Newsletter - 20 October 2022

Issue 32


Principal's Report

Principal’s Newsletter Report 20th October

In this week’s newsletter:

  • Appreciations
  • News … this week 
  • School Council news 
  • Change to the status of Pupil Free days this term
  • FWPS mobile phone and smartwatch policy
  • NAPLAN 2022
  • Book Fair
  • News … coming up
-  School Disco next Thurs
-  Diversity Dash on Fri of next week
-  Curriculum Day (Pupil Free day) - Mon. 31st October
-  Common Professional Practice day (Pupil Free day) - Fri. 11th
    November
  • COVID update
Information of relevance repeated from recent newsletters
  • Class placements 2023 
  • Current COVID rules

Appreciations - The Smile Squad team have been busy since last term, initially assessing and then treating many of our students' dental health.  The program has been successful with families benefiting from the peace of mind that their children, many whose dental health had been negatively affected through multiple COVID lockdowns, have either received the ‘all clear’, while others have received significant affordable treatment.  The program will conclude at the end of this week.  We appreciate the professionalism and engagement of the Smile Squad staff.

News … this week …

School Council News

Pupil Free Days

Earlier this year following my advice, our School Council approved a plan that involved 3 Pupil Free days during term 4.  The first of these, Monday 31st October, was referred to as a ‘Time in Lieu’ day, as a recompense for the time teaching staff had accrued for additional hours spent reporting student progress to parents during our term 1 ‘Meet the Teacher’ and term 2 ‘Student Learning Conferences’.  However, under the recently approved Victorian Government Schools Agreement, schools are not able to provide a time in lieu day that also involves the dismissal of students (Pupil Free day).  This can only be the case for Curriculum days and in more recent times during COVID, Common Professional Practice days.  As we have one of each left for the year, School Council have agreed to the Time in Lieu day now being held as a Curriculum Day for the purpose of student report writing on Monday, 31st October (Monday week).  As previously publicised, Friday, 11th November will be a Pupil Free day provided for staff as a Common Professional Practice day.  Another change however, will be the final day of the school year, Tuesday, 20th December will no longer be a Curriculum day.  Students will be free to attend school on that day should they require supervision.  We will manage our staffing on that day by combining grade groups to enable team planning to proceed as was originally planned.  With an awareness that many students may be unlikely to attend school during the last two days of the school year, we will ensure that all milestone events, such as class parties and our final assembly are held by Friday, 16th December, the final full week of an enervating school year.

Mobile Phone and Smart Watches

School Council approved amendments to the Mobile Phone and Smart Watches Policy in order that it aligns with Department of Education guidelines.  As well as mobile phones, all internet enabled and GPS devices (usually in the form of smart watches) will not be able to be used by students during the school day.  Smart watches will be managed in the same way that mobile phones are, in so far that they will be required to be handed into the class teacher daily.  With this added requirement, we will encourage students to leave smart watches at home and only bring mobile phones to school if it is a necessity for safe travel.  While the practice of handing in mobile phones is well established, this is not the case with smart watches.  Consequently, there will be a period of grace to enable students and parents to become familiar with the policy.  Assistant Principal, Carolyn Lockie has included a more detailed item on this matter in today’s newsletter.

NAPLAN 2022

Carolyn presented a thorough summary of our 2022 NAPLAN results as well.  All students are expected, and were encouraged to participate in NAPLAN tests at FWPS. We have reason to be very pleased with the performance of our grade 3 and 5 students’ given our school performed above similar schools and network schools for Year 3 Reading and Numeracy and
all areas of the year 5 Naplan : Reading, Writing, Spelling, Grammar & Punctuation and Numeracy. Year 3’s also performed above network schools for Spelling, Grammar & Punctuation. An area for improvement was Year 3 writing. As NAPLAN was completed in May of this year, the Year 3 cohort have been the focus of the Tutor Learning Initiative and, after a long stretch of junior school being Covid affected, students have been working towards building their writing stamina.

We continue to build our writing program with the introduction of ‘The Writing Revolution’-an explicit set of evidenced-based strategies for teaching writing to complement our 6+1 Traits.

In 2023 we will engage in a Strategic Review.  During this process we will forensically analyse our data and direction.  There will be significant opportunity for our community to participate in this process.

