Newsletter No.38

6 December, 2018

Kew PS 03 9853 8325 kew.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au www.kewps.vic.edu.au www.OSHClub.com.au

KIDSFEST

Kidsfest was a prime example of what makes Kew Primary School great –

a collaborative effort made by our entire school community enabling a

genuine opportunity for our students to shine.

Kidsfest was a topic of high importance when I arrived at Kew five months

ago and on Tuesday afternoon due to the input of so many wonderful

students and staff it came to fruition. I would like to recognise the efforts

of all involved but most importantly, our Year 6 Ambassador Action Team

who spent considerable time and effort in leading this whole school event

– Abbie, Charlotte, Alex, Jess, Nicola, Bharat, Derek, Ishana, Hannah,

Hana, Kiana and Maddie.

The contribution made by all students to create the idea for their stall,

develop their business plan, make their merchandise, organise their sales

pitch and associated marketing and set up and then pack up on the day

was incredible. Every stall was unique and all raised a significant profit.

I would also like to acknowledge the input of every staff member,

particularly those who sat on a platform waiting to be dunked in a tub of

cold water along with our year 3 / 4 class teacher Dave who the banker

has informed me will have his beard of three years shaved at this Friday’s

assembly!

The enjoyment of all involved along with the real life learning

opportunities enabled Kidsfest to be a highly successful

event. Congratulations and thankyou to a wonderful team of students

and staff.

2019 KPS STAFF TEAM

As you will see in a letter going home with your child today, the 2019

staffing organisation has now been finalised, apart from the recruitment

of a year 4 classroom teacher and a new student support ES. Recruitment

of all staff must follow department guidelines, which takes approximately

four weeks. We expect to have the two vacancies filled by the end of the

year and will inform parents of the staff selected as soon as we can.

Diary Dates

Term Dates 2018

Term 4: 8 Oct—21 Dec

Term Dates 2019

Term 1: 29 Jan—5 Apr

Term 2: 23 Apr—28 June

Term 3: 15 July—20 Sept

Term 4: 7 Oct—20 Dec

Dec

Fri 7 Whole School Transition:

9am - 11am

Peppercorn BBQ: 5 - 7pm

Tue 11 Whole School Transition:

9am - 11am

Wed 12 Yr 6 Graduation Ceremony

Fri 14 KPS Christmas Concert

Final Assembly - 3pm

Tues 18 Kaboom Kids

(Prep - Year 2)

Fri 21 Last Day of Term 4

12.20pm Dismissal

Message from the Acting Principal

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LEADERSHIP TEAM

Peter deWacht Principal

Sally Marsh Assistant Principal

Laura Ellenby Leading Teacher

Diana Matricciani Learning Specialist

Clare Pentreath Learning Specialist

PREP PLT

Ashleigh Owens PAO

Diana Matricciani PDM

Prudence Boulter PPB

Stefani Lambrianidis PSL

JUNIOR SCHOOL PLT

Chelsea Carmichael 1CC

Laura Ellenby 1LE

Katie Braemar 1KB

Sophie Apperly 1SA

Ally Papoulis 2AP

Niall O’Brien 2NO

Shenel Raif 2SR

MIDDLE SCHOOL PLT

Diamanto Pantazis 3DP

Maria Dugalic 3MD

Melissa Hayes 3MH

Clare Pentreath 4CP

David Salloum 4DS

Teacher to be appointed 4

SENIOR SCHOOL PLT

Courtney Smith 5CS

Jacki Hopkins 5JH

Anoushka Bouri 6AB

Chris Athanasiadis 6CA

Sonia Hanley 6SH

In 2019, we will officially welcome Peter deWacht as the substantive Principal and new staff Prudence Boulter

(Prep Teacher) and Elisha McPhedran (First Aid and Office Administration).

Sadly this is the time of year we also recognise and farewell our staff who are leaving at the end of the year. As

you are aware Andrew Wood is moving to assume the Assistant Principal position at Auburn Primary School,

Elise Beattie is taking up an arts position at St Michael’s Grammar and ES Jen Ashburn, following completion of her

education degree will commence her teaching career at Cheltenham Primary School. We also farewell Nerida

Goodwin from our Administration Team and our first aid officer Nicole Bradley who has decided to graduate from

Kew Primary School with her daughter Abbie. After a thoroughly enjoyable two terms at Kew Primary School, I will

return to Belmore School to assume my position as Principal.

TRANSITION PROGRAM

Staff and students are all looking forward to our whole school transition sessions tomorrow and again the

following Tuesday. Transition sessions provide our students with a great opportunity to feel more confident with

what next year will look like for them. We can then all have a relaxing holiday with less worry about what school

will be like next year.

SPECIALIST TEAM

Nick Dinnison Physical Education

Tash Priestly Physical Education (Thur, Fri)

Shelley Ware Visual Arts (Mon, Tues, Wed)

Carla Temple Visual Arts (Thur, Fri)

Lee-Ann Butchart Performing Arts

Tash Priestly Performing Arts (Wed)

Michelle Payne French (Mon, Tue, Wed)

Carla Temple French (Mon, Tue)

Anna Dalaveris Leadership replacement (Tue, Wed)

Patricia Incerti TASK, EAL and Extension Program (Mon, Tue, Thur)

Bit McLean TASK, EAL and Extension Program (Mon, Tues, Wed)

Natalie Ryan TASK, EAL and Extension Program (Wed, Thu, Fri)

Ruth Woolven Librarian

ADMINISTRATION AND STUDENT SUPPORT TEAM

Carmel Buxton Business Manager

Melissa De Melis Office Administration

Kim Del Tito First Aid and Office Administration (Mon, Tue, Wed)

Elisha McPhedran First Aid and Office Administration (Thu, Fri)

Angus Burns Education Support – Classroom

Mary Woodgate Education Support – Classroom

Natalie Grummitt Education Support – Classroom

Sally Macallan Education Support – Classroom

Susanne Wright Education Support – Classroom

Dem Petersen Canteen

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At this stage, we do not usually make any more changes to the grades as much time and effort has been already

spent on developing the best grade structure and student placement as possible. Part of this process did provide

all parents with the opportunity to make requests based on educational grounds. These are just requests and

whilst they are considered they are not always granted as there are several other factors that have a higher

priority for us.

