Principal's Report

Welcome back to Term 4! As always, Term 4 is jam packed full of exciting moments and wonderful learning opportunities for the students. From Prep Concert, to our Festival of the Arts, to $20 Boss and all the way to Grade 6 Graduation, this term is sure to afford every student at FNPS the opportunity to shine.

Save the Date: Festival of the Arts / End of Year Picnic

Speaking of our Festival of the Arts / End of Year Picnic, the date has been set for Wednesday 11th December 2024. This ‘Festival’ will include an Art Show, where you can purchase your child/ren’s art pieces from throughout the year. It will also include impromptu busking and spoken word poetry performances, along with performances from our Choirs and Bands. The date has been chosen to coincide with our Term 4 PYP Learning Celebration afternoon, along with our Year 5 $20 Boss market.

Student Attitudes to School Data

The Student Attitudes to School results for our Year 4 – 6 students are now at hand. Below is a snapshot of the overall 2024 results:

It was clear that the strain of the build was felt in our 2023 Student Attitudes data collection, but the improvements in our 2024 data set are indicative of the greater sense of connection our students are feeling to FNPS this year. These results are also demonstrative of the extensive effort FNPS has made towards the refinement of processes, along with the communication of expectations to our students to ensure they are aware of their responsibilities around the school.

Following on from the results received in 2023, a number of actions were undertaken to ensure we were able to improve the educational experience of the children. With a concentrated effort on safe and orderly environments here at the school throughout this year, along with all children now being in a fit for purpose classroom, rather than using alternative spaces such as the Hall and the Library, we have seen impressive improvements in the way our students are feeling and learning. In consultation with the children through focus groups, we have also worked on the development of a clear and predictable behaviour support process for our students, in addition to the development of behaviour matrices, which are displayed in every classroom. Further, the school continues to work with Real Schools on the implementation of our Restorative Practices framework, along with surveys and focus groups regularly undertaken with the children to ensure we are feeling the pulse of their experience. 

One of our greatest celebrations for this year has been the shift in our ‘Not Experiencing Bullying’ data. Beyond the improvement against our data from 2023, the data snapshot below demonstrates that FNPS is outperforming our designated similar schools, schools within the Yarra / Darebin network and statewide. 

And, whilst our ‘Not Experiencing Bullying’ and ‘Managing Bullying data’ of course remain areas of continued focus, I am incredibly proud to say that our ‘Managing Bullying’ data is the highest result we have achieved in my time at the school. Shifting this data has been a gradual process, complicated by factors such as the Capital Works project, however, we are incredibly proud of the improvements we have seen in these results this year. I would like to express my gratitude to the teachers and families of FNPS for supporting these initiatives.

OHS Evacuation Drills

As we edge ever closer to the handover of the building project, this term, we will be moving through building the students’ understanding of our alarm systems and evacuation processes based on the handover of all school areas. This will include a number of both onsite and offsite evacuations. Please be assured that families will be informed before these events occur to allow you to have conversations with your children about what to expect from these procedures. 

That’s all from me, go gently,

Tania