Learning & Teaching 

LEARNING AND TEACHING NEWS- Vira Pirrotta

This year, our school has continued to align our teaching and learning practices with the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) Vision for Instruction and Flourishing Learners position statement. 

This focuses on ensuring that every student learns to their full potential through high-quality teaching, strong partnerships, and a commitment to continuous improvement. It highlights the importance of evidence-informed practice, teacher collaboration, and the development of instructional approaches that maximise student learning and wellbeing.

In line with this vision and our current pedagogical framework, the school has been strengthening our focus on daily review and retrieval practices. These strategies support students in building long-term memory and managing cognitive load, helping them retain and apply their learning more effectively. Staff have also deepened their understanding of Cognitive Load Theory and how it informs the design of effective lessons.

Teachers have participated in ongoing professional learning to enhance further explicit teaching practices, which are already well established at our school. This professional growth ensures consistency and clarity in the way we deliver instruction across all year levels.

To further improve student outcomes, we have implemented a range of systematic phonics and spelling programs across the school, including InitiaLit, MiniLit, and SMART Spelling. These programs provide a structured, evidence-based approach to developing literacy skills, helping every student become a confident, capable reader and writer. 

This year, we also reviewed our Homework Policy to reflect suggestions from the School Advisory Board, ensuring it supports student learning and family balance. 

Together, these initiatives reflect our ongoing commitment to providing a rigorous, inclusive, and engaging learning environment where every student can thrive. 

Don’t forget to order your 2025 School Concert recording!

The recording captures all the fantastic performances from the night and is a great way to relive the memories with your child.

Families can order their copy through the link below. The concert will be provided on a USB drive, allowing you to view it easily on your home devices.

Order here:  St Fidelis concert:

 https://www.villagegreenfilms.com.au/product/st-fidelis-concert-usb-stick/

Have a wonderful week.

Vira 

LITERACY NEWS - Bernadette Parnis

Reading 

Year 3/4 Novel Study – The One and Only Ivan

This term, Year 3/4 students are reading The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. The story is told from the perspective of Ivan, a gorilla who lives in a shopping mall and discovers the power of friendship, hope, and art. Through this novel, students will explore themes of empathy, freedom, and compassion for animals. They will also strengthen their reading comprehension, vocabulary, and inferencing skills while discussing character emotions, relationships, and the author’s message about kindness and courage.

Year 5/6 Novel Study – Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow

This term, Year 5/6 students are reading Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend. The story follows Morrigan, a young girl thought to be cursed, who is unexpectedly invited to the magical city of Nevermoor to compete in a series of mysterious trials. Through this novel, students will explore themes of courage, resilience, and belonging. They will also develop key literacy skills, including comprehension, analysis, and vocabulary, while discussing character development and the author’s use of imagination and world-building.

Welcome to this week’s Creative Corner.

Each week I’ll share a fun idea to spark imaginations and get everyone writing (or drawing).

The Mysterious Key

While you’re walking or playing one day, you spot something shiny half-buried in the ground, a strange key. It doesn’t look like any key you’ve ever seen before and you have no idea what it unlocks.

What will you do next?

Write or draw a short story or description about what happens when you find the key.

Parent note:

This activity is optional. 

Encourage your child to share their ideas through writing or pictures. Talk together about where the key might lead and who might be waiting on the other side.- What does the key look, feel, and sound like? (Is it cold and rusty, or warm and glowing?)- What might it open? A door, a chest, a secret passage, or something magical?- Who or what could be waiting when they finally unlock it?

Let their imagination take them anywhere; mysterious, magical, funny, or even a little bit spooky.

Introducing a feature book for Our Newsletter

To inspire a love of reading and spark meaningful conversations between children and their families, we’re introducing a new feature in our newsletter showcasing a specially selected Australian picture book each month. These books are chosen for their beautiful storytelling, engaging themes, and ability to connect with young readers in a fun and thoughtful way.

