Student-Led Inquiry Open Morning

What a fantastic community celebration it was on Wednesday morning. Thanks to all the community members who could come along and help the students celebrate their learning.

I was lucky enough to be covering one of the 3/4 classes so I got to see firsthand the pride with which students shared their work.

In my travels around the school before and after the open session I saw all kinds of wonderful work, from mythological stories and Greek Hydriai pottery, to my favourite, maths problem-solving tasks! For those who got to the Grade 5 rooms, you would have seen a series of moving oral presentations exploring family histories and connections with migration stories.

Congratulations to all our students for their hard work throughout the term.

Please note that the Term 3 Open Morning will coincide with Special Person’s Day Breakfast on Friday 1st September, so you can put this date in your diaries early!

The Term That Was

It’s been another fantastic term at Fitzroy North Primary School. Some of my highlights this term included our incredible Sports Fundraising Day last week, spending time on Grade 6 camp and hearing the 3/4 choir perform on the Little Long Walk.

I chatted with some of our students about their highlights and here’s what they shared:

Audrey (12JD) “I liked when my parents came in to see my work (during the open session this week). It was great because both of my parents got to see what I have been doing. They got to see my mask and they got to see my best writing piece.”

Gus (12CW) “My favourite thing to do this term was problem-solving because it was in maths… and maths is always fun. I liked the football problem.”

Greta (12JD) “I’m not sure what my favourite thing was this term… maybe the Boomerang incursion. I liked making boomerangs and colouring them - and learning about them.”

Farhan (12CW) “I liked maths. There were so many different problems. Like the one about balloons. There were red, orange, yellow and blue balloons and we were working out all the different options.”

Lettie (12CW) “The Little Long Walk was pretty fun because we got to go out of the school and walk around. We helped raise money and celebrated Michael Long who walked all the way from Melbourne to Canberra with no rest - to help Aboriginal people.”

Mimi (34DB) “My favourite thing was going on the incursion to Ecolinc. We got to find bugs and learn about the different types of bugs.”

Austin (34JQ) “I really enjoyed the poetry collection because it was fun doing all the different types of poems and learning about what a poem is. It was also really fun rhyming.”

Nguyen (34JQ) “I liked learning different strategies for maths when we were doing problem-solving. The best one was the netball tournament problem.”

William T (5KF) “My favourite thing this term was interschool sport. My footy team, team two, went to the finals, but we sadly lost. But we had so much fun.”

Monica (5KF) “My highlight was interschool sport. I played teeball and I really liked all the teams in interschool sport, they were really nice people.”

Beatrix (5KF) “My highlight was probably the beep test. I really liked doing that with my class in PE. It is very tiring but I really like the feeling of sweat dripping down your face… when it feels like your legs can’t move anymore… it’s very exhilarating!”

Bilaal (6BA) “I loved helping out in Refi’s class and getting a hot chocolate!”

Georgie (6BA) “Camp was probably my favourite thing this term because we got stretched out of our comfort zone. The best activity was the giant swing - it was one pull of the string and it was all over!”

Semester Reports and Family-Teacher Learning Conversations

Today student semester reports have been sent out via Compass. These twice-yearly reports are a chance for teachers to formally communicate with families about the student learning that has taken place over the semester and provide details about student achievements.

As Tania mentioned in the newsletter last week, there will be Family-Teacher Learning Conversations early next term, where families will have the chance to discuss their child’s progress and future goals with their teacher.

These conversations will take place on the afternoon of Wednesday 26th July, with appointment times to be made available via Compass. School will finish early on this day, at 12pm, with Their Care available to those families who need it. 

Staffing Update

There are a few staffing updates across the school next term.

Jiami Qiu is taking leave for Term 3, as she is returning to China to spend time with her family. We have been lucky to secure Nada Licata as her replacement for the term. Nada has done CRT work at our school throughout the year and has extensive experience in the education sector. She will be working in 3/4JQ four days a week, with Ben continuing in the class on Fridays.

In addition, we have been able to secure an experienced Mandarin teacher to cover the Grade 5 and 6 language classes. Joan Guo teaches Mandarin at Thornbury High School and will be working with our senior students on Tuesday afternoons to ensure continuity for their learning.

As some of you may know, Joe Dykes - our Grade 1/2 leader and learning specialist - became a father for the second time yesterday, with the birth of Vigo. We want to extend our congratulations to Joe and his growing family.

Anja Stanislawski, who has been covering Joe’s class for the last couple of days, will continue with the class until week four of next term when Joe returns from parental leave. You may have seen Anja around the school in recent weeks as she has covered some of our other 1/2 classes as well as PE.

We’d like to welcome both Nada and Anja to the FNPS team.

In addition, Candace Wollmering (1/2CW) is taking long service leave for the first week of Term 3 and Dianna Bazzano (3/4DB) will be on long service leave for the first two weeks. Both will be covered by Casual Relief Teachers. Daisy Day, who many of our students know from Linda and Evey’s class this year, will be in Dianna’s class.

Finally, we’re looking forward to welcoming back Linda Willshire in week one next term. Linda will be returning after an extended leave period and we can’t wait to have her back at school.

Our Grade Six Leaders and the Fitzroy North Primary Global Ambassadors

The Grade 6s continue to demonstrate outstanding leadership, taking on many additional responsibilities as part of their role at the head of our school. I see on a daily basis the impact our students can have on supporting our community and improving our school, from the JSC running assemblies to the Sports School Improvement Team with their wonderful efforts on our recent fundraising day.

I have been working with a small group of Grade 6s, the Global Ambassadors, who are tackling some big issues across our school.

Hello, you might have heard us speak at the assembly the other week. We are the Global Ambassadors for FNPS. We are working together to discuss some of our school's challenges and what we can do to help. Some of the problems we identified at our school are making sure we are using respectful and kind language at all times and reducing the amount of litter in the playground. Our job is to come up with a plan to try to improve these areas with guidance from the school teachers and working with the Global Ambassador program. If you have any suggestions for things we can change around the school please let us know.

We are learning about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and connecting our challenges to these goals.

To better understand these goals, please show this video to the younger people in your family

The Good Life Goals

This link is for older kids and adults.

https://sdgs.un.org/goals

Thank you for reading this article, we will keep you updated on our activities and look forward to your support.

Alessio, Gus, Beth, Georgie, and Oscar

The Global Ambassadors

Grade 5 Choir

Hot off the press, here is a recording from the Grade 5 choir that sang during this afternoon’s assembly. What a wonderful performance. Enjoy!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W_SNS36vCp6B9OUoz47OBsg5mO2Xtm_i/view?usp=drive_link

Finally, as we head into the winter break, I want to acknowledge the wonderful work all our staff do each and every day to make Fitzroy North Primary such a great place to learn and work - including our staff in the office, our teachers, educational support staff and, of course, Tania. Fundamentally, it’s people who make schools, and we’re lucky to have so many committed staff who care deeply about the well-being and learning of our students.

I hope everyone has the chance to relax over the next couple of weeks… or - if not relax - at least spend some quality time with loved ones!

I look forward to seeing you back at school on Monday 10th July.

Best wishes

Toby

Upcoming Grade Working Bees