Principal's Report

National Reconciliation Week

The staff, students and community of Fitzroy North Primary School acknowledge that we live, work, learn and play in Wurundjeri Country.

This week marks National Reconciliation week, running from 27 May – 3 June 2022. In honour of 26 May 2024 being National Sorry Day, students across the school explored this important milestone in our history in age appropriate ways. Down in Foundation  -  Year 2, the children explored what it means to be sorry and discussed how saying sorry is an important part of restoring relationships. In the middle and senior years, classes began developing an understanding of the historical significance of this day and the importance of acknowledging past mistakes to allow us as a nation to move forward.  

Kevin Rudd’s moving apology can be viewed here Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apology speech  

As part of our acknowledgement of National Reconciliation Week, yesterday marked the culmination of this week’s learning with our third annual Little Long Walk. Inspired by Michael Long’s Long Walk in 2004 from Melbourne to Canberra, 2024 marked the 20th anniversary of the event with our children, teachers and community setting off to walk around the Edinburgh Gardens in support of Michael Long’s vision to ensure the plight of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples remain on the national agenda.

A huge thank you to our Indigenous Learning Leader, Zoe, for her organisation of the day, to Tanya D for her work with the Year 3/4 choir in preparing for their performance of Black Fella, White Fella and our Visual Arts teacher, Maddi for preparing the banners that were used on our walk.

Capital Works Project – Stage 2 

With the handover of Stage 1 now complete (yay!!), we will move on to Stage 2 beginning next week. This stage will complete the refurbishment of the North end of the building, including the delivery of a brand new Art Room and Art Garden. Please see the images below that indicate the open (green) and hoarded off (red) areas of the next stage of the project. It is expected that this phase of the project will take around four months to complete. 

Downstairs 

Upstairs 

Student Attitudes to School Survey 

The Attitudes to School Survey for students in Years 4 – 6, is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training. It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of their school. Students will be asked about their thoughts and feelings in relation to their school, their learning, teacher and peer relationships, bullying and general life. Our school then unpacks the survey results to explore opportunities to improve your child's experience at school. Survey responses are anonymous. The survey only takes 20-30 minutes to complete and occurs during your child's class time. This year the Attitudes to School survey will be conducted in the coming weeks prior to Friday 14th June 2024.  

Families of students in Years 4-6 will receive further information about the Attitudes to School Survey via Compass on Monday.  

Student Illness 

As you know, Covid and flu is currently prevalent across our community. We also have respiratory illnesses apparent across the school. We ask that if your child is displaying flu or covid symptoms, they are kept at home in an effort to minimise the spread of infection. Unfortunately, our casual relief teacher agency is finding it difficult to provide enough replacement teachers at the moment and moving into winter, this is likely to be an on-going situation. I appreciate your support with this.  

2025 Prep Enrolments 

Do you or someone you know have a child starting school in 2025? We are now accepting enrolments for next year, with school tours being held weekly on Tuesday mornings at 9:30am. 

Additionally, prospective families are invited to join us on Wednesday 17th July, 2024 at 6:00pm for our Prep 2025 Information Evening. The evening will provide families with information about our school, our curriculum, our community and the 2025 enrolment process.  

Go gently, 

Tania