Principal's Report

In this week’s newsletter:

Appreciations and News

• Welcome Back
• Holiday Works
• Sunsmart Rules 
• Sporting Colours Day

Coming Up

• Assembly
• Prep Welcome Visits
• Books 'n' Boots
• Inform and Empower

Repeated from Last Term

• 2026 Learning Buddy suggestions for students in Grades Prep to 5
• 2026 Additional Considerations for Class Placement 

Appreciations and News

Welcome Back

Welcome back for the final term of our school year. We hope families have enjoyed a break from school highlighted by a few sleep-ins, relaxation and some time for activity. Term 4 is a busy one as we invite in our new preps for welcome visits, prepare to say goodbye to our grade 6 cohort and plan for 2026.

Holiday Works

We appreciate members of our teaching staff who have spent time over the holidays preparing for the new term. We also were excited to see that a group of teachers who attended the annual Teacher Games achieved a runners up medal in their mixed basketball division. I expect they will be aiming for one spot higher after our new basketball gym has been opened! We also hope that our staff team spent time relaxing and recuperating, as they give so much of themselves each term and really do need a R&R reset during the break. 

Anyone who has visited the school grounds this term will notice how stark the yard appears following the removal of our gigantic gum trees that have shaded the playground for many years, but had become a safety risk that we could not justify.

Already I have been asked about concerns regarding the sudden loss of the valuable shade. We don’t have an immediate answer, however it will be one of the many items our Facilities sub committee of School Council will discuss when we next meet next week.  Taleb, our resourceful Facilities Manager was also busy in the second week making improvements. One that might barely be noticed is the removal of the community water tank that was redundant for school use. Now the space at the front of the school will be able to be re-purposed.

Families in the yard before school may also have noticed that our public address system is working much better. We installed new PA infrastructure during the holidays. The old system had proven difficult to manage and subject to regular crashes. Due to the manner in which the system had been wired many years ago, it has been problematic ensuring that sound levels are consistent, clear and able to be understood any where within the school. We are working on this and where too loud, replacing speakers that lack individual sound adjustment with new adjustable replacements. It may take a little while but, approach should ensure vast improvement without the cost of a complete and very expensive rewiring.

Our BIG BUILD is progressing well and has reached the status of 75% completion. At the moment, the vital and time consuming task of gym floor installation is progressing very well. We are also considering how best we use the spaces, but our focus will be very much aligned with teaching and learning as our first priority. The canteen for instance, is not one of those initial priorities and as such we will not be considering opening it at the beginning of the year. With School Council involvement, we will formulate a tender process for potential providers during Semester 1. In the meantime, we will maintain our food delivery program we currently have in place and that has, on balance, worked very well this year. We will be keen to be in a position to hire our court to community sporting groups after school and on weekends, a step that will be a higher priority, however again we will need to prepare and engage in a tender process to ensure that we are able to set up sustainable practices that benefit the school and community in the long term.

SunSmart Rules Apply 

An additional reminder for families that Term 4 is a SunSmart ‘no hat, no play’ term and this is enforced throughout the school day (but not before or after school). This policy is applied daily at lunch and recess, during physical education and sports sessions, as well as class activities taken outdoors. Please assist by ensuring that your child takes the personal responsibility to have a clearly labelled hat at school every day, as missing out activity and play time is disappointing for everyone.

Sporting Colours Day 

Thank you to all families who supported our JSC annual Sporting Colours Day gold coin donation on the last day of school. Due to our community's generosity, we were able to provide a donation sum of $748.00 to State School’s Relief. Each year we seek the support of SSR and know that they are also assisting thousands of families across the state.

Coming Up

Assembly

We will hold our assembly at the usual time tomorrow afternoon. As always the location and format is weather dependent. 1LE are looking forward to presenting their assembly item, students from grades 5 and 6 who participated in the last term’s Victorian High Achievers Program will receive their certificates and we will hear from the Environmental team regarding Biketober coming up next Friday.

Prep Welcome Visits 

Next Tuesday and on Thursday (in Week 3), Karri will be conducting Welcome Visits for our 2026 cohort of (approximately) 80 prep students.  At our informal welcome sessions our new preps attend with a grown up and participate in activities such as PMP, singing and reading a story. We will have Grade 6 captains assisting, who do a magnificent job at ensuring the children and adults feel welcome. The additional session we are running this year is another innovation in what has been recognised as an outstanding Prep Transition program. The Welcome Visits will be bisected on Tuesday of Week 3 with an evening Parent/Carer Information Session for our new families. Following these introductory opportunities, the next stage will be orientation visits to classrooms utilising our 2026 prep teaching team. These visits will start from Week 4. We know all our students and adult community will make all our - soon to be - new Preps and their families very welcome.

Books 'n' Boots 

Thanks for the valuable support for this fabulous annual charity promoted by our Marrung Leaders. It is coming to a conclusion over the next few weeks, but you still have time to contribute some good quality but outgrown footy boots and sports shoes. Just send them to the office, or drop them off in the box at reception.

Inform and Empower 

The locally produced online cyber safety program, made available this year through the support of Seddon Bendigo Community Bank has featured in all classes this year. Our school and class captains visited a range of classrooms last term to seek feedback on how teachers and students have found the program. The data will be discussed with the captains at our meeting today and their perceptions will assist in the preparation of a report that we will provide for the Community Bank in order to put our case for the program to again be financially supported in 2026. The final online incursion sessions will be held from October 20th and all grades will ‘attend’ a live stream session over the subsequent weeks. Parents and carers can anticipate receiving support materials from your child’s teacher or team leader.

Repeated from Last Term

2026 Learning Buddy suggestions for students in Grades Prep to 5

It’s that time of the year again, when our staff begin the extensive class placement process for 2026. As with previous years, students from Grades Prep to Five will be provided with an opportunity to suggest the names of five peers (learning buddies) who they would like to be with in the same class for the following school year. 

Please click the link below to go to the newsletter page with all the important information for this process.  

Leaving FWPS for 2026? 

If your family is planning to leave for another school next year, we would really appreciate you emailing us at: footscray.west.ps@education.vic.gov.au using the subject line (above).

2026 Additional Considerations for Class Placement 

Each year we provide the opportunity for parents and carers to communicate additional considerations for class placement for the following school year.  We ask all families to carefully consider whether they need to make a submission, as class placement is a complex process that involves all our teaching and leadership staff to develop over much of Term 4.  There are clear and abiding parameters that we have in place.  Please read with careful consideration and if you choose to make a submission, do so by Friday, 17th October (Week 2, Term 4).  There will be no opportunity for late submissions.

Please click the link below to go to the newsletter page with all the important information for this process (scroll to the bottom on the page).

Reminders and Repeated Messages