Book Fair

After a long COVID lay off, the Book Fair has come back with a rush.  In fact, our Library technician, Jodi, indicated to me that by Wednesday afternoon, in terms of sales, it was already the most popular ever. The significant profits provide a very helpful source of revenue for additional library resources. By the time you read this there will only be one more chance to visit, tomorrow morning.  Parents and carers, please make your way through the waiting students from 8.40 am at the main gate (which has been supervised for this purpose daily). 

News … coming up

The following information about the school disco was provided as a Compass Events post on Wednesday afternoon.

School Disco - We are very much looking forward to our Halloween themed fundraising disco next Thursday, 27th October.  Dress ups will be encouraged (no fake blood, no toy weapons).

The main details are:

$5 entry per child - booking in advance through Compass.  

Tickets are $5.00 and MUST be prepaid, via this Compass event.  A ticket will be given to each child in the afternoon on Thursday 27th for entry into the disco.  This ticket will be placed in a 'barrel' for one child to win a door prize at each session. Don't lose your ticket - it may be the lucky one!

The times are:

Junior Disco (Years Prep to Two) - 5:30pm to 6:45pm, lining up from 5:15pm 
Senior Disco (Years Three to Six) - 7:15pm to 8:30pm, lining up from 7:00pm

You are welcome to come dressed as your favourite Halloween character but remember no fake blood, props or weapons of any kind.

Hot dogs, Zooper Doopers, Killer Pythons, Glow Sticks and other treats will be available on the night for purchase with CASH ONLY.   A price list will be sent out via a Compass News feed closer to the date. 

To help us to cater for the event:

  • For our students that have registered special dietary requirements, parents will need to pre order these alternative food items via the questions when you consent to attending this event. 
  • For all the other non dietary students food items will be available at the canteen, you do not have to pre order.

Students are required to line up outside the canteen for entry, and will be dismissed via the double doors in the small car park. Students will not be dismissed without a parent present.  If your child is going home with someone other than their parent you must supply a written request to the office before 3:30pm on Thursday 27th October.

Students will be supervised in the Gecko disco area, outside if they wish to use the drink taps at the Prep Courtyard toilets, and in the quiet ‘break out’ room that will be located in the 1LL classroom inside the Wallaby building.

Our teachers and education support staff will work alongside parents and carers who have completed our Volunteer online induction modules and hold a valid WWC (Working with Childrens Check) as listed on our school office register, to provide this supervision.

The modules can found at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdl1fJf4rDt7nwAPuLqVK3yXHZz0xn3fZDAyVtDWqvZHzu6Ww/viewform.

If you think you may like to assist, please ensure you complete all relevant sections of the induction over the next few days and present at the office with your valid WWCC while places remain available. An online link to book a time slot and responsibility will be sent to those parents and carers registered by Thursday, 20th October. Being a Child Safe organisation, entry to parents and carers without the induction and valid WWCC, will not be permitted.

For our students, look out for the posters and assembly reminders and for the parents and carers, note the Compass Event post with the necessary information and booking links that was sent on Wednesday.

Diversity Dash - Welcome to our inaugural Diversity Dash, a day where the focus will be on inclusion and opportunity. To complement our Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships learning, we are very much looking forward to a day when our staff will provide fun class opportunities throughout the day culminating in a Colour Run towards the end of the school day.  It will be a mufti day (casual clothes) with a definite focus on wearing light clothing that you really don’t mind being a canvas for the Colour Run powder. A consent to participate will be sent via Compass, noting that parents of asthmatic students will need to consider all information provided.

Curriculum Day - As stated (earlier) a Curriculum Day for teachers to prepare student assessment and reports will be provided on Monday, 31st October.  This is a Pupil Free day.  Their Care will run a full day care program provided there is sufficient interest.  

Professional Practice Day - The new Schools’ Agreement continues the provision for Professional Practice Days as part of the award. The need for this to be a ‘common day’ is to  ensure schools can meet the need to release teachers for collaboration, at a time when access to relief teachers is problematic.  As previously publicised, our common PPD will be held on Friday, 11th November.  It is a Pupil Free day.  Their Care will provide a full day care program should there be sufficient uptake.  Please book online.

