Principal's Report

Welcome and appreciations

What a terrific first few school days we have experienced with grades settling quickly. We have had calm and positive learning spaces across the school, so without getting ahead of ourselves, appreciations to students, staff and parents for being prepared and ready to learn.

In particular it was exciting when we met our new Preps en-masse for the first time on Friday.  The first half-day was timely due to Friday’s extreme weather conditions, a further reminder that our sustained efforts to effectively provide cooling for every classroom and specialist area provides some very tangible benefits.

Coming up

Meet the Teacher – Look out for a notification for the annual Meet the Teacher interviews due to be communicated by hard copy and Flexibuzz on Monday.   Interviews will be offered after school and into the early evening on Monday 17th and Wednesday 19th February. Teachers will be set to provide one interview, for each child, for every family.  Bookings online.  This is a really important opportunity for parents to share your unique knowledge of your children at this early stage of the school year.  Bear in mind that popular times will fill quickly, so while there will be sufficient interview ‘slots’, choices will be quickly limited.  Please note that MTT is an opportunity for a conversation between the parents and teachers.  The students will be invited to attend the mid-year Parent/Teacher interviews and Student led conferences.

Emergency Management practice – Just like your work place, it is important that school staff and students have the opportunity to prepare for the eventuality of an emergency.  Today prior to recess, an evacuation drill was held.  All students, staff and visitors were required to move promptly and safely onto the oval for a short period.  We were pleased that our newest student members, the preps managed this task with quiet confidence. 

News

Corona virus – As a school community we may be rather fortunate with few families returning from China during the period of the international health crisis.  Further, we have had cooperation and consideration for our community and a conservative approach in families choosing to self-exclude for a period of up to 14 days.

Car park access – As foreshadowed late last year, School Council approved the installation of a car park boom gate to restrict access to the car park during peak staff usage. From the moment we had an onsite Out of Hours School program, we were keen to provide a reasonable level of access to parents delivering and collecting their children.  This has and will continue to be before 8.00 am and after 4.00 pm daily.  Unfortunately, incursions outside of these times have become a regular occurrence.  From now on, parents arriving between 8.00 am and 4.00 pm daily will not be able to drive into the car park due to our recently installed boom gate. They are required to park in the street and use the single nearby pedestrian gate (adjacent the school crossing) to walk around Koala and the basketball side of Gecko through to the Their Care space in Emu Corner.  We appreciate safe use of the car park, so please avoid having children walk through the length of the car park in order to reduce the likelihood of an accident. 

Information packs … were sent home with each family this week. It is really important that this information has made it home to parents and forms are completed and returned ASAP. Remember it is important for school fees to be paid promptly. All excursions and incursions will continue to be paid for separately prior to each excursion or incursion. We don’t want kids to miss out! As with recent practice, parents who assist with excursions will need to have or have applied for a working with children check in order to attend.

CSEF Eligibility - The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) provides payments for eligible students to attend activities like, school camps, swimming and school-organised sport programs outdoor education programs and excursions and incursions. You may be eligible if you hold a current Centrelink Health Care Card, Veterans Affairs Gold Card or Pensioner Concession card.  

If you registered your child in 2019 there is no need to re-register, however you DO need to register new Prep Students. 

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/about/programs/health/CSEF-Application-Form-2020.pdf

Bike passes – All students who ride to school by bike or scooter, must have first obtained a pass.  This is a once off requirement which involves the student, or parent collecting the relevant document from the office and discussing the safety implications at home. Once the co-signed form has been returned, our office staff will provide the student with an identification ‘band’ for placing on their bike and/or scooter.  A green band identifies students in Prep to grade 4, while the senior students in grades 5 and 6 are provided with a yellow band.  This denotes that as senior students they, with their parent’s permission, have the right to ride unaccompanied by an adult.  There is a consequent expectation that all students from Prep to grade 4 are accompanied by an adult when cycling or scooting to school.  In 2019, school council reviewed the policy following senior student lobbying and approved 5/6s to skateboard to school.  Students who wish to do so, need to seek separate approval and demonstrate responsible behaviour to be provided with this privilege.  All students are required to dismount and walk or carry their bike, scooter or skateboard within the school grounds.

Canteen – The canteen opened yesterday.  It will continue to operate weekly, Wednesday to Friday.  Counter sales are cash based, however all lunch bookings need to be made online via www.munchmonitor.com

Their Care – Our Out of School Hours Care program operates daily before and after school using our Emu Corner building as home base, as well as the Gecko gym building and the playground.  If you have and questions you may wish to investigate online, ring our coordinators, Nelly or Luke on 0487 004 072 or visit Emu Corner to observe how the program operates.

Soundgarage lessons – Supplementing our Musical Futures specialist music program for all students, Soundgarage is a music program that operates on a user pays basis and is held during normal school hours for students in years 1 to 6.  The program continues to be very popular, topping 300+ enrolments for the first time this year.  Due to this popularity it is fully subscribed.  Lessons started this week with Steve taking drums on Tuesday and guitar and singing and performance (SAP) with Vernice on Wednesday.  Today, the Soundgarage itself is the venue for bands practice with John and Gary and Gary will return on Fridays for guitar and drums lessons.  If you have a query, the program director is Maddie Owen and she can be reached at maddie@soundgarage.com.au

Classroom helper’s sessions are an important step for all parents, grandparents, or community volunteers who wish to work with the students in classrooms, excursions, camps, stalls and lots more. 

Each year senior staff members provide some morning and afternoon Classroom Helpers sessions to ensure we have complete compliance.  Along with the obtaining of a volunteer Working with Children’s Check, attendance at one Classroom Helpers session (this year or in previous years) is required for volunteers to be accredited at FWPS.  We advise parents to apply for a WWCC to avoid the disappointment of missing out on being able to assist with your child at school. 

Look out in the newsletter for booking information for the Classroom Helpers sessions to be held on the following dates:

Optional 5/6 BYOD iPad program – In recent years we have encouraged students in grades 5 and 6 to, if convenient, to bring their own iPads to school to assist with their learning and to increase our school’s capacity to meet the learning needs and current t