Dear Families,

It has been fabulous to have reached this point in the term and have remained face to face onsite learning and teaching with our students. We have been impressed with the focus our students have demonstrated in classes on a day-to-day basis. Our teachers look forward to supporting and catering for further academic growth next term.

Student wellbeing is critical to student happiness and success at school. We support our students through several programs to ensure all our students are well positioned to learn and thrive.

Next term our iNewsletters will feature additional focus on our school’s approaches to student health and wellbeing, programs we offer for students who may be struggling, tips to help our parents respond to behaviours and more information on our School Wide Positive Behaviour Supports Framework.

We hope that sharing this information on a regular basis with our community will reassure our parents/carers of the proactive ways we respond and offer support to all our students.

Next Tuesday, Chantelle from Student Support Services is presenting a whole staff Professional Learning on understanding behaviours, what drives behaviours, responding to extreme behaviours and building the capacity of our staff to support students who demonstrate challenging behaviours out in our yard.

GLENN McCONNELL

I have been informed by the region that Glenn will continue his extended leave in Term 2 and that I will return as the Acting Principal in Term 2 to Kismet Park Primary School. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all in our community for your support throughout this first term. I am humbled to be leading Kismet Park Primary School. Our school is a fantastic school and our number one asset is our children. I look forward to continuing the journey with our students, families and staff in strengthening our communications and home/school partnership so that our school remains a highly respected school and the school of choice in the Sunbury community.

FOCUSSING ON OUR SCHOOL VALUE OF RESPECT

Beginning Term 2 we will regularly communicate to our community the school value we will be focussing on. This week and into next week our school wide focus is on our school value of RESPECT. Teachers are unpacking what that value looks like, feels like and sounds like when children are out in the yard. Teachers will explore turn taking, sharing, respectful language and role plays. This practice will continue into Term 2 as we unpack each of our school values and how they apply out in our school yard. Please see below our school values.

We are…

RESPONSIBLE

RESPECTFUL

SAFE

LEARNERS

ROAD SAFETY AND ENTERING AND EXITING OUR SCHOOL

A friendly reminder that our roads can become busy with local traffic before and after school. These times are critical for all of us to be alert and practise crossing our roads in a safe manner. Can I please ask parents and carers to chat with your children and remind them about safe ways of crossing roads, riding bikes and scooters whilst being respectful and mindful of pedestrians.

Personally, I have been impressed with the general behaviours of our students as they cross roads, enter our school grounds and exit our grounds. There have been minimal instances where we have needed to address student behaviours around road safety, behaviours when entering and exiting our school. Please see below the link that addresses children and car seats. Earlier in the term there were reports from concerned citizens in our community regarding children and appropriate restraints for children including appropriate seating for children in cars that support safety. I hope our community finds the below link useful.

PARENTS APPROACHING OTHER STUDENTS

A friendly reminder that in line with Child Safe Standards and DET requirements adults cannot approach other students in the school to address an issue. The reasoning behind this is that there is a power imbalance. If a parent/carer has a concern the process for addressing concerns at our school is as follows:

In the first instance contact class teacher and discuss the issue.
If issue cannot be resolved at the teacher level then please contact one of the Principal Class Team. Ciara or myself and we will work with our families to resolve the concern.

SCHOOL PHOTOS

We have organised a make-up date for our school photos. The date that photographers will return to our school to take additional photos will be on Friday May 27th, this will be an opportunity for our school photographers to return and take portrait photos of students who may have missed out due to COVID and having to isolate. In term 4 two year 5 classes will have the opportunity to resit for their class photos due to the high number of absences in those classes on the original date photos were taken. We hope that this supports our students and their families with positive memories of their 2022 school year.

We will communicate to our families once the school photos arrive for distribution.

STAFFING

The recruitment process to replace Melissa Pentecost in Year 1D and Cassie Hampton-Smith in Grade 2C has now been finalised. The successful applicants were Christian Bojko who will replace Melissa in Year 1D and Alexander Devereux will replace Cassie in year 2C. Christian started on 21/3 teaching alongside Melissa and meeting with parents for a thorough handover before he took full control of the class on Monday 28/3. Alexander will start with us on the 26/4 and work alongside Cassie for the week, meet parents and then take full control of the class week beginning 2/5.

40th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

Our 40th Birthday Celebrations are set to go for next week. We look forward to celebrating together as a school our history and our achievements. The celebrations will be held on Wednesday 6th April and Thursday 7th of April. Please continue to look out for full details on our socials. We look forward to all the fun and viewing on the big screen Kismet the Movie – 40 Years in The Making.

