Fairview's Flyer - Fairview Primary School
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Fairview’s Flyer
We C.A.R.E.
Cooperation Achievement Respect Enthusiasm
FAIRVIEW ‘A fair view of all things’ 30th November, 2020
Dear Fairview community
Our year is rapidly coming to its conclusion - only 14 school days left and 26 days until Christmas. As our year comes to an end, we
are working very hard to make sure everything is in place for 2021. Today, our Year 5 students will present to their peers on why
they should be voted a 2021 Fairview Student Leader. This is an important aspect of becoming a Year 6. We have big plans for the
student leaders’ role for next year. Teachers are also finalising reports ready for distribution on the last Wednesday of the term and
class structures and placements are being fine tuned. Schools do not slow down at the end of the year. If anything, they become
more frenetic.
Over this year, we have done a lot of work on developing a new strategic or business plan for our school. This has had a lot of input
from the School Board, staff, student surveys and feedback and consideration of both the system needs and our community context.
There is a lot to take in. We now have what I think is a comprehensive plan that provides a focus for our school to move forward over
the next several years. I will make a copy available through Connect. Through this process, we have reviewed a lot of our current
practices and, where necessary, changes will be made. The following are some areas of significant change for next year:
We are changing to a new maths program – Top Ten. This program is an Australian developed program which moves
away from the traditional text book to a much more hands-on approach. As part of this program, there is also a much
closer monitoring of student progress. This is important for both the students and the teachers and will enable us to
catch any gaps in learning early. We want to be sure that what we are doing is improving your children’s understanding
of maths.
We have already implemented our change in spelling approaches. I have discussed this in previous newsletters.
We are looking at ways to continue to improve communication with our community. Our new webpage should be
going live soon. This will give us a space to make available the more static information. The more personal or school
confidential information will continue to be distributed through Connect.
2021 Student Leaders
Our school is shrinking. Over the past 5 or 6 years, like all Collie schools, our student numbers are shrinking. We have lost many
families to both other towns and interstate, usually chasing work. Next year we are looking at around 200 kids. This a long way down
from the 284 in 2014 and over 400 in the 90s. Two areas we are feeling the impact of this is in our student leaders and factions. Next
year, we will have around 24 Year 6 students. We have made the decision to change our student leadership roles to make them a bit
more prestigious and increase their responsibility. Next year, we will have 8 student leaders. These students will take on both the
roles of student councillors and sports organisers. In addition to this group of students, we will have a range of other student helpers
across Years 5 and 6. We will continue with our BUZ Rangers program. Roles such as flag wardens, environment support team and
sports equipment monitors will also be included. Our student leaders, working with supporting staff, will be the coordinators of
these roles.
Factions into the Future
We are also looking at reviewing our faction structure. We have started the conversation with the School Board. Fundamentally, our
problem is that we don’t have enough kids to fill 4 teams. Over the past couple of years, we have needed to fill teams with students
from younger year levels. This can get very tricky and means that some students get overly tired at our carnivals. Changing a long
held tradition like factions is always a difficult decision as many people will go back to their “glory days of primary school”
representing Ewington, Cardiff, Cheetara or Stockton. Next year, we will put out a request for public comment to make sure that we
Fairview Primary School
PO Box 364, Collie 6225
Ph : (08) 9735 2300 Email: fairview.ps@education.wa.edu.au
www.fairviewps.wa.edu.au
have as much information as possible before making any decisions. At this stage, we have arguments for changing to 2 factions, 3
factions or staying with 4 factions. We are also looking at making the factions a bigger thing. Currently, other than swimming and
athletics, our factions play only a small role in our school. We are looking at ways to make factions something more. How can we
include academic, social or artistic excellence along with sporting prowess in our teams’ success? This will be an interesting process,
and I look forward to seeing what changes occur over the next few years.
Awards and Graduation Assemblies
COVID-19 has had a significant effect on how we do things in our community this year. It is likely that this will continue for some
time. Under the current Phase 4 guidelines, we must ensure that adequate social distancing is maintained. The advice that we have
been provided is to:
hold events outdoors
reduce the number of year groups attending events
restrict the number of participants.
We don’t want anyone to miss these celebrations, however; we also must comply with the Phase 4 requirements. Last Thursday, we
trialled our assembly outside. The feedback from this was that it was too hot. We will try with shade structures, but this may cause
issues with people not being able to see. At this point, there is unlikely to be a perfect solution. If the shade structures do not work,
we may have to limit the number of people who attend the assemblies. This is not the preferred option but may be the only way we
can allow the events to proceed. Your support in this is appreciated.
Attendance
Regular attendance at school is critical for every child to get the most from their education. Particularly in the early years,
attendance habits are set, and the critical foundational learning of literacy, numeracy and social skills are taught. If these are missed,
the gaps usually only get bigger as your child progresses through school. Catching up is tough. We then have a responsibility to try
and fill those gaps. Parents, you are responsible to get your kids to school. Every day counts! What does our attendance data for this
semester say?
On average, nearly 88% of our students are at school on any given day. This is about 25 kids or a whole class away
every day.
60% or 125 of our students attend school regularly – 90% or greater attendance.
