10Th August 2017.Pub
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Kew PS 03 9853 8325 Newsletter No.23 [email protected] 09 August 2017 www.kewps.vic.edu.au www.OSHClub.com.au Diary Dates Message from the Principal AUG Newsletter —Term 3/Week 4 WELL DONE YEAR 6 TEAM! Fri 11 Assembly 3-3:30pm Over Stage 2 Opening Sun 13 Working Bee (planng) 9am ~ 12pm Thu 17 Whole School & Graduaon Photo Fri 18 Book Week Dress Up Parade Assembly 9am Fri 25 Assembly Thu 31 Father’s Day Breakfast Father’s Day Stall SEP Fri 1 Kew District Athlecs Tue 5 Indigenous Literacy Day Book Swap Wed 6 Lile Devils Circus Whole School Performance 6 & 7 Lamont Book Fair in the Li- Our Year 6 team were a credit to our school during the Canberra Camp brary last week. It was a pleasure accompanying the group and I can report that the trip was an amazing educational experience. Over the 5 days the itin- Fri 8 Assembly erary was jammed packed with visits to Parliament House, Australian War Memorial & Museum, High Court, Royal Australian Mint, Australi- Wed 20 CARE Day: Resilience an Institute of Sport, National Gallery, Canberra City Experience, Questacon, Electoral Commission Education Centre, Telstra Tower and Fri 22 LAST DAY OF TERM more! 2pm Assembly The Canberra Camp has been a wonderful addition to our program. In 2:30pm School Finish fact, I think a visit to the capital is a must do for all students, particularly those in Year 6. Being there in person and visiting the different land- marks and venues really helps our students to learn the key information that forms a part of our curriculum and many of the important things we Term Dates 2017 need to know to participate as citizens of Australia. Term 3: 17 Jul - 22 Sept I would like to acknowledge and thank Robin Grace for introducing the Term 4: 9 Oct –22 Dec camp last year and also playing a key role in the organisation of the 2017 camp. Thank you also to Shelley Ware who assisted with the organisa- tion. A massive thank you to Robin, Chris Athanasiadis, Courtney Smith, Ruth Woolven and Jen Ashburn who were the staff that attended and our parent helpers Lisa Geier and John Karapalidis. COMMUNITY CONSULTATION – BECOMING A PYP SCHOOL We are moving into the decision making phase around whether we will become an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program School. As part of this process, we hosted a community information session presented by Dr. Marcia Behrenbruch from the International Baccalaureate organisation last Tuesday night. Pleasingly we had a strong attend- ance and there was positive discussion around the benefits of becoming a PYP school. This direction was first floated earlier last year by our leadership team and then also independently suggested by Julie Chandler who was appointed to convene and complete our school review in 2016. The progress and direction of our school over the past 5 years now places us in a position to be able to heavily consider this. Over the course of this year there has been detailed work completed by the leadership team as a requirement before be- ing considered into the program. This included attending an intensive 3 -day workshop as an introduction to the PYP program and what it involves and several meetings with the Principals of Balwyn North and Auburn South Primary Schools (both schools are accredited PYP schools). Our staff team has also participated in an information session and have indicated their support for this direction. This support stems from the way in which the IB framework would further enable the strong academic and inquiry based approach we have been working hard to establish and embed. It would add value to our current direction through rich professional support and learning for our staff and the rigour of substantial documentation and processes that must be followed to gain and maintain accreditation. Over recent years under the leadership of Sally Marsh and Andrew Wood, we have made significant progress in the way we deliver Inquiry learning. The advantage of becoming a PYP school is that this progress would be further enhanced and developed. It is important to note that the IB PYP program does not mean a shift away from what we currently teach our students. It is simply a framework, model and philosophy through which the curriculum is delivered. Our students would continue to develop a well -rounded education based on the mandated Victorian Curriculum. As such they would develop the deep knowledge and skills that are taught across all Victorian State Schools. However added to this would be a worldly and more global perspective and the ability to apply knowledge and skills in meaningful ways. This is critical for our students today. Our role is to prepare them to successfully participate in our local and global community. One of the biggest differences I have been able to see between IB schools and non -IB schools is