The Brief | Term 4 Week 5

Principal Message

2025 School Leader Candidates

Our Year 5 students vying for 2025 school leadership positions delivered truly inspiring speeches to our school community. Their passion, eloquence, and confidence were evident in every presentation. We were all incredibly impressed by the high standard set by this year's candidates. We eagerly await the results and congratulate all participants on their hard work.

2025 School Planning

We're at the beginning of our planning phase and getting ready for an amazing 2025 school year, and knowing our student numbers in advance allows us to create the best possible learning environment for everyone. If your family is considering a move to our school zone, we'd love to hear from you!

Here's how you can help:

• Are you moving? Let us know as soon as possible by calling or emailing the school. This helps us plan our class structures and resourcing for next year.
• Know someone moving here? Encourage them to contact our school at their earliest convenience. We can include them in our upcoming planning and answer any questions they might have.
• New to the area and ready to join our learning community? Families can begin the enrolment process by visiting Online Enrolment Application.

Your cooperation helps us plan effectively for another fantastic school year.

Selective High Schools and Opportunity Classes

From 2025, the placement tests for selective high schools and opportunity classes will move from single version paper-based tests to computer-based tests.

These changes will result in:

• a more engaging experience for students with computer-based testing
• a longer application period for parents and carers to apply
• more choice for parents and carers of when their child will sit a placement test
• outcomes being released earlier to parents and carers.

There will also be changes to the application process for 2026 entry to selective high schools and opportunity classes. The application period for both OC and SHS is now the same and will run up until 21 February 2025. Due to the longer application period, late applications will not be accepted.

With the new application period, parents and carers can now apply for OC placement when their child is at the end of Year 3 or at the start of Year 4, and for SHS placement at the end of Year 5 or at the start of Year 6. 

Apply online now at Selective high schools and opportunity classes.

Comprehensive information can be found at:

Further resources and quick tips can be be accessed below:

Term 4 Events

Our school has commenced planning for many end-of-year events and we would like to give families as much notice as possible.

High School Orientation Day – Tuesday 3 December
Presentation Day – Thursday 12 December
Party Day – Monday 16 December
Year 6 Farewell – Tuesday 17 December
Year 6 Clap Out – Wednesday 18 December
Last day for students – Wednesday 18 December

Presentation Day will be held on Thursday, 12 December, split into two sessions. Kindergarten to Year 2 students will have their Presentation Day at 9:15 am, ending around 10 am. Years 3 to 6 will have their Presentation Day at 10 am, ending around 11:15 am. Please note that the start of the first break may be slightly delayed. We're excited to celebrate the achievements of students at these special events.

Kirstie Yeo
Principal

Awabakal Word of the Week

School News

Library

Book Swap

Our library was buzzing with excitement on Wednesday as students were able to take books to keep during our Book Swap. It’s so nice to see that books can still brighten someone’s day.

A big thank you goes to Sophie R and Kiara M from Year 6 who were the brains behind the idea. Thank you also goes to Brianna J, Brooklyn M, Elsie K and Ruby B from Year 6 who helped with the setup and organisation on the day.

Many of the books were donated by students. You might also notice that some of them are old library books that have been weeded from our collection. These are ones that have a Floraville Public School barcode crossed out. These can be kept. Just in case any current library books have made it home, they will have a Floraville barcode that isn’t crossed out. These ones will need to be sent back.

Stocktake

The library has been undergoing a stocktake over the past few weeks. It’s a great organisational process that notifies us of missing books and automatically returns any books that have inadvertently made it to the shelves while still on loan.

We appear to be missing quite a few books. These are books that aren’t on loan and have slipped through the regular borrowing process. It could be a great time to encourage students to search the house for any Floraville Public School library books (Floraville PS barcode NOT crossed out).

Mrs Southward
Library Teacher

PACER

Our Year 6 students have recently undertaken an educational tour of the national capital. Students were given the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational programs with a focus on Australia’s history, culture, heritage, and democracy.
The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit the national capital as part of their Civics and Citizenship education. To assist families, the Australian Government is contributing funding to our school in the amount of $30 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program. These funds will be utilised to assist the costs of the upcoming Year 6 farewell. The rebate is paid directly to the school upon completion of our Year 6 Canberra excursion.