COVID Update

The final consignment of RAT packs have not yet been sent out in the timeframe I predicted.  We have had two members of the administration team unavailable this week through illness. And with an understanding most, if not all families have an abundance of RAT packs at home, the final consignment will be sent home when our admin staff return.  Of course, if there are any of our families that do have a requirement for additional packs, please send us a message and we will send them home with your child on that day.   

While most of the rules around COVID have been changed (what a difference a year can make) we are expecting every family to to employ caution and still be mindful of the effect highly transmissible conditions such as COVID can have on others. The Department of Health recommends that household contacts wear a mask and as such we will continue to offer masks to identified household contacts should they not be wearing them in class.

New COVID cases over the last 5 days …

Positive 

Household close contact

7 students

2 staff members

3 students 

0 staff members


We will continue to contact parents and carers if your child presents with symptoms at school that may be transmissible.

Information of relevance repeated from recent newsletters

Class Placement for 2023

During Term 4, the teaching teams will spend many hours preparing grades for next year. Throughout this process, the needs of all students are considered from a social, academic and behavioural perspective. 

In limited situations, we may consider requests from families regarding their child's 2023 grade placement.

If you believe that the following listed considerations are relevant to your child's needs, we advise that this form must be completed by the due date. This is the formal communication for this process, so we will not be accepting phone calls or emails on these matters.

All matters will be dealt with sensitively; however, we must stress that requests for specific teachers, classes or friends will not be accommodated. Throughout this process, teachers look for compatible learning partners and encourage the development of new friendships. Requests related to learning, behavioural or social requirements will be considered on merit and in consultation with key staff members.

If after consideration of the above stipulations, you believe your child’s class placement requires special consideration enter your request at:  Grade Placement 2023

If you have made such a request in the past, please note that any previous accommodation or agreement will have been made for that year only.  If the concern is still relevant, a request will again need to be made.

Please note that all communication on this matter will need to be received via this form, no later than Friday, 28th October.

You will receive an automatically generated email acknowledgement after submission. We may seek further discussions or clarification with families.

Considerations for grade placements …

Class placement requires the collective efforts of all staff throughout a considerable process. Initially, the teachers meet to consider the relative academic and social abilities of the children and then begin to place them in grades, considering their current friendship groups. Please note that this is based on teachers’ knowledge of the children. The most important consideration however, will always relate to placement with compatible learners.

A range of factors are considered based on some simple principles:-
* classes need to have a gender balance
* classes need an academically compatible balance
* classes need a “social behaviour” balance
* children need to be placed with familiar faces, while at the same time acknowledging that some children work better with certain students than others irrespective of friendships

As a Tribes school we strongly believe it is essential for children to be challenged to make new friends as these opportunities often lead to wonderful new friendships and relationships never before imagined. Additionally, it is unrealistic to expect that we will travel through life with only one set of friends.

Students need opportunities to work through social challenges with care, support and understanding from the adults in their life. Please do not expect that a student with whom a child had an issue with one year will never be in the same grouping with them again. We need to help children learn to adapt and skill themselves up to deal with all kinds of people and most importantly, give relationships a second opportunity to flourish.

Cheers,

Brendan



Coming Events

DATECOMING EVENTS
Fri 21 OctScholastic Book Fair - AM sales only
Mon 24 OctGrade 5/6 Space Excursion (5TH and 6MC)
Thur 27 OctGrade 5/6 Space Excursion (5CG & 6MP)
Thur 27 Oct Whole School Disco - Halloween Theme
Fri 28 OctDiversity Dash
Mon 31 OctCurriculum Day (Pupil Free Day) 
Tue 1 NovMelbourne Cup - Public Holiday
Wed 2 Nov - Thur 10 Nov3/4 Intensive Swimming Program
Thur 3 NovGrade 5/6 Space Excursion (5SM & 6LC)
Fri 4 NovPrep Wildlife Xposure Incursion
Fri 11 NovProfessional Practice Day (Pupil Free Day)
Wed 16 Nov2nd Hand Uniform Shop @ 8:50am
Thur 17 NovParent Asociation AGM
Thur 17 NovTwilight Working Bee
Fri 18 NovTheir Care 2nd Hand Uniform Shop 
Thur 24 NovTheir Care 2nd Hand Uniform Shop 
Mon 12 DecGrade 6 Graduation - RecWest
Tues 13 DecThrough School Transition - Grades P-5
Statewide Transition Grade 6 to Year 7
Wed 14 DecPark to Park Celebration
Fri 16 DecEnd of Year Grade Parties 
Fri 16 DecCelebration Assembly @ 2:45pm
Tues 20 DecLast Day - early finish 1:30pm


Pupil of the Week

NAME

GRADE

APPRECIATION FOR:

Aster

PAC

For continually making wonderful contributions to our Glow and Grow feedback sessions. Keep up the amazing effort!

