Principal's Report

In this Week's Newsletter

• Correction - AFL X will be held next week
• Appreciations and News…
  • Book Parade
  • Father’s Day and Special Person's and stall appreciation
  • Aquarium appreciation
  • Emergency management drill held today
  • Latest Student Videos
  • School Council met on Monday
  • NAPLAN
  • School Camps
  • Facilities
  • Our Vision and Values
  • The Parents' Association
• In Other News
  • Books n Boots Drive
• Coming up 
  •  Father’s Day and Special Person’s stall tomorrow
  • Their Care Father’s day and farewell Louise and BBQ  
  • Assembly this week
• Next Week
  • Change of specialist timetable for the final fortnight of term
  • Premier's Reading Challenge
  • Divisional Athletics Carnival
  • AFL Junior X competition
  • Parent/Carers Opinion Survey closes next Friday
• Repeated (and updated) messages

Correction

AFL X Excursion - In last week’s newsletter I mentioned the AFL X excursion would be held this week (week 8) - I read the calendar incorrectly!  Apologies, it will be held next Wednesday (week 9) for students in grades 4 and 5.

Appreciations and News

Book Parade - Through great effort and boundless enthusiasm Book Week organiser, Lauren Baker deserves our acknowledgement. From the daily quiz, through to a magnificent Book Parade in fortunately sunny weather, it was a great achievement - and lots of fun.  Lauren would like to acknowledge the support of Liz Beasley, her co-commentator, Dan Whiting and the collaboration of staff, students and our community who attended and provided an enthusiastic reception for all who participated.

Father’s Day and Special Person’s stall - A very big appreciation to parents, Alicia Madden (Mollie in 5LW and Darcy in 2TF) and Andita Satiagunawan (Arielle in 5MC and Freya in 2DW) who have invested significant time sourcing and organising tomorrow’s stall.  Don’t forget, please send your children with $5 cash!

Aquarium in Reception - Thanks to our wonderful volunteers, Maxena and Dave, who were at school on Tuesday busily cleaning the fish tank and looking after its inhabitants.  

Emergency Management Drill today - This afternoon we practised a ‘recall from the playground’.  This is a less commonly held drill, where we announce the immediate return to classrooms during lunch, or recess play.  Students were informed of this beforehand and afternoon recess was started earlier to accommodate the drill.  The practice was provided in order to be able to safely and quickly clear the yard in case of an external threat.  All external doors are required to be locked and students gather out of sight. After all emergency practice drills we seek and record staff and student feedback to ensure that we can improve our processes.

Latest Student Videos

Grade 6 students Nico and Michael prepared a video on last week’s District Athletics Carnival:

https://vimeo.com/858889617

And 5SM have prepared a Talk Money incursion presentation:

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/859604764

An appreciation to all the participating students for their presentations.

School Council News - A well attended school council meeting was held on site on Monday. We were pleased to return to our staff room for the first time since the renovations held over the last few months.

Matters discussed included:

• Traffic concerns - After a recent threat of violence, mentioned in the newsletter a fortnight ago, and examples daily of dangerous driving, parking and pedestrian behaviour, we have redoubled our communications with the Maribyrnong City Council, in seeking practical assistance on the traffic infringement presence.  I will keep you updated on news regarding this.
• We discussed a new student award, The Moss Cass Award initiated by local Member of Parliament for Footscray, Katie Hall.  This will now be presented to a grade 6 student who demonstrates the following qualities:
  
  The inaugural Dr Moss Cass Award for Community and Integrity.  Awarded to students that display values of kindness, respect, caring and consideration for others.  The recipient should be a student that is kind and considerate to others.  They should be someone other students would recognise as a good person, someone that can rely on for help in the classroom and in the school yard.  

NAPLAN - An appreciation to Assistant Principal, Carolyn Lockie who provided a comprehensive school summary presentation of NAPLAN for School Council. 

Our students sat NAPLAN back in March this year and parents received results in July. We now have the full suite of school comparison information to share with our families. From 2023, NAPLAN results are reported against 4 proficiency standard levels rather than numerical bands and national minimum standards. This means that the previous 10-band NAPLAN scale and national minimum standards are no longer applicable. One obvious negative however, is that the new model does not allow a measure of growth from previous years until our current grade 3 cohort participate in Year 5 NAPLAN in 2025.