It is important to become literate and numerate but just as important are the life skills of resilience and the ability

to deal with situations when we do not get our own way. A big part of this is teaching our students to accept the

umpire’s decision and focus back on going the best we can in the game. The best way to teach this is through

modelling this behaviour ourselves.

A really important part of this process is for our students to be supported by their parents so that the transition

into a new class and year level can be positive. There might always be some hesitation, nervousness and

apprehension, but our teachers will work very hard so that each and every child can achieve success.

END OF YEAR ARRANGEMENTS

With the end of the year fast approaching, I will take this opportunity to remind you of the important whole school

events taking place next week.

We will be holding our Christmas Concert on Friday 14th December at 9.15am. This event is a fun and very informal

celebration where each year level will sing a song or present an item.

Our final school assembly for this year will be held at 2.45pm on Friday 14th December. At this assembly, we will

be saying farewell as a whole school to our Year 6 graduating students and having our leadership handover with

our Year 5 students. We will also acknowledge and thank our staff members who are leaving our school.

Semester 2 reports will be sent out via the parent portal on COMPASS on Friday 14th December. Please note that if

you would like to keep a permanent copy of the report you will need to print it out. If your child ever attends a

school that does not use COMPASS, the reports will not be accessible as you will not have access to the parent

portal.

With the official activities finalised the last week of school 17th – 21st December will be a time where teachers will

offer a range of student choice activities such as art and craft, cooperative games, movies and outdoor games.

Teachers will also combine their classes during this week so that they can complete end of year tasks, plan for

2019, tidy up resource areas and in a number of cases move classrooms.

On the final day of Term 4 Friday 21st December, students will be dismissed directly from their classrooms at

12.20pm.

Be Worthy!

Karen Overall

Acting Principal

Message from the Acting Assistant Principal

As we count down towards the end of term, I reflect on the many ‘lasts’ that I have experiencing and will

experience over the next two weeks.

Year 5 camp

The peppercorn BBQ

MS Bike Ed program

Kids Fest (secretly I won’t miss the dunk tank so much)

It is theses amazing events, and so many others that give KPS its buzz and brings it to life.

I am really looking forward to the peppercorn BBQ this Friday and I am on the BBQ, so please feel free to pop

down and say hello, and of course grab a sausage.

Tomorrow from 9.00-11.00, all of our students will be spending the morning with their 2019 class and teacher. This

is a very exciting time for our students and our staff have tirelessly worked, reflected and discussed in great depth

over several weeks to ensure the grades for next year will allow your child to have a very successful year of

learning and growth. We appreciate this can be a time of some uncertainty and angst but please be rest assured,

there are many, many factors we consider and take into account when building grades, we will always make

decisions that we believe are in the best interests of all our students. As your children move through a time of

change and uncertainty, so does the school as a whole, with a new principal, leadership team and new staff and it

is at times like this that we must remember our CARE, especially resilience and empathy.

See you all at the BBQ tomorrow night.

Andrew Wood

Acting Assistant Principal

Kew Primary School Blog

What special form of writing has 17 syllables and three lines? The middle school students tell you on this week's blog.

Want to get involved? All contributions to the blog are welcome. Please drop me a line at: katrina.w@ozemail.com.au

Katrina Whelen

Looking for chicken helpers!

Would you like to look after our chickens for a weekend in Term 1 or during the Term 1 break (2019)? It’s a really

easy job: let them out for a run around, collect any eggs which are yours to keep, give them some food and water

and also give the plants a quick water.

Signup to help at www.volunteersignup.org/MKWWF (please only sign up for 1 session to allow other families

the opportunity to take part too)

Please note: only collect eggs if it is your turn on the roster, as it’s very disappointing for families caring for the chickens if they have no eggs to collect!

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FRENCH YR 1 & 2 - HOW THE WORLD WORKS

This term’s learning links in with the classroom PYP unit on biological sciences – life cycles, plants and animals. Students have read the story of La Chenille Qui Fait Des Trous (the Hungry Caterpillar). They have recreated the story in French using their own choice of foods to help la chenille (the caterpillar) metamorph into un papillon (a butterfly). Students are currently finishing their “published” stories and will be bringing them home over the next couple of weeks. Please ask your child to read their story to you and translate the meaning.

Madame Temple

SECOND HAND UNIFORM SHOP

Uniform donations

Donations of clean, uniform pieces in good condition can be left at the office anytime of the year, any day of the week.

Volunteering to operate the shop

Volunteers are always welcome!

The uniform shop offers opportunity to meet other parents or if you prefer, you can quietly help out in the background at a time that suits you and for as much time as you can spare.

Can you spare an hour or so once a month to help run the shop?

The shop opens on the last Friday of the month.

Can you spare some time sorting goods received?

Pick up donations from the office and sort it out at a time convenient to you.

Can you spare some time sorting through the lost property cupboard?

Separate labelled/unlabelled uniform items, non uniform pieces, tidy the cupboard up.

Every little bit helps!

Please give me a call or send me an email if you’d like to help: Anna McDowall annammcdowall@gmail.com

0423657893

*All funds raised from the uniform shop go straight back to our school

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The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) does not endorse the products or services of any private advertiser. No responsibil-ity is accepted by DEET for accuracy of information contained in advertisements or claims made by them.