Olive

PAK

For the enthusiasm you show towards your learning and being an inclusive member of our class.

Vera

PHS

For always keeping her classroom beautiful and for putting in tremendous effort in her writing tasks. 

Maya

PKB

For being a great role model to those around you. Keep up the amazing work!

Lily

PKT

For her positive mindset and always doing her best. You are a champion!

Alex

1CD

For showing great improvement in her writing by adding more detail and beginning to self edit independently. Well done!

Oli

1CW

For your continued effort in your sound knowledge and applying this to your reading. 

Sam

1LB

For completing a wonderful descriptive writing piece on butterflies. Fantastic effort Sam, keep up the great work!

Ryder

1HP

For the effort you put into your tasks and for trying your best to start tasks independently.

Wynter

1LL

For putting so much effort into your writing and sounding out words.

Seamus

2BD

For the enthusiasm you displayed at our Sea Life Aquarium excursion, especially when looking at the crocodile.

 

Ava

2JI

For her continual respect towards others and her enthusiasm to learn about different sea creatures when on the Grade Two excursion to the Aquarium. Thank you for being a wonderful role model, Ava. You are a Superstar!

Oliver

2LE

For sharing his factual knowledge about sea creatures and making great observations on the aquarium excursion.

Jayden

2TN

For showing attentive listening by following instructions during the Grade Two Aquarium excursion and being so inquisitive about sea creatures. Superb effort Jayden!

Isabelle

3JS

For being so kind, caring and supportive when working with your peers!  What an amazing role model you are!!

Kiara

3MK

For applying your personal best effort to focus during class discussions. Incredible work.

Hannah

3MP

For her inclusion of others during group tasks. Keep it up!

Leo

3TM

For the outstanding progress you have made in reading, comprehension and vocabulary this year. Well done Leo!

Arnav

4AF

For being a helpful and polite member of the class to his peers, and staff within the FWPS community. Well done Arnav, you have set a fantastic example for others to follow!

Yuna

4BC

For participating in our angles unit with enthusiasm and curiosity. Your knowledge and effort is one to celebrate! Well done, Yuna!

 

Gretel

4DW

For displaying a positive attitude to learning all year round. You are a fantastic role model.

Ayantu

4MS

For her kindness she brings to the classroom on a daily basis and for demonstrating her personal best with her creative writing.

William

5CG

For applying tremendous effort when writing narratives and creating detailed descriptions! Keep up the passion for writing William.

Lily

5SM

For the extra effort you applied to your TORCH test to show what you know.

Lydia

5TH

For demonstrating her personal best and approaching all tasks with a growth mindset.

Jordan

6LC

For your interesting and insightful contributions to our class discussions about the solar system. Fantastic efforts, Jordan!

Jaspa

6MP

For your fantastic effort during maths classes this term. Keep it up!

Felix

6MC

For always having a good attitude and seeing the bright side of things. Your contributions to class discussions about space have been very thoughtful! Keep it up.

 

Sebastian Lewis

TheirCare

For looking out for other children during TheirCare and taking good care of all the materials and equipment at the service!



Welcome Back to the Art Room - Term 4

We have been working very hard this year and we hope that you have been loving ALL the fabulous paintings and creations we have been sending home over the last three terms!

I would also like to SAY a MASSIVE, HUGE thank you to the amazing SHARON!!! WE ALL are so super sad to see Sharon retire and we will miss her creative spirit and all the hard work she puts in to our program!! I personally have learnt soooo much from Sharon especially in organising and planning….. the paper cupboard has never looked so good!!!! She will be missed!!!

We are so lucky to have Raine to join the art program….. she will be working on Thursdays and I will be back full time at Footscray West…YAY!

Raine and I are looking forward to seeing the creativity and fantastic art work this term.