NAPLAN professional standards include four proficiency levels for each assessment area at each year level:

• Exceeding: the student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing. 
• Strong: the student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing.
• Developing: the student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.
• Needs additional support: the student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.

Each of the standards represents increasingly challenging skills and understandings as students move through the years of schooling with cut offs matched to the curriculum rather than an arbitrary number scale as in the previous reporting format.

In regards to FWPS overall results, there were some highlights, as well as areas for growth.

We are very pleased that we have a very high participation rate.  All students in grades 3 and 5 are expected to participate.  We do however respect the right of parents to choose.  In all cases where students did not participate, it was either due to parent/carer choice, or they were absent. Where students were absent, whenever possible, catch up assessments were held in priority areas of reading, writing and numeracy.

Where to now?

School Camps - The comprehensive documentation for the grades 5 and 6 camp to Kangaroobie in south eastern Victoria on week 3 of Term 4 was presented to School Council, prior to our meeting on Monday and approved as an item of business.  An appreciation to organisers; Lauren Crump and Mikala Connor was noted.

We also discussed our plans for camps for 2024.  We have arranged 4 separate camp locations for the first time, a departure from our tradition of shared camps across 2 grade levels.  Consequently, next term’s Kangaroobie Camp, while held over the full week (grade 6s to attend Mon-Wed, grade 5s attend Wed - Fri) is planned to be the final camp where two levels will both attend the same location in the same year.

Our recent camps and our camps for 2024 are listed in the table below: 

Facilities - From a Facilities perspective, we discussed challenges we can predict relating to the provision of sufficient learning spaces next year when the Gymnasium replacement project kicks in.  We have communicated concerns to our regional Planning and Provision team and our local member, Katie Hall.  I will provide a detailed breakdown in future weeks.

Our Vision and Values - The ComPol subcommittee discussed plans to seek community feedback regarding the next step in developing our new Strategic Plan, the review of our school’s vision and values.  We will be seeking input from students, staff and parents/carers.  Some forums for parents/carers will be advertised for early next term.  These will be run by parent members of School Council.  There will be a variety of opportunities to be involved.  This is a process we really need your support for.

The Parents’ Association - Our PA met late last week.  PA representative, Sharee Logan acknowledged the great work by Alicia and Andita in preparing for Friday’s Father’s Day (and Special Persons’) stall.  We discussed the Halloween Disco for Thursday, 26th October and concerns were expressed about the feasibility of maintaining our PA without  input by new parents and carers.

We appreciate having such active and motivated School Council members.

In Other News…

Books 'n Boots drive - Thanks to community members who have provided boots and shoes for our Books ‘n Boots drive.  Our drive will continue until the end of term. Donations will be sorted and collected by the Books and Boots charity to be distributed to indigenous communities in regional and remote areas across our nation.  Your support is appreciated.

Coming up…

Father’s Day and Special Persons’ Stall - Don’t forget our annual Father’s Day stall will be held tomorrow.  Please ensure your child has $5 cash to be able to purchase from the wonderful array of gifts.  All grades will be timetabled to visit to browse and buy.  Classes have been scheduled to avoid any specialist programs. 

Father’s Day BBQ and Appreciation for Louise - After nearly 5 years and untold hours working and supporting our children in before school, after school and vacation care, team co-ordinator Louise Farley will be moving back with friends and family in the Frankston area.  As tomorrow will be Louise’s final day and the last school day prior to Father’s Day we are pleased to support Their Care in providing a BBQ for students who attend the program and their families - indeed everyone is welcome to drop in!  A flyer is again included in today’s newsletter including relevant information.

Assembly this week - This week it will be 2JI’s turn for their assembly item.  Assembly starts at 2.40 pm at the Bilby shade sail, or if the weather is poor, from the gallery space in Dingo.

Next Week…

Change of Timetable for last two weeks of Term - Due to planning day we will have our specialist timetable adjusted to enable each of the teaching team a full release day to enable effective planning for term 4.  Your child may therefore have specialists held on different days than usual.

On Monday - Last Day - Premier’s Reading Challenge

On Tuesday - Divisional Athletics Carnival 

On Wednesday - AFL Junior X - On Wednesday a group of 39 year 4 and 5 students will participate in AFL X Junior Competition at Skinner Reserve.  Junior X is the AFL’s modified and more social. 