2022 SCHOOL COUNCIL – OUR FIRST MEETING

We held our first School Council meeting on Monday. In that meeting we elected our office bearers. Congratulations to our:

School Council President – Sean Bassett

Vice President – Sharna Small

Treasurer – Matthew Cosham

Our full list of Parent Representation for 2022 School Council is as follows:

Sean Bassett

Matthew Cosham

Sharna Small

Eugenio Viola Vivas

Kylie Lowdell

Rebecca Wilkie

Karla Anderson

Tara Chandrasegran

I look forward to working with all school council members to ensure Kismet Park Primary School remains a respected and high performing school within the Sunbury community.

LAST DAY FOR TERM 1

Our last day for Term 1 is Friday April 8th. The last week will be a big week for our community with the 40th Birthday Celebrations and there will be no school assembly on the last day. Students will finish on Friday April 8th at 2:30pm. Extend will operate from 2:30pm on Friday April 8th.

PREP TOURS AND INFORMATION SESSIONS

A friendly reminder that we have set dates and times for our 2023 Prep Information sessions and tours. This year we will begin to hold our prep information sessions and tours from Term 2. Please see below dates for our upcoming tours and information sessions for all parents/carers and their children who are starting Prep in 2023.

Prep Information Sessions and Tour Dates:

Tuesday 3/5 - 9:30am

Thursday 19/5 - / 6:30pm

Tuesday 24/5- 9:30am

Thursday 9/6 – 6:30pm

Please share these dates with friends and family who have children starting prep in 2023.

PARENT HELPERS/VOLUNTEERS INDUCTION DATES

The DATES for our Parent Helpers/Volunteers are:

Wednesday 27th May 2:30-3:15

Thursday 28th April 9:15-10:00am

Please consider attending these sessions if you are in a position to support our school through volunteering to help out in classrooms. The sessions will focus on ways that parent volunteers can support students in both Literacy and Numeracy when they volunteer to come into our classrooms. In line with DET guidelines all parent helpers will need to show evidence of their vaccination status and working with children check.

Next week we will send out Expression of Interest notes so that we can adequately plan for these.

RESURFACE UPGRADE SCHOOL OVAL – UPDATE

From next Monday our school oval will be out of bounds due to the temporary fencing that will be erected in preparation for the oval resurface. This is an exciting time for our students and community. Our students will continue to have access to our Council Oval to support safe play. We are all excited as we watch the works come to life and the inconvenience of having less space for a short period, roughly 6-8 weeks, will all be worth it once the works are complete and our students have access to a brand new fully resurfaced oval.

COMMUNICATION PLATFORMS

It is so important for everyone to keep up to date with communications from our school. Compass newsfeeds and posts helps us to stay connected as does our newsletter and Facebook Page. In addition, our teachers use Seesaw to communicate directly with our parents. Please refer to our communication platforms to stay up to date with events at our school and to stay connected with our teachers.

SCHOOL UNIFORM AND LOST PROPERTY

A friendly reminder that all our students are required to wear their full school uniform every day. Kismet Park Primary School uniforms are available from PSW (Primary School Wear). With the winter months fast approaching it is a good idea to ensure children have school jackets/jumpers to avoid students attending school in hoodies.

We have lots of lost jackets and hats in lost property. The end of the school term is a good time to check out Lost Property and ensure recovery of any items that may have been lost throughout the term.

ATTENDANCE

We all want our students to get the best education possible, and the beginnings of a great education begin with students coming to school each and every day. It is critical that students keep attending school EVERY DAY.

Coming to school every day helps children to develop important skills, knowledge and values which set them up for further learning and participation in our community. Children and young people who regularly attend school and complete Year 12 or an equivalent qualification have better health outcomes, better employment outcomes, and higher incomes across their lives.

Missing school can have a major impact on a child’s future. There is no safe number of days for missing school. Every Day Counts. Each day a student misses puts them behind and can affect their educational outcomes.

Next week I look forward to seeing children continue good habits and coming to school EVERY DAY. I thank all our parents/carers for your support regarding this matter.

Farewell and good luck to Melissa Pentecost - we wish Melissa and her family all the very best as she awaits the birth of her first baby. Last Friday was Mel's last day with us and she sends her thanks and well wishes to our community for the support and encouragement they have given her over her time with us.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all in our community for your support throughout this first term. I am humbled to be leading Kismet Park Primary School. Our school is a fantastic school and our number one asset are our children. I look forward to continuing the journey with our students, families and staff in strengthening our communications and home/school partnership so that our school remains a highly respected school in the Sunbury community.

Warmest Regards,

Kathy Cvitkovic

Acting Principal

‘Building the foundations for success and happiness’.

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