Book of the Week: The Wobbly Bike by Darren McCallum, illustrated by Craig Smith

https://www.abc.net.au/kidslisten/programs/book-week/the-wobbly-bike/105636090 

The Wobbly Bike, a Book Week Shortlisted title, is a joyful story about learning to ride and finding confidence through perseverance. With plenty of wobbles and a lot of heart, it celebrates courage, practice, and the thrill of finally getting it right. 

OPTIONAL - Discussion Prompt

Talk with your child about something new they’ve learned recently. How did they feel when they finally mastered it?

Family Activity Idea

Head out for a family bike ride or walk and chat about your own “wobbly” moments that led to success!

SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUB 

Issue 7 catalogues are now available. Orders due back by Monday, 27 October.

Have a great week. 

Bernadette Parnis

bparnis@sfmoreland.catholic.edu.au 

NUMERACY NEWS - Colleen Monaghan

Congratulations to Ben Nahas for winning the Maths Award this week. You showed how clever you are with your work with fractions .

A HUGE thankyou to our lovely parents, Phil Mazzarella, Rose  Piotti,  Sally Thornton and Lindi Dutton who supported us on our Senior Maths Games day last Thursday.

The kids were amazing on the day working so well as a team, cooperating and collaborating throughout the day.

Congratulations to all students for your work on the day and to the winners of each session.

A huge Congratulations to our 2025 Senior Games Day winners, Leon, Max, Anderson and Ben.

Our next Games Day is on Thursday. 

Our Juniors will be competing all day in various maths tasks, we wish them well.

Thankyou to the parents who have volunteered their time to support on this day.

PE & SPORTS NEWS - Michael Jennings

NORTHERN METROPOLITAN ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

The Northern Metropolitan Region Athletics Championships were held on Wednesday 15 October at the Meadowglen Athletics Stadium, Epping.

Congratulations to Elizabeth and Max on qualifying to participate at this event.

Elizabeth competed in the 10 Year Girls Shot Put and Max competed in the 12 Year Boys High Jump event.

This is an amazing effort and they should feel very proud of their efforts, as we at St Fidelis are very proud of them.

ST FIDELIS ATHLETICS/SPORTS DAY

The St Fidelis Annual Athletics/Sports Carnival for students from Foundation-Year 6 will be held on Friday 31 October 2025. The venue will be Coburg Athletics Track.

PARENTS & FAMILIES ARE MOST WELCOME TO ATTEND TO SUPPORT THE STUDENTS AND THEIR TEAMS

If possible, the students can wear coloured items to represent their team such as socks, t-shirts, ribbon, bands etc. 

Please note that in the event of extreme weather conditions, the Sports Carnival will be postponed. Back-up Day will be Friday 7 November 2025.

STEM NEWS - Joe Frazzetto

FIRST LEGO League Challenge 2025 – What an Incredible Achievement!

On Tuesday, 14th October 2025, our students proudly represented St Fidelis Primary School at the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Challenge, hosted at Caulfield Grammar Shelford Campus, 3 Hood Crescent, Caulfield.

FIRST LEGO League is a friendly, hands-on STEM competition where students aged 9–16 work in teams to research, problem-solve, code, and engineer a LEGO robot to complete a series of themed missions. Alongside the robot game, teams also develop a research project, identifying and proposing solutions to real-world issues.

The program is guided by the FIRST Core Values, which celebrate:

• Discovery – Exploring new skills and ideas
• Innovation – Using creativity and persistence to solve problems
• Impact – Applying learning to improve our world
• Inclusion – Embracing differences and respecting each other
• Teamwork – Working better together

• Fun – Enjoying and celebrating what we do

   

Our amazing team, St Fidelis Robo League — Zara, Gemma, Erica, Angelina, Estelle, Jacob, Zac, Monte, Sam, and Caleb — competed against 19 schools from across Victoria, ranging from primary to secondary levels. For our first time participating in such a large-scale event, our students absolutely held their own!

We’re thrilled to share that St Fidelis Robo League achieved the second-highest overall score, even surpassing the top score from the previous tournaments!This is an incredible achievement that reflects their dedication, creativity, and teamwork throughout the entire journey.

While we may not have come home with a trophy, we returned with something far more valuable: 

Resilience, Friendship, and Memories.

Our students faced challenges, surprises, and time pressure — but they rose above it all with teamwork, innovation, and determination. That’s the true spirit of FIRST LEGO League and what real success looks like.

We couldn’t be prouder of our St Fidelis Robo League team!

Watch the highlights video of the day to relive all the action, teamwork, and excitement!

https://youtu.be/FJBbVixc1Rs 

#FLL #ProudTeam #Resilience #WeDidIt

ST FIDELIS LEGO LEAGUE SQUAD’S NEWS REPORT

On Tuesday, the 14th of October 2025, the St Fidelis Robo League went to Caulfield Grammar to compete in the Lego League competition. Lego League is a competition where teams have to make a robot that can do a series of tasks.

At 8:00am the team left for Caulfield Grammar. When we arrived we had an opening ceremony announcing all 19 teams. At 9:40am it was our first round and me, Zara, Sam and Angelina got a score of 115pts. It was a good round that put us in 7th place.

Later that morning we presented our robot design and innovation project to the judges. It went well but we had some tough questions.

Then came the second round where the team had an amazing round. Our Erica, Jacob, Estelle and Caleb  got 220pts which put us to the top of the leaderboard. It was great to be at the top.

After lunch, it was round 3. Zac and Monte got a score of 165pts. Even though it wasn’t enough to keep us on top we were still proud of the amazing score of 165pts.

Then at the end of the day we had a closing ceremony which announced the awards. Even though we didn’t get into the top 4 like we should have, it was still a fun day for the team.

By Gemma Piotti

The day started with coming to school at 7:45am to get ready for the Maxi Taxi to come and bring us to Caulfield Grammar school. We left school at 8:00am. It takes us around an hour to get to Caulfield Grammar from St. Fidelis. We entered Caufield at 9:01 almost exactly 1 hour on the dot. We go and look for our table that says St.Fidelis Robo Team. Once we found our table we went to go practise on the map. We found a problem though. We can't start out of the map to reach one of the challenges, but in the end we figured it out that we just have to change the positioning. The first group had their go at the challenges and received 115 points which was very good. Then we had the innovation project and robot design which was fun, but one of the judges asked a question that shattered our innovation project. The robot design was good too. They were impressed when they heard we were in year 6. Then the second group (my group) went to complete the challenges. We got the second best points in the whole entire day, we scored 220 points which was unbelievable. The 3rd group went and got 165 points. Then there were the presentations at the end. Sadly we got no trophies considering we got second place. We left Caulfield Grammar at 2:40pm and got to school at 3:20. When we got to school we played markers up. That was my day at FFL 2025.

 By Jacob Pasceri

We arrived at school by 07:30AM to head to the Caulfield Grammar Campus. We took a Maxi Taxi to get to the tournament. Our team had 5 boys and 5 girls, Sam, Caleb, Jacob, Monte and Zac. The girls were Gemma, Estelle, Angelina, Zara And Erica. When we got to the tournament,  we found our table and had the opening ceremony. Then we started practicing. We had 1⁄2 an hour between the opening ceremony and the first round. Our first four team members to head up were Zara, Sam, Gemma and Angelina. They did really well and got 115 points which put us in 3rd place by the end of the first round. Next we had the innovation project and the robot design presentation. The judges asked some really difficult questions but the team handled them really well. Before the second round, we had our recess break but then the time had come for the second round. Our second round team was Caleb, Jacob, Estelle and Erica. They got our highest score of the day, with 220 points putting us in 1st place over Butterfly Effect (another team). Next up was lunch, where we went to the playground across the road. When we got back inside it was time for the third round where it was up to Monte and Zac. In total they got 165 points but Butterfly Effect got 245 making them win but it wasn't over. There was still the awards ceremony, unfortunately we didn't win any trophies or get offered a spot at nationals. We left Caulfield at 02:30 to arrive back at school by 03:30. 

