In this week’s newsletter:

Appreciations and News

End of year acknowledgement
Year 6 Graduation Evening
Year 6 Art
Anna Kurvink’s retirement function
The Eagle has (nearly) landed
Welcoming Starts in 2026
Graduation Award Winners
2026 School and Class Captains
Christmas appeal
From last week’s assembly
Students leaving FWPS

Coming Up

Assembly tomorrow
School concludes at 1.20pm tomorrow

Appreciations and News

End of Year Acknowledgement

As we prepare for our final day of the school year, this is an ideal time to reflect on the many positive experiences shared across our student, staff and parent / carer community. From the excitement of first classes, to a rich and varied curriculum, camps, incursions and excursions, swimming programs, athletics day, interschool sport, the conclusion for the Berry Street Model staff training, and transition programs for new Preps and our soon-to-be Year 7 students, the list goes on. The fact that we managed the above (and much more) with the big and noisy challenge of working next to a building site, along with managing the loss of grounds and facilities speaks highly of us valuing and practising our school value of resilience. We have many reasons for gratitude at FWPS. Great teachers and education support staff, fantastic kids and a parent and carer body that values education and the work we do. I would like to pay particular appreciation to my principal class colleagues, our leadership team and our administration team. People make the difference and we have plenty of people power at FWPS!

Grade 6 Graduation Event

This week has been particularly significant for our Year 6 cohort. They were so excited to participate in their graduation event and enjoyed a relaxed and harmonious Picnic in the Park yesterday. One final moment remains to mark their transition, as we farewell them at the conclusion of our final assembly - a fitting and joyful celebration as they move on to the next stage of their journey. I will return to this subject later in this report.

Year 6 Art

Featuring the marvellous year 6 mural of every child that was a wonderful feature at graduation on Monday night (thanks Susie for curating this marvel and Taleb for somehow managing to deliver it to FNPS and get it to stand up!)

Some wonderful and creative renditions of our Wallaby Building:

Anna’s Retirement Function

Yesterday after school we had a lovely celebration of Anna Kurvink’s 38 years in teaching, 33 of them at FWPS. Attending were Anna’s husband Tony and daughter Elise, along with some former staff members who will be remembered fondly by many of you. It was great to speak with (even if only briefly) to Caren Taylor, Lyn Wilkinson, Silvana O’Sullivan, David Oke and Helen Simmons. Attending also were our current staffing team. I had the privilege of making a speech and it was to Anna’s deep commitment to her role, her care for students and the strong relationships she has formed with colleagues that I focused on. Anna was born to be a primary teacher and when you consider that she has taught in Prep at FWPS for the last 14 years it is obvious that as a leadership team we have been very happy with her work. Anna has always been respectful and professional in her dealings with all. We will miss Anna, however we are very pleased that she will be able to take time to do the things she loves to do and unwind from the constant demands and pace of teaching. Thanks to Kerrie Ahrens for the following montage of photos.

The Eagle has (nearly) Landed

Today I had the pleasure of accompanying each of the Year 6 classes on the very first visit to our gym, music, Food Technology (STEM) and canteen spaces in the new Eagle Building. The Year 6 students were given this special opportunity as they are the one cohort who will not have the chance to fully benefit from this outstanding new development next year.

Izzy Frazzetto claimed the dual honour of being the very first foot through the door and first basket, Madi Munro took the first shot and Leo Hardcastle delivered the first slam dunk (at junior height, Leo), we toured each of the indoor spaces as well as the beautifully landscaped outdoor area.

Site Supervisor, Daniel Rowe - widely acknowledged as the world’s greatest expert on the Eagle Building—shared fascinating insights into the build, alongside Construction Manager, Duncan Lindsay. We were also joined by Local Member Katie Hall, who was warmly applauded in recognition of her integral role in securing the funding that made this remarkable project possible. Several School Council members were also able to attend and enjoy this milestone moment for our school community.

Welcoming Starts in 2026

Our staff team have been considering recommendations from our Wellbeing and Leadership teams on how we can better accommodate student needs at the busy beginning of the school day. For several years we have had in place gate opening at 8:40am, play in the yard until music starts at 8:48am and line up for the school start at 8:50am.

This week we successfully put forward a proposal to our School Council for an adjustment to the school day to accommodate ‘Welcoming Starts’. This will involve the classroom doors being open to students each morning before the official start time. (Doors open at 8:50am with an official start time is 9:00am and the finish time to be put back to 3:30pm).

This proposal requires us to push back the official school day times by 10 minutes.

