The Kingswood Newsletter

Wellbeing and Community Engagement

Patrick Halpin 

Assistant Principal 

Welcome back to school everybody, for the final term of the year .  The summer feeling is starting to hit as the weather improves and, with that, will come lots of extra outdoor activities.  Please remember to apply sunscreen to your child every morning and ensure they have a sunhat and water bottle at school.  It can be distressing for a child if they cannot play with their friends at lunchtime because they have no hat.

 

While we are only just at the end of our second week back, there is so much energy around Kingswood with a massive range of events and activities being run.

 

  • Year 4s headed off to Phillip Island for their school camp on the first three days of term.  From the photos and videos I saw, the activities and challenges took everybody (children and adults) out of their comfort zones!
  • Principal Class have been busy presenting our Pre-Review Self-Evaluation to the school community.  Our review will take place over the next few weeks and anybody who wasn’t able to attend the Q&A this week can access the recording on the Parent Club Facebook page
  • We have started the recruitment process for 2019 and will continue that work through the term
  • The staff all attended First Aid training this week, which will continue in Week 3.
  • Sporting events have kept lots of our students busy
  • On Thursday, Kingswood hosted a network Literacy and Numeracy Transition Meeting, which was attended by teachers from primary and secondary schools across Kingston.  Thanks to Megan Franklyn for organising and leading the network through such a worthwhile project
  • Tonight (Friday) and tomorrow, we are opening our doors for our Art Show and Book Fair.  We hope to see lots of families and friends over the two days

 

The pace is not likely to slow down anytime soon.  As well as our usual day-to-day activities, over the next fortnight we have:

  • Staff completing Disability Standards Training
  • Some members of our Sustainability Team will attend the 2-day Kids Teaching Kids Conference
  • Our softball teams will compete in the finals
  • Our School Council sub committees will all meet and will report back to School Council at our scheduled meeting
  • Parent Club are scheduled to meet next week
  • Many of our teachers, including the Specialist Team. will attend literacy training run by Misty Adoniou
  • Westall Secondary College will visit our senior students
  • Kingswood will participate in Outdoor Classroom Day
  • Japanese Day

Congratulatons, Aaron!

Aaron Cox officially took up his position as Substantive Principal as the beginning of this term.  On behalf of the school community, I would like to wish Aaron all the very best of luck in the role – we have total faith in his leadership and look forward to what lies ahead for us.

Make a Difference, Dingley Village

Spring is here and Make a Difference are supporting families by collecting and distributing long life milk to those families who are struggling in our community.  If you would like to support this drive, please drop long life milk into the basket at the office.  Kingswood families have demonstrated their generous nature over the past few years and are recognised for their support of Make a Difference, Dingley Village.  I encourage any family who is in a position to help this important cause to join in. 

Education State

The Department of Education and Training in Victoria have done a huge amount of work over the past couple of years as part of their vision to make Victoria the Education State.  One of their recent publications is a document entitled, “Literacy and Numeracy Tips to help your child every day.”  I encourage all parents to download the document and have a read through the tips and suggested ways you can help your child develop literacy and numeracy skills.

Snapshot Survey results

Thanks to everybody who responded to our Snapshot Survey on School Production, 2019.  We had 120 respondents representing all 7 year levels in Kingswood Primary School.  The results were as follows:

  • Almost half,  place a very high value (5) on Performing Arts, with another 30% giving a score of 4 (high) for that question.
  • There was a mix of preferences for what we could organise for next year.  The most popular was, “Small scale class performances throughout the year (e.g. Year 5s & 6s in Term 1, etc.),” followed closely by, “Small scale class performances on one night.”  Other popular options were, “Year level expo or performance based on what the students are learning in class,” and, “Incursion(s) resulting in a performance for parents.”  Overall, almost 75% of parents would like their child to be exposed to some sort of a performance on years when the big school production is not run.  This endorses Kingswood’s commitment to laying the foundations for success in a broad spectrum of areas.  Your feedback will be considered as we begin to plan the program for 2019.

 

One parent asked why only a small number of students are given the opportunity to have a lead role.  I think it’s important to highlight, however, that Peter Pan had a principal cast of almost 80 students and every student who auditioned was offered a lead role.  

We understand that there is a variety of opinions amongst our school community and are grateful to everybody who took the time to send us their feedback.  If anybody would like to discuss anything with us about any of the programs we run, we are always available and willing to meet – feel free to contact the school office (03 9551 1727) to arrange an appointment.