Principals` Message

Looking back over Term Two we have had some fantastic highs for our students. We have seen great learning taking place in class in both English and French classes, especially in our Foundation classes – it is so fantastic to see how far they have come in the last 6 months. We have had a number of excursions taking place to the Melbourne Museum, Arts Centre, MCG, Gene Technology Access Centre, Fitzroy Library and Atherton Gardens. There have been incursions and visits to our school from Pets in School, GTAC, Virtual Reality, Endeavour Youth, Yarra Youth Services, African Drumming, and Tennis. These opportunities both broaden and strengthen in class learning and also provide great memories for our students. 

We have also hosted visits from some VIPs, with Victorian Members of Parliament (Minister Ben Carroll, Minister Enver Erdogan, MP Sheena Watt and MP Gabrielle Di Vietri) and a Federal Senator (Senator Jane Hume) coming for visits, tours and to make announcements – including the announcement of funds to modernize Napier St. In addition to our highs, we have also experienced some lows. However the silver lining of these incidents has been the way our school community worked together to provide support to everyone. We have wonderful families and a great community at Fitzroy Primary School.

As a bilingual school we have a school experience that is different to other primary schools. Our learning day and week looks different due to the split between English and French. Our classes primarily have two teachers for most of the week, instead of one. Our curriculum is taught in two languages with learning bridging them both. These changes have evolved over time as the French program has grown and developed. This year we have looked to improve our reporting processes in two ways – formal school reports and parent-teacher conferences. Earlier this term we sought feedback from our families about school reports and have used that feedback to make improvements to our reports that will increase accessibility for everyone and reduce their complexity. These changes also bring our school into closer alignment with the guidelines from the Department of Education. Whilst this is an important change there is one more important change to be made to our reporting – the parent-teacher conferences.

In Term Three we will be holding our parent-teacher conferences but there will be one important change. This year we will be trialling holding the conferences over a full day from 10am-7pm. This will mean that children will be having a pupil free day when we have parent-teacher conferences. This is a change from previous conference days in the past, however it is an important changes for the following reasons:

1. As a bilingual school most of our teachers have two classes to teach, which is on average 40 children across both classes
2. For classroom teachers to meet with all families for at least 10 minutes would equal 400 minutes, which is nearly 7 hours
3. Holding these conferences afterschool hours means teachers accrue Time In Lieu past their standard daily work hours. This means we would need to payback this time to teachers during the following week, thus removing them from teaching their classes for the equivalent hours
4. If we run conferences afterschool we will not have enough timeslots for everyone, so some families may miss out. We want every family to attend conferences 

The parent-teacher conference extends the reporting process by giving parents/carers and teachers time to discuss the child’s learning and wellbeing, what they need to do to improve or supports to be provided. This change is endorsed by school council at our most recent meeting as it allows us to provide total focus on discussions about learning with families while everyone is fresh and without distractions of the school day. The conference day will be on Wednesday 24th July. Should families have any concerns, please see Nathan or Andrea. Thank you for your support with these important changes.

On Friday last week we hosted a visit from Senator Jane Hume to Fitzroy Primary School. Two of our student leaders, Rama and Lewis, showed great Respect in conducting their tour with Jane and explaining to her what makes Fitzroy Primary special. As well as learning about Fitzroy Primary, Jane also presented our student leaders with new Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags. Both Lewis and Rama were great in getting our new flags on the flagpoles straightway, as well as learning how to work the flagpoles, at our yarning circle. Well done Rama and Lewis on being great hosts again for our visitors.

On staffing news, we will be saying a sad bon voyage to Lucy Renehan, who will be travelling overseas to work and learn about bilingualism in Canada. Lucy will be away from Fitzroy Primary for the rest of the 2024 school year and will be returning to us in 2025. We wish Lucy well and look forward to her returning next year. While Lucy is away we are very happy to announce that Rebecca Grimaud will come back to us on Wednesdays to work with our French team and continue the great work being done in our bilingual program.

Thank you to everyone for a great term of learning, play and growth. I wish everyone a happy, healthy and restful school holidays from Friday 28th June. I hope we all enjoy time with family and friends outside and will be ready to go for Term 3 on Monday 15th July.

-Nathan Moore & Andrea Hennessey