Principal's Report

Welcome to West Weekly, our new digital friendly newsletter format.

We take our messaging seriously at FWPS, for instance still maintaining a regular weekly newsletter, but we concede that our PDF format is dated. Following the work of the Communications sub-committee of School Council, some recommendations have been acted on. iNewsletter is a format designed to be read on handheld devices and is currently being used by a number of local schools, including Footscray City College, so I expect a number of our parents will be already familiar with the format.

Try it and feel free to post some constructive feedback via Flexibuzz.

Water Supply update – I was pleased to share the news this afternoon that our water supply has been tested and is now free of E. coli. Consequently, the water supply will be diverted back into our water lines tomorrow morning. We will be immediately able to use our toilets and taps. The temporary toilets that have served an important job in the last few school days will be removed by the time we return to school on Monday, but will be locked from the moment our regular toilets are usable. Due to stringent Maribyrnong Council food safety regulations, we anticipate that it will not be until next week that we will have access to the canteen for The Lunchbox and Their Care to use. Lunchbox 3012 will continue to fill all online orders from their Footscray City PS kitchen for this week. The TheirCare crew have been managing well, but are looking forward to a return to standard procedures and a greater variety of food choices as soon as they receive the green light.

Appreciations ... to all in our community who have acted calmly and cooperatively while we have managed the issue with the quality of our water supply. We have been supported by a series of terrific experts and contractors provided by the Department of Education to ensure that our school continues to be a safe place to be. City West Water have also been helpful and easy to deal with. The access to their trailer water bubbler, of particular assistance.

News this week …

Grade 3 and 4 swimming – Approximately half of the cohort is attending and certainly the feedback after the first few days has been positive. A comment from Middle School Coordinator, Dan Whiting.

“It’s been a fantastic couple of days. The students have been so enthusiastic and have been great representatives of the school. They have been working on a wide range of strokes and have thrown themselves in at the deep end (sometimes literally). The program provided by MAC’s instructors has also been highly impressive.”

Junior School Council news – At Monday's assembly, JSC members, David B 6DJ and Mahibah 1/2AB, spoke about a special day to support Baz Against Violence, an initiative developed by former FWPS student, Brandon Rogers and Helping Hoops to raise awareness and promote a world free from cowardly acts of violence. The event will run on Friday 6th December, students can wear any sports jersey/accessory on top of their school uniform and provide a gold coin donation.

Coming up … Reminders

Our term 4 ‘twilight’ working bee is to be held after school on Thursday (next week), 28th November after school, finishing with pizza and refreshments by twilight. My apology, the promised note and return slip was sent home on Tuesday, later than I intended. If you can participate, we would appreciate you returning the completed note by next Tuesday. We appreciate that parents, Sonia Lear and Remi Pham will again prepare their Happy Camper style pizza dough and passata sauce, but we would love all who can contribute, to bring along some interesting ingredients, or staples to share. We will supply the core ingredients, but we can better judge if we know how many people are planning to attend and whether they are aiming to donate some ingredients.

Sausage sizzle – The final day for placing orders is next Tuesday, 26th November. No late orders will be accepted. The sizzle will be held one week later on the 3rd December and will also serve as a mufti day with a request for a gold coin donation for the purpose of supporting our grade 6 graduation class. Each year this event is heavily subsidised to ensure all families can participate.

From a Community perspective

Thanks to all who have already supported the following initiatives.

This year we are supporting The Salvation Army Christmas Drive and Made A Difference Youth – Share the Dignity Christmas campaigns. We appreciate the great support students, staff and parents have shown by donating generously already. Many items have been stored in Sandra’s office, while we make room for new items.
We will be collecting for both charities until Friday, 13th December.

Cheers,

Brendan