Principal's Message to the School Community

Congratulations to all members of our community that have experienced an extremely busy Term 3 as detailed in Ms Arnephy’ s Term 3 News, Celebrations and Thankspiece below.  If you haven’t caught up with the following news below here’s a summary from some recent News Feeds.

Staffing News

It is sad but also exciting to announce that Studio Thirteen's teacher Nick Pinder has accepted a teaching position at Strathfieldsaye PS. to commence in Term 4 this year. Over the last five years Nick has brought a sense of creativity and fun to the learning of our children and he will be dearly missed however, we fully understand the need for him to work closer to home and his family.

 I am pleased to announce Mr Cassius Armitage as the successful candidate to replace Nick. 

Cassius has been working as a sought-after casual relief teacher this year at our school and is well known to the students in Studio 13.  Cassius has extensive experience in leading teams of people, he speaks multiple languages including French and is also an avid gardener as the proprietor of the Woodend Nursery.  The school is more than confident that Cassius will be able to guide the learning and wellbeing of the students in Term 4.

Please join me in welcoming Cassius to the Kyneton Primary School community.

As Term 3 comes to an end so does Lyn and Maxine’s time in the canteen as our wonderful managers. Lyn and Maxine stepped in at the start of the year to fill the role of joint Canteen Managers and it has been fantastic to have them here at KPS providing our students with tasty lunches. 

We are excited to announce that at the start of Term 4, Sarah Lockhart will be our new Canteen Manager. Sarah is a parent at KPS and has worked throughout the year as a valued canteen volunteer. We are confident Sarah will continue to provide a fantastic service in our canteen. We would love to be able to provide Sarah with a solid list of canteen volunteers so if you are free to help on Thursdays or Fridays please contact the school.

We would like to sincerely thank Lyn and Maxine for their work this year and wish them all the best for the future.

The last piece of staffing news is to welcome Loretta Alden to the Educational Support team for Term 4. Loretta has extensive experience working with children and adults in the education sector as a trained early childhood teacher.

A reminder that tomorrow Friday 15th September 2023 is the last day of Term 3 and school will finish at the earlier time of 2:30pm. Buses will also run at this earlier time.

School will resume for Term 4 on Monday 2nd October.

Wishing all of our families an enjoyable and sunny break.

Kind regards,

Alistair Rayner

Principal

Term 3 News, Celebrations and Thanks 

This term we launched our Learning Dispositions work as part of our Visible Learning journey. Our local bookstores Squishy Minnie and Aesop’s Attic have been very helpful in suggesting and sourcing wellbeing and disposition-themed books for students and teachers to read and use. Thank you to Kristen, Liz and Clare. At whole school assemblies, students received awards for being Creative, Collaborative, Adventurous and Curious learners. Next term, student classroom awards will focus on the remaining dispositions.

This Term students were able to participate in a wide range of activities including: 

• The St John First Aid in Schools Program (3-6), 
• Interschool sports events such as the CDSSA Athletics Day, CDSSA Basketball and divisional Athletics, The Mathematics competition (5/6) 
• The ‘Water is Precious’ incursion (Coliban Water)
• Goldfields library visits
• Visits to Kyneton Kindergarten to read with students
• Lake Dewar Camp (Grade 2)
• 100 days of school celebrations (Foundation)
• Excursion to Animal Land (Foundation)
• Book Week Celebrations and activities
• Ride to School Day 
• Sports Colours Day 
• Origami for Homelessness (Sunbury Cobaw Community Health)
• Daffodil Festival
• MS Readathon
• Choir

This Term, Kyneton Primary School hosted:

Preservice Teachers from Latrobe and Swinburne Universities and work experience students from Sacred Heart Secondary College and Kyneton High School. Hospitality students helped out in the canteen, gaining experience in food handling and customer service. Lisa Chesters and Sherryl Clark’s visit to Kyneton Primary School to present awards and a book donation.

Student Leadership:

Our Gardening and Sustainability group led by Mrs Matthews, has been learning about microplastics and how much there is in the world. They have been learning about the health of the Campaspe River by conducting water quality tests in August and September as part of our River Detective program, working with Coliban Water. The Gardening and Sustainability group has planted some potatoes and onion seedlings and has weeded, spread mulch and moved compost for garden beds. The group is promoting a ride to school day in the last week of term and next term, they will be front and centre for a school tree planting day.

Our Student Council led by Ms Priest encouraged classes to make origami houses to be displayed at Parliament House on the 2nd of August, for Homelessness Week, in response to an invitation from Sunbury Cobaw Community Health Services to highlight the urgent need for Governments to fix the housing crisis and end homelessness. 

In August, the Student Council organised student participation in the MS Readathon and over 70 students participated. The KPS community raised a huge total of $5,125 and read 237 books, finishing on top of the School’s Leader Board for the MS Readathon. 

Student Council organised the Book Week Parade in Week 7, where best-dressed winners, runners ups and honourable mentions were recognised, and presented with certificates and prizes.

Sports Colours Day for Sport Access Foundation on Thursday - Gold Coin Donation.

We would like to thank our parents, caregivers, guardians and school community; many of whom this term, volunteered their time to support their children and the school or attended events and special occasions. This term our school community was invited to: 

• Participate in the school’s entry in the Daffodil Festival Parade
• Visit their child/ren in their studio/s to celebrate their achievements. This term there were volcanoes, student authored & illustrated books, shadow puppets, the 3/4 ‘Water is Precious’ incursion, and 100 days of school for our Foundation students.
• Enjoy the whole school Book Week Dress up Parade
• Learn Emotion Coaching by attending an information session titled Branch Out - Tuning in to Kids presented by one the authors of the Program Dr Sophie Havighurst.
• Attend a follow up Branch Out Panel Discussion Q&A evening
• Participate in the Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey
• Join the Parents and Friends Group – Thanks to our fabulous Parents and Friends group who donated some funds that they had raised to purchase additional sets of decodable readers!
• Attend the Parents & Friends-organised Trivia nights 
• Prepare and sell gifts for students to purchase at the Father’s Day/Special Person stall 
• Attend incursions and excursions
• Prepare toast at Breakfast Club 
• Sign up to help out in the Canteen 
• Be a classroom helper
• Attend whole school assemblies
• Be a Turning Pages Volunteer (many of our trained volunteers generously give their time to support this valuable one to one reading program even though they do not have children who attend the school!)

** Please note that if you would like to volunteer or accompany your child’s studio on any occasion you will need a current Working with Children Check. This is free and can be completed online. 

https://www.service.vic.gov.au/find-services/work-and-volunteering/working-with-children-check

Ms Arnephy