Principal

Aaron Cox 

Principal

Happy holidays everyone! The year has just flown by so quickly. Staff feel as though we are getting very old as it feels like only yesterday was the beginning of the school year. In Term 4 we welcome back Marina Kallinikos. I would like to sincerely thank Sanny Pillay for stepping into the Year 3 position. First on a 7-week position, then a term and then finally another term. This was not easy but Sanny did a fabulous job and she is loved by all. We also say good-bye to Joe Tynan. Joe has worked with our ES team since the beginning of the year but now he heads to Townsville to start the next chapter in his life. We wish him well.

 

During the holidays twelve Kingswood staff members are heading to Japan to explore the wonders of an ancient culture.

 

I hope everyone has an enjoyable holiday. Please remain safe, allow children to explore the world and keep technology time to a minimum. We look forward to seeing you all at the beginning of Term 4.

 

My Observation

To know a little about me you need to know that I lived in Japan for more than 10 years. For all of Japan's faults there are several aspects about life that we, as a society,  could seriously learn from to become better people. Community was a fundamental part of daily life. Even as a foreigner, I joined my local community in many ways and I had responsibilities to those in my community. Caring for and respecting those around me was paramount to being accepted. There were times I had to get up with the community bell to shovel snow at 4.30am. That was not fun but people did it to ensure children were able to walk safely to school each morning. Every community action had a reaction.

 

I do not want to draw too much attention to this one instance but this week we had an incident in Lord Ave that could have been very serious, involving a student and a car. It is incumbent on all parents to role model good behaviours, every second of every day. Children crave role modelling to learn. They copy what their elders do. I regularly see poor role modelling out the front of the school. Just in the last week I received a letter from an ex-parent because someone nearly lost their driver's side door after they flung it open without checking for oncoming traffic. Other examples I've witnessed include children loaded into cars on the street side, parents consistently not using the crossing and dodging traffic elsewhere, parents calling young children across the road because they don’t want to get out of the car, cars doing 3-point turns in our Kiss and Go zone at 3.35pm, two cars in dispute over a minor accident and one just driving off without leaving details after being asked.

It is disappointing that shared values and expectations are not appreciated by everyone as a community.  Only through community, can you truly teach your child how to grow into becoming an empathetic, caring, compassionate individual. Our school values of ‘we are here for the students’, ‘we thrive in a team culture’ and ‘we engage our community’ are evident in what we teach here at Kingswood on a daily basis. Let us put our own differences aside, and work together to ensure our children are better versions of ourselves.

After all, isn’t that what we all want?