After all, the day was really successful and we were really proud of how we did and how we represented our school.

By Zac Ambrosini

Last Tuesday we competed at the First Lego League competition at Caulfield Grammar.

We started the day off by taking a mini bus to Caulfield Grammar to start off the competition. It took about an hour to get there.

When we got there we started practising on the mat. There were some last minute realisations about where the robot could be placed but we soon improvised and got the coding and positioning under control. Our first team started their round. They had 2 minutes to complete it and they ended up with a great score.

After that we started our presentations. The judges threw us some tricky questions about our project and robot design but the project design team answered them well. The judges were very impressed.

Then our second team completed their challenges. We did very well and ended up with a high score of 220, placing us first on the ladder.

We watched some other teams compete, we had lunch and then we went to the playground and oval on the other side.

After that we came in and completed our final challenges. We did very well. After that we had a bit of time to watch other teams compete. 

At the end we had the presentation of awards. The judges took a bit of time to arrive so we told some jokes in the meantime. Then the awards were presented. Unfortunately we did get any awards but we still did very well. We learnt a lot from the day and had lots of fun competing and presenting. Then we took the mini bus back to school and played in the yard until 3:30. It was an amazing day that I think we all enjoyed a lot .

By Estelle Kelly 

It all started with early Tuesday morning for all of us getting to school by 7:45 am just to get on to the Maxi Taxi. It was an hour drive just to get to Caulfield Grammar, I was so tired so I had a power nap in the car, it was totally worth it though. 

As soon as we got there we started getting ready for our challenges and presentations. First up was my group in the FLL challenges and my word it WAS a challenge ending the run on 115 points. Next it was presentation time. The innovation project group were up first, in that group were Me, Caleb, Erica, Angelina and Zara. We decided to make our project on landmines, it was called the MineFinder, saving lives by destroying mines. The presentation was over and it was question time, one judge gave us a question we weren’t prepared to answer and hammered more questions at us until we were done. Next was the robot design in that team was Monte, Jacob, Estelle, Zac and Gemma. We were halfway through the day and we still had two more groups to do the challenges. This time it was Jacob, Erica, Caleb and Estelle’s group who finished the run with a whopping 220 points putting the St Fidelis Robo League on top of the leaderboard.

Stress was among us as we only had one team left and only one rival, The Butterfly Effect, a team made up of two individuals that weren’t even representing a school. They were our main competition standing at 210 points. Our last group was Monte and Zac’s group and on the other side of the table was… The Butterfly Effect. Monte and Zac finished the run at 165 points and The Butterfly Effect finished at 245 points beating making us second.

The day was over and sadly we didn’t progress through to nationals or win a trophy, we left at about 2:30 pm and arrived at 3:20 pm just in time to get picked up by our parents at school.

By Sam Louca 

On Tuesday, the 14th of October, the LEGO League team made their way to Caulfield Grammar, where the LEGO League competition was held.

At the start, while teams were still getting seated, all of the participating schools were announced. Then, the competition began — this was where we would earn most of our points.

The first group to compete scored 115 points, which was the leading score for the first two rounds. The members of this team were Gemma Piotti, Angelina Hude, Zara Azzopardi, and Samuel Luca. This team showed great teamwork, communication, and resilience.

The next group to compete — and who held the highest score until the end — was Jacob Pasceri, Erica De Fazio, Estelle Kelly, and Caleb Porter. This group earned the most points from precision tokens and their amazing team effort. Their overall score was 220 points.

The last team to complete the challenges was Monte and Zac’s team, who were up against Butterfly Effect. During the challenges, the robot seemed to miss a few targets. Butterfly Effect ended up winning that round with an overall score of 240 points, which put us at risk of finishing 2nd or 3rd. However, we still had hope that our project would help bring our team back to the top.

Sadly, our project — The Mind Finder and Kylie 25 — didn’t quite meet the judges’ expectations. Still, we were proud of how well we presented our project, which we had worked on for weeks, and how clearly we explained our robot and its functions.

