Newsletter 10th February 2021
Principal's Message
Finally - Welcome Back! It was lovely to see everyone start school on Monday. It was a little difficult to easily recognise everyone in their masks but thank you all for the way you all helped out by following the current COVID-19 requirements, especially keeping your classroom visits short and sweet. While WA has taken a beating (pandemic, floods and fire) fortunately we have only had one to deal with at Kensington PS. The rains were a godsend for the fire fighters and hills residents and made it cooler for the start of school – especially for those wearing masks.
We are maintaining the following:
- Increased cleaning
- Hand hygiene
- 1.5m social distancing
- 4sqm physical distancing
- Only individual commercially produced cakes for birthday celebrations
- Drop offs in the morning can be in the classrooms for the following periods of time:
- Kindy – all term
- PP – Week 2 and 3
- Year 1-6 just Week 2
- Pick ups at the end of the day
- KP students in the early childhood play area
- Year 1-6 students with surnames starting with A-M at the gate near the bike shed
- Year 1-6 students with surnames starting with N-Z at the gate on the oval on 4th Ave
- All Year 1 students will be taken to these gates to ensure they get to the correct one
- Kiss and Wave is operational
- You may meet with the teacher once the children have exited their classrooms and verandah areas
While parents are allowed on site, these measures are to assist with the social and physical distancing requirements. We also want to help the children organise themselves (develop independence) in the morning and focus the teachers on interacting with the children first thing.
Classes
We welcome all new and returning students and staff. The class structures are as follows. We will introduce you to the new teachers this week and the other new staff in the next newsletter.
Years/Subjects | Classrooms | Teachers |
Kindy | K1 | Varrie Brookes |
Kindy | K2 | Kim White |
Kindy (Vista Street) | K3 | Emma Williams |
Pre-primary | P1 | Alicia Kavanagh & Jo Doyle |
Pre-primary | P2 | Stephanie Dixon & Vicki Van Dongen |
Pre-primary | P3 | Jemma Marris & Meredith Brown |
Year 1 | R1 | Debb Dellar |
Year 1/2 | R2 | Kate Dash |
Year 1/2 | R3 | Sheree Ramsay & Megan Mehnert |
Year 2 | R4 | Karen Bernic |
Year 2/3 | R5 | Emily Hasson |
Year 3 | R8 | Elliot Fitts |
Year 3/4 | R9 | Siobhan Bushen |
Year 4 | R10 | Di Filmer |
Year 4/5 | S1 | Tine Teuchert |
Year 5 | S2 | Maria Andrews |
Year 6 | S3 | Jack Powers |
Year 6 | S4 | Ashley Griffiths |
Library | Library | Claire Bliznou (with Vanessa Rankin Hume) |
Science | R7 | Elise Pedley |
Japanese (Year 3-6) | R7 | Margo Whittle |
Music | Music | Lynette Dewing |
Phys Ed | Undercover area | Raema Stanford |
Art | Art | Tracey Carpenter & Natalie Bennett |
Maths Enrichment | Natalie Bennett |
Assemblies
Hopefully, by Week 3 (next week) the extra restrictions will be lifted. We aim to have our first assembly, run by the Student Councillors, on Wednesday 17th February. Only parents of Year 6 elected leaders and the certificate awardees are invited to attend this assembly. If the restrictions are not lifted, we have been told parents will not be able to attend. So, fingers crossed.
Pedestrians Accessing the Kiss and Wave Drive Through Gates
We encourage all parents and children to use the pedestrian gates to access the school, rather than the gates used by cars to drive through the kiss and wave. Apart from holding up traffic, this can be unsafe for children especially, who don’t always have the ability to process the traffic information in a timely manner.
Kiss and Wave Entrance
You may have noticed that the entrance to the Kiss and Wave on Fourth Ave now has a keep clear area to help prevent blockages caused by people stopping in front of the driveway entrance.
New Break Times
We are trialling new break times this term. We will have one extra break and we will have lunch eating time after the second break time. We are taking some research we have read about break times and trying to implement these within the confines of the Education Act requirements. Children are able to graze throughout the day as part of Crunch 'n' Sip.
Break 1 is at 10:50am
Break 2 is at 12:05pm
Lunch is at 12:35pm
Break 3 is at 1:45pm
National Anthem
Over the holiday break, on the 1st of January, the second line of Australia’s National Anthem, Advance Australia Fair, was amended by the Australian Government. The line has been changed from “For we are young and free” to “For we are one and free.” We will be updating what we sing at assemblies to reflect this.
