Kensington Primary School Newsletter 7 th December 2017 McCracken Street Kensington Vic 3031 Phone: (03) 9376 6013 Fax (03) 9376 4574 www.kensingtonps.vic.edu.au E-mail: [email protected]Care Program: 0478 155 322 Acting Principal: Julie Stephens Acting Assistant Principal: Rachel Combridge Upcoming Events DATE TIME EVENT December Mon 4 th – Fri 15 th Whole School Intensive Swimming Program Mon 18 th 9am – 3pm Year 6 Big Day Out Tue 19 th 11:30am – 1pm Moving Up Day Reports/School Fee Letter sent home Wed 20 th 6 – 7pm Year 6 Farewell Fri 22 nd 12.00 noon 1:30pm Final Assembly Term 4 Ends – children dismissed from classrooms. January 2018 Tue 23 rd 9:00am – 1:00pm 4.00pm – 7.00pm Book Pack Collection Mon 29 th 8:30am – 11:30am 11:30am – 4:00pm DCS Uniform Shop open at KPS Book Pack Collection Tue 30 th Term 1 commences – all students excluding Foundation students. Wed 31 st All Foundation students commence Term 1 Did you know? KPS is excited to announce that we will be introducing Qkr as our preferred method of payment for school fees, excursions and other school payments in 2018. For further details on how to sign up for the phone app and registration to Qkr, please see page 3 of this newsletter. Principal’s Message THE COOLING OF KPS CLASSROOMS – STAGE 1 It is very exciting to announce that after more than a year of planning and organising by our Facilities Sub Committee, Stage 1 of our ‘Cooling KPS Classrooms’ project will be happening during the January vacation period. The project will involve clearing the roof cavity in the main building before installing insulation. Split system air conditioners will then be installed in six of the upstairs classrooms (the current Year1/2 area). The total cost for stage 1 of the project is $79,629. The funding of this project has been made possible by the contribution of families to the KPS Building Fund and by the fabulous efforts of our Fundraising Sub Committee. Thank you everyone. OPEN CLASSROOMS - CELEBRATING LEARNING It was wonderful to see so many parents come along to the Open Classrooms afternoon last Friday to share in the celebration of their child’s learning. The children were very proud as they spoke to their parents about their work and
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Kensington Primary School Newsletter
7th December 2017 McCracken Street Kensington Vic 3031
December Mon 4th – Fri 15th Whole School Intensive Swimming Program
Mon 18th 9am – 3pm Year 6 Big Day Out
Tue 19th 11:30am – 1pm Moving Up Day Reports/School Fee Letter sent home
Wed 20th 6 – 7pm Year 6 Farewell
Fri 22nd 12.00 noon 1:30pm
Final Assembly Term 4 Ends – children dismissed from classrooms.
January 2018 Tue 23rd 9:00am – 1:00pm 4.00pm – 7.00pm
Book Pack Collection
Mon 29th 8:30am – 11:30am 11:30am – 4:00pm
DCS Uniform Shop open at KPS Book Pack Collection
Tue 30th Term 1 commences – all students excluding Foundation students.
Wed 31st All Foundation students commence Term 1
Did you know?
KPS is excited to announce that we will be introducing Qkr as our preferred method of payment for school fees,
excursions and other school payments in 2018. For further details on how to sign up for the phone app and
registration to Qkr, please see page 3 of this newsletter.
Principal’s Message
THE COOLING OF KPS CLASSROOMS – STAGE 1
It is very exciting to announce that after more than a year of planning and organising by our Facilities Sub Committee,
Stage 1 of our ‘Cooling KPS Classrooms’ project will be happening during the January vacation period. The project will
involve clearing the roof cavity in the main building before installing insulation. Split system air conditioners will then
be installed in six of the upstairs classrooms (the current Year1/2 area). The total cost for stage 1 of the project is
$79,629. The funding of this project has been made possible by the contribution of families to the KPS Building Fund
and by the fabulous efforts of our Fundraising Sub Committee. Thank you everyone.
