The Kingswood Newsletter

Wellbeing and Community Engagement

Patrick Halpin 

Wellbeing and Community Engagement

Open Day and Open Night

Thank you to everybody who joined us for our Open Night last week.  It was fantastic walking around and seeing our students and their families laughing and enjoying the fun activities.  Thank you to the staff for their hard work, commitment and dedication in getting everything organised for the evening and to Kingswood Primary School, generally. 

Congratulations to the parents on their winning score of 59.  The students came second with 52 and the staff scored 39 points.  Please send us your feedback via the latest questionnaire (see the link below).

Bendigo Bank Grant

Simon Lees (President, School Council) and I attended the Annual Grants Night held by Bendigo Bank on Wednesday night at Southern Golf Club.  We accepted a grant that they have given us to build a digital sign at the front of the school.  We will provide more information about our new community resource at a later date.

Thank you to Bendigo Bank for their support and congratulations on your 15th birthday.

Camps and Excursions

Welcome home to all of the students who attended the second Japan Tour.  All reports indicate that the students and staff had a fantastic experience.

Many of the other classes have been attending camps and excursions over the past few weeks.  Year 6 students went on camp, Year 1 went to the Museum, Year 2 went to Como House and Year 5 went to Cranbourne Botanic Gardens.  There are further excursions coming up in the next few weeks – we hope you all have lots of fun. 

Como House 

Community Engagement Taskforce

All members of Kingswood Community are invited to attend our next Community Engagement Taskforce Meeting on Monday, June 5th at 6:30pm.  At our meeting, we will examine the goals for Term 2 and discuss the progress that has been made.  All parents and carers are encouraged to attend and assist us with our work on building a sense of community.  Please RSVP by phoning the school office or emailing me directly.

Parent Helper Sessions

We have two Parent Helper Sessions scheduled for next week.  It is school policy that parents complete this training at least once every three years in order to participate in school based activities, including assisting in classrooms, attending excursions, working in the kitchen, garden or canteen, etc.  If you are unsure if your training is out of date, please contact the school office. 

If you would like to attend the training at 7:15pm on Tuesday June 6th or 9:15am on Wednesday June 7th, please RSVP by calling the school or emailing me directly.

Queen’s Birthday Weekend

Please note that school will be closed on the Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday on Monday, June 12th.

Online Training Course

I have been working through an online training course on supporting children who have experienced trauma.  It is a free course that can be accessed by clicking here.  I would recommend that every parent completes this training as the strategies provided are relevant for all children. 

Snapshot Surveys

Congratulations to the Parent Club – over 80% of the respondents to our survey on the Mother’s Day events would like to see it run again next year and over 90% would like to see the breakfast continued. 

The survey's comments included; 

  • Using the same format for the Father’s Day Breakfast, with lots of respondents thanking and congratulating the fathers who got involved and assisted with the set up and serving.
  • One person was concerned about the size of the breakfast served and the amount of food that was thrown away at the end.
  • Another parent suggested that the students are given the opportunity to make a present – handprints on paper with a message, for example.
  • Some people would like to see more options and variety at both the breakfast and the stall and only one person pointed out my typo (Mother’s Day Stall not Staff!!).

We are very grateful to all of the respondents who took the time to send us their feedback.  If anybody is interested in joining the Parent Club or assisting with specific activities and events, please let me know.

Our next survey seeks feedback on our Open Night.  It would be great to hear your feedback, even if you did not go.  The information we gather through these surveys represents the voice of the whole parent body so it is in the best interest of our students for each family to be represented. 

 

Please feel free to contact me by phoning the school office or by emailing halpin.patrick.p@edumail.vic.gov.au if you have any concerns, queries, questions or ideas regarding wellbeing and/or community engagement.