Newsletter 23rd June 2021
Principal's Message
COVID Update Phase 5
Today we have proceeded to Phase 5, easing some restrictions. We now no longer have any COVID-related capacity limits. However, all adults are still asked to maintain the 1.5m physical distancing between adults, where possible. We are also all encouraged to maintain our enhanced good practices for personal hygiene, not just for COVID but all the other bugs around in winter. Students and staff will still be required to wash their hands or use hand sanitiser regularly, especially before and after use of equipment. The extra cleaning will, largely, cease but we will now clean the playground equipment only once a week and high touch areas (e.g. keyboards) daily.
Regarding bringing birthday cakes to school, the Department has informed us that we can recommence sharing homemade cakes. They no longer need to be individual cakes as we can cut them up and, using good hygiene practices, serve them to the children. However, please make this as simple as possible for the staff as this can, if not managed well, be a time consuming process.
Students should continue to only use the water fountains to fill up drink bottles, not drink directly from them.
Cyber Safety Workshop
As you also know, we have Paul Litherland from Surf Online Safe visiting the school tomorrow (24th June). He will run workshops with the Year 5/6 students during the afternoon and a parent workshop between 7-8:30pm in the Music Room. Thanks to the P&C for continuing to fund this event. For parents, it is important to arm yourself with this knowledge to protect your children. Please join us for this vital and eye-opening presentation. If you attended this event last time, please note that the information is ever changing and you will receive new and updated information. You can book your seat through our SZapp school calendar events by clicking on this event.
Student Semester Reports
A link to your child’s semester report will be emailed out to you next Tuesday (29th June). Please remember to download it and save it in your computer files (or print it out) as the link is only active for 4 weeks. This might be particularly important for parents of Year 5 students who start looking at scholarships and high school enrolments for 2023. While we can send you another link later, it is an additional impost on our busy office staff.
End of Term 2/Start of Term 3
The last day of term is Friday 2nd July. We wish everyone a lovely holiday. Children will return to school on Tuesday 20th July, but the office will be open on Monday 19th July.
Bronwyn Jones
Principal
New Staff Members
A very warm welcome to our two new Education Assistants. Carin joins our school in a permanent full time role, working in various classrooms throughout the school and Heather Driscoll is working in the PP2 class, one day per week for the remainder of the year.
P3 Class Visit
We had ‘Rex’, the Baudin Black Cockatoo come to visit us yesterday- what an insightful visit. We loved sharing adventure stories with ‘Rex’ and finding out the importance of these birds for the regeneration of our bushlands and gardens. We are now spotting lots around our school. If you ever see injured wildlife, please contact Kaarakin on (08) 9390 2288 to help assist. Kaarakin Centre love to have visitors come to see the different wildlife (not just the cockatoos) and support the centre, which helps the continuation of the wonderful work that they do for all our wildlife in Perth. Website: https://blackcockatoorecovery.com/.
Teacher - Jemma Marris
Values & Honour Awards
SAFETY
Securing and protecting everyone, including our school's reputation and our enviroment.
High School Scholarships
Special congratulations to the following two students from S4 who have been accepted into St George's Anglican Grammar School
- Darcey - Music Performance Scholarship
- Meg - General Excellence Scholarship
Kensington PS Speaking Champion Comp
Over this term, all Year 6 students and volunteering Year 5 students took part in the annual KPS Speaking Champion competition. Students had to write, rehearse and perform a speech about a topic of their choosing in front of the Year 6 cohort and teachers. A group were then selected to go through to the next round, where they presented their speech in front of Ms Jones, Mrs Backhouse, Mr Griffiths and Mr Powers.
Well done to all the students who took part. Public speaking can be extremely difficult, stressful and vulnerable, so getting up and giving it a go is a big achievement. Congratulations to the winners, Bridget M, who delivered an incredible speech about how to survive a zombie apocalypse and Maddie M, who delivered a dramatic speech about seeing snow for the first time. Congratulations also to Harry M, who was the runner-up, missing out narrowly. A special mention to Katya H, who was the only Year 5 to volunteer to take part in the competition. She did an amazing job with her speech and should be proud of herself for showing courage and performing so well in front of all the Year 6s.
Bridget and Maddie will now go on to represent Kensington at the South Perth Speak with Confidence Awards next Tuesday at the South Perth Town Hall. We know they will do our school proud. Good luck, girls!
Winners - Bridget M
- Maddie M
Runner-up - Harry M
Highly Commended - Isla D
Highly Commended - Darcey T
Highly Commended - Ruby L
Highly Commended - Leela W
Highly Commended - Katya H
Year 6 Teacher - Ashley Griffiths
Classroom Foyer Display
ROOM 9
The Room 9, Year 3/4 students have been enjoying our class novel The Valley of Lost Secrets, by Lesley Parr. We have learned many interesting facts about the lives of children who were evacuated from London to Wales during the World War II. Examples of what we have been learning and some of our book reviews are on display in the foyer area.
Teacher - Siobhan Bushen
Sports News
Winter Carnival
On Friday selected Year 5/6 students will compete in the Victoria Park Schools carnival. We will play netball, soccer, basketball, hockey and AFL. We wish our teams well and know they will be fantastic ambassadors of Kensington Primary School. Thanks to our volunteer coaches, Mel, Janet and Amy and the staff, Mrs Jetta, Ms Chatfield, Mr Griffiths, Mrs Andrews and Mr Powers who have worked hard with the teams all term. We look forward to hearing the results from the day. The carnival will be at Curtin University playing fields and parents are welcome to attend.
Draft Faction Cross Country Program Friday July 23 2021
Parents are welcome to attend. Medallions and ribbons will be presented after each event. The Faction shield will be presented to the winning Faction in the UCA at 2.50pm. A notification will be sent before the day if the program is changed.