Preps
The Preps this term are going to be studying the Impressionist artist Monet and looking at his famous paintings ‘The Japanese Footbridge’ and the ‘Waterlillies’. The students will be looking at the life and times of Monet and recreating some of his techniques. The Preps will also be completing their first papier-mache sculpture (a favourite of mine!!). This will be a 3D form, that will be constructed, papier-mached and then painted.

Grade One/Two
Students in Grade One and Two last term were learning about Pop art. The students loved this colourful and fun art so much we have decided to continue with this theme. The artist we will be looking at is Jim Dine. Jim Dine is an American artist known for his heart series. (google him!!) We thought he was a great artist to look at this term with International Kindness day coming up on Sunday 13th of November. The heart art will combine looking at cool and warm colours and introducing the students to the colour wheel.

Grade 3/4 and Grade 5/6 
All students in 3/4 and 5/6 will be sewing. The students will be learning the running stitch, the back stitch and the blanket stitch (all lifelong skills!) The Grade 3/4 students will be designing a monster character and Grade 5/6 students will have complete choice over their sewing project. Both middle and senior will create a pattern, cut the fabric and then sew all the pieces together.

Donations
We are very appreciative of everyone who has dropped in bags of fabric and felt in the last week… but I need to be a bit cheeky and ask for more! We are ok for stuffing for our sewing projects but a bit light on for material. Any fabric is fine, even old clothes that have a great print! Thank you for your support!


Susie and Raine

 

 

 



Music - Term 4

Our focus in Music during Term Four is performance! Students have continued expanding their repertoire of songs, chords, and rhythms, and both classroom music and Soundgarage students will be madly practising and rehearsing songs they have chosen.

Prep
In term four the students will learn songs, and dramatise songs, that have to do with animals. The noises made by animals are a very interesting part of our sonic environment and match in with the concepts of loud and soft, high and low pitch and ‘tone colour’ for identification. We will be continuing the playing of ukuleles and will be learning about how we can play in a ‘band’ in front of an audience, how it sounds better if we start and finish together, keep time with the strumming and listen to the other band members. When singing together we will learn about introducing the item, facing the audience, and performing at an appropriate volume. There will also be some lessons that introduce students to some very basic songwriting where we change the lyrics to a familiar song.

Grade 1/2
In term four the grade one students will incorporate the learning of songs about minibeasts into lessons and the grade two students will be learning songs about marine life. All grade one and two students will continue to learn songs on ukulele and the new songs will include some new chords to expand their repertoire.  As the students become more proficient in their playing skills, we will further consider the aspects of performance such as facing an audience, introducing an item, commencing and finishing together and demonstrating attentive listening when performing with others. There will be some lessons where students create some new songs using rhyming words.

Grade 3/4
The focus for Grade 3/4s this term will be choosing, and then working on a single song. During the first two weeks, students have finished learning a piece from Term 3. For several weeks from Week 3 onwards, we will concentrate playing one specific song chosen by the grade, getting it ready to make a class performance recording. Students will focus on listening to each other and making sure we get the song as close to the original recorded version as possible.

Grade 5/6
Similar to the Grade 3/4s, Grade 5/6 students will focus on practising and rehearsing a single song over the several weeks. We will use our performance practice from last term, and from Week 3 classes will begin working on a specific song of their choice, ranging from the 1980’s to the 2000’s. Again, students will focus on listening to each other and making sure we get the song as close to the original recorded version as possible.

 

David and John

 



Physical Education and Sport - Term 4

Term Four has ongoing Inter School commitments with the Western Region Athletics Carnival for some of our senior and middle school students this week. Summer sport is being held this term on a Friday morning  for the senior school with teams for Basketball, Bat tennis, Cricket and Newcomb. The Grade 3/4 Intensive Swimming program will be held this term with a seven day program being conducted at the MAC.

Physical Education

  • Prep - Grades 1/2 – Will be focusing on the FMS of the double handed strike of static and moving ball of varying sizes using a Cricket bat, Foam baseball bat and Hockey stick. We will work hard at improving the stance, grip, swing and strike. Minor Striking drills and games will feature to round off the year.
  • Grades 3/4 – Will concentrate on the skills of the two handed strike as used in games such as Cricket, Tee ball, Softball and Hockey There will also be an emphasis on Cricket and Tee ball in a modified format this term with drills, and small sided games.
  • Grades 5/6 – Will also focus on the two handed strike with the emphasis on hitting a moving ball as used in games such as Cricket Softball and Hockey. We will also focus on the skills of the game of Cricket and Tee ball incorporating stroke play, drills and games.

