Wellbeing and Community Engagement

Patrick Halpin

Wellbeing and Community Engagement

Parent Opinion Survey

This year’s Parent Opinion Survey was sent out this week. If you have been selected to complete the survey, we would greatly appreciate you taking the time.

The results of last year’s survey inspired the creation of a Community Engagement Taskforce who report to School Council. So far this year, we have been trialling continuous reporting through Compass and have reviewed our Parent Reporting processes. We have also improved the look and feel of our newsletter and now send out snapshot surveys every fortnight seeking your feedback and input, which is then used to improve the processes and programs in place. We have included a calendar of events on the school website in response to requests from parents and have established processes to gather student feedback. Last week, our digital sign was installed. This will be used to communicate key messages to parents as well as promoting community events.

Your feedback helps to inform the leadership team of areas of strength and need. Please know that we are always grateful and take your input seriously.

Kingswood Cash Raffle

Thank you to all families for assisting with our most recent fundraiser. The Parent Club raised approximately $6,500. Funds raised by the Parent Club have, in the past, assisted with many projects – the most recent of which, was the bicycle shed. Many parents express their pleasure with the physical environment when they attend for a school tour and choose Kingswood for their child based partly on the physical environment. The Kingswood families have contributed to fundraising over the past 41 years to help create the most safe, friendly and organised learning environment for all of our students and for that, we are truly grateful.

Congratulations to all of the winners!

STEAM Conference, 2017

At Kingswood Primary School we are demonstrating our leadership in education this week with our 6th annual sell-out Ignite, Innovate, Integrate STEAM conference.

It is predicted that by 2025, we will be a fully automated society displacing 4,000,000 jobs from the Australian economy. At our 6th annual conference, we are proud to present classroom practitioners that are working on the edge of required skills for the future.

We are also proud to announce Dr Karl Kruszelnicki (Australia’s most famous scientist), Jim Sill (California Teacher of the year) and Hugh Van Cuylenburg(Resilience Project Founder) as our keynote speakers.

Staff Celebrations

Many thanks to the Kingswood School Community for the celebrations over the past fortnight, including Education Support Appreciation Day on August 1st and Principal’s Day on August 4th. The students, parents and staff helped to make both days very special for the respective staff by sending messages, making cards, singing songs, performing dances, writing poems, making videos and delivering flowers.

On behalf of the whole school community, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the Education Support Officers for their commitment and dedication to Kingswood Primary School and to Mrs. Cosentino for creating and fostering an innovative, engaging and caring culture.

Resilience Workshop

As part of our work in collaboration with Resilient Youth, Dingley Primary School and St. Mark’s, John Hendry presented to the teaching staff in St. Mark’s Primary School on Monday, July 31st. This was followed by a presentation for parents. As well as the whole teaching staff, Kingswood Primary School was represented by approximately 40 parents, grandparents and community members. The learning and insight that was reported by staff and parents alike highlighted the importance of giving children a safe space in which to make mistakes and learn. We learned about the balance between praise and expectations in order to enable the young people, with whom we work, to thrive and make informed and reasonable decisions regarding problems and challenges they may face.

Mr. Hendry presented us with indicators of an Anxious Mindset, Reslient Mindset and Avoidant Mindset:

The importance of physical health was emphasised. In order to maintain mental health, school-aged children should get between 9 and 11 hours of sleep consistently. The impact of devices on sleeping patterns was highlighted by our recent Resilience Survey results, which reported that 35% of our Year 4 students, 19% of our Year 5 students and 27% of our Year 6 students use their devices between 10pm and 6am. This suggests that 28% of our students bring their devices to bed and as a result, miss out on sleep. More information on sleep can be found on the Sleep Health Foundation’s website.

Recent research also indicates that a healthy diet can impact academic results. 20% of the students who responded to the Resilience Survey report that they do not consistently eat breakfast at home before they come to school. If any family is struggling to provide breakfast for their child(ren), please speak to any staff member in confidence. Alternatively, you can contact Make a Difference, Dingley Village for support.

Resilient Youth visited Kingswood Primary School earlier this term to assist us to analyse the data reported in the survey. In response to their feedback, we have established a Resilience Taskforce, made up of stdents from Years 4, 5 & 6. Each term, the taskforce will choose an area of improvement and will work towards improving the student experience in Kingswood Primary School. This term, the taskforce have decided to work on bullying. The first task that they set for themselves is to develop anti-bullying posters to display around the school. Please keep an eye out for more announcements on their work in upcoming editions of our school newsletter.

Snapshot Surveys

Last time, we sent out a survey on the Student Led Conferences. We received 50 responses from parents, three-quarters of whom rated the Student Led Conferences as a 4 or 5. The same number of respondents reported that they found the experience beneficial as a parent.

Written comments were very mixed. Some parents identified the value in their student setting goals for themselves and reflecting on their own progress. This is an important skill and is in keeping with the Thinking Culture in Kingswood Primary School. It was also noted that the students’ confidence was developed as they were encouraged to present to somebody other than their teacher or classmates. Other parents, however, felt it was a “waste of time,” as they didn’t necessarily learn anything new about their child’s progress.

There were many suggestions as to how we could improve the process, which will be examined more closely by the School Improvement Team. Once again, we thank you most sincerely for your feedback.

Staff and parents from Kingswood Primary School attended a presentation by John Hendry in St. Mark’s last week as part of our joint project on resilience, as detailed above. If you attended, please let us know what you thought of the presentation by clicking here.

If you are interested in completing past questionnaires, please follow these links:

Let me know if there are any topics that you would like to see a survey on by clicking here.