In the end, we came second place, which we worked very hard to achieve. Butterfly Effect came first, only 20 points ahead of us.

Later in the day, there was a ceremony where awards were given to teams for teamwork, scores, and positive attitudes. Although we didn’t receive an award, even after coming second, it was still an amazing and fun day overall.

The day was full of excitement, from the challenges to the commentary by Ryan Evans, who kept everyone entertained while keeping score.

 By Angelina Hude

On Tuesday, the 14th of October, a group of ten students from St Fidelis Catholic Primary School arrived at school at 7:45 a.m. to travel to Caulfield Grammar for the First LEGO League (FLL) tournament. The journey took about 45 minutes in a maxi taxi through the city of Melbourne.

When they arrived, it was 9:00 a.m. The opening ceremony was scheduled for 9:45 a.m., so the team had some time to practise and prepare. During the ceremony, all the team names were announced, and the organisers explained what the FLL is all about.

The first round began immediately, so the St Fidelis Robo League headed over to the challenge table after observing some of the other teams’ performances. It was finally their turn — Sam, Zara, Gemma, and Angelina stepped up to take the reins in the 2.5-minute challenge. They scored 125 points!

Next, the team hurried to the innovation and robot presentations. They had to wait a little while for the judges to finish marking the previous team. Once it was their turn, they began with the Innovation Project. Caleb, Erica, Sam, Zara, and Angelina presented The Mine Finder — a revolutionary design combining drone surveillance and robots to detect and deactivate landmines around the world. One of the judges asked them some tricky questions, but the group handled them well.

Next came the Robot Design Presentation, led by Zac, Monte, Jacob, Gemma, and Estelle, where they explained how their robot worked and what made it effective in the challenges.

Afterwards, they had a short break before the second round, where Caleb, Erica, Estelle, and Jacob performed brilliantly. They only needed to grab the robot once and scored an impressive 220 points — everyone was so proud!

Following a well-earned lunch break, it was time for the third round. Zac and Monte represented the team against another group called The Butterfly Effect. They scored 165 points, while The Butterfly Effect scored 245 points, giving them the win.

Finally, it was time for the award ceremony. Unfortunately, St Fidelis Robo League didn’t win any awards this time, but the team was proud of their efforts and everything they achieved throughout the day. After the ceremony, they headed home, tired but happy after a fun and exciting experience.

By Caleb Porter

ITALIAN NEWS - Rosa Fokianos

BUONGIORNO! 

Salve a tutti i bambini e alle loro famiglie, (Hello to all the children and their families). 

I hope everyone enjoyed il sole (the sunshine) sabato (Saturday), then ieri (yesterday), unfortunately it changed to being nuvoloso ma abbastanza caldo, (cloudy but warm enough).

ITALIAN FESTA 2025

As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, I was going to see the Italian Festa & Expo 2025 over this weekend. So ieri (yesterday), I went down with my famiglia (family), to the Royal Exhibition Building & Museum Plaza in Carlton and saw it. 

There were so many bancarelle con diversi cibi italiani, (stalls with different Italian food), including some of my favourites such as cozze, arrosticini, cannoli e cartucci. There were more than 50 food marquees and trucks! 🍕

There were also areas for children to play games and go on rides, music and dancing on various stages, including a Zecchino d’oro stage where various primary school children sang Italian songs…perhaps we may try to audition next year?? There was even a best tiramisù competition! Mmmm, buonissimo! 🥮

The Italian Festa took place both days of the weekend, from 11am-10.30pm, sabato (Saturday) and 11am-8.30pm, domenica (Sunday). Overall, it was a busy place, with tante persone (many people), good food, good wine, entertainment and of course different Italian goods. 

Mi sono divertito molto, (I certainly had fun)! I wonder if anyone else from our St Fidelis school community went, if so, I’d love to hear what you saw and did. 

I have attached below some photos that I took and compiled them into grouped collages. Can anyone guess what each group's theme was? 😃

Until next time, buona settimana! (have a good week).

Signora Rosa 🌹