Welcome back to Term Two.

We have had a very industrious beginning to the term with some significant developments for the students and the commencement of our new School Council.

As I write this, we are in the midst of moving into the new portable. The 1 /2 classes are very excited by this. The staff are also excited to be setting up their learning spaces. Of course, this process takes some time and we will be building our resources as appropriate for the rooms. The children will be enjoying their new landscape from this week. We have established some short term drop off and pick up protocols and all parents have been notified of these.

We are still looking towards some landscaping around the immediate area hence the barriers will remain until plans are finalised. The teachers will be in communication with parents about opportunities to visit the rooms.

Our new website is now in place and we are upgrading the information and migrating old information across. Overall, we are very pleased with the final look and feel of the website. Our new logo symbolically represents our Fairfield world and values. The sphere could be any global collective or community group with Fairfield in the middle. Our students are in the middle of this collective. The concept of the dots represents connections that we form within a community. The dots also represent the connections with how learning occurs, with new knowledge and ideas forming from the known to the unknown. It represents patterning and continuous relationships between ideas and applications. We see learning as a community where we are all involved in the development of the child. The world of education, community, family and society are all interconnected and each impacts on the development and wellbeing for every student.

There have been some changes to staffing this term. We welcome Chris Kefalos who is our new ICT Technician in the school. Chris will be working with us on Thursdays each week. Chris’ role is to support the maintenance of all our ICT equipment and many parents may not get to meet Chris, but his work is vital to our everyday classroom practice and operations across the school.

We will be also saying farewell to Carley Tonoli at the beginning of May. Carley and her family will be traveling oversees until Carley returns to commence further academic studies. Carley has been instrumental in all of the communications upgrades across the school and we have appreciated and valued her remarkable skills, patience and perseverance to ensure Compass is operational and our newsletters and website have been improved upon. We wish Carley and her family all the very best.

Sarah Moody is stepping into Carley’s role from next week and we welcome Sarah to our community.

Term Two is traditionally a time of learning consolidation for the first semester. The Foundation students are now in full attendance for the week. They came back after the holidays very enthusiastic. Many of the children gravitated straight away to the camp site that the teachers had set up.

The Years 1 /2 students have commenced exploring the concept or ‘Resources’. This has already led to some understandings of man-made vs. natural, the use and need for resources, whether resources are a luxury or necessity and even some students have audited the waste of our resources in the school ground. A group from 12 G did a major clean up of the school grounds and were quite shocked at the extent of wasted resources and litter!

Our grades 34 students have started the term with their inquiry topic on indigenous cultures. This is enhanced by the Grade 4 camp to Mt Evelyn next week.

The Grade 5 students’ inquiry is focused on Ethics. This is a new element in the Victorian Curriculum. The students have been introduced to the question’ Does the end justify the means?’ They have started to explore ethical trading, ethical shopping and ethical consumerism. They have been actively engaged in this inquiry from the onset.

The Grade 6 students are completing their studies on Australia at War and Democracy. They are preparing the presentations for the term. The Grade 6 students are also leading the school Anzac Ceremony today and many will be present at the Dawn Service at the Fairfield RSL on Monday.

The new School council met on Monday 18 April. A report will be provided in the next newsletter.