Sporting Success

Our recent House Athletics Carnival was another opportunity for Year 4 – 6 students to display their talents outside of the classroom. It is a day where no matter the ability of the student, everyone goes to Collingwood Athletics Track with a positive attitude and a determination to do their best.

House Athletics is only made possible thanks to the coordination of our PE teacher, Geoff McShane, and the support of teachers and parents. Thank you to everyone for making this such a great day, despite the rain’s best attempts to dampen our spirits.

This event made me reflect upon the wonderfully talented sporting students that we have at FPS. During PE lessons, the focus is on improving yourself and trying activities outside of your comfort zone. Alongside this, many FPS students who take a keen interest in sport, seize the opportunity to compete against other schools and we enjoy great sporting results as a school.

Below is a summary of the number of FPS students who have competed at different levels in the most recent events - something that we should be proud of.

	District	Division	Region
Swimming	50	17	8
Cross Country	32	21	17
Athletics (2024)	48	28	24

Year 3 & 4 Concerts

Preston Town Hall was rocking last Thursday night as our students took to the stage for Fairfieldpalooza! This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for the audience to see seven of the top bands on the music scene, all in one place at one time. Congratulations to the following bands:

Fun Nuggets
Colourbomb
The Chunky Monkeys
Daredevils
Pink Tsunami
Lalala Popcorn
The Blue Flying Fat Pigs

Every FPS concert is different and what stood out for me with this particular concert was the number of students playing instruments. It is such a credit to our Performing Arts program that students are given the opportunity to learn and play musical instruments during lesson time, developing an interest, and hopefully a passion, for music along the way.

Thank you to Keri Spence, our Performing Arts teacher, for once again producing an extravaganza. Keri was well supported by the staff during the rehearsals and in the evening, with a special mention to Olivia Li for her assistance.

Our next set of concerts are:

Year 1 & 2 concert: Thursday 7 August
Year 5 & 6 concert: Tuesday 25 November

School Nurses

In an earlier newsletter this term, I mentioned the great work of our nurses, Diana and Carolyn. We are fortunate to have this service that meets the needs of our students. We have now increased the hours that our nurses are at school; they now start at 10:30am which means that they are here for recess and lunchtime.

As well as responding to injuries and illnesses, our nurses administer medication to a number of students throughout the school day.

As mentioned previously, we are grateful for the parent contributions that enable us to employ the nurses, five days a week. For families who are yet to make these contributions, details are available at the top of your Compass feed.

Resource Smart Schools Awards Day

A group of four students from our Eco Club represented FPS at the ResourceSmart Schools Awards Day at the MCG last week. What a remarkable achievement and a fantastic way to celebrate all the wonderful sustainability work that our school is involved in at all levels: students, staff, parents. A special mention to our sustainability officer, Amelia Trompf, for her leadership in this area. You can read more about the awards, as well as the winners in each category here: 2025 ResourceSmart Schools Awards.

Curriculum Day Learning

We recently held our second curriculum day of the year, with Lyn Stone presenting a Literacy based workshop to staff about the mechanics and conventions of language. You can read more about this in Binh's Literacy Update, in this newsletter.

Curriculum Days are a valuable part of a school’s calendar for the staff. It is the only opportunity that all staff have to meet together for an extended length of time. Whilst we value our weekly after school meetings, sometimes it can be difficult to sustain energy levels at the end of a busy day.

Staff enjoyed learning about a range of effective ways to teach writing, and I am already seeing this work being implemented in classrooms.

Cybersafety – Student & Parent Sessions

This week, all students will attend a cybersafety presentation, delivered by the Australian Police. The program is designed to support students to participate in safer online environments.

Foundation: Discuss 000, role of police officers, and a visit to the police car.
Years 1 – 2: Knowing what private information is, pop up conversations, and asking trusted adults for help.
Years 3 – 4: Staying safe online, asking trusted adults for help, and keeping information safe.
Years 5 – 6: Staying safe online, keeping information private (including images), knowing people online vs offline, and trusted adults.

Session schedule

Years 1 – 4: Wednesday 11 June
Foundation & Years 5 & 6: Thursday 12 June
Parent ThinkUKnow online seminar: Wednesday 18 June, from 6 – 7pm.

Best Wishes to Steph & Jade

Next Friday we will be saying goodbye (for now) and best wishes to two of our teachers going on maternity leave: Stephanie Benwell (Year 2 teacher) and Jade O’Grady (Year 4 teacher).

Steph will be replaced by Emily Lindsay-Smith who is returning from family leave.
FPS will be welcoming Ellie Bailie as Jade’s replacement.

We pass on our very best wishes to Jade, Steph and their families.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

~ Paul Wallace, Principal

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