Foundation transition sessions - save the dates!

Information will soon be sent to families who are enrolled in the 2023 Foundation year. The dates are:

Thursday 17th November
Thursday 24th November
Thursday 1st December

Andrea and Rebecca/Lucy will be visiting kindergartens in the coming weeks to open up key conversations with educators about students who are coming to Fitzroy next year. We look forward to welcoming new families in November and December.

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Staffing update

This week we farewelled Meghan from our tutoring position and I take this opportunity to thank her for working with our students, and providing classroom replacement throughout the challenges of term two. We are currently in the process of recruiting a replacement and further updates will follow when we secure a suitable applicant.

I am also delighted to welcome Nurta Adam, mother of Cimran (gde Prep), Ayub (gde 3) and AT (gde 5), into an Education Support role. She starts with us in week 6 and brings a wealth of experience working in the local community through Cohealth.

Achievement Data

Early in the term, Andrea and I cross checked our teacher judgement data with the goals in our Annual Implementation Plan and were pleasantly surprised to see that across most areas of the Victorian Curriculum and across grades 1-6, we are seeing students making one or more years growth in their learning.

These are our 2023 teacher judgement targets with percentages of students making one or more years growth:

Reading – 75%

Writing - 85%

Measurement and Geometry – 85%

Number and algebra – 70%

Statistics and Probability – 80%

Across all grade levels, we can see that students are on track to achieving one or more years growth. In the second semester, we will continue to support all students in their learning to reach their potential.

The next step in the process was to compare our teacher judgement data against standardised testing used as part of the school’s Fountas and Pinnell reading assessments. The results showed that there is a clear line of sight between the outcomes of F&P assessments with teacher judgements and progression points. When the school’s NAPLAN data is published in the coming weeks, we will be in a position to compare F&P and NAPLAN results with teacher judgements to test the precision of the school’s internal data sets.

Further updates about the school's NAPLAN results will be published when it is released in the coming weeks.

Staff professional development goals

At the beginning of the term I met with staff to review the school’s progress against the AIP as part of the mid year monitoring process. From this, it is clear that the school has key strategies priorities for the second semester. These are:

Professional Learning Community meetings – weekly team meetings where staff use a range of data to plan for students learning at their point of need
High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS) – Setting goals, Differentiated teaching, Feedback, Explicit Instruction
Student voice and agency – introducing goal books to record personalised learning as a result of effective teacher feedback during conferencing
School Improvement Team – learning walks to monitor student learning, engagement and teacher practice
Use of Compass chronicle to communicate students’ learning to parents/carers
Instructional model with a focus on the first 10-15 minute mini lesson and explicit teaching

All staff were challenged to write two SMART goals for display in the Principal's office. The first goal linked to one of the HITS and the second for PLCs. These goals are also used to inform the work of the consultants who are responsible for coaching that balances the schools’ priorities with staff professional development.

Australian Childhood Trauma Group consultancy

This term we are delighted to be scaling up our connecting with ACTG to include three classroom observation/feedback sessions and teacher professional development on Wednesdays as part of their consultancy with Fitzroy PS. Sarah (school psychologist) will also continue to work with individual and small group children on Tuesdays. This model will enable Sarah to enhance Respectful Relationships lessons and run professional development that focuses on specific aspects of students’ health and wellbeing development. As has previously been the case with Dr Billy Garvey in the past, we know that the combination of clinical and classroom practices has a powerful effect on student health and wellbeing.

Staff visiting Eltham PS

Last Thursday, the grade 1/2 team visited Eltham Primary School to observe a PLC team meeting and participate in a Q&A debrief. Feedback to me is that the visit was highly motivational and provided an insight into how teams in other schools are demonstrating high levels of data literacy which is used to hone in on cohorts of students to ensure that teaching is meeting their needs.

Strengthening our connection with Caulfield Junior College

Staff and students thoroughly enjoyed visiting Caulfield Junior College for Bastille Day. It was a great experience for all and we were very grateful for how welcoming and inclusive the staff and students at CJC were. We are continuing to explore ways that the two schools can continue to partner in order to share effective teacher practices, approaches and resources through a teacher exchange program. Planning is underway to select teachers from FPS who would spend the day at CJC, whilst one of CJC teachers fills the position here at FPS. Staff have indicated to me their willingness to participate which is a great first step.

Parent information sessions with Dr Billy Garvey - Royal Children's Hospital

Last year our school was fortunate enough to work with Paediatrician Dr Billy Garvey to build community knowledge around common childhood health concerns. This year he has offered to run some more parent Information nights. We thought it would be great to get some feedback from families as to what topics you may like Billy Garvey to focus these information nights on. Some ideas might be sleep, anxiety in child, nutrition and food, general childhood development etc. If you have any suggestions please contact the school. Further updates will follow when the sessions are confirmed.

Weekly parent group - Monday mornings in the staffroom

Our parent group is back on again from Week 5 (8th of August) every Monday from 9:15-11am . All parents and families are welcome to attend to connect with other families. Thank you to Amina (Muadh's Mum) who has offered to run these sessions.

Smile Squad - the dentists are coming to Fitzroy PS

This week students will be bringing home a Smile Squad bag including a permission form. If you would like your child`s teeth checked please fill in the form and return to their teacher or the office. Smile Squad will be visiting at the end of this term.

Miriam Margolyes discovers the Ali family in the TV series - Unmasking Australia

We were delighted to receive a link from Hamdi to see him and his family appear on TV recently. Miriam Margolyes is back on the road, heading west along the bottom of Australia, to understand what the Fair Go means in Australia today and how it is playing out in the diverse lives of her fellow citizens.

The short version about Carlton is below.

https://youtu.be/2wsPvEVp1UQ

The full version on Iview is below too.

https://iview.abc.net.au/show/miriam-margolyes-australia-unmasked/series/1/video/DO2103H002S00

-Angela Richmond and Andrea Hennessey

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