OPEN CLASSROOMS - CELEBRATING LEARNING
It was wonderful to see so many parents come along to the Open Classrooms afternoon last Friday to share in the celebration of their child’s learning. The children were very proud as they spoke to their parents about their work and
explained the learning process involved. There was a wide variety of learning on display from Memory Books, garden designs, advertisement storyboards, letters to future selves, financial maths, investigations into solids, liquids and gases, to Parliamentary monologues. As parents moved around the school they were entertained by ‘pop up’ musical performance including a cello duo, by Aisha and Olivia C, and guitar solo performances from Cooper E and Dylan O. Thank you to all the teachers for their dedication, professionalism and collaborative teamwork in providing engaging,
enriching, and challenging curriculum for our students.
BOOK FAIR FUNDRAISER
Thanks to Kellie Tunbridge and a wonderful group of parent volunteers who ensured the successful running of the Scholastic Book Fair fundraiser last week. The Library looked amazing all decorated under the theme of the Reading Rainforest – Go Wild for Books! Thanks to families who were generous with their purchases raising $1,681 profit for the school. BIG CHILDCARE
Big Childcare staff will be onsite at Kensington Primary School next Monday and Wednesday to assist parents with
the OSHC enrolment process and to answer any queries. Parents need to complete an Enrolment Form before
bookings can be accepted for the Holiday program and the Before and After School Care program.
MOVING UP DAY
On Tuesday December 19th, between recess and lunch, your child will spend time in their new classroom, meet their
new teacher for 2018 and get to know the other children in their class for next year. There will be 22 classes next
year: 4 x Foundation, 4 x Yr 1, 3 x Yr 2, 5 x Yr 3/4, 3 x Yr 5, 3 x Yr 6. Specialist classes will include Performing Arts,
Visual Arts, PE and Indonesian. A full list of staff and grade locations for 2018 will be published in our next
newsletter.
STUDENT SEMESTER 2 REPORTS AND 2018 GRADE PLACEMENT
On Tuesday, December 19th your child will bring home a large white envelope containing:
- their 2017 Semester 2 Report - your child’s grade placement for 2018 - your child’s self-assessment documents - Parent Payment Letter for 2018 School Fees
Student reports indicate where your child has progressed along the Victorian Curriculum learning continuum. All
curriculum areas have achievement standards, describing what students are able to understand and do at each level.
The graphic on your child’s report shows where your child has being placed on the learning continuum according to
the assessments and data your child’s teacher has collected throughout the semester. To assess students, teachers
use a range of formal and informal assessments as outlined in our school Assessment Schedule. Assessments may
include:
Diagnostic Tests
Running Records for reading
Fountas & Pinnell Assessment for reading
Reading, Writing and Numeracy Conferences
Anecdotal Records
Team and Whole school moderation of student work
Student Reflections
Feedback from specialist teachers
Online Numeracy and Literacy assessments
Class presentations
Teacher devised Pre and Post Tests
Reports from DET professionals working at Kensington PS including speech pathologist, educational psychologist, visiting teacher service
Input and reports from external specialists
Physically children grow and develop at different rates. This is also true of children’s progress academically. Sometimes
children show periods of rapid development with their learning followed by periods of consolidation. During the
consolidation phase children learn to apply their newly acquired skills and knowledge to a wide range of situations,
deepening their understanding and enabling them to demonstrate this in a variety of ways. It is important for parents
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to consider this when reading your child’s report, as your child may have spent some time in the consolidation phase
of learning.
Understanding the graphic section of the student reports
What do the dots and lines on the graphic show?
Julie Stephens
Acting Principal
Qkr is coming to KPS
http://vimeo.com/100952137
A At least 18 months above the standard expected at this time of year
B Above the standard expected at this time of year
C At the standard expected at this time of year
D Below the standard expected at this time of year
E At least 12 months below the standard expected at this time of year
Your child's achievement 12 months ago The solid dot shows your child’s achievement for June 2017.
The shaded vertical bar shows the expected level of achievement for your child’s year level for December.
