From Anna

Term 3 Welcome

Welcome back to Kilsyth Primary School for Term 3! There are many wonderful things happening this term, including Foundation students’ 100 Days of School celebrations, excursions to the MCG, ‘Classrooms From thePast’ incursion, Trivia Night, Book Fair, Kilsyth Festival, Junior Sleepover, Father’s Day, and many more adventures!

We would love to see as many parents at school this term as possible - coming for Breakfast Club on a Thursday morning, helping out with Gardening Club after Breakfast Club, volunteering to help with our Kilsyth Festival Barbecue, or just popping into the classroom with your children to see what fantastic work they’ve been doing. 

Playgroup

We are very excited to be getting Playgroup up and running again this term. Thank you to our parent volunteer, Tash, for setting this up and running it. We look forward to meeting some new parents and children in the area, while connecting parents with each other and providing a space for pre-school children to learn together. Details are on the flyer below.

NAPLAN - Upcoming Changes to NAPLAN Reporting

Ahead of NAPLAN results for students being released next week, I’m writing to inform you of some changes to this year’s reporting. These are changes being introduced nationally by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

NAPLAN will continue to measure student achievement in numeracy, reading, writing, spelling, and grammar and punctuation but the results will now be presented in 4 proficiency levels:

These are: 

• exceeding
• strong
• developing
• needs additional support. 

This change will give schools, parents and carers clearer information that details student achievement against new proficiency levels. 

Students’ NAPLAN reports will continue to show how they are tracking against their peers and provide an indication of their skill levels against national averages and where we would expect them to be in order to get the most out of schooling. This provides valuable information to teachers about how we can continue to support your child.

Each set of NAPLAN results is an important milestone but it’s also important that students know that one result does not define them – these results are about making sure every student gets the support they need so they can continue to get the best from their learning. 

When we provide you with your child/ren’s results, you will also receive information about what the new proficiency levels mean.

As ever, you’re welcome to speak to me, or your child’s teacher with any questions about these changes.

Parent-Teacher Meetings

Meetings with your child’s teacher are a chance to hear about and share achievements from the year so far. It’s also an opportunity to plan strategies to support their continued learning, both at school and at home. It is of great importance that at least one parent/carer books an appointment for these meetings. 

If you haven’t already, please make it a priority to make an appointment for either Monday or Wednesday next week after school. 

Bookings can be made either on the Sentral app, or by sending your child’s teacher a message via Sentral. If you haven’t yet made a booking, teachers will be following up with parents/carers to support you to make an appointment to talk about your child’s learning so far this year. 

If you require an appointment at another time, an interpreter, or a Zoom meeting, please let us know and we are most happy to arrange these options. 

Supervision of Children

A gentle reminder that before 8.45am and after 3.45pm, children are to be in the care of parents/carers, or Camp Australia. We have an increasing number of students arriving to school before teachers are on Yard Duty at 8.45am, and children running around the school without supervision after 3.45pm. 

With the exception of a Thursday morning, when children and parents are welcome at Breakfast Club from 8.15am, please do not drop students off without supervision before staff are supervising the yard. Similarly, please ensure that, when collecting children from school, you are then taking them home or making sure you are supervising them. School toilets are locked for cleaning at 3.45pm.

Smoking

Under the Tobacco Act 1987 smoking is prohibited within the grounds of all Victorian childcare centres, kindergartens, preschools and primary and secondary schools. This includes the adjoining block to Kilsyth Primary School, which our school car park exists on, as it is classed as school property.

Smoking is also banned within a distance of four metres from any public entrance to a childcare centre, kindergarten, preschool or school. 

The smoking ban applies at primary and secondary schools at all times, no matter whether the building or school grounds are being used for education purposes or for other purposes. The ban therefore applies when other activities are taking place outside school hours, such as fetes or sporting events, as well as during school hours.

Why does the ban exist?

• To protect children and young people from the dangers of second-hand smoke

This ban ensures that children and young people can enter and leave these areas without being exposed to harmful second-hand smoke. Second-hand tobacco smoke is particularly dangerous to children and young people because they have smaller airways and less developed immune systems compared to adults. 

• To reduce the role modelling of smoking behaviours around children and young people

Children and young people are more likely to view smoking as socially acceptable when they regularly see people smoking. Banning smoking in areas used by children and young people will help to denormalise smoking behaviour and discourage children and young people from taking up smoking.

Reading At Home

As adults, we read all the time - recipes, shopping lists, shampoo bottles, birthday cards - all of these are everyday things that we read. We all know that it is important to read with children, but it is more important than most of us think.

Reading helps to build a strong and rich vocabulary. It increases empathy, showing children new perspectives and new worlds. Even on a basic level, reading offers a much-needed break from screen time. Short bursts of reading can be just as helpful - simply encouraging children to help read the shopping list at the supermarket, or the ingredients list while baking, will help them build fluency and confidence.

We understand that many parents don’t have the time or energy to sit down and read with their children at the end of a long day. Some families don’t have a library of wonderful books at home. Some children don’t bring home books from our school library, even though they have the chance to borrow weekly. 

If you, as parents/carers, would like to visit our school library yourselves to borrow books for your children, you are more than welcome. Pop by the office and we’ll be very happy to scan books out under student names, so you can do more reading at home with your children. 

Trivia Night

Please book a table and come along for a fun night of Trivia on Saturday 19th August! See if you can beat the teacher table! Despite not winning last year, we're planning a MAJOR comeback this year!

- Anna Johnstone.