Principal's Report

Farewell Gill!

Monday 12th August will be Gill Van Der Ende’s last day as Chaplain here at KPS.  Gill has served our community with love and compassion for twelve years and we will miss her terribly as she begins the pathway to retirement.

To acknowledge Gill’s contribution to our school and give everyone the best opportunity to say their farewells to Gill, we will be holding a special whole school assembly on Monday morning.

If you are dropping your children off at school on Monday, please stop by and say goodbye to Gill and if you are available to join us for our assembly we would love to see you there.  We would love to show Gill just how valuable she has been to our community.

SWPBS - Flying High at Kilsyth Primary School

On Monday this week we were visited by a Parliamentary Committee from the ACT.  Five members of the ACT Assembly are investigating structures and approaches that contribute to building positive climates for learning and reducing bullying.  Our school was identified by the Victorian Department of Education as an exemplar school in this area.  They have hear of the great work we have been doing in SWPBS and the wonderful, positive impact it has had on our school climate and our learning outcomes. 

We have spent some time over recent weeks developing a booklet for parents that explains our SWPBS approach and its many elements.  This is in its final stages of review and will be available to parents in the next week or two.

Congratulations to Mrs Blackburn and the SWPBS for the recognition of their great work in this area. 

Teacher Learning... (we truly believe learning is a life long process at KPS)

Over the past two weeks our teachers have been engaged in a an extensive program examining the ways our school provides a safe and supportive environment for all students, particularly indigenous students and their families.  We undertook 4 hours of Cultural Understanding and Safety Training with our local Koorie Education Support Officer - Colleen Garner.  I was very proud to hear our teachers describe the things we do, and embrace the improvements we can make to ensure that as a school community we are culturally aware, celebrating and embracing our diverse community and learning not just about but from and with people from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds.

Our teachers have also spent time networking with other staff from local schools as we continue to explore effective teaching practices in formative assessment.  Once again, our staff did us proud as they work alongside teachers form other schools to reflect on best practice and take on new initiatives to best meet the needs of our students.

We have a great staff at Kilsyth Primary School.   

STAY WARM, STAY DRY and HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!