Foundation Learning Snapshot Writing Foundation students completed their wonderful ‘Identity Books’, which they proudly displayed at the Open Class Evening. Creating these books gave students a better understanding of the writing process. Every piece was planned, drafted, edited using a writing checklist and finally published. The classes have now moved onto letter writing. ‘Tis the season to be grateful and as such, students have began writing friendly letters to thank parent volunteers who helped in the classrooms this year and their wonderful older buddies. Reading Foundation students worked on identifying characters’ thoughts/feelings by studying their words/actions. This is one example of a reading strategy known as ‘inferencing’ (using clues in the text to ‘read between the lines’ and interpret meaning). Having recognised how a character might be feeling, students identified what ‘Zone’ the character might be in and selected a strategy that would help the character return to the ‘Green Zone’ (a place of calm and focus). In this way, students revised the ‘Zones of Emotional Regulation’ which was a key focus in our term three Inquiry unit on ‘Health and Wellbeing’. Maths Maths lessons continued to focus on Measurement concepts. Students used balance scales to compare the weight of various objects. They also used informal units to estimate and measure length. For example, the students carefully lined up paperclips or blocks to measure and compare the size of their feet. They learnt how important it was to be accurate and consistent in their use of materials (i.e. no gaps or overlapping!). Inquiry Across all subject areas, Foundation students have reflected on what they have learned and achieved this year. They have identified their favourite thing about school, their abilities and strengths and their next learning steps. In this way, they have addressed important concepts in our Inquiry unit on ‘Identity’. The students’ reflections have been captured in their ‘Self-Evaluation’. This will be sent home with your child’s report on Tuesday 19th December. Year 1-2A (Andrew, Hannah, Rhyl) Learning Snapshot In Inquiry, students enjoyed an exciting excursion to the Royal Botanic Gardens where they investigated different types of environments in which plants grew and observed the differences in plant structures. We all planted our own seeds and made a Pori Pori bag. In Math, students worked on G-Suite and created flags to demonstrate their understanding of halves by using different colours to create a design on grid squares. Students have also been exploring directional language and problem solving to create and work out codes. You can visit this site at home and have a try together: https://studio.code.org/courses
In Writing, students focused on drafting their end of year self evaluations then edited these and produced a final piece for their reports. Students revisited recount writing in response to the excursion and also created a persuasive piece.
We continued our ongoing investigation of Sally Rippen’s text: Polly and Buster. Students used their visualisation skills to create drawing and reflections of characters feelings and events. They engaged in comprehension conversations asking and answering questions after reading chapters.
Year 1-2B (Liz, Lucy, Jenny, Jess) Learning Snapshot In Writing, students have been persuading the teachers to have a class party at the end of the year. All four classes feel it is time to celebrate all of the hard work they have done throughout the year. They are all very persuasive! In preparation for the Open Classroom, students developed their own writing portfolio. In Jess’s class, students collected up to 4 pieces of their best work throughout the semester and published them to show their parents. They were all ready proud of the work they had achieved, and the parents liked it too! Wacky Wednesday is back and students went on a journey to the beach. Students used their five senses to explore their surroundings. They heard the sounds of crashing waves and the smell of seaweed straight from the beach. Following this, students responded to this space creatively and discussed all of the things they saw and touched. Last week all of the 1-2 students journeyed to the beautiful and mysterious Royal Botanic Gardens in the city. We explored the types of environments in which plants grew and observed the differences in plant structures. We all planted our own seeds and we’re watching them grow in the classroom. These are ready for pick up so the kids can look after their plants at home. Fractions, fractions, fractions! We have been learning about all the ways we can break a whole into equal parts. Our main focus this fortnight was eighths, which we used in a practical way when we made fruit salad and cut the fruit into eighths. Our chocolate block activity also helped us to begin to explore equivalent fractions, such as 1/4, 2/8, 4/16, etc. We have also been counting down the days to our holidays on our calendar pages. We used both paper and technology to plan our gardening calendar and figure out when to plant our favourite fruits and veggies! You should check out our technology skills! We have been using google drive and now know how to insert an image, annotate a diagram and duplicate slides. There was even a whole class narrative that we wrote and edited, all at the same time! We also know how to insert dates into a calendar on google drive.