Under this proposal:

Staff would still be expected to arrive no later than 8:40am.
Gates would open at 8:40am for students to play in the yard, as is currently the case.
Classrooms would then open for a ‘Welcoming Entry’ from 8:50am to 9:00am, where classrooms are open to students who wish to enter optionally prior to the official start time of 9:00am. Teachers to be present in rooms.
Students would not need to line up outside the rooms in the morning. Once the music starts at 8:55am, they commence entering the rooms.
Instruction time would begin at 9:00am, starting with the Morning Circle. As instruction time would start ten minutes later, the school day would be adjusted to a 3:30pm pick up time.

A separate Compass posting sharing this information will be sent this week and repeated before we return for the new school year.

To facilitate the Welcoming Starts and meet current staffing industrial agreement requirements, further adjustments would also be necessary within the daily schedule (see below). More emphasis will be placed on the snack/healthy food break. Students will eat lunch and afternoon snack after play rather than before play.

The advantages are:

Provide time for the teacher to work through social problems straight from play breaks during the eating time.
Allow students to be more ‘ready to learn’, as students have time to calm after the break (while they eat).
Reduce the amount of rubbish in the yard (less time spent on clean up).
Provide more time for play in the yard in the mornings if that is the child’s preference.
Provide a calmer yard in the mornings, with the aim of reducing student anxiety about entering classrooms (and hopefully reduce the amount of late arrivals).
All in all, this will help us get classes settled after play and focussed on learning.

What the day would look like:

Time	Activity
8:40am - 8:50am	Gates open. Staff required onsite at 8:40am. Students can play in a supervised yard.
8:50am – 9:00am	Welcoming Entry Doors open to classrooms. Teachers required in classrooms for those who wish to enter. Some may choose to keep playing Music to indicate when all are to head inside to prepare for the sharp 9am start. (8:55am). We also are hopeful this approach will reduce latecomers.
9:00am – 9:50am	Session 1
9:50am – 10:40am	Session 2 Fruit / healthy snack break
10:40am – 11:30am	Session 3
11:30am – 12:10pm	Lunch play
12:10pm – 12:20pm	Lunch eating
12:20pm – 1:10pm	Session 4
1:10pm – 2:00pm	Session 5
2:00pm – 2:30pm	Recess play
2:30pm – 2:40pm	Recess eating
2:40pm – 3:30pm	Session 6

Graduation Awards

Each year at our Grade 6 Graduation we acknowledge student excellence and efforts in literacy, numeracy, in our specialists’ program and our citizenship awards. We were delighted to provide awards to the following students, who will also be acknowledged at assembly tomorrow.

Congratulations to the Year 6 Graduation Award winners

Russell Ford Classroom Encouragement Awards:

6ML - Florence Bedggood-Mackintosh
6ML - Remy Truong
6MA - Ella Walsh
6MA - Sebastian Lam
6MI - Lucy Schwartz
6MI - Henry Acosta

Specialist Awards:

Physical Education Award - Harry Lacy
Art Award - Hudson Jose
Music Award - Ewan Morrison
Italian Award - Tavish Riley
Library Award - Stella Ho

Community & Citizenship Awards

The Thelma McAlinden and Phyllis Carson Award - Emma Thistlethwaite & Jack Thatcher
The Lyn Burnham Peer Support Award - Alec Lombardi

Dr Moss Cass Award for Community and Integrity

The next award was presented by our special guest, State Member for Footscray, Katie Hall. Katie spoke about the great legacy Dr Moss Cass left for the people of the west during an incredible career of service. This year, the third year it has been awarded, the recipient was Lachlan Sketchley.

Academic Achievement Awards

There are 3 numeracy and 3 literacy awards. Students who are selected for these awards have shown the following qualities:

- Shown academic excellence and consistent and sustained effort

- Shown an ability to work with your teachers and your peers to achieve your personal best

- Displayed a growth mindset by taking on challenges in your stride

- And lastly, consistently demonstrated the School Values

Literacy: The Frank Burtonclay Award - Lola Vuddamalay
Literacy: The Frederick Mellor Award - Grace O'Connor
Literacy: The Caren Taylor Award - Hannah Logan
Numeracy: The Sylvia McColl Award - Sebastien Vuong
Numeracy: The Paul Bailey Award - Ronin Do
Numeracy: The Jeanette Fielding Award - Adi Birdahic

All Rounder Award

The final, most prestigious award of the ceremony, is the Harold Lunn All Rounder Award. This year the All Rounder award winner was selected as she achieved at or near the top in both Numeracy and Literacy assessments. In addition to academic strengths, she was noticed by her peers for her exemplary citizenship across the school year and for being an outstanding member of the school community.

