Celebrating Great Work at KPS

I just love Fridays and the opportunity to attend our school assembly to celebrate the great achievements of our students. It is truly a highlight of my week. (Unfortunately I am at a meeting in the city today and will miss this weeks assembly.)

As the year begins to draw to a close and we begin planning for 2019, we reflect on our achievements for the year and identify areas that might opportunities for further improvement.

2018 has been been a year of significant improvement at Kilsyth PS. We are thrilled to have seen a turn around in our NAPLAN outcomes, a huge improvement in our student attitude to school survey results and continued improvement in our parent opinion data. We have recently updated our school's homepage to highlight some of this data. Check it our here: www.kilsythps.vic.gov.au

These improvements in data are testiment to the great work of our students and staff this year as we have introduced our School Wide Positive Behaviour Support approach and continued to implement our Whole School Instructional Model to ensure consistent and effective practice in all classrooms.

I am looking froward to a great 2019.

Normal School Day Monday 4th November

If you are planning a sneaky 4 day week we wish you all the very best for a safe adventure. Please note however that Monday will be operating as a NORMAL SCHOOL DAY at KPS. We will be running our usual curriculum (although depending on numbers, classes may be combined) and parents will be asked to provide a note explaining their child's absence if they choose not to attend school.

Professional Learning Day (Pupil Free) Monday 12th November

A reminder that Monday 12th November is a pupil free day to allow our teaching staff to participate in a workshop with renown Literacy expert Misty Adoniou. We will be collaborating with many local schools as we continue to work to build our knowledge, skills and capacity to deliver high quality learning experiences for our students. The particular focus of this workshop will be improving students' ability to read complex and challenging texts and to bring these skills into their own writing. This links closely with our work on improving our writing lessons and supporting students to reach our high expectations in outcomes, demonstrated through (amongst other things) their NAPLAN assessments.

Preparing for 2019

At this time of year we begin finalising grade placements for all students. This is a highly complex process that takes into consideration the academic, emotional and social learning needs of every student in our school. If you would like to provide me with specific information about your child’s learning needs to be considered as part of this process, please send this to me in writing before Friday 16th November. Please note: only discussion of learning will be considered. Requests for specific teachers will not be entertained.

If you know of anyone who is considering enrolling in Kilsyth Primary School, in Foundation or any other level, please encourage them to speak to us soon so that we can support a smooth transition into our school.

Literacy and Numeracy Tips

The Department of Education and Technology have recently released a booklet full of tips as a guide for parents to help their child every day.

You can access an online copy of this booklet here

(https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/english/literacy/LiteracyandNumeracyTipstoHelpYourChild_Final.pdf)

Over coming weeks I will be including a strategy or tip from this booklet in the newsletter. I hope you find them useful.

Numeracy Tip - Watching the Weather (Years 3-6)

I chose this tip this week because my son Alfie has a keen interest in the weather and we use some these ideas in our own family. I hope you find this useful.

Because it changes daily, the weather can be a great topic to discuss maths with your child. Try these activities:

Visit the website http://www.bom.gov.au/vic/
Ask your child the difference between each day’s minimum and maximum temperatures. Do they notice a pattern or trend in the weather changes?
Find a seven-day forecast, then record the actual temperature for each day and compare. Ask your child if the forecast was accurate. Ask them what similarities and differences they notice.
Use the information on the weather website to explore differences in weather between your area and other areas. Ask your child how much rain you get compared to other areas. Ask your child to identify differences in temperature between your area and other areas. Who might be affected by an increase or decrease in rainfall?

Numeracy Tip - Sharing Recipes (Years 3-6)

Discussing maths when cooking can provide a daily maths lesson involving measurement, time, and cost. Here are some activities you could try at home:

Collect and read recipes and discuss the use of fractions, millilitres and grams. Encourage your child to make accurate measurements using measuring cups and spoons.
Discuss how you would double or halve a recipe. Encourage your child to record new measurements for the recipe. Discuss why and when you might need to do this.
Identify the temperature and cooking time on the recipe. Discuss why different recipes have different temperatures and cooking times.
Estimate the cost to buy all the ingredients to make the recipe. Compare this with the actual cost of items. Ask your child if they think it was cheaper to buy the ingredients and make dinner or get takeaway.
Make a list of the abbreviations used in the recipe and then write them in full – for example, L for litre, ml for millilitre, tsp. for teaspoon, tbsp. for tablespoon.
Investigate the prices of fresh fruit and vegetables available in the supermarkets compared with market vendors.

Have a terrific (possibly long) weekend!

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