Principal's Report

In this week’s newsletter:

• Appreciations and Acknowledgements
  • Photos from assembly last week
  • Parents’ Association second hand uniform stall
  • Berry Street Curriculum Day
• News
  • Staff illness
  • Values in life and on social media
  • Literacy announcement for government schools
  • Maribyrnong Council Housing Strategy
• Coming Up
  • Musical Futures Concerts for grades 5 and 6 
  • Student learning conferences 
  • Camps, sports and excursions fund
• Repeated (and updated messages)

Appreciations and Acknowledgements

Assembly Last Week - the assembly item from 2BL focused on the learning the grade had done in exploring and creating their own musical instruments.  Well done!

Children without photo permissions have their faces obscured.

The JSC report on FWPS’ Education Weekclub activities was presented by Emily, Sefina and Zoe.

The nationwide NAIDOC Week colouring and poetry competition was announced by Marrung reps; Nyrvana, Aster, Donnie and Hugo.

Our Values Icon winners; Clem, Lola, Pepper and (siblings) Mai and Vi received their meal vouchers for The Plough and The Victoria Hotels in Seddon.  A certificate was provided this week to our generous sponsors.

Parents Association Members were busy on Tuesday at the end of the school day with the second hand uniform pop up doing a regular trade. Thanks to all who assisted.

Berry Street Education Model Curriculum Day - This was an absolutely fantastic professional development day for all staff.  Our presenter, Sibel, was a great choice and maintained an excellent pace with liberal use of brain breaks, some that have already made their way into classrooms. Teachers and Ed Support staff will continue to embed the elements of the model this year.  In 2025 we will continue our professional BSEM implementation with the final two training days being held as curriculum days. 

We are currently in the process of booking a parent / carer information forum for Term 3 thanks to the support of our FWPS Parents Association.

News

Staff Illness - Our staff community is managing the same health issues that the wider community is.  While Covid cases seem to have stalled, colds, flu and other respiratory illnesses are affecting both the staff and student population.  This will cause continued reliance on a limited pool of casual relief teachers, until we move beyond the winter illnesses.

Behavioural matters we shouldn’t ignore… we know what they are, we can describe what they look and feel like in the class and in the yard, however the implementation of our values of Belonging, Respect, Responsibility and Resilience can only be considered successful if they are active in the yard, classrooms and in the community when the adults aren’t watching. Earlier this week, the principal class (Liz, Carolyn and I) met with groups of students from grades 4, 5 and 6 to address concerns that verbal put downs, perhaps initially starting as a joke or banter, had been directed by multiple students towards several others with such persistence and for such an extended time period that it has caused significant mental distress.  All reading this item will agree that we don’t send our kids to school, or to community gatherings to be harassed.  While we know that kids will test boundaries, saying ‘enough’ should be the sign to desist, not persist.  Indeed, we can build our resilience by managing a concern at the time it arises, however when such attempts have been in vain, a social environment in which students have previously thrived may appear bleak.  We communicated this concern to parents and carers of students in grades 4, 5 and 6, via Compass making note that for the majority of students the concern raised is not something that they have participated in.  We urge our students to use their voice and actions in order to call out behaviour that makes them uncomfortable and is not consistent with our values.

Social media provides a whole raft of opportunities and potential pitfalls.  Families using social media apps that have responsible parameters, such as Messenger Kids, https://www.esafety.gov.au/key-topics/esafety-guide/messenger-kids which are advertised as a 13 years and under app, still must be effectively monitored by responsible adults in real time, or at the conclusion of the session.  Kids do need to be trusted, but they need to earn that trust and maintain it.  School wellbeing and leadership staff are managing issues that occur outside school times far too frequently.  The importance of managing online behaviour is vital, as the challenges will only increase in the secondary years if appropriate and consistent behaviour is not strongly established early on.   Considering when is the right time to allow your child to access social media can be a complex one to negotiate.  From our experience at FWPS there are some very popular apps that aren’t a great choice.  For instance the Tik Tok app can provide insidious links and recommendations and they are a nightmare to communicate with if there is something inappropriate that you request be taken down.  Other common apps such as Snap chat, Instagram and Facebook really aren’t appropriate for primary kids.

The following link from the E Safety Commission may provide some answers and pose some interesting questions: https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/issues-and-advice/are-they-old-enough

Literacy approach announced - The Age newspaper has reported https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/the-way-children-are-taught-to-read-in-victoria-is-about-to-change-20240607-p5jk7u.html  that the Minister for Education, Mr Ben Carroll will announce today that all state schools will be required to implement a synthetic phonic based, (sometimes referred to as a Science of Reading approach) to literacy learning over a 3 year period. This is a comfort for the many primary schools (including FWPS) that have changed their school approach to literacy over the last few years.  We introduced the Little Learners Love Literacy program with our junior grades in 2022 and invested very substantial resourcing to maximise the opportunity for a successful implementation.  

Coming Up… 

Assembly - This week it will be 2MM’s opportunity to share their creativity with our community on Friday.  Assembly will be held outdoors if the weather is fair, and in the gallery space in Dingo if the weather is adverse. Gates are opened at 2:30pm for a 2:40pm assembly.

Sports finals - Following the catch up round tomorrow, which is relevant to some schools, we will find out the final ladder in each of the sports enabling us to announce at assembly what teams will feature in the grand finals next week.

Recently Repeated and Updated Messages

A reminder that … Musical Futures Concerts for Grades 5 and 6 Classes will be held next Wednesday, 19th June throughout the day in a series of mini performances. 

Please check the times:

Student Learning Conferences - As has been reported for the last few weeks, Student Learning Conferences will occur during the last week of term.  For P-2 families, this will occur on the afternoon of Tuesday, 25th June and for families of 3-6 students they will be scheduled for the afternoon of Wednesday, 26th June. Bookings can be made through Compass.

CSEF - For eligible families the Camps, Sports and Education Fund provides $150 to be spent at school for each child.  The form will remain in the newsletter until the last week of term. We have repeatedly communicated this message, as we do not want any eligible family to miss out.

Cheers,

Brendan

Repeated (and Updated) Messages…