From Daniel 

Well, August has been a busy month, hasn't it?

So many things have been happening at our school this month.  It has been great to be part of a vibrant, learning community.

Swimming Week - Our swimming program is all wrapped up (to dry in a towel, haha ) for another year.  From all reports, we have some very contented and utterly exhausted little swimmers in our midst.

Book Week - One of my favourite event weeks of the year is Book Week.  We get to dress up and celebrate the joys of reading.  It was wonderful seeing so many different characters represented at our parade, and I know students had a great time learning and reading in cross level groups for the day.  It is a great reminder of the power of a good story.  I encourage everyone to read.  Read with your child, read to your child, listen to your child read, let them see you reading.  Reading is wonderful.

Excursions - Every level in the school has had an excursion/incursion in August.  Foundation students visited the Kew Traffic School and had a great time learning about road safety.  Juniors stepped back in time and visited Como House.  Seniors had a visit from renowned author/illustrator Andy Griffiths.  Middles have been on a jungle safari at Werribee Zoo.  It is wonderful to be able to provide such broad experiences and support our students to build a depth of knowledge and understanding of the world around them.

Release of NAPLAN results - Students completed NAPLAN in March this year, and the results were released to schools and parents this month.  We are really pleased with results.  We have made good improvements across the board, with a significant increase of students performing at or above the expected level (and very few in the 'Needs additional support' category).  Our Year 3 results were particularly strong, with 4 out 5 areas out performing similar schools in the "Exceeding" and "Strong" categories (a key measure of success).

100 Days of School - our Foundation class celebrated 100 days of being at school.  This is a really significant milestone, and our students celebrated in style.  I was hugely impressed by the dress ups.  (I am a little concerned at how close I am beginning to resemble the 'old man' costumes)

... and that doesn't even touch on the fabulous classroom learning programs that have been going on all month.  

Connections @ KPS

We are excited to announce the introduction of a new program in our Middle/Senior school.  Beginning this month, “Connections @ KPS” will involve a select group of students from Years 4 & 5 spending Wednesday’s working on collaboration and team-work and building connections within our school community.

The program  includes three key elements:

School Pride and Connection – This will involve taking on an area of the school and working as a small team to maintain it well. It could involve garden maintenance, litter collection, weeding or pruning. 

Community Connection Project – Linking with local community groups such as Japara House and Friends of Elizabeth Bridge reserve, the team will plan and implement a larger project that focuses on improving our community in some way.  It may involve re-working an area of our school, building or repairing something mechanical, or a project with an external community group.

Social Connection and Leadership Growth – Visiting a local Kindergarten and working with younger children with a focus on building leadership and collaboration skills in readiness for participation in our Buddy and Student Leader programs.

Students will be involved in the program for 4 – 8 weeks (at the discretion of the teacher).  Every student in Year 4 will have an opportunity to be a part of the program this year.  Most Year 5 students will have the chance to take part in 2024.

We are looking forward to seeing this program bring great opportunities to our students and to our school community.

Check out the reports from our Connections team on the next page...

Preparing for 2025

We are beginning our preparations for 2025.  Yes, I know it is only August, but we have lots to do to be ready for next year!

Foundation enrolments  - A new online system has been put in place this year for enrolling student into school for the first time.  We have now confirmed enrolments with all those families who accepted our offer of a place at Kilsyth PS.  At this stage we have strong enrolment figures, however we do still have space for more.  If anyone you know is looking for a place for Foundation in 2025, please encourage them to contact us on 9725 4320.

Other new enrolments - From time to time students move schools.  There are a variety of reasons for people moving between schools, usually it is because they have moved to a new area.  The change of school can have a considerable impact on student learning, sometimes students can regress as much as 6months in their learning. We do our best to ensure a smooth transition into our community to minimise this impact and work alongside our new families to make sure their children form connections and quickly feel at home here.  We have had 12 students start here in year levels other than Foundation this year.  We will have a few more join us in Term 4 and we have already had 3 non-Foundation enrolments for 2025.  If you are know that you are planning a move, or know people who might be planning to move here, please let us know as soon as possible to help us to plan our staffing for next year.  

2025 Parent Contributions - School Council has set our Parent Contributions for 2025 and we are pleased to be able to keep these at the same level as this year.  To support families in planning for these payments, we will be sending out the 2025 Parent Contribution requests in the next couple of weeks.  This will allow time to pay via a payment plan if you prefer.  

Gathering data and long term planning - Our school leadership team, and our school council, gather a wide variety of data to help us to plan for the future.  We have already collected data through the Student Attitude to School Survey and Staff School Survey and the Parent and Carers Opinion Survey is currently open.  We use this data, along with NAPLAN outcomes, Teacher Judgement Data, Universal Screener Data and other academically focused data sets to identify areas of current growth and areas for future improvement focus.  In the coming months we will be finalising our 2025 Annual Implementation plan, setting goals and activities based on our understanding of this data. If you have any queries at all about how we go about our long term planning, please let me know.

Stay well ... I look forward to saying 'Hi' when I see you in the yard!

Daniel