Principals' Report 

I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which Kalinda Primary school gathers, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. I would like to pay my respects to their elders past, present, and emerging.

Acknowledgement of Country

Our 5/6 students have recently worked on a project to develop their own Acknowledgement of Country. Over the next few newsletters, I will be sharing these as a way to pay our respects to the traditional owners of the land our school sits upon.

Joint message

As this is our last newsletter for the term, we thought we would actually write our newsletter item together. We just want to both express how incredibly proud and grateful we are to be part of this amazing Kalinda community. It is easy to assume that after 18 months of a global pandemic, that as a society we would know how to do this – including remote learning. But the truth is that we constantly reflect, adjust and wonder about how we can best support our students and families to engage with education and most importantly, pursue positive mental health. Sometimes we joke between the two of us that if we think we could have done better with something that we will ‘remember that for the next pandemic’. That’s not to say that we think pessimistically about the future but instead: we love to remind each other that this moment in history is, on a grander scale just that, a moment in history. We as individuals can only do the best we can to survive, thrive, and nurture those around us and we can plan optimistically for a bright future.

Recently, we have received so many lovely messages from members of our community that really bring a rainbow to a stormy time. We are reminded once again of the incredible power of a kind word. We have found particular joy in sharing your kind words with staff who are working incredibly hard to support students and families in a myriad of ways, whilst also supporting their own families both near and far. 

We wanted to take the opportunity to send out some thanks and positive notes of our own. The list is endless but a few include:

• Parents and Carers: we see you out there managing your household, your workload, your child/ren’s needs and we thoroughly appreciate everything you are doing. Thank you for knowing when to push your child to engage further, but also knowing when it might be a good time to switch off or take some time out.
• Parent-teacher interviews: thank you to our teachers, education support staff, and parents who came together to share updates about student learning and set achievable short-term goals for progress.
• Tutor Program: our state government-funded Tutor Program finishes for most students at the end of this term. Thank you so much to Mrs. Burley, Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Lange who have done such a magnificent job supporting individual students in these groups.
• Book Day: thank you to author Lisa Keskinen who inspired classes with her insight into the writing process. Thank you also to teachers who planned an interesting and inclusive program, encouraging children to dress up or share their favourite books – whilst acknowledging that organising a costume at home is challenging! Thank you to families who helped their child find or invent a costume.
• MS Readathon: we are absolutely astounded and incredibly proud of the achievements of our first MS Readathon team, thank you Ms. Weekes and Ms. D’Amico for driving this powerful opportunity for our students.
• Teaching team leaders and Learning Specialists: thank you for working hard to support the children and families in your class but also driving curriculum planning and supporting your colleagues on both a professional and personal level.
• Teaching teams: we are constantly inspired by our year level and specialist teams who constantly review, amend, extend and vary their teaching programs. Thank you for striving to provide differentiated learning and progress.
• The backbone of our school: thank you Melissa, Ted, Annie, Jen, Anna, and Justine for all the immense work you are doing to support the smooth running of our school.
• Education support staff: thank you to our integration aides for continuing to provide individualised support to students and families. Thank you also to our challenge team staff who are ensuring continuity of support to our Minilit, Macqlit, and Maths Extension students. Thank you Wendy for doing a power of work preparing for a Library upgrade and a huge thanks also to Kelly who is continuing to support our Grade 3 and 4 teams to maintain a remote SAKG program.
• Student and family welfare: we are very grateful for the powerful support network that is made up of teachers, ES staff, and parents in supporting the emotional welfare of students. Thank you particularly to School Counsellor Emily Bieber who is working hard to support members of our community.
• Thank you P&F and School Council who continue to meet remote and work on plans for the future. 
• Our Casual Staff who continue to help us with supporting students in our onsite supervision program to thrive.
• Thank you to our hardworking cleaners and Theircare staff who continue to operate under such different conditions but always with the best interest of our school community at heart.
• Thanks Pete! Thank you to Pete Wirth, our trusty school crossing guard who continues to ensure the safety of all students and families crossing Kalinda road during the morning and afternoon - always with a smile and a generous spirit.

And lastly

• The added extras: despite the incredibly challenging conditions in which we all find ourselves, we continue to see so many members of our staff and family community stepping up to provide extra supports, programs, and engagement. Thank you to families who have engaged in our weekend challenges and thank you to members of our community who support each other in so many ways.

Please take care of yourself, do not hesitate to reach out to either of us at any time. We appreciate you! 

Shaun McClare and Lauren Hopkins

NAPLAN Results

For our students, NAPLAN is just one piece of assessment. It does not define a student's intelligence or future outcomes. Like all of the assessments we do, it helps us to learn more about what our students understand, identifies where there are gaps in their knowledge, and inform the next steps in their learning.

At a whole school level, NAPLAN results are an important annual measure of the improvements we are making in Teaching and Learning, finding the areas we need to focus on and it gives a snapshot of our performance.

After such an interrupted 2020 and 2021 I was extremely proud of the entire staff, students, and families at Kalinda when we received our 2020 NAPLAN results. Whilst still being able to identify areas for improvement and growth, our overall results were fantastic. 

Academic performance is not the only way we measure our success, but it is important and I would like to particularly thank all of our staff members for the wonderful work they do.

Below is a brief summary of our results. We receive a lot of different data about our performance, including 5-year trend data and the percentage of students in the Top 2 Bands.

Amended School Dog Policy

School Council has approved an amendment to our School Dog Policy.  When we see the amazing impact that Roxie has on the well-being of students, staff, and visitors to our school we felt it was great to expand our school dog program further.

The amendment to the policy is for the addition of a new school dog, Melon. Melon is my dog and like Roxie she is also a cavoodle. I plan to start bringing Melon to school early next term.

Please feel free to contact the school if you have any questions or concerns.

2022 Enrolments

We are still accepting enrolments for 2022. If you have any questions or would like to chat about enrolment, please call the office on 03 9876 3289. Please find the enrolment form below and it can be sent to the school via post (Kalinda Primary School, 39-49 Kalinda Rd, Ringwood 3134) or by email to kalinda.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

Shaun McClare,

Principal 

Kalinda Primary School

We are kind. We are resilient. We are respectful.