Aaron Cox

Principal

Welcome back, everyone,

We have had a very pleasant start to the 2020 school year with students settling in well and staff enthusiastic about their priorities for the year. I have had the opportunity to have some wonderful conversations with students about their holidays and what they did. For many, it seemed like an action-packed fun time with family and friends. We welcome Sharon Lomas, Natalie Selisher, Kyle Moldrich & Rachel Fisher-White to our school in 2020 and Lisa Devereaux (Bambery) returns to Kingswood after a number of years on family leave.

Focus for the start of the year - teachers are building authentic relationships with your children. They are also testing 1:1. This gives teachers a great opportunity to work with your children in a focused setting. The data collected will help support your children’s learning for the rest of the year.

Quadrangle - After some stops and starts with the weather over the holidays, we finally have a completed quadrangle which is being given the thumbs up by our students and parents. In all, I think the games the children have chosen have been popular and the children will get many years’ service out of the upgrade. This upgrade was only made possible by parents contributing to the fundraising levy. Parents and the school covered 50% each of the total costs of the refurbishment. It is a great legacy to leave the community as we have all benefited from what parents have contributed before us.

SAKG Outdoor Upgrade - Upgrades will be made to the SAKG seating area over Term 2. We will see the installation of a covered kitchen/working area, a pizza oven, additional seating, new car parking which will further enhance our disabilities accessibility. Money raised from the project levy will go towards this upgrade as well as funds raised through our grant application team. I would specifically like to thank Victoria Lemmer for her dedication in helping Kingswood apply for funds to support this project. To date we have raised $22,000 from our parent community through the fundraising levy, which is approximately $5,000 less than last year. Let’s hope we can at least equal last year’s tally for funds raised. As evident by all previous projects the children are the beneficiaries of these improvements.

Electronic Gates - After years of requesting parents to not use the staff carpark as a pedestrian entry or exit we have been forced to install electronic gates on the car park to protect our children from potential danger. These automated gates will ensure there is no access in the mornings & afternoon. Parents with verified disability permits will be given a special code for access during these times. Further improvements for parents with disability permits are currently in progress.

Supporting Clifton Creek - As explained in a Compass post we will support Clifton Creek Primary School at our fete in March. We will therefore be essentially raising funds for two schools at once. Your support and support from the broader community would be greatly appreciated. Remember to invite family members, friends and neighbours.

Staff Professional Learning - Staff have begun looking at their very targeted professional development for 2020. Teachers have been refreshing their knowledge about running records and administering certain assessments with consistent fidelity. We will have 2 curriculum days in February Friday 21st with Ron Ritchhart from Harvard University and Monday 24th, when staff will spend the day focusing on English, Mathematics and Wellbeing. As these are student free days please make other arrangements for your children on these dates.

Staff Departures - I am pleased to announce that Verity Sheppard has been successful in applying for a position within the PLC Unit of the Department. Verity has been appointed as a PLC Practice Instructor for the Bayside Peninsula Area. This means that she will be on secondment for the next two years. Verity will retain her ongoing position here at Kingswood and return to us near the beginning of the 2022 school year. This is a wonderful opportunity for Verity to further extend her PLC knowledge and recognition of the work we have been doing at Kingswood in terms of PLC. We wish her all the best in her new role. Verity will continue to work closely with Kingswood as we remain one of her schools.

Some changes are therefore required at Kingswood. For 2020, it has been decided that Linda Hawkless will move into the Professional Learning Community Link Leader role and Marina Kallinikos will become our Literacy Intervention teacher. We understand this is not ideal for 3K but we have already started to put out our feelers to find an exceptional classroom teacher for the remainder of the year.

Denise Stach will not be returning for 2020. We send Denise our best and hope she has a restful year off from teaching. To replace Denise Stach on Monday, Alice Windley joins us from Mentone Park Primary School. Alice has had a wonderful start to her teaching year with us.

MSL Training - Patrick Halpin, Jacqueline Smedley, Steve Woolfe, Marina Kallinikos, Bree Morgan, Neena Hunt, Kara Bogicevic and Lucy Chesters attended an intensive full week of Multi-sensory Structured Language before their official return to work in January. This clearly demonstrates their commitment to Kingswood and our community. On behalf of the school and the community, I would like to sincerely thank each and every one of these teachers for their selfless contribution.

St Kilda Mums - Please check out this selfless community group. Maybe there is something you can do to support them in their efforts.

https://www.stkildamums.org/

School Council Elections - Information related to vacancies and our School Council election process has been made available today to all parents via Compass. I would hope that any parents interested in joining, speak to our current and past School Council members. School Council is about understanding the broader picture and governance of Kingswood. School Council does not have any decision-making power in relation to operational decisions as these are made by the Principal. School Council is a wonderful way to be involved in the school and be a community representative. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have aaron.cox@education.vic.gov.au

Annual privacy reminder - Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy. Please take time to remind yourself of the school’s collection statement, found on our website.

For more information about privacy, see: School

Community Messages

UJEB

CASEA

Grasshopper Soccer

Noble Park Football Club

Heartlinks

Mentone Girls Open Night

Entertainment Book