Assistant Principal
Aaron Cox
Assistant Principal
The term has kicked off in high gear. I cannot believe we have already finished 4 weeks. Since the beginning of term 4, we have run two Parent Cyber Safety sessions to help parents with strategies to deal with technology in the home and how to respond if there are any incidents. The feedback from these sessions so far has been very positive.
As we will be taking possession of a new building in the coming weeks our students have been providing feedback in terms of what new modules they would like in their, yet to be developed, playground. The school will be taking feedback from all the students and building a playground that reflects student choice. Our Life Education van was a huge hit with students, Harold the Giraffe being a favourite once again.
Now it is time to celebrate on many fronts. I am proud to announce that Kingswood Primary School has just completed its yearly review with the department. Our reviewer, Jen McCrabb, was impressed with the teaching and learning that is occurring here at Kingswood. Our results, school culture and detailed evidence was in the excellent/exemplar range. I would publicly like to give a huge ‘thank you’ to our instructional leaders and the teachers who work tirelessly to provide the best education to our students.
On Friday 27th we celebrated World Teachers Day. World Teachers' Day is an opportunity to acknowledge our teachers and say thanks for the significant contributions they make in our classrooms and communities. It is celebrated in more than 100 countries worldwide. Teachers were presented with letters of thanks from their students and the ES staff and Principal Class put on a Willy Wonker themed candy bar for them to indulge in. Thank you again to our amazing teachers for all the hard work they do at Kingswood Primary School.
Celebrations don’t stop there as we can announce that Tim Blamires (5/6B) led his video game coding team into the top 3 for all Australia in Year 5 - Year 8. Tim’s group won last year, and it is an amazing result to finish again in the top 3 in the country. The students should be very proud of their achievements and I believe Tim will be taking those students into ACMI to the awards ceremony to support the winners in their division.
If you thought that was the end of the celebrations, you would be wrong. We have just heard today that Jenna Herbert (3/4H) has been invited to speak at a world thinking conference in Miami next year. This is a huge endorsement of Jenna’s work in the thinking curriculum. This is an exciting opportunity for Jenna and the school will be supporting Jenna in every way possible.
A Private School Promotes Failure
What an Awesome and Courageous Idea!
If you watched the news last month, you would have seen Ivanhoe Grammar promoting a week of failure where all students were expected to fail. I thought at the time it was one of the best and bravest examples of real teaching and learning being offered to children. It is all too common for us to promote excellence and striving for perfect accuracy to complete tasks.
In reality though, as coined by Karen Boyes, “You have to go through hard to get to easy”. It is only through failure that we learn. Where would we be as a society if we never pushed though the boundaries of thought to achieve scientific breakthroughs? Every single advancement in science was born on the back of failure. Failure should be experienced in a supportive environment where feedback is purposeful and immediate. This helps the individual make changes on their path to ultimate success.
What can we do to encourage our children to fail? Michael Gross would argue that we should:
1. Model failure
2. Tell stories of failure
3. Encourage them
4. Tell and show children how to improve
5. Provide time to fail and get it right
Although the idea of failure is not something we strive for, it is definitely an essential element of becoming and being successful.