The Harold Lynn All Rounder Award - Zoe Mitchell Crow

We would like to acknowledge all our grade 6 graduates and will ensure that they receive a rousing send off at tomorrow’s end of term assembly prior to our 1:20pm early finish for the year.

We will also acknowledge the year 6 students who have been recognised for inclusion in the Sports Academy at Maribyrnong Secondary College.
Annual awards for team members in the Environment Team and Marrung Representatives will also be presented at tomorrow’s assembly. We will not list the successful recipients prior to assembly in order to maintain the joy that a wonderful surprise provides.
Environment Team Chris Goethel Award 2025 (Presented by Caity Gray and Mikala Connor)
Marrung Award (presented by Tess Maddison)

School and Class Captains in 2026

In a change of approach for next year we have moved forward our captaincy selection process for our 2026 school and class captains. The process for our school captains involved a short list derived through a preferential election process voted on by all current year 5 students following the excellent lead up where the term 4 topic was a focus on leadership. The short listed students then were interviewed by Carolyn and myself on Monday. It was a difficult decision as they presented thoughtfully, nevertheless we were delighted to announce that in 2026 our school captains will be Kyani Troedel and Marlo Hellier.

Once this process was completed the year 5 students met in their 2026 grade groups and voted on the class captains. Congratulations to the successful candidates:

6MI

6TF

6MT

Leni Richter

Harvey Newell

Maggie Halpin

Harrison Tomas

Louis Ashley Chiew

Wilma Majewski-Wang*

Brigid Kelly

Penny Ung

Seamus O’Brien*

Eva Kerekere

Zane Bennett

Zoe Georgopoulos

Coco Foster

*Please note that as there was a tie with voting for 2 students in 6TF, we selected an additional captain for that class.

In a new tradition we will invite our outgoing 2025 captains to present the new captains with their badge. This will occur during a busy last assembly on Friday afternoon.

JSC Christmas Appeal

Our very successful FWPS JSC / Salvation Army Christmas Appeal has concluded and it took considerable time for the items to be collected and deposited in the pick up truck. There will be many families in western Melbourne having joy at Christmas due to our community’s marvellous generosity.

From Last Week’s Assembly

Our Sporting teams were well represented in our local school’s district finals events. Congratulations to all participants and appreciations to members of our year 6 teaching team and Stratos. Pictured are our premiership winners and runners up representatives.

Congratulations Sienna Battaglia (6MI) for being a successful applicant for the Braybrook Secondary College Sports Scholarship. Pictured is Siena after receiving the scholarship with her marvellously supportive teacher, Mikala and myself.

Last week I informed our community that the following staff members will be leaving FWPS to new schools in 2026. To recap they are along with Anna, Medha, Joanna, Michelle and Liberty. We wish them all the best with their next opportunity.

We also acknowledge the FWPS families that are leaving us as their last child graduates this year and to families who are moving onto different neighbourhoods and new schools - we thank you for your many contributions and wish you all well.

Year 6 Students

Ibraheem Abdullahi

Mason Betts

Adi Birdahic

Flynn Bishop

Owen Brownstein

Divyanga Chopra

Frankie Clonan

Molly Crisp

Jude Davies

Oliver Doherty

Molly Dunn

Owen Elliott

Samuel Ferdinands

Solomon Flight

Krystal Gill

Lourdes Giraldo-Chisholm

Sam Howe

Rory Jones

Hudson Jose

Amelia Kristy

Julian Leighton-Hough

Archer Lloyd

Elec Lombardi

Monty McGregor

Sophie Milonas

Zoe Mitchell Crow

Ernest Njoo

Alexander Pola

Angelica Sairat

Lucy Schwartz

Liana Sfetkas

Eva Shorten

Indi Simons Pritchard

Finn Szekeres

Jack Thatcher

Kobe Truong

Remy Truong

Evie Vaughan

Lola Vuddamalay

Amelie Yallappa

Families Leaving FWPS

Edo Anderson-Carter

Sid Campbell

Leo Carratelli

Oliver Derks

Geeba Kromah

Lucy McCullen

Jack McCullen

Mayiik Robert

Layla Reigos

Akoch Kiir

Oliver Sia

Elijah Sia

Gabriel Rodriguez

Asha Pearce

Eric Pham

Coming Up

Assembly

We will hold a final outdoor assembly after recess tomorrow. School will be dismissed for the January holidays at 1:20pm. TheirCare will run their program from this earlier time on this day. Please ensure you have made arrangements to collect your child at this earlier time.

Cheers,

Brendan

Repeated from Last Term

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).

Reminders and Repeated Messages

Wellbeing & Inclusion News

For parents and carers - Wellbeing support for students during school holidays