FROM THE PRINCIPAL
We have reached the half way point of term 3 already! The first few weeks of this term have been very exciting and busy for everyone. The Art Exhibition held in week 4 was a wonderful community event, where the students skills, creativity and artistic talent was on show for all to see! I was delighted with the number of families who were able to come along and engage with Arts learning – and contribute to our new playground development by purchasing some high quality art!
Last week we celebrated Book Week in our classrooms and through our annual Book Week parade. This year’s theme has been “Reading is my Super Power” that Kingswood was especially safe on Friday, with so many super heroes around!
Saturday night’s Quiz Night was an outstanding event, and I am grateful to everyone for coming along, having some fun and supporting our school community. Congratulations to the P&F, especially Sally Stansborough and Katie Routley, for their hard work coordinating and executing such a fun evening. Thanks also to Mark Stansborough and Jame Loechel, for delivering such an exceptional quiz. All funds raised will, of course, contribute to the re-development of our playgrounds.
We are eagerly awaiting first concept drafts of what our new playground space could look like. As soon as they become available, we will provide the community with images, details and invite further feedback about the space.
This Friday, 30 August, we will celebrate all dads, grandads and important male role models with our annual Father’s day breakfast. Please come along and share a meal with your sons and daughters – on us!
Recently, Jamie and I attended some professional learning at a conference in Melbourne. The focus of the conference was around ‘Visible learning-evidence into implementation.’ It formed a part of an ongoing school improvement project that all staff are involved with, and focussed on ensuring that all students have a clear idea of what they are learning, why they are learning it and how they can be actively involved in the learning and identify what they have learned. At St. Joseph’s Kingswood our ongoing commitment is for children to make at least one year’s learning progress for every year they are at school. As a staff we are committed to continuous improvement in our practice – we are lifelong learners as well!
As a school we are beginning to plan ahead for the 2020 school year – particularly in relation to the construction of class groups. We anticipate our class structures being largely the same as 2019, and staffing will be finalised by early term 4. There will be a letter circulated via SZapp this week, inviting feedback from families regarding placements for 2020.
I want to congratulate Mutsa Mupandawana and Felix Polasek, who have been selected to represent the City South SAPSASA Soccer team in this year’s carnival. Felix and Mutsa continue a long tradition of our school being represented in this way, which given our size relative to some much larger public schools is a testament to our excellent Phys ed and sports program and the commitment our you as parents.
Have a great week everyone,
God Bless,
Phil.