Nearly 20% or 40 students have attendance less than 80%. This means that these students are missing on average at
least 1 day each week. If you were taking a day a week off from your job, you probably wouldn’t have a job for long.
We really appreciate your efforts to get your children to school each day. It is also appropriate to keep your kids home if they are
legitimately sick. We have no desire to spread coughs, colds or gastro through our school. When your child misses a day of school a
week, they’ve missed the equivalent of a year by the time they are in Year 3 and nearly 2 years by the time they are in Year 6. This
will put your child’s educational and social opportunities at risk. Many parents ask me how they can help their kids’ schooling. The
most important thing you can do is get them to school! Next year we will be following up far more rigorously on student absences.
Ongoing unexplained absences or absences without evidence will impact on your child’s good standing when it comes to
participating in extracurricular and reward activities. Once again, thank you to the families who support their children by getting
them to school every day that they can. It is appreciated, and it will pay off for your child in the long run.
Reading program
Mrs Whitney’s Reading Challenge has been a huge success. I would like to thank her for coordinating this and making sure that kids
receive their awards and prizes. It has been a lot of work. I would also like to once again thank the P&C for their donation of an iPad
for the grand prize. It has been wonderful to see the number of kids reading. I know there are some kids who have never really been
interested in reading, but through this program they have become regular readers. Reading is a really important skill. This week will
be the final week for recording books read and getting to the next reward. All students who want their books counted will need to
have them to Mrs Whitney by Friday this week – 4th December. Certificates will be handed out at our final class assembly on
Thursday 10th December, before the big draw on Wednesday, 16th December. Keep reading!
Over the holidays, we will be running a holiday reading challenge. The details of this will be sent out and put on Connect before the
end of the year. We would like to support kids reading by allowing students to take extra books out over the holidays. To support
this, we ask that a parent come into the library on either a Thursday or Friday when Mrs Whitney is working to organise borrowing.
Mrs Whitney will be in the library before and after school on these days. I have already talked to the students about a challenge.
Often, kids learning drops off over the long Christmas break. Students have just had their reading rate – words per minute – tested
as part of the reading program. They will be retested at the start of the year. We want to see that their reading rate has not
dropped off over the holidays. Your support in this is appreciated.
Bushfire preparation
We will be doing a ‘bushfire, move to safer location’ practice again next week. At this time of the year, we should all be preparing
for the potential threat of bushfire on our community. The WA Government has a great support website – http://
mybushfireplan.wa.gov.au that provides lots of sound advice to help with your home planning.
We are all working at finishing strongly over the next 14 days.
Andrew Whitney
Principal
2021 Student Requirements and Contributions & Charges
2021 Student Requirements and Contributions & Charges schedule was sent home last week.
Please keep this information in a safe location to assist you at the beginning of next year.
If you happen to misplace this information, it can be found on Connect under Parent Information.
The uniform shop will be opening prior to school commencing
28th January 1.00pm – 3.00pm &
29th January 9.00am – 11.00am
Pre–orders are preferred for 2021! Complete a pre-order form now (available on
Connect and Fairview P&C facebook page) and email to
fairvewprimarypc@gmail.com or leave at the front office.
Orders will be filled and ready for collection on the above days.
The uniform shop will continue to be open normal times throughout the term
(Tuesdays from 8.40am - 9.15am).
Dates to remember Merit Certificates
1st December - Uniform shop 26th November
3rd December - Volunteers morning tea
4th December - Yr 6 transition day @ CSHS Rm 3 - Boston & Isabel
Play Café Rm 5 - Declan, Jacob & Jess
7th - 9th December - Year 6 camp Rm 6 - Bobby, Seth & Matilda
10th December - Assembly Rm 19 Rm 10 - Nikita
11th December - Play Café Xmas party Rm 12 - Ocean & Kye
15th December - Uniform shop Rm 13 - Miley
16th December - Leavers assembly 9.30 Rm 18 - Hamish & James
Awards assembly 11.15 Rm 19 - Elsie & Jayden
17th December - Students last dayCommunity news
COLLIE COUNTRY XMAS MARKETS
Saturday 5th December 8am - 2pm.
Children’s art, lego, recycling and Xmas competitions.
Face painting, Phil the snake man, bouncy castles, wood fired pizza.
Free pony rides, miniature train rides, Bunnings DIY.
COLLIE PUBLIC LIBRARY
P & C information
Family Picnic Day
The P&C will be hosting a family picnic day on Wednesday 16th December after the
Awards assembly.
We are supplying pizza (2 slices per person) for lunch.
STUDENTS WILL BE SERVED FIRST.
Drinks will be available for purchase from the canteen.
Any help would be appreciated to serve on the day. Please let canteen staff (Mia or
Teagan) know if you can assist.
Beginning of school morning tea
Wednesday 3rd February
9.15am – 10.15am in the science room
The Fairview P&C will be hosting a small morning tea to welcome all new and existing
parents and guardians of 2021. Come along and join us in the science room (building
opposite the music & art room) on the first Wednesday of school and catch up with old
friends & meet some new people.
Hope to see you then!You can also read
