4th April 2025

Dear Families,

Fly High Night:

Last night, we celebrated our 5th Annual Fly High Night, and it was an evening full of fun despite a little weather challenge. The event began smoothly, with families arriving early to fly kites and enjoy food from the food trucks. The sky was filled with about 25 kites soaring high, creating a beautiful scene. However, just as the excitement peaked, a sudden downpour hit. While the kites stayed up, the families packing up their picnics found themselves drenched!

As the rain came down, the Library and Art room became popular hangouts, where attendees could make origami kites and get fake tattoos. While the weather may have interrupted the kite flying, it certainly didn’t dampen the spirits of those who showed up to enjoy the event.

Over the past five years, we’ve been fortunate with mostly great weather, and this was the first time we’ve had to contend with rain. We want to thank everyone who came out, and a special congratulations to Aahir in Year 1 for flying the highest kite of the evening. A huge thank you to the SCA for organizing this fantastic event!

Cross Country Day:

Today we hosted our 5th Cross Country Event. It was a great success and everyone had a great day. Thank you to Mr Yasunaga for running this event, it was his first time running it for KPS. Thank you to our 2 parent helpers, the student leaders and House Captains for their leadership.

2025 School Council:

School Council membership as of March 2025, until the 2026 AGM are as follows:

Parent Members – Tulin Cayvarli (President), Daniel Wright, Danielle Cerra, Naelah Alyousefi, Isha Rao

Non DET Community Member – , Hina Salman ,Yemen Abbas

DET Employee Member - Jane Black and Brooke Slopak

Learner Profiles:

Today our Learner Profiles will be available via Compass. These profiles outline the characteristics and skills your child is demonstrating as a learner and will form part of the discussion during the 3-Way Conferences.

3-Way Conference Day:

Our 3-Way Conferences will take place on Thursday, April 24th. Your child is expected to be present during this meeting. Please ensure you book a time and attend with your child. If you are unable to attend in person, kindly book a time and email the teacher to arrange a Webex or phone conference.

School’s Out will be available on this day to assist families with childcare needs. If you are unable to attend the conference in any capacity, please reach out to your child’s teacher via email to arrange an alternative time.

During this 15-minute conference, we will:

Allow your child to share what they are most proud of from Term 1.
Discuss how they’ve settled into the school year so far.
Encourage families to bring any positives or questions they have regarding Term 1, 2025.

We kindly ask that families arrive on time for their scheduled conference, as staff will be booked back-to-back throughout the day.

Student Support Group meetings (SSG):

During Weeks 8 and 9, we offered 68 families the opportunity to meet with their child’s mentor teacher to discuss their Individual Education Plans (IEPs). Unfortunately, only 50% of involved families took advantage of this opportunity to engage in goal setting for their child. We hope that in the second cycle, which will occur toward the end of Term 3, more families will participate, as it is a valuable opportunity and an important aspect of the home-school partnership.

Positive Parenting:

The Triple P – Positive Parenting Program is one of the most effective evidence-based parenting programs in the world, backed up by more than 35 years of ongoing research. Triple P gives parents simple and practical strategies to help them build strong, healthy relationships, confidently manage their children’s behaviour and prevent problems developing. Triple P is used in more 30 countries and has been shown to work across cultures, socio-economic groups and in many kinds of family structures. Access to this program has been provided to all Australian Families.

https://www.triplep.net/glo-en/home/

Ride/Walk to School Day:

Thank you to the children and families who attended our Ride/Walk to school day. It was a beautiful morning for getting together and making our way to school from a local park.

Staff Update:

Today we farewell 3 staff members. Emily Nolde has been with us 1 day per week over the last 18 months, due to personal circumstances she will finish at the school. This year she has bee 1 days per week in Yr 1B, going forward Ms Maddie Toscano the classroom teacher will now be fulltime with the class. Anna Riley one of 3 day a week speech therapist will be taking up new roles at Sunbury Secondary and Karwan Primary School. Cherry Wijayaratne, who has been with us since the first year of the school in a number of roles most notable supporting the teaching of AUSLAN is taking up a promotion position at Mickleham Secondary as their Food Technology Assistant, this is an area Cherry is currently undertaking study in. We wish Emily, Anna and Cherry all the best in their future endeavours and thank them for their dedication and contribution to the students at KPS.

Kaya -Victorian School Sports Award

On Wednesday 26th March, I had the privilege of watching Kaya in Year 3 receive the Outstanding Sporting Achievement Award for a primary-aged student at the Victorian School Sports Awards (there were 1000 entrants). This was the highest accolade of the event, and Kaya truly stole the show with his heartfelt acceptance speech, which he requested the opportunity to give. Please click the following link to watch the video of his achievement, it is incredibly inspiring, and Kaya definitely deserves to be celebrated.. It will bring you joy: Kaya’s Award Video .We are very proud of you Kaya.

I wish everyone a restful break and enjoy some family time. To those celebrating Easter enjoy your family traditions. Don’t eat too much chocolate.

Happy Holidays and we will see you back for a short week on the 22nd of April.

Thank you,

Loren Peavey

https://keelonithps.vic.edu.au/

https://www.facebook.com/KeelonithPrimarySchool