Acting Principal

Aaron Cox 

Acting Principal

Thank you to everyone for pulling together during our (Patrick Sharron's and I) absence. The learning at Harvard University was inspirational and reaffirming all at the same time. Luke Bennett did a fabulous job during the first week of term stepping in as acting Principal. You may have noticed some changes around the school upon your return. We have installed the parent sponsored bubbler taps. I think they lift the drinking areas from the old 1970’s troughs that were there. If you would like to contribute to the fundraising effort you are still more than welcome to make payment at the school office. We have also concreted the area in front of the bike shed so now there is no muddy area for students or parents to walk through. Finally, there is the new entrance to the administrative block which includes a ramp for easy access for those in need and the numerous deliveries we receive.

We will be moving full swing into our school review this term where students, parents and staff will provide input to the review process. We will also select a new principal before the end of term to begin Term 4. Kingswood will begin its workforce planning for 2019 in the coming weeks. As part of my Unlocking Potential: Principal Preparation Course I will be the co-principal for South Melbourne Primary School for 4 weeks from 6th August. During this time I will only be at Kingswood in person sporadically but be assured I will be in contact with Patrick and Luke every moment of the day to ensure Kingswood runs smoothly during this period. 

I would like to welcome back Olivia Nesbitt (replacing Luke Bennett- Sport) and Sanny Pillay (replacing Marina Kallinikos- 3K) for Term 3 staff placements. Sanny has been with us since the beginning of the year and Olivia joined us in Term 2. Please remember to congratulate them on their successful appointments. 

Achievements

Nerys has advanced through the initial stages of being selected on Australian Dragon Boat Junior Team. Nerys has been invited to Queensland to participate in the next phase of the selection process. 130 athletes will vie for 23 places on the Australian Junior team. We wish Nerys all the best and remember “you have to go through hard to get to easy”.

Engagement

I would like to announce that Elise Hawkins became engaged at the end of last term. We wish Elise and Paul every happiness as she moves into the next phase of her life and I am sure she will enjoy planning for the big day! Best of luck, Elise.

Harvard University Initial Report

What an amazing, thought provoking experience it was to study at Harvard. Patrick, Sharron and I had many professional discussions around pedagogy, practice, student agency and where Kingswood can be found along the continuum of learning. Throughout our week, educators from around the world were blown away by the evidence, research based approach that Harvard has cultivated and refined for more than 50 years. Numerous educators experienced many light bulb moments of clarity throughout the course. For Kingswood though, it was a chance to reflect on how far we have come from and where we need to go to next. We firmly believe we are on the cusp of something special here at Kingswood with minor tweaks and adjustments to our current frameworks.

Some of the major take-aways I had from the conference were; differing political agendas of those in power or who want to be in power are the single biggest inhibitor on system education. Every part of the world that has an agreed education agenda between political parties experiences success. Agendas need YEARS to become fertile learning spaces. Case in point would be that the USA continues to slide in the PISA international test score results. Ok, that is a fact but did you know the only two states that do not bicker over how education should be made in their political image and despite being from ideological opposed parties they agree to leave the education system alone producing scores equivalent to Finland and other countries at the top of these testing regimes. Fifty years of research reinforces this truth. It’s a pity our politicians prefer to agree to disagree on education at the expense of our children’s future.

The power of learning is in student agency. We have known this for years but providing those authentic learning experiences on a daily basis is extremely hard though not impossible. Problem Based Learning units will be introduced within our teaching throughout the remainder of the year for evaluation. The aim here will be that we will not build a unit based on the prescribed curriculum but rather the curriculum will come from a child centred and directed unit of work. When students have agency and a real interest, powerful life long learning occurs and the skills learned can be applied to other situations.

Patrick, Sharron and I will need to sit down for a day and fully debrief all of our learning as it was very intensive over the week. But rest assured, we are very happy with what is in place at Kingswood and we can clearly identify the next steps on our development journey. In the near future we will also produce a report for the school community to digest.