 Stratos Tzanoudakis
Physical Education

 



Western Region Athletics Team Results 2022

 

 

12/13 Years

100

200

800

Hurdles

Relay

Shot Put

Discus

Long Jump

Trip Jump

High Jump

6MP

Eden Sing

 

 

 

 

8th

 

 

 

 

 

6MP

David Borg

 

 

 

 

8th

 

 

 

 

 

6LC

Lucas Viravouth

 

 

 

 

8th

 

 

 

 

 

6LC

Fletcher Bodman

 

 

 

 

8th

 

 

8th

 

 

6MC

Moussa Uweinat

 

 

 

 

 

 

10th

 

 

 

11 Years

6LC

Soli Harrison Keca

 

5th Heat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9th

5SM

Nico Munro

 

 

 

 

 

 

4th

 

 

 

9/10 Years

5SM

Oscar Shrestha

 

4th Final

12th

 

Injured

 

 

 

 

 

4AF

Arvan Jilla

 

 

 

 

8th

 

 

 

 

 

4BC

James Pearce

 

 

 

 

8th

 

 

 

 

 

4AF

Jack Harris

 

 

 

 

8th

 

 

 

 

 

On Tuesday a group of eleven students from Footscray West travelled to Keilor Park Athletics track in a Minibus to compete at the Western Region Athletics Carnival. It was a massive accomplishment to qualify at this level as competitors must get through the School, District and Division carnivals to arrive at this stage. Our qualifiers did a fantastic job at the carnival, competing against elite level athletes in a variety of individual and relay events. A big thank you to our late call ups due to illness and injury on the day of the event. Appreciations to the parents and supporters who came along to watch and encouraged our team. Competitors and results are listed above.



Italian - Term 4

Buongiorno a tutti! Greetings to all FWPS families,

We hope that the springtime will help everyone to complete this busy year with the colours and perfumes that this season brings about. We prepare to wish ‘Buona Fortuna’ to the senior students and we might see soon some future Prep students exploring the school grounds. Meanwhile we are all completing our activities.

Prep 
Students will complete their year with the story of the caterpillar, which is very popular in Italy too. We’ll try to focus on the days of the week, although we already know that all attention will be for the caterpillar/Bruco’s Saturday Menu. Buon appetito!

Grade 1 & 2 
Students are finalising all the pages of their little passport like document. With that they will explore the main Italian landmarks, together with the story of a little red car touring the country. Buon Viaggio!=Happy Journey!

Grade 3 & 4 
Are consolidating their knowledge of places and modes of transport. They are learning to refer to past experiences and they are challenging each other with memory games and quiz. Also they are browsing books about Italian culture and sharing the aspects that they find more interesting.

Grade 5 & 6 
Students are planning a festa, a party, and they are using all the available resources to build up the vocabulary on the topic, while rehearsing the formulas and useful starters which are useful in hosting a party.

Buon lavoro / Happy activities to everyone.

Giuliano

 



Performing Arts - Term 4



Hi FWPS community!

The Dance-focused semester in Performing Arts is full steam ahead, with all students in grades 3-6 preparing to present their assessment tasks in week 5. Here’s a quick look at the focus for each grade level in Performing Arts during Term 4.

Preps

This term Prep students continue to explore expressive movement and practice completing actions in a purposeful way, with energy all the way from the toes to the fingertips. They have been working on moving in time with music from all over the world, and exploring how different kinds of music makes them feel. As well as moving responsively to music, Prep students have been using visual and verbal cues to improvise original movement, and to respond in a physically expressive way to imagined events, sensations, and environments. They have been enthusiastically experimenting with the use of duration, freezes, and quick tempo changes to create interesting effects in their dancing. Prep students continue to work in pair, small group and whole class situations, and have a gradually increasing number of opportunities to develop their collaborative skills this term by working more independently in small groups as the term progresses. It’s getting pretty exciting in there, as our soon-to-be-grade-ones find their voices and their confidence in Performing Arts.

