Kismet Park Newsletter

Principal's Report

Dear Families,

 

A very warm welcome back to school. I trust all our students and families have enjoyed spending time together. I was on our school site over the holidays for several days and I saw lots of children both at our holiday program EXTEND and just playing out near by our school. Our children seemed very happy and relaxed, and I have to say it gives me great pleasure to see our children and families happy, safe, and enjoying themselves.

 

This iNewsletter will be brief and won’t have our regular pages within it. The next iNewsletter will return to our regular format.

 

STUDENT REPORTS TO OUR PARENTS/CARERS & 3 WAY CONFERENCES

 

By now you all would have read your child’s report and looked through their Student Learning Portfolios. Thank-you to those families who have already returned Student Learning Portfolios to school – greatly appreciated. For those who are yet to return Student Learning Portfolios back to school please do so before the 3 Way Conferences next week. These are important artefacts that our students and teachers will refer to at the 3 Way Conferences.

 

Thank-you to the many, many parents/carers who have made bookings via COMPASS for the 3 Way Conferences. If you are yet to make a booking, please see COMPASS or contact your child’s classroom teacher. Bookings are open until Monday 18th July.

 

Parents/Carers please know that your partnership with us is highly valued, and we look forward to meeting with you next week and celebrating your child’s achievements and setting further goals for continuous improvement.

 

The dates for our 3 Way Conferences (1-6) and Parent Teacher Interviews (Year Prep) are as follows:

 

Tuesday 19th of July 3:30pm – 8:00pm

Wednesday 20th of July 3:30pm – 6pm

 

**Year 4 cohort will begin their 3 Way Conferences from 1:45pm and go through to 8pm, this is to accommodate the larger numbers)

 

ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 

 

It is a legislative requirement that all Victorian government schools prepare an Annual Report to the School Community (Annual Report) by 30 April each year, for publication on the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority State Register.

 

The Annual Report must be completed and attested to by the principal and school council president in the Strategic Planning Online Tool (SPOT), following endorsement by the school council. The Annual Report to the School Community (Annual Report) provides principals and school councils with an opportunity to share the year’s achievements and progress with the school community. This includes reflecting on the school’s performance and explaining the impact of school improvement efforts on student outcomes.

 

Please find our school’s Annual Report attached for your information. If you have any questions regarding this document, please feel free to chat to me.

 

 

CONGRATULATIONS CHASE GREEN!

 

Chase Green in 6A competed at the state cross country event on Thursday 14 July 2022. Chase competed at the Yarra Glen Racecourse in the 3km event and he came 76th out of 94 competitors. This is a tremendous achievement and we congratulate Chase for his efforts! 

 

I am sure that Chase has a wonderful future ahead of him as an athlete. 

 

 

INTENSIVE SWIMMING PROGRAM - YEARS 3, 5 AND 6

 

For students in years 3, 5 and 6 we are extending the timeline for payments to next Friday 22nd of July, 2022. This is due to the low numbers attending and the pool being flexible with the original cut off date. We encourage as many students as possible in these year levels to participate. Please see COMPASS for permission note and payments.

 

Professional Learning Communities – UPDATE

 

Our school works as a Professional Learning Community, this means that we foster collaborative learning and place students at the centre of all that we do. Our teachers work in teams that we call Professional Learning Teams. 

 

One of our goals is centered on strengthening our Professional Learning Communities and the ways in which teachers come together to assess, plan and teach our students.

 

On Tuesday 12/7 all our teachers worked in their Professional Learning Teams to celebrate and present at whole staff meeting their learnings and reflections regarding achievements made, after completing our first inquiry cycle on Number. Teams confidently presented their approaches to capturing and analysing student data to enable them to plan for student learning. Some learnings that came from this initial inquiry cycle included:

  • Reflections on ways to involve parents/carers to support students at home with mathematics. This is an acknowledgement by our teachers that parents play a significant role as partners of the school in assisting children with learning. 
  • The power of professional readings to assist teachers in understanding concepts and strategies in mathematics to plan and deliver maths lessons at an improved level
  • The feedback gained from students regarding specific strategies taught and how these strategies really helped them with their learning. A comment from a student included, “This jump strategy is really good to know because it helps me understand the maths better”.
  • Reflection on assessments used to understand what students currently know and understand and the value of those assessments.

As the lead learner of our school, I am proud of the work our leaders and teachers are doing in this space. Despite the challenges our teachers have remained focussed on the ‘right work’.

 

Nationally Consistent Collection of Data for Students with a Disability (NCCD)

 

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019). 

 

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

  • year of schooling
  • category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
  • level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

  • formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools 
  • consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools
  • develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability.

 

We are in the process of collecting this data for our students.

 

Turf Project Update – Our oval

Our oval works have been completed and I met with the builders/architects to confirm the completion and sign off. At present we have line markings for our Netball Court in place and we will work towards finalising what the line markings will be for the remainder of our oval/turf. We will take on board student feedback and ideas when making the final decision. It was fabulous to see our children’s’ happy faces when they saw our oval on Monday. I am sure that our children will have many, many, many years of joy playing on the newly resurfaced oval. 

 

I would like to thank our School Councillors for their work and input and in particular Aaron Malcolm our 2021 School Council President and Sean Bassett our 2022 School Council President. In the change of leadership, they were present to support me to lead in the finalisation of this project and their expertise, support and commitment to the project is greatly appreciated.

 

 

Here is some feedback from our students about the new oval: 

 

"Its great, I like the hill to roll down. Everyone really loves running around in the big open area" - Bailey, 2A

"I like playing volleyball on the oval" - Lennon, 2A

"Its really really good because there's much more space on it" - Xavier, 3A

"Its really good and I see lots of people having fun on it and the netball court and you don't get dirty on the new grass" -  Zaide, 4B

I like the little hill where you can roll down and I like the new grass, it looks clean and smooth" - Jacob, 4B

 

COVID_19 UPDATE

 

A reminder to all our families that we have rapid antigen tests available for you to pick up from our front office if you or your child shows symptoms. In addition if you wish to continue testing twice a week for peace of mind then you can collect rapid antigen tests from our front office. 

 

Current advice from the Victorian government on the wearing of face masks is available here: http://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/face-masks:

 

Household contacts attending school who are over 8 years of age are required to wear face masks indoors unless they have valid exception. 

 

Thank-you to all our families for your continued vigilance in reporting positive cases. It is greatly appreciated.

 

 

Warmest Regards,

 

Kathy Cvitkovic

Principal (Acting)

‘Building the foundations for success and happiness’.