Updating SZapp and Lunch Order Subscriptions
Just a reminder that you will need to update your child(ren)’s classes on the school app, SZapp, and the online School Lunches Online site. On the SZapp app you go into Manage and deselect the old classes and select the new classes. If you order your child’s lunch from School Lunches Online, please ensure that you update his/her classroom details on their website so that their lunch can be delivered to them.
Consent 2 Go
Please ensure that you have responded to the ‘invitation’ to update your child’s information on the new Consent 2 Go platform and provide permission for the third party apps and online services we wish to use with your children. If you need a new email ‘invitation’ to be sent to you, please contact the front office on 6436 8448 and we will be happy to send that to you. You will be given further opportunities throughout the year to update/confirm your child’s information on Consent 2 Go prior to any class excursion or at any time you wish.
Term Planner
Please click here for the Term Planner for Term 1. This planner will be updated on our school website as new events are added.
See Saw
Last year many of the staff used Class Dojo to communicate with parents (or email). However, as Class Dojo has not been approved by the Department of Education for use yet, we have now moved to See Saw. We are all learning how to use this. See Saw is also an app that can act as a learning management system if we have to ever go to home learning again (although we hope we don’t have to do this). We ask that, if your child’s class is using this app, you please download it.
Bronwyn Jones
PRINCIPAL
Sports News
Welcome back to school. Please ensure that all students have a hat, water bottle and appropriate footwear for PE lessons. If your child is unable to participate in a PE lesson can you please let me know by email Raema.Stanford@education.wa.edu.au or via your classroom teacher.
All School Fitness will start next Monday lead by our Year 6 students.
The Faction Swimming Carnival is in Week 5. Invited Year 3 students who have passed Stage 5 and all Year 4 to 6 students will attend. Permission notes will be on Consent2Go soon. Nominations for events will be on a paper note.
This term we will have our interschool swimming carnival (invited Yr. 4 -6 students) and the summer carnival (invited Yr. 5/6 students).
The school has received funding from Sporting Schools this term - the sports chosen are volleyball and tennis.
Running Club will not start until after the swimming carnival. More information will be in a later newsletter.
Raema Stanford
Library News
School Board
Our School Board – NOMINATIONS OPEN
The School Board will be meeting twice a term - on the third and ninth Monday of each term at 5:30pm. Brendan Joss is the current chair of the school board. There are some vacancies on the board this year. If you are interested in nominating yourself, please complete the attached nomination form and return it to the school by Thursday 25th February. Attached is also an information sheet which gives potential nominees an overview of the board and how it runs. Below is a list of functions of the board as outlined in the Department’s policy. Please note – all Board members are now required to give consent for the Department of Education to undertake a National Police History Check into their backgrounds.
The functions of the school board are:
1 to take part in:
- a) establishing and reviewing from time to time, the school’s objectives, priorities and general policy directions;
- b) the planning of financial arrangements necessary to fund those objectives, priorities and directions;
- c) evaluating the school’s performance in achieving them; and
- d) formulating codes of conduct for students at the school;
2 to determine in consultation with students, their parents and staff a dress code for students when they are attending or representing the school;
3 to promote the school in the community;
4 to approve:
- a) charges and contributions for the provision of certain materials, services and facilities;
- b) extra cost optional components of educational programmes;
- c) items to be supplied by a student for use in an educational programme; and
- d) any agreements or arrangements for advertising or sponsorship in relation to the school;
5 to provide advice to the principal of the school on:
- a) a general policy concerning the use in school activities of prayers, songs and material based on religious, spiritual or moral values being used in a school activity as part of religious education; and
- b) the implementation of special religious education;
6 with the approval of the Minister, or the Minister’s delegate the Director General, or sub-delegates the Deputy Director General, Schools or Regional Executive Directors for government schools in their regions to:
- a) take part in the selection of, but not the appointment of, the school principal or any other member of the teaching staff.
The board cannot:
1 intervene in the educational instruction of students;
2 exercise authority over teaching staff or other persons employed at the school;
3 control or manage the school unless the intervention is by way of performing a function prescribed for incorporated councils or boards (see section 3.3- Incorporated councils or boards); or 4 intervene in the management or operation of a school fund.
The council or board must comply with any conditions imposed on it by the Minister pursuant to section 130(3)(c) of the School Education Act 1999, and any directions issued by the Minister pursuant to section 135(1) of the School Education Act.
An induction process is provided for all new members. If you have any questions about the function of the board or what is expected, please email the principal at Kensington.ps@education.wa.edu.au
You may wish to check out our website https://kensingtonps.wa.edu.au/school-board/ or see the profiles of the current board members: https://kensingtonps.wa.edu.au/school-board-profiles/
P & C News
Waterwise and Wastewise
Community News
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