Reminders - On Friday Parent/Carer Opinion Survey - This annual survey has been provided for all families to choose to respond to if they wish.  The survey closes next Friday, 8th September.  Please contact the office team if you have any queries. There has still been less than a 10% participation rate.  In case you cannot recall, an email was sent to all parents from our school email on Friday 4th August.  This will provide you with the link to access the survey.

Cheers,

Brendan

Repeated (and updated) messages…

Assembly - Assembly on Friday’s will be held outdoors only if the weather conditions are conducive.  If not, assemblies will be presented indoors in the gallery space in Dingo and broadcast to the classrooms.  At this time of the year it may be anticipated that the majority of assemblies will be held indoors.  For our indoor assemblies we gather all the student presenters, class assembly presenters and pupils of the week before assembly starts, as well as parents, carers, grandparents and community members who have come to watch.  

Hearing your voice - In every newsletter we will add a feedback link.  If you have a concern, suggestion or appreciation, or wish to specifically provide comment on school policies, rather than looking for the school email, you can just go to the link.  This will not be the preferred option for detailed emails - the usual practice of using the school email: footscray.west.ps@education.vic.gov.au will still be the avenue, but for the concerns, suggestions or appreciations go to:  https://forms.gle/dPnAN75bFVeM1i16A

Parent/Carer Volunteer Induction 

This information has been ‘pinned’ on Compass so it remains easily accessible.  You will currently find it as the second pinned item on your News Feed.  For all new families or parents and carers who didn’t complete the online process last year, if you wish to assist in classrooms, excursions or camps, or volunteer for really any other purpose at FWPS, we need you to complete the modules online.  For parents/carers who did this last year, all you need to do is sign the relevant form at the office.

Change of Email  

We are no longer using the school gmail addresses for communication to staff.  Parents will be asked to communicate directly with staff using the email facility within Compass, or email the school email address at: footscray.west.ps@education.vic.gov.au ‘Attention staff member’s name’.  Emails sent from the Compass app will be sent directly to the relevant staff members’ education email account.  Please understand that staff are busy and will respond in a timely manner.  If a matter is urgent, you are advised to call the school during office hours, or leave a message outside those hours.

Car Park Use

A reminder that the car park is open prior to 8 am and after 4 pm daily for parent access for the Their Care OSHC program.  At other times, please appreciate that the car park is for staff use.  Should you need to walk through to the Their Care location at Emu Corner, for safety’s sake we ask that you use the pedestrian gate next to the boom gate and make your way between Koala and the Wallaby buildings past Gecko via the basketball court through to Emu Corner.

Please check out the brief explanatory video at: https://vimeo.com/777907951

Photo Permission - When parents and carers first sign the enrolment form for school entry, they may be understandably reluctant to sign the photo permission section.  We frequently use pictures and videos to share learning highlights and to maintain and foster school/home links.  As we frequently include photos and videos of the students learning and playing we are regularly confronted by wonderful picture opportunities we cannot share in our newsletter and videos.  

We would love you to review your decision so your child can be fully involved in the life of our school.  Feel free to contact your child’s teacher or the office so they can make those adjustments on your behalf.

COVID Information

As you will all understand, COVID continues to be transmitted within the community and remains a highly infectious illness.  Consequently, it continues to be vital for families to remain careful when exposed to COVID or when demonstrating symptoms.  While schools will no longer be providing Rapid Antigen Tests - We do have dozens of leftover packs that have at least 6 months left before their use by date.  Drop into the office, or send us a message and we will send some home with your child.  

Many of you will have heard that this year RATs, while continuing to be supplied by the state government, will be distributed by local councils from venues such as our library locations.

Rapid Antigen Tests are also available for all Victorians from Council sites.  People can get 2 free packs (10 tests) for themselves and 2 free packs (10 tests) for each of their household members.

People with disability and their carers can get up to 4 free packs (20 tests) in line with existing RAT distribution for people with disability.

Further information can be obtained at Council Rapid Antigen Test Program.

Rapid antigen testing

It is recommended that rapid antigen tests (RATs) are used by students and staff:

·         If you have symptoms of COVID-19 infection, no matter how mild

·         If you are a household or close contact of someone who has COVID-19

·         If you are a social contact of someone who has COVID-19.

The Department of Health recommends that all Victorians should report their positive RAT result to the Department of Health online, or by calling 1800 675 398.

Students (or their parents) should also report a positive result to their school, either through the COVID Test portal or by phone or written notification.