Principal's Report

Wow! We made it to the end of Term 4!!  Thank you to our wonderful staff, students and community for another outstanding year. We are so proud of the academic and social achievements of our students this year and can’t wait to celebrate even more wonderful successes in 2024 and beyond.

Congratulations to our 2024 JSC Executive Team

A huge congratulations to our 2024 JSC Executive Team who were announced yesterday. After a gruelling process of preparing and presenting speeches to their peers and teachers, it was a painstaking task to move from the extensive number of applicants for the positions down the seven leaders who will represent our school as the JSC Exec group in 2024. A huge congratulations to all of the students who applied and I can’t wait to find out who will take on the other leadership positions as we move into the new year.

Our 2024 JSC Executive Group are (from left to right):

Ellie, Will, Armaan, Lelea, Bea and Bessie. Torin was also successful in his JSC Executive application, however he has been absent this week. Congratulations again!!

Change to Day Structure - 2024

As part of the Victorian Government Schools Agreement 2022 (VGSA 2022), 2024 will see teachers provided with an additional 30 minutes of non face to face teaching time (pro rata for part timers) to allow them to undertake their additional duties around planning, preparation and assessment. Throughout this year, leadership has worked closely with our teacher to develop a model that will facilitate this increase in non face to face teaching time. To facilitate this change, 2024 will see the school move to five 60 minutes per day, rather than the six 50 minute sessions per day we are currently working from. 

There will be no change to the start and finish times of the day, but the day structure will now look as follows:

Building Project Update

The children and their teachers have settled into their new classroom environments, following the handover of Stage 1A. It has been great to have these spaces ready to go for the new year, and whilst there is still a whole lot happening on the other side of the hoarding, knowing that we have these spaces as we move into 2024 brings with it a huge sigh of relief.

Much will be happening over the holidays, with the completion and handover of Stage 1B expected to occur before the children return. This will include the delivery of additional classroom spaces, along with an amphitheatre out on the asphalt area near The Hall.

Take a look at our latest renders which will give you an idea of what we should be returning to after the holidays.

Holiday Works

We will also see some FNPS led works occurring over the holidays. Earlier this week, we had an outstanding team of volunteers clear out the Hall area in preparation for painting works over the summer break. The Junior building will see painting works undertaken in the Hall and the main corridor, which will then be followed by a fresh coat of paint for the Library which we will be re-opening early in 2024.

The summer break will also see the plaster work in the Junior Building corridor remediated, along with works beginning on the classroom that has been out of action throughout this year. We can’t wait to see the results of all of these works.

Grade 6 Graduation

It’s that time of year where we farewell our outgoing Year 6 cohort. This cohort, who I often say experienced the greatest challenges Covid could throw at them, left school at the end of Year 2, spent Years 3 and 4 mostly in lockdown and returned as Grade 5s in 2022. There is a mammoth amount of personal and social development that happens in those middle years, so I would like to take this moment to acknowledge the outstanding resilience they have shown throughout their FNPS journey. 

This, coupled with almost two years in the Library, has seen the cohort have to be adaptable at every turn and we are truly grateful to the students and their families for their commitment to our school and each other.

A huge thank you also to Brad, Bronte, Tony and every teacher that came before them for their leadership and care for this wonderful bunch of individuals. They will certainly be missed.

Staffing News

This year we say farewell to our wonderful Jiami, who will be heading to Laurimar Primary School. She will be heading back into the Mandarin classroom, teaching Mandarin full time. We will also be farewelling Kristy-Lee, who will be heading back to her home school in 2024. We are very grateful for Kristy-Lee’s support of 3/4 PM during Terms 3 and 4.

Kathleen will be taking a twelve-month sabbatical in 2024 and Vince will be moving his family to Queensland for the 2024 year. Linda Ratcliffe will continue in her role as Acting Principal at Sherbourne Primary School into the 2024 year. We wish all five of them a wonderful year next year and will definitely miss having them around.

To that end, you will see some brand new faces here at FNPS in 2024. Next year we will welcome Angie (Year 1/2), Paul (Year 1/2), Nathan (Year 3/4), Evie (Year 5) and Hannah (our new Learning Specialist and Year 6 co-teacher). We will also be welcoming Margaret back, who will be co-teaching with Joe in Year 3/4.

Make sure you give them a warm FNPS welcome when you see them in the yard.

Community Shout-out

A huge shout out to our very own Jane Foley, who has been keeping under a bushel the wonderful picture story books she creates, using her children, Paddy and Alex as illustrators. Jane’s books are available to read online at @janeunpublished on Instagram. Make sure you take a look and follow her story writing journey!

Have a safe, relaxing and restorative summer break, everyone! May you be surrounded by love, laughter and the people that mean the most to you.

Go gently,

Tania