Principal's Report

End of Semester One

Semester One draws to a close on Friday as we complete Term 2.

We have had a fantastic semester of learning.  So many wonderful activities - Middle and Senior Camps, a host of excursions, Inter School Sport, Cross Country, Whole School Athletics, Twilight School, just to name a few...  and so much learning in the classrooms.

Academic Reports will be released on Friday, via our Sentral parent portal.  These will include an indication of your child's achievement and progress over the past six months, their approach and attitude to learning and a general comment on their growth.  I encourage you to read these with your child and celebrate their successes.

A reminder that over the semester we have uploaded many comments and reports on students progress across the semester through our Continuous Assessment and Reporting approach on Sentral. These regular uploads also include photos and other work samples so you can see the work completed by your child at school. Coupled with the end of semester reports, our Continuous Assessment and Reporting approach ensures all parents have access to a comprehensive summary of the achievement and progress of their child.  

Student Attitudes to School Data

One of my greatest joys is hearing from our students about their experience of life at our school.  Whether it is positive or negative, feedback from our our students is vital as we work together to refine and strengthen our calm, positive learning environment.  

A key part of this feedback is our annual Student Attitudes to School Survey.  Each year the Department of Education run a survey for all students in Years 4-6 and provide schools with the results in a way that shows the percentage of students who agree that each area of schooling is effectively in place.  This year's results are in and are highly positive.  

I recently took our School Council through the results and shared with them some of the analysis we do as a staff.  Some of the highlights are:

• High Expectations of Success - 99%    this means that 99% of our students agree that our teachers set high expectations for success in our classrooms and believe that students can strive to meet them.
• Sense of Inclusion - 97%    our students report that they have friends at school, get a chance to be a part of class activities, feel like they matter and that teachers make sure everyone feels included
• Differentiated Learning Challenge - 94%  showing that our students see that teachers give them the help they need, understand how they learn and support them to do their best.
• Effort - 94%  agreeing that teachers expect a full effort in the classroom and the students put that effort in, that they pay attention in class and enjoy doing their learning in class.
• Learning Confidence - 93%  showing our students have a self belief that they are good at learning and can do challenging work

These are just some of the nineteen indicators that we measure.  Of the nineteen indicators all are above 80% agreement that we are doing a great job in meeting student needs and over two thirds of them show greater than 90% agreement from our students.  This has been a result of consistent, year on year growth over recent years and is higher than many similar and local schools.  I am so proud of the great work of the Kilsyth Primary School team and community.

We have also updated our school website with some of these highlights.

2024 Foundation Enrolments

A reminder that we are now taking enrolments for Foundation in 2024.  If you or anyone you know are considering enrolment for next year, I encourage you to speak with us about we might meet your child's needs.  

Our enrolments are looking very positive for Foundation and getting a clear understanding of our numbers will really help us with our planning for next year.

On that note, if you are moving from the area and are considering changing schools for next year we would appreciate you discussing your plans with us early so that, again, we can accurately predict our numbers for 2024.

Playgroup 

I am very pleased to announce that, after few years of closure due to the impact of COVID restrictions, we will be restarting our Playgroup next term.

Our community playgroup is open to everyone with children aged from birth to approx. 3.5 years of age.  It will be supported by the school and run by parents. 

Our plans are to run a session on a Monday morning, commencing on 17th July.  The sessions will run from 9.15am -10am and will include songs, games, stories, craft activities and time outside.  Parents will be provided with tea, coffee and biscuits and a wonderful opportunity to chat and get to know each other.  There will be a small cost ($20 for the 10 week term, thats only $2 per week!)

I encourage you to come along with your toddler, invite your friends and their children and get to know other parents in our community.  This is playgroup is open to our community.  There is not a requirement to have a child enrolled at KPS.

If you are interested in coming along, please contact the office on 9725 4320.  If you are keen, but unavailable on a Monday, please call and let us know the best day for you - we would love to get a second group up and running.

Term 3 Arrangements

As Term 2 draws to a close, we are thanking Mrs Donna Larson for her time here as our PE teacher this term and wishing her all the very best as she pursues her role at Swinbune University with full focus and vigour.  Thanks for your work Donna, it has been much appreciated.

In Term 3 we are welcoming Miss Alannah Cole to the team.  Miss Cole is well known to the KPS community having completed a PreService Teaching placement here earlier this year.  Miss Cole will be supporting our Targeted Learning Intervention program across the school this year, providing small group focussed support in Literacy and Numeracy to students who need extra support to either catch up or extend on their learning.

Finally, during Term 3 I will be taking Long Service Leave for the term.  I will be taking a few weeks to complete some odd jobs around the house and then my wife and I are heading to the United Kingdom for a few weeks. I am very pleased to assure our school community that, whilst I am away , Miss Anna Johnstone will be Acting Principal.  If you have any concerns or queries that you would usually bring to me, please speak to Anna. She will help with any of your needs.

Have a wonderful break... I look forward to hearing all about the terrific learning that you have all done in Term 3... See you in October!