In the Know

PFA News

How Well Is Our Community Adjusting and Coping With Uncertainty?

Kirsten Brooks, PFA President 

 

We now have new challenges; our use of space and time is different; and it feels difficult to have perspective on some days. However, our parents and children are modeling wonderful behaviours and characteristics.  While many of us are out of our comfort zone, we are all learning. 

 

Thank goodness we have such a well established and connected community around us!

 

Thank you to everyone - staff, leaders, parents and kids - for finding strength and humour in these challenging times.  And thank you to the families who have thanked our wonderful staff with an email, or baked a treat or given a coffee voucher. Thank you to all of you for looking out for others.

PFA and CSR Meetings 

PFA and CSR meetings will go ahead online as informal catch ups.  Links will be sent out shortly on KCEE. 

Happy Mother's Day

Here are two lovely ideas to help you celebrate Mothers Day this year with our Community: a Photo Competition and Online Bingo.  See the Community page for details. We hope you can join us for what is sure to be some light-hearted fun!

Services

The Secondhand Uniform Shop is suspended until further notice.  We look forward to welcoming you back in the near future. 

 

The Kilvington Cares Foodbank is operating with limited capacity. You can register as a cook to receive the Foodbank roster here. 

Calendar

  • 5 May – PFA General Meeting Online, 7.30 - 8.30pm
  • 6 May – Mother's Day Photo Competition – closes 4.00pm
  • 7 May – Mother's Day Bingo, 5.00 - 6.00pm
  • 13 May – CSR Term 2 Online Meeting, 7.30pm

Hearing From Households

I asked our CSRs about how they are doing - what's their score out of 5? Here are a few of their stay-at-home experiences:

  • I am looking out for others in a way I’ve not had to do before, and feeling great satisfaction in positivity. My house has been rearranged and we are still adjusting to the shared space - and the five occupants' stress levels. A functioning version of Get Smart’s ‘cone of silence’ would be perfect! We are bit over games, dad jokes, and worse, mum jokes. Score out of 5 depends on the time of day … 1-5/5, just as it happens. I am also missing my community and friends, and feeling a bit sad at seeing how much my student is missing friends and School. But imagine how much they’ll enjoy being back together, and us too, soon! 
  • Our household is not doing too badly - ranging between a 3 and a 5 - depending on the day! There is something about the simplicity of life I’m really enjoying at the moment  - it makes me realise how much time we normally spend in the car rushing from one thing to the next . We seem to be getting a lot more family time. The most challenging aspects for us, like many parents, is juggling online learning assistance with work commitments, but we are getting there!
  • We're doing OK. It's a really special period, bringing up both good and bad aspects. The best part would be spending more time with the family doing those very basic daily things ... it's been ages since we all sat at the table together.
  • It depends on the day, but from a family perspective it's a 4/5. For me personally, it's about 3/5. I miss not being able to hang out with my friends and family ( who are overseas), and who are feeling it much worse than us lucky Australians. What I like is more one-on-one time with my kids. The kids have had time to actually be bored, use their imagination and to come up with games and fun. 
  • We are going well. We are very grateful that we all have our health and each other, so I score us 4.5-5/5. The worst thing is missing friends and the best thing is a return to family time.
  • We are doing well and very grateful to our School and community for their efforts. We miss friends and feel confined away from others. The best thing? Everyone has more energy at the end of the day for conversations with each other, and we are fitting in a lot more exercise!
  • We are all good. The kids are getting a bit sick of each other but they are enjoying after hours with their friends online. We are doing lots of exercise together and I think I might have finally gotten my daughter to enjoy bike riding as she has stopped complaining when we are out … I think she is building up her riding muscles! I am trying to stay sane with my crafty stuff, which I am loving. The kids are managing online learning well and they are actually thriving in this new environment. We very much appreciate the amazing work the School is doing. I think our model is working well.
  • We very much appreciate the amazing work of the Staff. The kids are fine. Put health and family first, enjoy the time you have with them. Teachers at KGS have always supported vulnerable kids, high achieving kids, low achieving kids, nice kids, troubled kids and parents who are struggling. This has not changed, and  we've got this. Seven weeks is not long; choose how you use it, I am going to use it to learn and to support where needed. I know it is hard for everyone, but we have each other.
  • Thank you very much for all the great online teaching during this bizarre time. The kids miss seeing their friends in person but that is to be expected ... they even miss going to School! So that's to your credit! When the kids were in primary school, I was happy when they vacated the loungeroom for their own spaces …now they are teenagers and I am trying to coax them out of their bedroom, or at least open the door. How things change ...