Year 3 Learning Snapshot The Year 3 students spent a lot of time working together to prepare our assembly item. We learned the lyrics and decided what moves matched Solids, Liquid, Gases. The weather on Friday was terrible so we ended up performing it for the first e-assembly at KPS. Over the last week we spent time finishing work we choose to display at the Open Classroom session. 3F had their Inquiry Chemical Science work on display, 3R ran two science experiments and 3J had several work displays set up and ran a number of different challenges in the room such as weighing and find the frogs. We are in the middle of the two week swimming program. That takes about 90 minutes each day. Meanwhile in our classrooms we are working on our 2017 reflections. We’ve been thinking about highlights, areas of growth and things we can focus on in 2018. We continue to focus on cursive writing, multiplication facts and reading widely. Many thanks to the parents and carers who have been able to assist us with the walk to and from the pool. Year 4 Learning Snapshot Students have started working on fractions, decimals and money in number and time in measurement. All students attempted to create a calendar for December with only the knowledge of the day and date it was
Kensington Primary School Newsletter
made on. With fractions students need to be able to count by halves, thirds and quarters and show equivalent fractions. Placing fractions and decimal fractions on a numberline is an important skill for the students to master. Maths groups have now stopped due to the swimming program. In Reading, students have been using their comparing and contrasting skills to identify similarities and differences between two different texts. They were required to takes notes while listening to each text and create a Venn diagram to present their observations. Students have continued working collaboratively in their Literature groups. Students have been reflecting on their learning in Writing. They have been looking back on what they have learnt in each subject area, goals they have worked on and memorable events from the year. These reflections will be included with Student Reports, handed out in the last week of school. Students with a Foundation buddy for next year have been writing letters to them to be sent over the holidays. No doubt the new Foundation students will be extremely excited to receive these and learn more about school and their new big buddies. Students have begun working on their TV Health advertisements. In groups they have selected a topic that affects their health and wellbeing, and devised a storyboard, to map out the different stages of their ad. Now they are in the early stages of filming or animating their ad. They are incorporating the persuasive features learnt in Writing, and calling upon their interpersonal skills to create an effective TV advertisement. Year 5 Learning Snapshot Keeping the Geography train going, the students are delving into world sustainability issues. After some research, the students selected a country and a coinciding issue that affects it. For example, Earthquakes in New Zealand. After considering all factors, they are creating a unique and creative solution to fix or reduce the impact of their chosen issue on those it affects. The Reading group leaders have really stepped up to produce some interesting and relevant questions and activities to keep their groups focussed. Great to see them take control of what they wish to get out of their reading experiences and teach each other a thing or two in an engaging and relevant way. Couldn’t have done it better ourselves! In Maths over the last few weeks, the students have been polishing off their multiplication and division strategies, with some even learning to multiply and divide decimals by whole numbers. Following this, the students got a taste at what financial life might be like for a Graduate Teacher. Give them an annual salary and a scenario and after applying all the deductions for the things they need to include to live and work in society, did they spend it wisely? We have been on the path of reflectiveness during the last few weeks in Writing. The students got a chance to re-read a letter that their February 2017 self wrote and reflect on their Year 5 journey by writing a response back, showing their growth. Making a start on their self evaluations too, has allowed for them to connect with their academic and social learning for the Semester to really hone in on their strengths and potential goals. Year 6 Learning Snapshot The Grade 6 students did themselves proud last week, with every student delivering a persuasive speech aloud to their class in the the style of member of parliament. The topic for the speeches was: KPS’s assembly should be changed. As they prepared to deliver their speeches, student were guided by a checklist which showed the areas they needed to focus on in terms on content and delivery. Once the speeches commenced, it was clear the students had taken on board what they has learnt from watching real parliamentary speeches
Kensington Primary School Newsletter
and that they had put in significant rehearsal time. Our speech-givers made great eye-contact with their audience, used emphatic gestures, and and varied the speed and volume of their speech to engage the listener. They also utilised the range of persuasive strategies such as referring to experts, citing statistics (logos), appealing to emotion (pathos), and creating a sense of urgency (kairos). We were lucky enough to receive a visit from a journalist and camera person from the ABC. This tied in beautifully with our investigation into the way that the media represents the same issue in different ways. Students had the opportunity to ask these media professionals a range questions such: “When there is breaking news, does normal programming change?” and “Where have you travelled with your job?”
