Newsletter 17th November 2021

Principal's Message

Parent Helper Morning Tea & Christmas Concert

As our recent fete showed, we are lucky to enjoy a huge amount of support from the community to provide a broad range of programs and facilities for our students. We wish to express our appreciation to all our parent helpers and volunteers.  Following the Christmas concert (which starts at 9:30am), to which everyone is invited, we will also have a parent helper morning tea in the staffroom.  If you have been involved in helping out at the school this year, we hope you will be able to attend on Wednesday 1^st December at approximately 10:30am.

There will be two Christmas concerts on Wednesday 1^st December.  The first will be at 9:30am and the second at 7pm in the undercover area.  We ask that all those children involved in the concert attend both events.

Magpies Swooping

While we have had no issues during school time, we have had reports of swooping birds before and after school.  According to Wikipedia: “If it is necessary to walk near the nest, wearing a broad-brimmed or legionnaire's hat or using an umbrella will deter attacking birds, but beanies and bicycle helmets are of little value as birds attack the sides of the head and neck. Magpies prefer to swoop at the back of the head; therefore, keeping the magpie in sight at all times can discourage the bird. A basic disguise such as sunglasses worn on the back of the head may fool the magpie as to where a person is looking. Eyes painted on hats or helmets will deter attacks on pedestrians but not cyclists. Cyclists can deter attack by attaching a long pole with a flag to a bike, and the use of cable ties on helmets has become common and appears to be effective.”

Art Exhibition

Thank you to Mrs Bennett and Mrs Carpenter (and their band of helpers) for the wonderful Art Exhibition. I hope you were all able to pop in and see the amazing work your children have completed. See some Art Exhibition images in its own section below. The P&C Art prize and the popular art prize will be announced at the Christmas concert at 9:30am.

Fete

Thank you to the fete committee and everyone who attended or helped out in some way.  Thanks to the staff (and our P&C president, Ed McLarty) who willingly agreed to take a turn on the dunk machine.  Everyone went above and beyond.  The results of your efforts are also above and beyond our expectations.  I hope you have kept up with the P&C Facebook entries showing highlights of the wonderful day.  Please see the P&C article in their section below for a roundup.

School Review

We have been sent our School Review report from the Director General.  This has been placed on Schools Online and our website.  You can check it out at the link below too.  We received many commendations and the recommendations will be helpful in supporting our continued improvement.  Our next review won’t be until Term 4 in 2024. Thank you to all those who participated on the day and particularly to the deputies (Clare Brook and Claire Backhouse) and our Manager of Corporate Services (Della Nuthall) who worked with me to put together our self-assessment for this review.  A big thank you to everyone, though, as running a successful school is a community effort and the school has benefited from everyone’s contributions throughout the years.  As they say, it takes a village to raise a child… and we have a strong, caring and talented village of people.

Outdoor Classroom Day

Prev

Showing images 1 - 8 of 28

Next

 Last week the classes had an amazing day learning outdoors.  This included:

• Writing our spelling words with chalk on the pavement 
• Brainstorming characters and events for our next text innovation 
• Collecting natural materials to make a symmetrical mandala in small groups
• Sitting outside to complete a sound map (listening to the sounds around us)
• Interviewing each other to get to know each other better
• Leaf investigations – making detailed drawings
• Working with our buddy classes
• Shifting our classroom, furniture and all, outside
• Loose parts play
• Learning about action verbs
• Nature searches

Class Placement 2022

We are currently working on classes for 2022.  Parents who wish to raise particular student needs are invited to write to the principal expressing their request. It should be noted that this expression must focus on legitimate educational reasons and that there are no guarantees that requests will be met. It does, however, allow for consideration of parent views regarding class placement. Parents are asked to present written requests no later than Friday 26 November 2021 (Week 7, Term 4).  If requests are not in writing, they will not be taken into account when placing students.

Responsibility for the placement of students rests with the principal.

Class Structures:

While some schools have made it school policy to have all classes as split classes (for educational and philosophical reasons) this is not the case at Kensington PS. The reasoning behind the split classes here is due to student numbers and the need for the school to work within industrial and financial constraints.

Research, the experience of teachers and school administrators as well as data about student performance suggests that there is no significant difference when it comes to analysing the outcomes of student learning between being placed in a ‘straight’ class or a multi-aged class. Whichever way a school is organised, the most important factor in ensuring successful learning is a focus on identifying and addressing the individual needs of each student.

Studies here and overseas show that children in split classes are often more confident, cooperate better, work better in team situations, are assertive, show more initiative, are more independent learners and better problem solvers. They tend to more easily make friends outside their peer group.

