Issue 6, 12 May 2023, Week 3 Term 2

Dear Families,

What a wonderful and bustling start to Term 2 for our staff and students. Students are well into the swing of tackling new learning experiences and they are building on the important learning achieved in Term 1. With Winter almost upon us we would like to remind all families that Breakfast Club runs from 8:30am to 9.00am. All students are invited to come and have a warm Milo and piece of toast to help fuel them for the school day. A huge thank you to Mary for always going above and beyond and being at school bright and early ready to feed our smiley students breakfast.

Cross Country

Wow, what a marvellous Cross-Country Carnival on Wednesday! Thank you and congratulations to everyone who participated. I was very impressed with the atmosphere and level of engagement in the day. Our House Captains did an outstanding job leading our classes and the level of enthusiasm and encouragement by all was brilliant to see. A special thanks to Mrs Cockerell for her outstanding leadership and organisation. It was great to see so many students participate with huge smiles on their faces. Thank you to everyone that came along to support this community event. It is great to be able to have families back on school site supporting these important school events. Whilst we have already made small tweaks and changes to this event, we would appreciate any feedback you are able to provide.

Reporting – 2023

This year we have moved into the next phase of the Department’s reporting changes with the introduction of sharing ‘Evidence of Learning’ with families. Classroom Teachers and Specialist Teachers will be providing learning tasks alongside an assessment guide. This will be shared via our online classroom communication platform, Seesaw. Parents and carers will be able to clearly identify the learning, what your child achieved and the next steps in their learning. All classes will be required to share a Maths and Writing assessment task by end of Week 9. Mid-term Reports, which include an assessment against the nine-point scale, will also be sent home before the end of the term. Please contact your classroom teacher and/or the senior team should you have any questions around these changes. I will share more information with our community on these changes to reporting prior to the release of reports later this term. If you aren’t already, it is vital you get connected to your child’s Seesaw.  

Wellbeing Wednesday

This term we are trialling ‘Wellbeing Wednesday’ which is an initiative that will provide a cohort of students with a free healthy meal on a rotating roster. On their designated week they will have an early lunch beginning at 12.30pm with the opportunity to sit down with their peers and chat while they eat. All students will be eating together at a table as a class. If your child does not wish to eat the food provided, they will be able to sit with the class and eat their packed lunch from home.

A letter will be sent home prior to your child’s allocated session with the intended menu. If your child has any dietary requirements (eg allergies, intolerances or cultural requirements), please let classroom teachers know as soon as possible. Again, we appreciate any feedback you can provide on these types of initiatives introduced throughout the school.

Child and Family Learning Centre and Early Years Playground Update

As many of you would now be aware, construction has begun on the brand new CFLC located on the Kingston Primary School site as well as a nature inspired Early Years play space. It was exciting to visit the site throughout the term break and see it beginning to evolve. The old terrapin building is now gone and conversations are well underway with 24 Carrot Garden and MONA officials on how we can transform this space into an outdoor classroom with outdoor facilities, including the introduction of a pizza oven, to meet as a class and eat garden produce.

Whilst we must continue to be patient as Vos Construction work away, this is an exciting time for our School Community and I look forward to sharing the progress of the builds. Thank you to families who have reached out with feedback over the last few weeks. Feedback to school is always welcomed. We are in regular contact with the Project Manager and Site Foreman, and the safety and wellbeing of our learners is in the forefront of our minds always. Occasionally there will be things our community will see that we may not be aware of. As a result I encourage you to email or call the school, so we can help resolve any matters that may occur. Plans for the new play space can be viewed in our school foyer, however please see a snapshot of this space I shared earlier last year below.