In maths we a have been focusing on the order of operations. Students have been using the acronyms “BIDMAS”, “BODMAS” and “PEDMAS” to remind themselves with this. They have been engaging with a range of challenges to practice their skills. Can you solve them?
Music News
GRADE 3-4 RECORDER
Year 3-4 students have been learning recorder this semester. Students have been learning how to read notes on the musical stave and then play these using correct technique on their recorder. They have been making excellent progress with some students advancing to pieces including 'Pirate of the Caribbean' and 'Jingle Bells'
Kensington Primary School Newsletter
GRADE 5-6 MONOLOGUES
Grade 5-6 students have been writing their own personal monologues. They have watched a variety of different monologues including those used in auditions and school performances. Students have acted out short performances inspired by clips incluing 'Baboon on the Moon' in the lead up to their final performance.
GRADE 1-2 - PITCH
Grade 1-2 students have been using boomwhackers (pitched coloured tubes) to understand pitch and read melody on the stave. In the pictures you can see students composing their own musical piece using coloured note heads.
STRING ENSEMBLE
Olivia Mclachlan and Lizzie Huang are the two newest members of the string ensemble. They stand in between Genevieve Grey and Emma Niggl two of our longest serving string players who are both currently in Grade 6.
The second picture was taken of students who had just arrived for strings on Friday morning. Here you can see an array of different sized violins and a cello. From humble beginnings the string ensemble has grown from 5 students to now boasting 25!!
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GRADE 1-2 PITCH HOMEWORK
In this picture we can see Felix from 1/2D playing an instrument he made at home to show students the variations in pitch he can make by changing the amount of water in each glass!
Here we can see Saskia and Phoebe who made two flutes using straws. Both girls were able to play pitches moving from low to high by blowing air across the top of the straw flutes.
Strings Ensemble 2017 A huge thank you to the wonderful musicians of the KPS String Ensemble who brought so much joy to the residents of Gregory Lodge last Wednesday. To hear them sing along and dance to our rendition of Salty Sailor was an absolute joy. Thank you to all the parents who showed their support by attending this concert and our final breakfast concert, bringing delicious food and providing assistance with transport to Gregory lodge.
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Farewell and thank you to Emma, Genevieve, Finlay and Lola :) :) :) :)
2018 School Fees Book Pack Collection and Payment of School Fees Families are asked to collect their child’s book pack and pay their school fees in the library on one of the bookselling days below. Please send your child’s book pack to school with your child on the first day of school Tuesday January 30th 2018 for Year 1 to Year 6 students. The Foundation students bring their book packs on Wednesday January 31st. Payment letters will be sent home to parents on Tuesday 19th December 2017.
Bookselling / Collection Days 2018
Tuesday 23rd January 2018 9:00am – 1:00pm and 4.00pm – 7:00pm
OR, Monday 29th January 2018. 11:30am - 4:00pm
Kensington Primary School Newsletter
OSHC News
Kensington Primary School Newsletter
As we transition to our new out of school care provider, parents are reminded that they need to complete a Big
Childcare Enrolment Form before your child can be booked into the program. Enrolment Forms can be completed
online. www.bigchildcare.com/enrol/
The Vacation Care program will operate for 3 weeks in January from Monday January 8th – Thursday January 25th.
Friday January 26th is Australia Day (Public Holiday) Bookings are essential.
Monday January 29th is a curriculum day (pupil free). Please enrol your child in Big Childcare if you require childcare
on the day.
Premiers’ Reading Challenge
Unfortunately there has been a delay in the delivery or our Premiers’ Reading Challenge (PRC) certificates. I have
contacted a representative from the PRC to try and have them delivered to us ASAP. I appreciate your patience,
while we wait for them to arrive.