Grade 1/2

Our Junior students begin to focus more on smooth transitions between movements in sequences, being expressive, and developing awareness of how angles and facing impact on the way shapes and lines in the body appear to an audience. Students have been using pictures as prompts to create short story structures for organising their ideas into dance sequences, which will prepare them for the challenges of expressing more complex concepts through dance in middle school. They will also experiment with incorporating travelling steps into their pieces, which involves a lot more co-ordination and spatial awareness than dancing on the spot or only taking a few steps, so we’ll really be working on safety with locomotor movements a lot this term. Students are beginning to give and receive constructive feedback, and will practice thanking people for their ideas, as well as categorising feedback as either “useful” or “interesting” based on their own goals for their work. There is a lot of fun collaboration with peers this term for the junior grades!

Grade 3/4 and 5/6 

The Middle and Senior students will be using their knowledge of the elements of dance at their respective grade levels, and the tools for composition that they have explored throughout the semester, to construct a 4 phrase sequence that communicates a message that they find to be meaningful. This is their major assessment in dance each year from grade 3 up, and it allows me to see their development over a number of years in terms of their capacity to utilise the skills and understandings they build on throughout their dance education in primary school. It is a collaborative project which will be the focus of 4 weeks of class (weeks 2, 3, 4, and 5) including the presentation week, and will require students to apply what they have learned, and to undertake a process of refining their work before presenting it. Students will discuss, plan, design original abstract/symbolic movement, choreograph/arrange, rehearse, refine and perform to peers. After the assessment presentations are finished, we will revise the essential content that has been covered earlier in the semester, build on performance and improvisation skills through “tasking” exercises, and students will have an opportunity to guide the focus of two sessions late in the term by expressing interest in a dance topic or skill they wish to learn more about.

I’m excited to continue to explore the foundations of dance with the Prep and Junior school students, and to see what interesting creative work the Middle and Senior students at FWPS generate in Performing Arts this term! I can tell you now, some of those Middle and Senior students have been going BIG with the themes and messages they’ve selected for their group pieces, and I’m sure they’d love to tell you all about it! If you have any questions or would like to chat about the program, please feel free to contact the office and I’ll get in touch to arrange a chat on a Tuesday afternoon sometime. I love talking about dance, so don’t be shy!

Take care everyone, and thanks for reading.

Jess Russell-Davies

 

 



Scholastic Book Fair


Come to Our Book Fair - LAST DAY TOMORROW!!

Friday 21st October           8.40am – 9.00am only

Please note access to school in the morning before 8.50am to attend the book fair will be via the main gate in Argyle Street only and all children must be accompanied by an adult if attending the fair before 8.50am

As with previous fairs there will be:

  • books suitable for all ages;
  • posters;
  • pens, pencils, rubbers, sharpeners

It is a great opportunity to buy some children’s books and help raise funds for the school at the same time.

Jodi
Library



Diversity Dash

Get Ready for Diversity Dash at F.W.P.S.

Coming up on October 28th is our first, inaugural Diversity Dash celebrating our wonderful Footscray West Primary School community. Diversity Dash encourages students to get out and get active as part of a fun, social, colourful and inclusive event.

The focus on colour provides the opportunity to celebrate diversity amongst our school community and integrate key messages around cultural diversity, disability, gender equality, Koorie and LGBTIQ inclusion and the engagement of all students no matter their background, gender or ability.

Students will be encouraged to participate with their peers in a range of fun activities in the morning. The afternoon will culminate in a Colour Run and we encourage parents to come and join the fun. Students will be asked to dress in old light-coloured clothes so they are able fully experience the Diversity Dash.

Watch this space and Compass for more information to follow soon.

Regards,


The Child Safety and Wellbeing Team in conjuction with the Junior School Council



Updated FWPS Mobile Phone Policy

Updated FWPS Mobile Phone Policy

Dear Families,

As we all continue to grapple with policy that keeps up with changing technology use, schools have been requested to update and ensure enforcement of their Mobile Phone Policy. Please refer to our school website under the ‘About Us’ and ‘Policies’ tab for our most recent version. Please follow this link: 
https://www.fwps.vic.edu.au/uploaded_files/media/mobile_phone_policy_september_2022.pdf

We ask that families work with us to encourage students to help seek at school by telling a teacher, wellbeing team member, school nurse, educational support staff member or the principal team should they need support. We have experienced challenges where students as young as grade one use smart watches to call family members when they have a learning challenge, friendship issue or are feeling unwell. These situations are all a part of normal school life and school staff can readily help the student navigate these events.

