News, Appreciations and Acknowledgements

I certainly appreciate the good wishes from students and parents / carers following the news that I shared last week of my plan to go on leave prior to retirement at the end of the school year.

Swim Program Concludes

Our successful P-3 swim program concludes tomorrow. Perhaps the highlight of the bus trip each day might be fading as tiredness is certainly setting in. The program would not have been possible without the co-operation and support of our community. We have marvelled at how resilient the students have been and it has been great to see groups across different cohorts travel together. A final word of appreciation to the staff at the MAC. They do a great job and it was pleasing to hear how much they value the positive relationship they have with our school.

Smile Squad

The Smile Squad completed their work with us late last week. This free program has understandably proven very popular since introduced several years ago, with a pause at FWPS last year due to the construction program. I understand that follow-up treatment is available at their premises in Paisley Street, Footscray.

Now that the area has been vacated by the dental van, we are planning to slightly extend the space by removing the small garden area. This will make better use of this limited space. This work will be done during the September holidays.

Coming Up

Father’s and Special Person’s Day Stall

Tomorrow all grades will be rostered to attend the annual stall during class time to collect a wonderful gift for their dad or another special person in their life. Please appreciate that we can only run due to the hard work and passion of our marvellous Parent’s Association volunteers. Students whose families have chosen not to participate will be supervised in their classes.

Cosmodome incursion

Tomorrow the Year 5s will experience the Cosmodome incursion which will be located in the Eagle Gym. Our Year 5s have previously loved this experience, similar to attending the Planetarium, provided annually and consistent with the cohort learning focus. Who doesn't want to know more about our marvellous solar system?

Assembly

Tomorrow’s assembly will feature a performance by a small group of students from Years 3, 4 and 5. They were inspired by the wonderful music and movement experience provided by Cool4School founder, Marcel at our whole school incursion late last term. Two of our year 6 students, Zoe and Margie, have worked during lunchtimes with Jane, our music teacher, in preparing the presentation with the student volunteers and are looking forward to presenting during tomorrow’s assembly.

As was the case last week, grades 1HL, 2TN, 2DM and 3TM will not attend assembly again this week due to the swim program.

Coming Up Next Week

Music Concert Week

Next Tuesday and Wednesday the Eagle Gymnasium will be the venue for our Musical Futures classroom mini concerts during the day.

Group times were communicated by Compass in a pinned post sent to all families and replicated here, so please double check times to ensure you have the opportunity to attend all sessions that involve your child(ren).

Years Prep-3 Concerts: Tuesday, 8th September 2026

1HL & 2DM - 9:15am to 9:35am
PHM, 2BL & 3TM - 10:05am to 10:30am
PAC, 1CL & 3CG - 10:55am to 11:30am
1HP, 2EP & 3SJ - 12:35pm to 1:00pm
PLL, 1LJ & 2TN - 1:25pm to 1:50pm
PMM, 1MC & 3HH - 2:55pm to 3:20pm

Years 4-6 Concerts: Wednesday, 9th September 2026

4MP & 5DW - 9:20am to 9:40am
4LT & 6MT - 10:10am to 10:30am
5AC & 6MC - 11:10am to 11:30am
4LW & 5AN - 12:40pm to 1:00pm
4TC & 6TF - 1:30pm to 1:50pm

Our Soundgarage mini music concerts will be held during the evening:

Tuesday evening - Henry’s keyboard students 5:30pm - 6:30pm
Wednesday evening - Gary’s guitar and drums 5:30pm - 6:30pm
Wednesday evening - Chloe’s singing and performance 6:30pm - 7:30pm
Thursday evening - Drums with Henry 5:30pm - 6:30pm

Please note that entry for parents and carers will be via the new pedestrian gate on Argyle Street, closest to the sliding car park gate. This was installed to provide a separate entry point to the Eagle Gym via the double doors facing the car park. Many families will have used this pathway when exiting the gym after our recent discos. There should be no requirement to access via the office or school yard.

Please be on time. It is really disappointing for everyone when students miss out on their performance or parents miss their children’s performance.

Hawks Basketball and Rise netball training sessions at school will be cancelled during Music Week.

Official Opening the Eagle Building

We are looking forward to officially opening the Eagle Building during the usual assembly time on Friday of next week, 11th September.

We would love members of our community, including former families, to join us for a markedly different assembly.

(Please note that due to the Eagle Opening taking place on this date, there will be no POTW awards for Week 9.)

Parent / Carer Opinion Survey

The annual Parent / Carer Opinion Survey is a Department of Education mandated process that seeks feedback about families’ experiences of attending their local government school. An email containing a personalised PIN with details of how to access the survey was sent to the Parent A of each household, from the school's email address. Please ensure you check your junk mailbox, in the event it has been diverted there. We still have a response from approximately 10% families and we encourage all families to have their views represented. The survey will conclude on Friday, 18 September 2026.

During the Final Week of Term - Week 10

Kids’ Share

Our twice a year opportunity for families to visit classrooms will occur after school on Wednesday, 16th September.

End of Term

School will conclude at 2:30pm following an early assembly on Friday, 18th September - the final day of Term 3.

Sporting Colours Day

Our annual Sporting Colours Day, a long-standing Term 3 tradition at FWPS will be held on the last day of Term 3. Students are encouraged to wear their favourite sporting gear and bring along a gold coin donation to support State Schools Relief—a charity that supports thousands of Victorian families each year, including some at our school.

Junior School Council (JSC) members will collect donations from classrooms at the start of the day, with senior JSC representatives assisting the Prep classes. The total will be announced at the end-of-term assembly.

Best regards,

Brendan

Repeated and Revised Messages

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