Tania’s Trip

Tania has been in regular contact with us back at school and has shared with us some of the amazing adventures she’s having over in India as part of the Women in School Leadership Summit. She has had a chance to collaborate with a group of 24 inspirational principals - 12 from India and 12 from Australia - with a focus on empowering girls through education. Here are a few photos from her trip. Tania will be back at school with many stories to share on Monday!

International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program Information Session

A reminder that next week we will be hosting an information session about the potential benefits of the Primary Years Program of the International Baccalaureate at Fitzroy North Primary School next Wednesday 15th October at 6pm.

The Primary Years Program (PYP) is an inquiry based framework that can support the delivery of the Victorian Curriculum. The leadership team has undertaken preliminary investigations into the philosophical alignment between FNPS and the Primary Years Program as well as the practical implications.

We’d love to see you there - either face-to-face or online. You can register your interest at this link: https://forms.gle/mzLEybAGciNEDZtw5

Prep Swimming

We have made it to the finish line with Prep Swimming! Congratulations to all our Prep students who have worked so hard over the last two weeks - there’s been a lot of exhausted bodies back at school in the afternoons (including parents and teachers!). I want to thank the large number of volunteers who make the swimming program possible - and of course our wonderful Prep team for their organisation and wrangling of children for what is a very important part of the curriculum.

Inside and Outside the Classrooms

As always, there’s been a lot happening across the school this week. This included an adventure to the museum on Wednesday as part of their term 4 inquiry focused on ‘Sharing the Planet. Some of the highlights included an iMax film which showed how the earth has changed over time and the impact that humans have had. They also explored the Bugs and 600 Million Years Exhibits, although from many of the students I spoke with, the tram ride was one of the highlights!

Yesterday the wonderful performers from Music Viva Australia put on a show called Music in My Suitcase for the whole school on the basketball court. It was a high energy, interactive show full of singing and storytelling. The students listened and sang along to music from many cultures and languages, including Kurdish, Arabic and Welsh. Henry from 3/4DB even had a chance to come up and share his Vietnamese language skills, which were included in one of the songs!

At the end of the show the performers provided our school with their special ‘seal of approval’ based on the students' level of respectful and energetic participation (apparently this is a reward only given to a small number of schools they perform to!). Thank you to our music teacher Tanya D for organising this fantastic event.

In the upper years, now that our Grade 6 students are close to graduating, they are getting ready for the ‘real world’ with their inquiry focus, The School of Life. The learning through this unit has integrated literacy and numeracy, with other areas of the curriculum including economics.

I chatted to CEO Alex (6BM) to find out a little more: ‘The school of life is what we’re doing for inquiry. We just completed our applications for our jobs and congratulations to those who have been successful in their applications! I think nearly everyone got the job that they were hoping for. I was appointed CEO which was definitely the job that I was hoping for. We also have recently done our lesson on taxes and figured out all sorts of things, including our fortnightly income based on our jobs. It’s really interesting. My annual salary before tax is $450,000, but after tax it’s $273,000. It’s a lot of tax, unfortunately! Next we’re applying for home loans and purchasing a car. We need to figure out how we’re going to get to work. Definitely a lot of budgeting is involved as well!”

I also spoke with Alfie (6BM) about his new career, “I applied for the job of a musician. I just love playing music! I now have to pay tax and collect my income. Every fortnight I get $700. I’m not sure yet what I’ll spend it on! The school of life has been really fun.”

I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend.

Toby

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