Principal

Aaron Cox 

Principal

Welcome back to Term 2. Firstly, high praise to our School Leaders and the Year 6 students who attended the ANZAC Service at Dingley Village Memorial on Wednesday 24th, April. It never ceases to amaze me how good this service is for children. Lucy, our School Captain, read beautifully during the service, our School Captains and Vice Captains laid a wreath in remembrance of ANZAC Day and we were bowled over by a wonderful speech which including singing and poetry from a Haileybury Year 12 student. It was absolutely amazing and thought provoking. I can not stress enough that Kingswood is blessed to have such wonderful students. Each and every student is a reflection of the values and beliefs you, as parents, instil in your children. You surely must be proud, because we are!

I would like to address recent reports in print and TV media about parents being the new bullies in schools. Media outlets seem to be running with this latest topic of interest for whatever reason. Although it may be highly evident around other parts of the state and country I can honestly say Kingswood Parents are excellent at working with Kingswood when issues, real or perceived, arise. Nothing can substitute honest, open communication. As a school we value ‘connected to community’. This only occurs when there is openness and transparency, shared in a respectful manner. 

So why the disparity? I think one of the biggest factors is that we, as a school community, try to communicate as much as possible with our families. Communicating with clarity and precision removes most angst for parents. In an ever changing world where online becomes more important day by day it becomes harder for us to keep up with the latest preferred sources of information delivery. Our Parent Club do a fantastic job of further reposting information from the school on their Facebook page and our lovely Stacey is regularly on Facebook, Instagram, Compass, our website and digital newsletter creation to ensure we are getting our communication out there. I feel confident from parent feedback, that we currently have our communication platforms covered. We understand there is always room for improvement and we value parent responses to snapshot surveys. Without your feedback, improvement becomes a case of changing something based on no data. Your thoughts and ideas are always invaluable.

It is also reassuring from a school perspective that our parents know that we are a community service industry and for fast results or answers to questions or enquiries, face to face or over the phone, communication is given significantly more priority than posts on social media. I have seen enough ill advised posts over the years that are more a reflection on an individual and poor role modelling. You may have noticed, I've never responded to social media posts. I wait for that person to contact me directly, which very rarely happens. More positively, I love that Kingswood Parents, if concerned about anything, come and see us. If it is at the classroom level, parents know to go straight to the teacher concerned. There is no greater building block of mutual respect or trust than when issues are dealt with at the appropriate level and escalated only when required.  99% of the time a simple conversation can sort issues out so that all parties are happy but more significantly, informed. In some cases, the school develops or refines procedures, policies and guidelines based on these interactions. We never say we have everything perfectly covered but we are always open to learning and improvement. That is not to say the outcome will be exactly what the parents desire. We are not here to specifically teach just your child at the expense of all others. That school just does not exist. However, be assured any decisions we make are in the best interest of your child's academic, social and emotional development. Like you, we are highly invested in helping your child build the ‘foundations of success’ so that they can develop to be world class community members and citizens.

With our clearer communication with parents developing, enquires for information have significantly fallen over the past two years. This is evidence that, not only is our strategy working (there is always room for improvement), but we are able to devote the additional time saved on parent related issues and concerns, to the teaching and learning of students and teachers at Kingswood.

For example, we have recently been able to create additional time for me, Patrick and Tracy to join every Professional Learning Community (PLC) across our school. That means we are able to attend every team’s professional learning and planning time each week. We will be reorganising our workload to accommodate these changes but we feel it is essential that we become active co-learners with our staff. It is going to be a fabulous learning journey for us. I am thrilled to be able to create this time to work side by side with our wonderful teachers. This would not have been possibly if our parents were continually using school human resources for additional parental concerns. It is very rare for Principal class members to find the time to be part of the teaching and learning at a school due to the demands of the job. Every opportunity that we can be part of what we are trained in doing is highly appreciated and valued by the school. So thank you everyone for giving us this chance to work side by side with our teachers and students!

The trust you put in our staff to deliver outcomes for your children, can not be undervalued. We all want the very best for your children and there are many things we can do to support them along the way. Finding time to support staff is the most valuable commodity in a school for Principal Class Officers. Thank you to the parent community of Kingswood for giving us just that…. time. 

Finally, make sure you come up and see me when I am out in the playground before or after school. I would love to get to know you all.