Principal's Report

Appreciations and News

Meet the Teacher – An appreciation to parents and our teaching staff for the positive take up and response to our annual Meet the Teacher interviews held on Monday and Wednesday. Unfortunately we were required to postpone interviews for 1TN on Monday due to Trang’s sudden illness.  Interviews for this class have been rescheduled for Monday.  We appreciate the parents of 1TN students for their willingness and flexibility in accommodating this necessary adjustment.

Information packs … an appreciation to our parent community for the strong and speedy response to the requests that come annually for signed notes and fees payments.  If you have yet to address this requirement, please make sure you do so over the next week or so.

Annual Swimming Carnival at the MAC – Congratulations to the swim squad for performing to their personal best at last week’s annual swim carnival. Thanks to Stratos, Shannon, Binh and parents for supporting them. 

News …

Meet the Class Captains and Vice Captains – Pictured, straight after assembly on Monday are our new grade 6 captains and vice captains.  Having met with them on multiple occasions this week in preparation for our VIP visit (below), I am very confident that we have an outstanding representative group to work with this year.

The students are left to right, top row: Estelle May-Weiss, Grace Tong, Stephen Sully, Johanna Wells, Alana Birdhadic, Hannah Le, Ben Barham

Middle row: Andrew Trinh, Jack Dowell, Noah Pitliangas

Front row: Tilly McNamara, Louis Mullaly, Harry Gardner-Solomon, Leah Wheeler.

Visit from the Regional Director, Ms Wendy Timms – We were delighted to meet with and tour our school buildings and programs with the Regional Director, Ms Wendy Timms and the Area Executive Manager, Mr John Dainutis.  The timing of the visit proved ideal, as only this week our group of captains were revealed.  We were keen to provide them an opportunity to contribute to the school visit and tour, so we collaboratively prepared a multi-faceted visit that began with a brief meeting, enabling the students to ask questions relating to leadership, the grade 6 current Inquiry topic.  Then all the captaincy and vice-captaincy pairs dispersed to a variety of grades and specialist programs around the school.  Our guests, accompanied by our School Captains, Johanna, Stephen and I then visited the art program, 2JI, 6SM (via the library), the Orchard to Plate program, orchard, tour of school grounds, performing arts, Italian and finally, the Musical Futures program in the Soundgarage.  At each location our captaincy pairs were introduced and in turn introduced our guests to the teacher and grades and enlightened them as to key elements of the program. Our Tribes agreements were highlighted and by the high standard of attentive listening in evidence in each area we attended there was evidence of the fidelity in which our community maintains the importance of our whole school approach.  Our guests gratefully accepted wish wands from the art program, an apple from the orchard and Wendy was delighted to receive a copy of our magnificent Orchard to Plate book.  Well done and a big appreciation to all participants.

School captains, Stephen and Johanna are pictured at the conclusion of the visit with Department of Education and Training Regional Director South West Region Victoria, Ms Wendy Timms.

Annual Photo Day – The students and staff never look finer on the morning of our annual photo day!  Appreciations to staff and students for the high level of cooperation with Arthur Reed Photography staff throughout another busy and productive day at FWPS.  Any queries relating to ordering should be directed to the company on: Arthur Reed Photos (03) 5243 4390

customerservice@arphotos.com.au

School Ground Supervision

Parents are reminded that playground supervision (teacher on duty) is provided from 8.45 am before school and after school until 3.45 pm.

Students should not be in the school grounds before or after these times unless supervised by their parents or a known adult carer. Students should aim to be at school between 8.45 and 8.55am. This allows them to see their friends, chat or play a short game before school begins at 9.00am.

Students playing in the school ground or on the playground equipment after school MUST be supervised by their parents or guardians. Our TheirCare before and after school program operates from 7:00am daily.  You are encouraged to utilise this excellent program.

Coming up …

Cross  country trials … will be held at Shorten Reserve for students in grades 4 – 6 tomorrow from 9.30 am.

Next week …

At assembly – Congratulations to all our 2020 Junior School Council Representatives. An official announcement will be made at the assembly on Monday 24th February in the Gecko Building. We welcome parents/guardians to attend and share this exciting occasion with us.

**Please note that the badges are on backorder, so, unfortunately, students will not be presented with these at the assembly. Instead, students will receive their badges during a JSC meeting where a group photo will also be taken.  We appreciate your understanding and look forward to another great year of JSC reps leading FWPS.

Medha and Joanna are our JSC Facilitators this year and are looking forward to working with the representatives and meeting with the combined group on alternate Fridays.

Reminders

First aid news – Our school nurse Zowi sent all students with anaphylaxis, allergies and asthma conditions a letter at the beginning of term requiring updated medical plans.  Thank you to all the families who complied by the due date.  However we do have a number of families yet to respond.  This requirement is obviously a VERY IMPORTANT one.  Please ensure that if this message is relevant to you that it is complied with as a matter of urgency.

Classroom Helpers sessions start next week – If you wish to volunteer to assist in classrooms, excursions, camps, Connector Bugs, Parents’ Association, Orchard to Plate program

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 ……

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. 

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

Cheers,

Brendan