Hello wonderful families of FPS, 

We are rapidly moving towards the end of first term and how beautiful it has been to have a full term of face-to-face teaching and learning.  

Our staff professional inquiry into inclusive and engaging classrooms has continued with a session last week to evaluate the first draft of our school-wide positive behaviour matrix. We have created visual supports for all classrooms, including visual schedules, reinforcement charts, and visual cues on staff lanyards that will be introduced next week. This week, we have been learning about Abilities Based Learning and Education Support (ABLES) and how it can be used to assess and plan for learning for students with a range of diffabilities. On Wednesday, we had an Occupational Therapist from D.O.T.S teaching us about sensory profiles and supports for the diverse sensory needs within our classrooms.  In coming weeks, we have the fabulous Dr Loz facilitating our thinking about neurodiversity and we will work with staff to apply our learning to the development of learning plans and tiered learning supports.  

                       

A couple of weeks ago, we welcomed our local Member of Parliament, Katie Hall, to our school to officially turn the sod and launch our capital works. Things will move very quickly from here and whilst the construction stage will be undoubtedly challenging it is really creating a buzz about the exciting things to come for FPS in 2023 and beyond. We are pleased to have access to the portable classroom with 3/4 D and E moving into their new home this week.  

                        

Our inclusion subcommittee worked last year to develop a calendar of significant dates to acknowledge and celebrate throughout the year. This week we celebrated Harmony Week and had a drumming and dance performance by Nii Abli and Kofi Nortey. Abli is a familiar face for many of our students as he teaches African Drumming to our junior students each Thursday. It was a vibrant event and students particularly loved seeing the fabulous dancing of several of our staff.

I am still in isolation and look forward to returning to school next week. In our leadership team, we have been learning some important lessons from the lives of geese and this week I am reaping the benefits of being a part of the FPS flock of incredible educational leaders as I drop to the back and know the others will keep us flying in the right direction. Thanks, teamies!  

In May this year, our Year 3 and 5 students will participate in the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). In 2022, all schools across the country will transition to NAPLAN online. Year 5 students will complete all components of the assessment online, and Year 3 students will complete the writing assessment on paper and all other components online. Last week, we ran our first trial to test whether we had suitable devices for students and a network infrastructure in place to support the online testing. For a first try, we were really pleased with how well the session ran and how adaptive our students were. We uncovered a few technical glitches that we will manage next time around. The Year 5 students participated in another nationwide coordinated practice test on Thursday. 

As the online format requires students to have some level of proficiency with using iPads, we will be spending time at school visiting the NAPLAN Public Demonstration Site for students to learn how to comfortably navigate the testing platform. The format relies on understanding features such as drop bars, pull and drag with a tracking pad and undoing a wrong answer by highlighting and change. We will incorporate this test genre into the learning between now and May when students sit the tests, and we encourage families to take some time to support their children in practicing using these features through the Public Demonstration Site.

This year student’s celebrated International Women’s Day by reflecting on the women who inspire them. Students were encouraged to create an art piece on a woman who inspires them, and explain why they find them so inspirational. Our competition winners were lucky enough to receive books and book vouchers from our wonderful local bookshops, The Younger Sun and The Chestnut Tree.

Here are some examples of our student’s entries:

 
Frida Kahlo by Grace, Alexa and Josie, 3/4


Greta Thunberg by Lucia, Grade 3/4

Cathy Freeman inspired me to run even more she was indigenous and born in 1973. After watching her run I was amazed, but not just me, Australia was too. She won 2 gold medals in the 2000 Summer Olympics and was the 9^th fastest female sprinter. She became a gold medallist in 1990 at the age of 16. She inspired me and many other people and encouraged women and men to play sports, and to reach up to our limits and never give up. “You’ve got to try and reach for the stars or try to achieve the unreachable.” Jack, Grade 5/6

 
Altjira, Grade 3

On Friday March 28^th FPS students were encouraged to walk, ride, scoot, skate or catch public transport to school as an opportunity to consider the environmental impact cars have on our environment as well as how to stay active and heathy. The class with the most students using alternative transport methods will be offered the chance to have a class lunch at Footscray Park.

Congratulations to everyone who competed at cross country on Friday 4th March. Steph and Luke were blown away by the sportsmanship shown by FPS. Not only did we cheer each other on but we encouraged and celebrated every school that was there. 

Congratulations to 
Ari
Dinam
Hannika
Iggy
Juliette
Samira
Zeph
who finished top six in their races and will represent FPS in regionals. 

 
 

The wonderful FPS staff are running various clubs and activities for students during lunch and recess. What a multitalented bunch they are, too!

We are so excited to be partnering with Footscray Primary School to form the Student Leadership Co-Design Group for the new project Passports to Play by Maribyrnong City Council. 

Passport to Play is a project that will look at the simple, unstructured ways that children like to play in their local neighbourhoods, including how, where and with whom. We will be doing extensive consultations across Primary Schools, Kindergartens, Playgroups and community settings over 2022. The student leadership group will help to co-design the project. Play is a fundamental part of child development and leads to increased health and wellbeing, social cohesion, learning and development and community connection. This is particularly important as we begin to recover from the impacts of the pandemic.

As children are the experts in play, their voices, opinions and ideas are essential to help steer the project.

The student leadership co-design group will work with the key project leaders from Maribyrnong City Council on the Passports to Play project over 2022. This group will include children from 5 – 12yrs old, with diverse cultural, gender and ability representation. We will meet at Footscray Primary School for initial meetings but will invite the leadership group to meet in the council buildings to broaden their experience later in the year. The leadership group will also be invited to be involved in launching the final resources and celebrations at the end of the project (late 2022, early 2023). 

We are keen for real and authentic collaboration with children for this group. They will learn leadership skills, connect to their wider community and have their voices and opinions heard and valued. 

The student leadership co-design group will cover topics such as:

• Discuss their rights as children – UN Convention, Child-Friendly City Charter, Child Safe Charter – what do they think about that? Did they know they had these rights?
• How do they see play as important – to them as individuals, to families and communities?
• Decide what sort of questions are best to ask children? What questions are best to ask adults? Do we want to include adult memories of their childhood play?
• Discuss what they would like adults to know about play. What is the best way to communicate that?
• How best to capture the thoughts of children 0 – 10yrs? Drawings, interviews? Audio, photography, video…?
• What do children like or need in their local neighbourhoods? How can play help? What else do we need to be doing?

As part of documenting the project, students who take part in this leadership group may be photographed or videoed. We will ensure informed consent for any documentation and provide families with release forms for approval. Maribyrnong City Council is a signatory to Child Friendly Cities & Child Safety Standards.

There is currently a great need for new foster families. If you have thought about foster care, please get in touch and ask the questions you have always wanted to.

Ring: Key Assets 1800 932 237 or 1800 WE CARE

Email: info@keyassets.com.au

Web: canifoster.com.au or keyassets.org.au

What will happen: Interested families would receive a brochure, information and no pressure!