September 17th 2021

15


Principal's Message

I have spent some time this week reflecting on the concerns that many parents, including myself, have swimming around in their heads about the impact of extended remote learning. What impact has this had on academic progress? Are they ready for the next year of schooling?   

I thought I’d share a different view of curriculum and achievement that you may not have pondered before. The way we report on achievement and break curriculum into increments leads us to think about student achievement with a goldilocks lens – below, just right, and above. In reality, our curriculum is made up of a series of developmental continua for many different skills and concepts that children travel along at different rates. If we take the example of learning to tell the time, the expected progression would have students learning language of time in Foundation, telling time to the half hour in Year 1, to the quarter hour in Year 2 and to the minute in Year 3. However, if I encountered a student at Year 3 who had never learnt about telling time, it wouldn’t take 4 years to teach them all the Foundation – Year 3 ideas. With targeted teaching, it is very feasible to have that student telling time to the minute after a one unit of work. In any classroom from Year 2 upwards, research shows that we are working with a spread of up to 7 years in relation to student achievement. Our teachers, in their real-life classrooms, are masters of differentiated practice to ensure that students are taught at their point of need. This is done through small group workshops, open-ended tasks, individual goals and conferences and many other teaching strategies. Data-centred, responsive teaching is a current focus of our whole school professional learning and this will continue into 2022.  

Whilst schooling in the traditional sense has certainly been disrupted, learning never halts – our children learn with us, from us, and without us. There is no denying that extended, remote learning has impacted learning progress and as a system and a school we will develop strong practices to address this once we have our students back with us in the classrooms. In the meantime, you are all doing a fabulous job and our learners are certainly in safe hands.  

We are looking forward to hearing from the Premier on the weekend about the possible return to school road map and will communicate any updates to you via compass. Please have a safe and happy holiday and enjoy the eased restrictions if you can.   

 



2022 Planning

Leaving or Enrolling in 2022? 
School recruitment is a complex process and confirming projected enrolments early can support us our quality contract staff and recruiting from a strong pool of candidates. Our recruitment is well under way for 2022 and staffing needs are determined by our projected student enrolment numbers. If you are leaving Footscray PS at the end of the year or you have a child that will be enrolling could you please notify the office.  


Class Placement
Our class placement processes begin early in Term 4 to ensure we allow adequate time to support transition. You can find a copy of our class placement policy on the school website - https://www.footscrayps.vic.edu.au/uploaded_files/media/class_placement_policy_fps_2020.pdf.  


2022 Staffing 
We have already commenced recruitment for 2022 with great success. I would like to congratulate Chris Wilson on his appointment as substantive Leading Teacher - Student Engagement and Inclusion.  

We are fully recruited for Italian teachers with both Nick and Brigid successfully transferring from contract to ongoing employment and Stefania Lipoma joining the team next year. If Foundation enrolments increase significantly, we may require an additional Italian teacher and we are confident this would be achievable based on the strength of the recruitment pool we experienced in the recent round. Of course, Sarah T and Jackie will continue as ongoing Italian staff also. We will be advertising for ongoing language assistants early next term and look forward to sharing more with you about the team as we progress towards 2022.  

We have also successfully appointed music teachers in both Italian and Vietnamese. Sarah M joins us with a wealth of experience in music and bilingual education. She speaks English, German, and Italian and is currently teaching music through Indonesian at her current school. Sarah will be our Italian/Music teacher for Foundation to Year 2 in 2022.  Cam joins us with a range of diverse teaching experience in a number of schools and a career in teaching instrumental music privately. She speaks Vietnamese and Japanese and will be our Vietnamese/Music teacher for Year 3-6 in 2022. Cam and Sarah will work collaboratively with each other and the team of language teachers to design a strong, music and language program from F-6 for the students of FPS.  



Onsite Program

Throughout remote learning in Term 3, we have continued running a small onsite learning program for students of families who are authorised workers or meet eligibility criteria. This program has been run by several of our wonderful teachers, including our specialist team and education support staff. We would like to take this opportunity to thank these staff for providing safe, calm and consistent environments for our onsite students who often need it most. It has been very tiring work to do when also completing your own remote learning obligations, and our staff have done this happily with the needs of all students at the centre.

In the past week, Wendy and Chris R involved some of our onsite students in creating an amazing banner displayed at the front of our school supporting the Western Bulldogs. If you are out for your local walk and heading by the school, make sure you check it out. Go Doggies!!!



HAPPY MID AUTUMN FESTIVAL – VUI TẾT TRUNG THU

Trung thu is Vietnam’s Mid-Autumn Festival. It happens on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. Children make colourful lanterns in the shapes of boats processions.

Sweet tasting moon cakes made from sticky cooked rice with seeds, nuts, eggs and raisins are eaten during Trung Thu.  Drums, gongs and cymbals are played loudly during the noisy parades.

During this week, the students have learnt about Mid-Autumn Festival and Mid-Autumn songs in Vietnamese. The onsite students have made lanterns and dragon parade puppets.





Stay safe and healthy,
Lots of love x.x.x.

Cô Hạnh



FPS Community Mosaic – claim your spot in history!

Since we opened our doors in 1861, many nationalities, languages and perspectives have connected to make our school special.  In our 160th year, we’re creating a special mosaic to celebrate our great school community. 

The FPS Community Mosaic will be an outdoor artwork made up of ceramic, glass and recycled materials.  Designed by students and put together with the help of parent volunteers, we’d love you to get involved in creating our masterpiece!   

Whether you’re a family member, current or former student, teacher or friend of FPS, we invite you to purchase a mosaic tile here - https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=793605& to be part of the final design.  Please also join us for the Big Reveal at the FPS Art Show & 160th Anniversary, on Saturday 20th November! 

With 160 tiles purchased so far, our mosaic will soon be taking shape!  We have room for everyone’s tile memories in the design, so don’t miss out on being part of the fun!






160th Tea Towel Information



Enrolments

If you have a child who will be starting Foundation at Footscray PS next year, please submit your enrolment forms as soon as possible. With upcoming capital works and recruitment of Italian teachers to consider, it is critical that we are able to finalise enrolment numbers as early as possible to ensure we have strong structures in place for 2022.   



Scholastic Book Club

We're excited to announce that our school will once again be offering the Scholastic Book Club as a way to both promote reading, as well as collect rewards for our school. The school earns 20% per order (or 10% for home delivered options). The ordering process is now online through the Loop platform. Issue 7 and Issue 8 will be distributed during Term 4. Please see the information for registering with Loop, where you will find your child's teacher and class loaded once you select Footscray Primary School. 

Many thanks to our parent helper Jessica Jones for coordinating the Book Club for us.

 

 



TheirCare



Important dates to Remember


Last day of Term 3 - 17th September 2021

Term 4 starts 4th October 2021
Monday 4th November - Curriculum Day NO students at school 
Monday 13th December - Curriculum Day NO students at school

Holiday Program