From the Leadership Team
Building resilience
Chris Barr, Head of Junior School
Psychologists define resilience as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress. I think it is fair to say that this year has required our entire community to build our resilience and learn to overcome a number of challenges thrown our way.
The research around resilience is clear; the more positive emotion we experience, the more resilient we will be. For that reason, The Resilience Project suggests we focus on three key pillars which are proven ways to cultivate positive emotion. These pillars include Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness (GEM).
At School, we encourage our students to focus on these pillars every day. Within the Junior School we have GEM time built into the curriculum and timetable. This is a time where we encourage students to stop, reflect and participate in activities that aim to build positive emotion.
These activities have a specific focus each day, based around the pillars of GEM. The activities are both individual reflection times, as well as opportunities to connect and build relationships with their peers.
By taking time to participate in GEM time, we hope to enable our students to reflect on what has happened across the day and focus on the positive, which in a year like we have had, is vital to helping our students build resilience.
Valedictory assembly
Last week, our Year 12 students were acknowledged and celebrated in their final assembly of their secondary school journey.
It is an amazing achievement to complete VCE within a normal school year, but to continually ‘bounce back’ and face adversity head on in a year with so many interruptions, including regular remote learning and changes in exam schedules, is something we hope our Year 12 students and VCE staff will look back on and be extremely proud.
Resilience was indeed needed for every student in this Year 12 cohort. We wish them all the best as they move onto the next phase of their lives and hope they look back on their time at Kilvington fondly.
School events
Bouncing back and being adaptable continues to be the theme as we do our very best to ensure our students have a wonderful finish to the year.
We have a number of events taking place across the School and encourage parents to read communication carefully to ensure events are not missed and there is a clear understanding of the restrictions in place.
Planning, preparation and communication of events continue to occur in the timeliest manner possible. As always, we will look to follow current guidelines to keep our community safe.
Managing COVID-19 positive case
As we have seen this week, there will be times when we will need to manage a positive COVID-19 case at Kilvington. The following will hopefully give you an overview of how the School responds once we are advised of a positive case.
- The School is informed of a positive case.
- The School will follow the guidelines set by the Victorian Government and the Department of Education, as well as erring on the side of caution. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Identifying, supporting and providing information to potential close contacts as quickly as possible, and notifying affected parents, students and staff members.
- Determining what parts of the School are affected and what possible closures may need to occur.
- Undertaking thorough cleaning, in particular, affected areas.
- Advising the School community of a positive case as soon as practically possible once all information has been collated.
- Following-up communication with those affected to support a safe transition back to School.
Our priority is to keep our School community safe and to support the members of our community directly impacted by COVID. Thank you for your patience and support as we navigate this unfamiliar and challenging issue.
Celebration Night – this Monday
This Monday (29 November) from 7.30pm we will be streaming our Celebration Night video. A link has been sent to you and a reminder will be sent on Monday.
This special event will give you the opportunity to share in the accomplishments of 2021, celebrate our students and community, farewell our Year 12s and be entertained by some outstanding musical performances.
It’s not to be missed! We look forward to sharing this memorable occasion with you.
Staffing
We welcome Mrs Patty Mendiratta as our Human Resources (HR) Manager commencing 2022. Patty has over 20 years of experience in HR and has been leading the People and Culture function for an Ed-Tech start-up company for the last three years.
She has an MBA with a Major in Human Resources and also holds a Bachelor of Science with Hons. Patty has also been part of the Kilvington Community as a past parent, so knows the School well.
Congratulations to staff member
Congratulations to Kirsty Watts, Kilvington’s Academic Dean of Technology and eLearning, for completing her Master of Education (Digital Technologies) through the University of Sydney.
Kirsty says, “I appreciate the instructors and peers who all made the experience valuable and rewarding, especially as we all were teaching our classes remotely throughout the two years, as well as the numerous experts who guest lectured including writers of the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies.
I also completed a number of Leadership units to further enhance my leadership at Kilvington. I am most grateful for the support and encouragement of my family and colleagues as well as the generous support from the Kilvington Board for awarding me with this Postgraduate Study Scholarship."
Goodbye
Finally, this will be my last In the Know article as Head of Junior School.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the School for the opportunity to join such a wonderful community. It has been a pleasure to work with such outstanding teachers, enthusiastic students and supportive parents.
The School is in a wonderful position to move into the future, and I wish every member of the community a wonderful festive season and a happy and healthy new year in 2022.