Principals` Message
Pirouettes and push-ups were the theme for the recent year 5&6 excursion to the Arts Centre and MCG sports museum. While these two activities may not seem to go together, they both involve body movement and they provided a fantastic excursion experience for our senior students. The Arts Centre hosted our students for a ballet performance, which for some students was their first live performance. After this artistic cultural experience, the students tried a different cultural experience heading to the MCG and learning about the rich sporting history of Melbourne.
Our students were great ambassadors for our school and had a great learning experience. Our next group of students to go on excursion will be our Foundation students who are heading up to the Melbourne Museum on Wednesday. I look forward to hearing about everything they learn and experience on Wednesday.
On Thursday we hosted our local state government MP Gabrielle Di Vietri for a visit to our school. This visit was part of a series of visits that Gabrielle has been making to schools in her electorate. Our student leaders led Gabrielle around both of our sites, pointing out important parts of our school, sharing their highlights of Primary school and explaining how our learning takes place. Well done to Isabella, Lewis, Abdul and Rama for being great ambassadors and hosts for the visit. Looking ahead we may be having another special visitor to our school, this time to present us with new flags for our flagpoles at our yarning circle at George St.
I have a small update about the Stage Two capital works funding that has been allocated to Fitzroy Primary in the recent state budget. Representatives of the VSBA have let me know that we will receive the promised funding over the next year and can continue to move forward with the modernisation and upgrades of Napier St. This is great news for the school and will be of huge benefit moving into the future. While I do not have a commencement date for building works, I will continue to keep our community updated as more details emerge.
On staffing news, I would like to welcome Ari Kavanagh Du Ressac to our school as our new Year 1-2 French teacher. Ari started with us on Monday and will be teaching 1-2J and 1-2M. They have already impressed us already with their energy, warmth and commitment to learning for our students. Please say hello and welcome Ari to the wonderful Fitzroy community when you see them in the yard. As we have welcomed Ari we have also farewelled Lorna for the second time as she now heads overseas for the next year. We wish Lorna well and look forward to seeing her come back again in the future.
We have now had two weeks to adjust to the most recent security behavioural changes and I feel they have gone well and been received positively by our families and staff. Whilst I understand there are some inconveniences created by the changes, our site security has increased without removing the community base for our school. We are still considering potential further behavioural and environmental changes that will improve security again, but will need to be carefully considered against potential drawbacks. Thank you to everyone for your adaptability so far and as we continue to move forward.
One last reminder is for those families or community members who may have a child starting school in 2025. Please remember to return your enrolment forms for your child to Mary at the office before 26th July. While it seems far away, these dates can sneak up on us quickly and there is also the school holidays during this time. We look forward to meeting the newest members of our community later in the year.
-Nathan Moore & Andrea Hennessey