In the mean time I have received new lapel pins which will be awarded to the child in each year level that read the
most amount of book during the PRC time period. Congratulations to these students:
Year Level Name Class Number of books read
Foundation Samuel Dines FE 52
One Aiden Turnbridge 1/2A 94
Two Azra Kir 1/2H 73
Three Rebecca Uren 3F 42
Four Tyrone Nguy & Lee Grande 4E 100
Five Faith Quah 5F 100
Six Samantha Bramich 6M 25
Well done on a fantastic effort! It’s great to see so many students reading and logging more books than necessary.
Keep up the reading in the holidays!
Jess Ephgrave (4E)
Premiers’ Reading Challenge Coordinator
News from Plantmania
TERM 4 WATERING
Do you have 30 mins a week to offer a hand to keep our Plantmania garden watered and lush as the weather
Community News The Department of Education & Kensington Primary School do not endorse the products or services of any private advertiser. No responsibility is accepted by the Department of Education or Kensington Primary School.
NEW KENSINGTON JUNIOR NETBALL CLUB:
OPPORTUNITIES FOR KPS GIRLS in 2018!
The KPS netball programme has recently become the Kensington Junior Netball Club (KJNC). From one KPS
netball team in 2014, we have rapidly grown and will field 7-8 teams in 2018, including girls from Holy Rosary.
We welcome inquiries from interested new players: no experience is necessary, just an interest in team sport
and a willingness to commit to both training and competition games every week during the school term. Girls
from grade 2 and above may play in the competition and we currently have teams in the following age groups:
SET 8-10, U 11 and U13s. We are particularly keen to hear from girls in grade 4 in 2017 (Grade 5, 2018).
The KJNC is a volunteer parent-run initiative that aims to develop confidence and teamwork skills in the girls.
The club is highly dependent on parental involvement; hence if demand exceeds the limited spots available, we
will give preference to players whose parents are willing to help out eg managing a team, coaching assistant. We
are particularly keen to hear from potential coaches and have funding to support suitable candidates to
undertake training and accreditation with Netball Victoria. No previous coaching experience is required: just
patience, organisation and management skills and a sense of humour.
Details
Training: SET 8-10 and U 11: 3.30-4.45pm at KPS or Holy Rosary on Fridays
U13s: 5pm-6.30pm on Wednesdays at Kensington Recreation Centre
Games: Are at the same time and venue every Saturday morning (State Netball and Hockey Centre- just 3 kms from
Kensington) during term time. There are no away games so you never need to travel beyond Parkville. Games run
for 45 minutes. We will be allocated time slots in February, and you will then be allocated a regular game time every
week for the season. There are two seasons in netball: Autumn (terms 1 and 2, 2018) and Spring (terms 3 and 4, 2018).
Interested in joining?
If your daughter is interested to join one of our teams, please get in touch with Michelle Foster (0424 262 309;
[email protected]). Our key gap at the moment is in the U11 age group (grade 5, 2018), however
we are likely to have limited spots in other age groups, and will form a new development squad for grade 2 girls in
2018. We maintain a waiting list for those who cannot be accommodated when they first inquire.
St Brendan’s Parish - Flemington and Holy Rosary - Kensington
2018 RCIC – Rite of Christian Initiation of Children, Program
This is a journey for children school-age for the Sacraments of
Baptism, Reconciliation, First Holy Communion & Confirmation.
Parent’s Information night Parents are warmly invited to attend an information night to support you and your child in the preparation of the
Sacraments of Baptism, Reconciliation, First Holy Communion and confirmation.
This is an important session for parents and sponsors to be held in St Brendan’s church Wednesday 28th February 2018 at 7.00pm. It is an expectation that one or both parents if possible, attend this formation evening. Fr Hien will guide parents to talk to their child about the Sacraments. Classes will be begin Wednesday 7 March at 4pm. For further information about the 2018 RCIC Program or to confirm your attendance at the Information evening please contact Sharon Kane at [email protected]
