Issue 20, 21 December 2022, Week 10 Term 4

Dear Families,

As the year draws to an end it is naturally a time of review and reflection. Personally, I look back on 2022 and I feel very humbled and privileged to have been able to lead such an amazing and supportive school community. I am incredibly proud of the contributions each and every one of the students and staff have made to our school over the past 12 months. This year has been incredibly rewarding for me and I sincerely thank you all for your support and efforts.

After almost two years of collaboratively leading teaching and learning with Mrs Rumley and Mrs Hebden at Kingston Primary School there is so much to share and celebrate. Working alongside the entire teaching team we have continued to build on what quality teaching looks like at Kingston Primary School. In the Middle and Upper Primary years, teachers have worked hard to not only improve how they craft high-quality Learning Intentions and Success Criteria for all learning areas but also how they use these to provide clarity for learners to self-monitor, self-reflect and self-evaluate. This resulted in a significant improvement in internal Writing samples moderated weekly but also saw our Year 5 students score above similar schools, the State and Australian average in National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing this year.

As a school we have also seen social improvement from Kindergarten to Year 6. Our End-of-Year Wellbeing data demonstrates significant improvement across the board. The feedback we have received is that students are feeling connected to our school and significant adults within the school community with 95.5% of all Year 4 to 6 students reporting medium/high wellbeing for emotional engagement with teachers. This result is well above the State average. We feel incredibly proud of these results and thank the wonderful and inspiring team of teachers, students and Kingston families we all have here working together to achieve success for the wellbeing of all our students.

From 2023, we will be implementing Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum. All classroom and specialist teachers have already begun preparing Curriculum Mapping documents that will guide teaching and learning throughout the school. Once completed, these will be shared with our community. We will also begin an Inquiry into Reading in all classrooms based on what our current data identifies as our areas of improvement.

This time of the year is a time for farewells and change. Some students are leaving our school and heading on to the next part of their educational journey. I would like to extend a thank you and a farewell to all those students and families that are leaving our school community. We will miss you, and we wish you all the very best into the future. A huge thank you for the support and contribution you have all made to our school.

Lastly, I would like to thank our current Year 6 group for a fun-filled and successful year, as well as their overall contribution during their time at Kingston Primary. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with each and every one of you. I wish you every success in the future and I cannot wait to hear the fabulous stories of what you will all achieve in your secondary schooling and beyond.

On behalf of the entire staff at Kingston Primary School, I would like to wish our entire school community a safe and joyous festive season and a relaxing summer break. We look forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday 8 February 2022. Please remain connected via our social media platforms, Class Dojo and/or Seesaw.