School Council, and we became aware that there is some confusion about whether this is instead of, or in addition to, a school fair.

In short, further to parent feedback and consultation, it was recognised that running two major events (ART FOR ALL and a school fair) was putting too much of a demand on parent volunteers. Parent survey responses showed that ART FOR ALL and the school fair were valued throughout the community and naturally, each family had a preference of one over the other. Therefore, a decision was made to hold one major event which combines elements of both ART FOR ALL and the fair. That means that this year’s ART FOR ALL will have elements which have not been included in previous years, most notably there will be rides.

I will leave it up to the ART FOR ALL Committee to communicate how it will all work, but I hope that parents are able to support this event through volunteering and attending, to make it a day to remember.

2025 Foundation Enrolments

Enrolment forms for 2025 Foundation families are due by Friday 26 July. If you have a younger sibling due to start at FPS next year, or if you know of friends or neighbours planning to enrol at FPS, please submit enrolment forms by the end of this week. Details can be found on our school website. 

Upgrades Around the School

The school holidays are the ideal time to carry out maintenance and upgrade works around the school. We are grateful to Graham, our maintenance person, for being onsite every day to ensure that all of the tasks are carried out as planned. The following works occurred these holidays:

• Replacement of gas water heaters with electric. We are now officially ‘gas-free’ at FPS!
• The installation of the pergola frame on the Foundation deck. This frame will have vines planted at the start of spring to provide natural shade to this area. This project is being paid for through parent contributions to our building fund.
• Repairs to the Eastern Playground, including covering of exposed concrete and repairing holes on the mounds.
• Recarpeting all of the Year 2 classrooms. This has made a really positive difference to these rooms.

Parent Survey

Our school is conducting the annual Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey offered by the Department of Education and is seeking your feedback. The survey is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behavior, and student engagement. The survey is optional, but we encourage and appreciate your participation.

Our school will use the survey results to assist in identifying areas for improvement and professional development needs in the school, to target school planning and improvement strategies. 

A separate communication will be sent later this week, including details on how to access the survey.

Congratulations Emilia!

We welcome the arrival of baby Rose during the holidays. Congratulations to Emilia McDonald (FPS teacher) at this exciting time.

Thanks for reading and see you around the grounds.

~ Paul Wallace, Principal