School Opal Card

From The Office

Beat the Bite

As part of this initiative, our school has been provided with RID Tropical Antiseptic Bite Protection 100ml pump spray bottles that are available for families to purchase at a discounted cost of $5 (RRP $9.50).  These can be purchased from the office with cash or EFTPOS, or you can log into your School Bytes parent portal, go to the ‘Payments’ tab, select the ‘Add other item’ tab, and from there you can complete your purchase.

For all online purchases, office staff will send these home with students, or email the school if you would prefer to collect your order from the office.

P&C Community News

Last P&C Meeting for 2024

We held our last P&C meeting for the year this week. It was great to see some new faces in the group this month. It was a productive meeting with lots of decisions made for funding and many ideas shared. Details of some of the major updates from the meeting are below. 

Second-hand uniform shop

We put forward a comprehensive proposal at the P&C meeting for starting up a second-hand uniform shop, which will operate from school. The proposal was well-received, and we are grateful that one of our school grandparents has put their hand up to coordinate this. It will be an evolving process, working out if the community need is there, if there are sufficient donations to keep it running, and ensuring it is manageable for the volunteers. 

The purpose of the second-hand uniform shop is to give families a place to donate uniforms that their children have outgrown, to work towards goals for sustainability preventing quality items from becoming landfill, as well as allowing families to purchase second-hand items at an affordable cost, particularly as cost-of-living expenses continue to rise. A by-product of a second-hand uniform shop is a small revenue raising opportunity for Floraville Public School P&C, which raises money to go back into school resources.

For the 2nd hand uniform shop to get off the ground, we require lots of uniform donations! Donations can be winter or summer, current school uniform options. From this Friday 15/11, we will have a uniform donation tub set up in the office where you can donate your items. We ask that all items are washed prior to donation and are in a condition that other people can wear. We know that many people will be trying to get those last 6 weeks of the year out of your current uniforms, but if you have any that are already outgrown and taking up space at home, please consider backing this venture and donating them this year.

Baker’s Delight Fundraiser

We will be joining in on a Baker’s Delight Christmas fundraiser this year, giving families the opportunity to purchase lemon tart packs, fruit mince tart packs, and Christmas cakes. More details to come very soon once ordering has opened. We sampled the goodies at the P&C meeting this week and everyone agreed they were delicious! They will also make great gifts and treats to take to work. The superstars at Baker’s Delight Belmont are regular supporters of our P&C, donating all the bread for the fundraising BBQs we have held in recent years, so we look forward to supporting Baker’s Delight in this fundraiser, as well as raising some extra funds for the P&C to finish the year.

Mango Update

We’ve had the heads up that this year’s mango crops are thriving and mango orders will be delivered earlier than expected. This is one of those factors outside of our control and we expect them to arrive in the next week or so. As soon as we are told the delivery date, you will receive a text message letting you know when collection of the trays will be available.

Canteen

Some important dates for canteen this year:

• Christmas bags will be available from Tuesday 26th November up until Friday 13th December. More details of what the bags will contain will come in future newsletters
• Canteen closure date for 2024: last day will be Friday 13^th December
• Canteen reopening date for 2025: Tuesday 11^th February

We are always happy to welcome volunteers in the canteen – helping out once a term or once a year does make a difference! If you’d like to let us know your availability and interest for helping in the canteen in 2025, please send us a message on Facebook or email floravillecanteen@yahoo.com

NPA Sports Equipment Fundraiser 

The Christmas countdown is moving quickly!!! NPA sports offer personalised sporting equipment, and these make the best Christmas gifts – the kids will love them! Our affiliation with NPA finishes at the end of the year so we’d love to add some extra sales before the promotion ends. Families are invited to purchase anything from the NPA website using our unique link and 20% of sales go back to the P&C, which then go back to our school. Items can be personalised with your child’s name or team/club name, so this means no more lost equipment! Items are sent quickly and posted directly to your home. For our school to receive the funds, orders need to be made using the following unique link: https://npaevents.com.au/?sca_ref=5593459.I2Qxx5OoE9.

P&C Communication

Please follow the official P&C Facebook page to keep up to date with the latest P&C information and events. Our page is www.facebook.com/p.c.floraville. If you need to get in touch with the P&C, you can send us a message on our Facebook page, or send an email to fpspresident@gmail.com. 

Amanda Bailey
P&C Committee

Community Newsletter

Please see October Community Newsletter for community events and news.