the higher levels of independence and responsibility students have for their own learning. Once again we have been working very hard to develop our students’ self -agency and as such we are now very well placed to embrace this key part of the PYP Pro- gram. We continue to seek parent feedback and questions. This will help to inform School Council’s decision on whether our school applies to become a PYP candidate school and ultimately an accredited school. This decision will be made at the next meeting on 5 th September. Over these next few weeks I will provide responses to these questions and provide more information. For example: What is the financial cost to our school and will our compulsory parent payments increase as a result of these costs? There is an affiliation fee associated with being an IB PYP school each year of between $10,000 and $12,000. The com- mitment to specific professional learning elements each year also requires considerable funding. However these costs are very manageable for our school and would be covered within our normal school budget set up as per this year. The candidacy fee or affiliation fee covers both face to face and online coaching and mentoring and the professional learning as evidence so far is outstanding. It would be extremely rich and powerful learning for all of our staff. Our compulsory parent payments would not need to increase to cover the affiliation fee or professional learning. Any increase to these payments would be minimal and related to keeping up with the total cost of providing education at our school. For more information about the International Baccalaureate program please access the following links: http://www.ibo.org/ http://www.ibo.org/benefits/ http://www.ibo.org/programmes/primary -years -programme/ http://www.ibo.org/information -for -parents/ 2 WE SAY THANK YOU TO THOSE THAT HELPED DELIVER OUR NEW PLAYSPACE A reminder that we will say thank you to those involved in delivering our new positive play space during our assembly on friday. As mentioned via Compass Newsfeed, we have moved this assembly back into the gym. LITTLE DEVILS CIRCUS EXTRAVAGANZA The countdown is on and by my calculations there is only 27 sleeps until our KPS Little Devils Circus Extravaganza on Wednesday 6 th September. There will be a 6pm and 8pm show at Xavier College Performing Arts Centre. The 6pm show will feature PAS, PBE, 1SA, 1MH, 2DP, 3/4A, 3/4J, 3/4M, 5SM & 6CA. The 8pm show includes PAP, PCC, ISL, 2DM, 2BN, 3/4S, 3/4K, 3/4N, 5LE, 6SH & 6CS. Tickets are now on sale through Trybooking: https://www.trybooking.com/RLXR There is a limit of 2 tickers per student, per show. This will ensure that every student has the chance to have a family member in the audience. If you would like to purchase additional tickers, please contact the office and your name will be added to our waiting list. After the 30 th August, all unsold tickets will be made available to the people on this list. It will be a very exciting night and another great extra -curricular activity our students get to enjoy and learn from. PARENT OPINION SURVEY Last week our Parent Opinion Survey was sent home to over 130 randomly selected families. These names have been generated via a DET computer system. The survey itself is important to us and it provides specific feedback that we use to improve our school. An example of this over recent times is the work we have done to improve our facilities, com- munication processes e.g. introducing COMPASS, reporting process and building stronger levels of student engagement and agency through our Inquiry model. If you received an email with the survey details please complete it online before Friday 27 th August. PLANNING FOR 2018 Next week we will be sending out letters via email confirming our Prep enrolments for 2018. To ensure we have the very best staff in place, decisions around grade numbers need to be made in August and September. Therefore it is now very important for me to be notified if you intend leaving our school next year. WORKING BEE REMINDER A big Sunday morning awaits! Thank you to all those that have sent back the reply slips and a big thank you to those that have sent through a financial donation towards the huge number of plants going in. The morning starts at 9am sharp with tasks such as washing the outside of Performing Arts room and painting our wooden animals and seating areas. Then after morning tea we will move into the planting! SCHOOL COUNCIL NEWS KEEPING UP TO DATE WITH SCHOOL POLICIES At our School Council meeting this week, 4 policies were approved for community consultation: Behaviour Management Policy ICT Policy Professional Development Policy Sporting Selection Policy These will be placed on our school website shortly for a period of 2 weeks so that parents and carers can have a say in the development of any new policies and review of existing ones.