An event will not commence before the allocated time but may be later than the set time.
Running Club
There will be no Running Club on the last two Fridays of this term. It will continue next Tuesday. Running Club will recommence the first Tuesday of next term. Not long till the Faction Cross Country so keep up the training especially in the holidays.
Teacher - Raema Stanford
Library News
Japanese News
Connect and Communicate with Nihon
Konnichi wa!
The Japanese classroom has been busy over the semester with Sao sensei and I assisting the S1, S2, S3 and S4 students to write messages to “Tomodachi” friends in Fujiwaradai Elementary School. This school is 30 years old and sits in a valley in the north of Kobe. It is located in Hyogo Prefecture, our sister state for more than 30 years.
As Jones sensei mentioned in a recent newsletter, we will be creating a Japanese garden at Kensington. In classes we will be revisiting features of Japanese garden design as we did in Term 1 and so, if you are interested in assisting on a weekend or after school, please send me an email Margo.Whittle1@education.wa.edu.au
In Semester 2, Year 4 students will be invited to attend Japanese club together with the sensei in second break on Fridays. This will be an opportunity to further connect with Japanese language and culture.
In addition to the club, there will be a Year 3-6 Taiko drumming incursion on Friday August 27. This will be an opportunity for students to learn the skill of Japanese drumming. Another initiative, for the Kindergarten children, will be an opportunity to use an early learning app for Japanese called ELLA. The Federal government has funded development of this app for schools to encourage Early Learning Languages in Australia (ELLA). Some parents and carers may wonder how they can support their children to learn Japanese in the early years and how to engage with the ELLA app. So if you would like to hear and see some of the action that the children will get to engage with at school, then please use the link here ELLA Support for families . The app itself is only allowed to be used at school but there are some support materials that families can access at https://news.ella.edu.au/familysupport?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ELLA%20May%202020%20newsletter%20(F-2)
Whittle sensei
Japanese Language Teacher - Whittle sensei
P&C News
Colour Run
While the forecast for last Friday was not great, we went ahead and it was a wonderful day… perfect for a run. Thank you to all the parents and staff who helped out on the day. As this was a fundraiser, it is now time to return you form along with your sponsorship money to the P&C. Forms need to be returned by next Friday 30th June to go into the draw for a prize. Prizes will be presented early next term. There will be a range of prizes, including random draws (everyone who has returned their forms and money will earn a ticket in this draw).
School Banking
Thank you to Ms Cathy Godden and her team of school banking volunteers for their commitment to this P&C program. At today's assembly regular bankers were recognised and students received prizes presented by Ms Godden and Ms Giselle Fabling.
Year 5/6 Music Uniforms
The Kensington Primary School music uniform is worn by Senior Choir and Concert Band members. All students who learn an instrument through the School of Instrumental Music also wear the music uniform for the School Band photo.
The music uniform consists of long bottle green trousers for the boys and a long bottle green skirt for the girls. All students wear a long sleeved white business shirt, a school tie and black shoes with black socks. Girls wear green and yellow hair ribbons.
Uniforms are supplied through the P&C Uniform Shop. The trousers, skirts, ties and ribbons are hired out each year for $10. The shirts are purchased new for $20 or second hand for $5 with limited stock held in the Uniform Shop. Payment for uniforms is required by July 2nd to assist with completing the uniform orders over the term break.
Your uniform hire and new shirt purchases are available via TryBooking using this link: https://www.trybooking.com/BRSJR
If you would like to source a second hand shirt, you can purchase them at the Uniform Shop and pay for the hire at the same time. All purchases shall be kept at the Uniform Shop and bundled up with the hired pants/shirts during the term break and delivered to your child early in Term 3. Ties and hair ribbons are given out at performance/photo times. A detailed list of alterations and care instructions are included with the uniform package.
BLACK SHOES: All children must wear black shoes. They do not have to be expensive leather lace ups, but they MUST be black. Perhaps you could borrow shoes from friends and family, or buy less expensive shoes from a discount store or a second hand shop. The girl’s heels should not be too high because children walk on and off stage as part of their performances. Black sandals with black socks are fine, as are black sneakers. All children must wear black socks.
We have a growing number of second hand shoes available from the Unform Shop on Thursday mornings. They cost just $5 a pair. Any donations of second hand black shoes are most welcome.
Lynette Dewing and the P&C Uniform Shop
School Board
The School Board met on Monday 14th June. They discussed the Environmental Citizenship progress on our Business Plan, school banking, the calendar schedule and the upcoming School Review.
Crunch and Sip
Community News
Do you wish to recycle an old mobile phone to help the environment and youths in need of support?
“Hello Initiative” is a volunteer-run not-for-profit organisation that works to link recycled and refurbished smartphones with youths involved in the justice system to support them to complete their court requirements and gain access to essential services. By accessing this technology the young person is able to:
- Facilitate ongoing contact with legal support workers such as diversion officers and lawyers.
- Connect to a broad network of professional supports such as counsellors and social workers.
- Facilitate ongoing referrals to crisis supports.
- Maintain family and community networks.
It's a simple idea but it packs a punch. Reliable communication is critical in our modern community but, unfortunately, the tools we need are not available to everyone.
If you have an old phone collecting dust, we ask that you consider contributing to our Phone Drive by donating your old device to the program. Just drop it off at the front office. Mrs Mignacca will gladly accept and deliver any donations to the charity on behalf of our school community. If you have any questions regarding the charity, she will be happy to answer them. All we ask is, when donating the device, you remove the iCloud/Google account and select factory reset.
All this info and more can be found on our website: www.helloinitiative.org.au.