The school must cater for any student, within the school boundaries, who wishes to enrol. While the school numbers and cohort sizes vary from year to year, class structures will vary from year to year, to meet those needs. The school will do its best for all students, while working within the realities of population variance, finances and industrial agreements.

Some years we have very few split classes, other years, we have more.  Some years we even have to have more than one split class with the same grades (e.g. two Year 1/2 classes) in order to ensure a reasonable number of students in each grade within the class.

Class Placements:

Creating equitable classes, where students requiring specialised academic, social, emotional and / or behavioural plans are distributed fairly amongst all staff members is a priority, as it enables staff to best cater for individual student needs in the most manageable and effective manner.

Values & Honour Awards

High School Scholarships

Special congratulations to the following student who has been accepted into a specialist program for high school:

• Ava - Fashion and Design Program at Kent Street SHS.

Classroom Foyer Display

Room 8 with Mr Fitts

'Have you ever wondered what the true story is of the Three Little Pigs'? Wonder no more. Room 8 students have been learning about 'Point Of View' and have discovered what one character sees is not always the truth because another character may have seen the same thing, but in a different way. Come and read our awesome and hilarious stories on display this week.

Sports News

Pre-Primary Tennis Racquets

Last Wednesday all the Pre-primary students received a free tennis racquet. This was part of an initiative by the 2021 ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Racquet Roadshow and Tennis West. We qualified for the racquets because of our involvement in offering tennis in our PE sessions. We hope to see lots of budding tennis players in the future as you use you racquet over the summer. Happy rallying!

Wheel Chair Sport

Last week the Year 4 -6 students participated in the Wheel Life program. The program is designed to educate the students about some of the challenges in everyday life associated with living with a disability. We also did some activities designed to see what it would be like to have a hearing or visual impairment.

‘I thought that wheelchair basketball was super fun especially because our instructor told us to do some drills to warm up giving us time and the opportunity to learn more skills before we went to a full on game’ Ebony.

Regional Cricket Finals

Our Boys' and Girls' cricket teams competed in the Regional Finals of the T20 State competition. The girls won 3 games and lost 1 and qualified to play in the State finals this Friday. The boys' won 2 and lost 2 against some tough opposition. Congratulations to Harry who, on the day, got a 'double hat trick’ – 4 wickets in 4 balls.

Running Club

There will be no Running Club this Friday. We will continue next week and have our final run on Tuesday of Week 8 when we will have a short run and breakfast.

Swimming Lessons

Swimming lessons for PP – Year 5 students will be in Week 9 and 10. Swimming is a compulsory part of our school program. Parents must complete the Consent2GO online and return the yellow swimming enrolment form and payment, if required, to their classroom teacher.

Teacher - Raema Stanford

VacSwim Swimming Lessons

Enrolments are open for VacSwim swimming lessons during the summer school holidays.

VacSwim offers fun lessons at beach or pool locations during the long break. It’s a great school holiday activity that teaches valuable safety skills to help keep your child safe in the water.

Your children can start as young as five years old.

Don’t wait! Enrol your children in VacSwim now at education.wa.edu.au/vacswim

Art News

Music

Music Uniforms

All trousers and skirts must be returned to the Music Room by the end of November.  If you took up the hem, please ensure that they are dropped down to the original length and that the garments are washed and neatly ironed.  Please also ensure that your child’s name is included with the returned items.  White shirts are yours to keep, but if your child or younger siblings do not need them, they could be donated to the school.

Senior Choir and Band Photos 

Choir and Band photos are available from the Music Room for a donation.

Teacher - Lynette Dewing

P & C News

Kensington Primary School Fete

Icy Poles

The P & C will be selling icy poles for $1.00 during the second break (around 1.40pm) this Friday 19th November.

School Banking

As stated in the last newsletter, Commonwealth Bank is closing down the School Banking Program. The Commonwealth Bank have since advised us of the following dates that will be applicable:

School Banking Deposits 
The last School Banking day for KPS will be Thursday 9th December 2021. This is the second last week of the school term. 
Rewards 
The last School Banking day for KPS to order rewards is Thursday 18th November 2021, which is tomorrow. This will allow for delivery and distribution of the rewards prior to the program ending in December. 
Every active banker will be eligible for a final reward regardless of the number of deposits made. Please come and see us tomorrow for your last chance to order a reward item!
Many thanks

Cathy

Crunch & Sip

Containers for Change

We have a wheely bin and/or a wool bale in the quadrangle where you can deposit containers, help the environment and fundraise for the school all at once.  We hope, with sufficient support from everyone, to expand this program.

Community News