For the purpose of this policy, “mobile phone” refers to mobile phones and any device that may connect to or have a similar functionality to a mobile phone such as smart watches.

As such, our updated policy requires that mobile phones and devices with mobile phone capacity such as smart watches are placed in a lockable cabinet at school.

We prefer students to leave these devices at home, however should your child need to bring/ wear such a device, they will be placed in a secure facility during the day and returned at home time.

We are allowing a period of 'grace' before we fully implement these actions in relation to smart watches.  However, now is a great time to discuss this matter at home.


Regards,

FWPS Principal Team

TheirCare News

Hi parents, guardians, staff, and friends! 

We are excited to welcome back all children and families to TheirCare! We have welcomed new children and families and we are so excited to continue meeting all the wonderful people in our community! 

This week is space week! We played space race and have spent the afternoons playing outside in the beautiful weather. We plan to create more wonderful paintings this week of our solar system! This week we also helped out at the second-hand uniform shop! We will hold another one in the coming weeks.  

This week’s Star of the Week for TheirCare will be Sebastian Lewis for looking out for other children during TheirCare and taking good care of all the materials and equipment at the service!

For all families if you have any questions about TheirCare and would like to come and have a chat please come visit us in Emu Corner in the morning or afternoon, alternatively you can contact us on the details provided and we will help you as best we can.

TheirCare Team
Louise, Daniel & Connie 

Contact Details: 
Service Phone: 0487004072 
Service Email: footscraywest@theircare.com.au 
Head Office: 1300 072 410 



Parents Association News

Greetings!

We held our committee meeting last week where many great ideas and actions were discussed. Most important being our upcoming AGM on Thursday 17th of November and the need for more members of the school community to come forward and formally put their hand up to take on a role in the PA next year. Help us continue what we do- as a snapshot here are some of the initiatives we need help with to deliver next year-

  • “First day back at school” celebration
  • Prep Welcome Packs for all prep families
  • Parent talks on understanding resilience, sex-ed and cyber safety.
  • Funding of the ‘Big Blue” re-stock, as voted by the Junior School Council  
  • A First Nations art installation as voted by the Junior School Council
  • The second hand uniform shop
  • Marketing and social media presence
  • Community sausage sizzles
  • End of term social events
  • Yearly funding to the JSC and Environment Team
  • Mother's Day/Father's Day/Special Person stalls
  • A family lawn bowls night

The PA needs more help. So come forward- have a chat with us- bring a friend- bring 3! Many hands make light work, and the work we do benefits the school and the school community. Email us and we can answer any questions or organise a face to face. FWPSParentsAssociation@outlook.com

WANTED - CAN YOU HELP?

  1. Halloween decorations - Do you have decorations to donate to the school to make the disco a bit more spooky? Think zombie tape, bat cut outs, black gauze and spider webs. The rules are no fake blood, no weapons and no decorations that may upset our younger pupils. Donations can be dropped to reception.  
  2. Donations for Disco and Election - if you are able to help out with tomato sauce, mustard, napkins, tin foil donations for these events it would be greatly appreciated.  Closer to the Election Day Sausage Sizzle, we may ask for pre-sliced onions - we will let you know. 
  3. A chest freezer - We need a chest freezer for the state election. We will need it from Thursday 24th to Monday 28th of November. We are wanting to sell frozen treats at the election. So if you have a contact who may be able to supply us with one- please get in contact with us!

STATE ELECTION FUNDRAISER!

The election is being held on the 26th of November and we have the opportunity to run a sausage sizzle and sell some other item to raise funds. We need someone who can be there to coordinate on the day. Sharee will be working to coordinate everything with you in the lead up. Our fundraising target will be announced soon and will hopefully get the whole community wanting to vote at FWPS.

Have a great weekend everyone! And remember, follow us on facebook! Search : FWPS Parents Association.


Sharee, Kate and Tinny (your PA Exec) & PA Committee