Principals Report

Welcome back to Term 2. A lot of work has been done around the school over the holidays and it is wonderful to see so many projects finally coming to completion. The gym has been resurfaced and looks amazing, scaffolding on the Parramatta roadside of the Wilkins building has finally come down and the paving in the Fountain Quad has been replaced. We have new rodent and bird proof bin enclosures around the school and a new digital noticeboard to keep students and staff up to date with the latest activities going on around the school. Additional outdoor seating has also been provided around the new outdoor gym equipment in the valley and in the canteen area.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Elizabeth Kenyon from the P&C for her application on behalf of FSHS to the Cooling the Schools tree planting program. Last week I received confirmation that we have been approved to participate in this program. The program is being delivered in Sydney as part of the NSW Governments Greening our City initiative to plant one million trees across Greater Sydney. Through this initiative the school will be provided with up to 200 plants for tree canopy cover and native habitat with the aim of reducing urban heat, supporting native pollinators, and creating a greener, healthier place for our students to learn and explore.

It has been a particularly busy start to the term with many excursions and incursions taking place over the past two weeks. Teachers returned to a professional learning day at school on Monday 24 April with a shared focus with all other NSW Department of Education schools on Aboriginal Education. Staff spent time on this day embedding themes, concepts and skills, where relevant, into programs being developed for the 7-12 Curriculum Reform, to begin implementation in 2024.

Students returned on Wednesday 26 April to an ANZAC Day assembly. I would like to thank Mr Boyle and Mr Galvin for putting together this assembly and to Benjamin Nguyen (Yr 10) for the thoughtful and respectful ANZAC address he delivered and to Peter Sandbach (Yr 12) for playing the bugle at this occasion. At this assembly the Wind Ensemble beautifully performed two movements from Art in the Park, by Robert Sheldon.

This term 23 year 10 students have commenced a science mentoring project which takes place for one hour each Thursday morning with primary school students from Ashfield PS, Summer Hill PS and Wilkins PS. This program was formerly called WAFTUS and has been rebranded CSSI – Combined School Science Immersion program. The program will end in a presentation from each primary school group at Fort Street HS in the last week of this term. Each showcase will be evaluated, and feedback provided by a group of UTS experts coming from a range of scientific disciplines.

The whole school Cross Country event was a huge success this year held at HJ Mahoney Memorial Park in Marrickville. I would like to thank Ms Ezekiel HT PDHPE/Sport and the entire PDHPE team for putting this day together.

The Year 12 Geography class arrived home safely from their trip to Cairns with Mr Latimer and Ms Nolan on Saturday 29 April. Students and staff have reported that the trip was enormously fun and educational.

On Monday 1 May, all year 9 students attended either a History or a Geography excursion to the War memorial and State Library or to Barangaroo. Year 7 and 8 students participated in wellbeing seminars focusing on healthy relationships and sexuality delivered by experienced presenters from Elephant Ed. On the following day these students also attended a wellbeing incursion on cyber safety delivered by the School Police Youth Liaison Officer for our area. The PYLO also delivered a session to Year 11 and 12 students on drugs and alcohol.

This week at school Year 7 students have also received free vaccines by NSW Health for diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (dTpa) and human papillomavirus (HPV).

Staff Changes for Term 2

We have come back to many staff changes this term – some permanent, some temporary:

In PDHPE Mr Shane Fischer has left Public Education after 13 years of teaching PDHPE at the Fort. Ms Maddie Cove has been replacing Mr Fischer since the beginning of the year and will continue to do so.

Social Science – at the end of term we farewelled Mr Peter Van de Hoek (Legal Studies, Geography and Commerce teacher) as he retired from his teaching career, the staff and students wish Mr Van de Hoek all the best in his future. On Monday 8 May, Mr Bambul Shakibaei will take up his permanent appointment at Fort Street, Mr Shakibaei is an experienced Economics and Legal Studies teacher who previously taught at Rose Bay Secondary College.

The Social Science faculty also lost Mr Paul Pagani temporarily as he takes up a secondment to the role of Subject Matter Expert, Senior Secondary HSIE with the NSW Educational Standards Authority (NESA). Mr Pagani has been replaced until the end of the year by Mr David Sherwin an experienced Economics teacher from Hunters Hill HS.

In CAPA we farewelled Ms Rhianna Blake who was successful in achieving a promotion to Head Teacher Creative Arts at Newtown High School of Performing Arts. Ms Blake’s teaching load has been taken up by Ms Hyun Cho who is a trained Visual Arts teacher and had been relieving for us in the Technology faculty. Taking over from Ms Cho I would like to welcome Ms Julie Meissner who has joined us until the end of term when we can hopefully appoint a new permanent technology teacher.

At the end of this week, we will also say farewell to Ms Adele Walker who was successful in achieving a promotion to Head Teacher Teaching and Learning at North Sydney Boys. Ms Walker has been teaching French since the end of 2021 at the Fort. Ms Walker will be replaced temporarily by Mr Mark Wade and Mr Arkady De Jong. We congratulate Ms Walker and wish her well in her new position.

Upcoming Events:

Monday 8 May: Year 10/11 Study Skills evening for students and parents

Monday 8 May: Theatre Sports Competition at Ashfield Boys HS (evening)

Tuesday 9 May: Year 9 and 10 Wellbeing Incursion – PYLO Law and Responsibilities

Tuesday 9 May: Year 11 Design & Technology Excursion to the Powerhouse

Wednesday 10 May: P&C Meeting in the school library – presentation from HT History Mr Boyle commences at 7pm

Thursday 11 May: Year 8 History Incursion

Thursday 11 May: Year 9 – 12 German Classes to German Film festival

Friday 12 May: Whole School Assembly with guest speaker The Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG.