As we move further into Term 4 and with now only one more week until we hit hump week of the term, finishing off the 2023 school year and planning for the 2024 school year is in full swing.

There are always occasions of celebration at Kingsville which demonstrate the wonderful community, parent/carer, staff, and student spirit which exists and last week was no exception. The exhibition open sessions last week provided opportunities for families and friends to engage with Student from Year 6, as they explored an important element of the Primary Years Programme. Evident across the experiences with the year six group showed how the program develops the whole child, academically (skills and knowledge) and socially and emotionally (student voice and agency and the approaches they bring to learning.)

Thank you to those parents/carers, community and family members who participated in this experience, and I know that our confident and articulate students enjoyed this experience and took advantage of the opportunity to have so many visitors view and participate in their learning. Please read in the newsletter an article that really highlights this significant event in the life of Kingsville

Planning for 2024 has really taking shape now that we have a significantly better understanding of student numbers. Thank you to those families who contacted the school to informed us of their move. They tell us they will miss the school and, we wish them all the best in the new adventures they take including living in a foreign country, moving to new houses in the booming estates in the west, heading to an independent school or moving to their local neighbourhood school for ease of travel and connecting even more into their local neighbourhood.

With a clearer understanding of student numbers, the school’s class structure, and workforce profile can be refined.  The work involved in these aspects of planning for 2024 move through prioritizing and addressing every aspect relating to or impacting upon school organisation overall provision and productivity. Every action needs to support the core business, purpose, and values of the school, with decisions contributing to providing the best possible learning environment for every student at the school in 2024.

Jeff McDonald
Acting Principal

Composite, or multi-age, classes occur in schools for a number of reasons. Composite classes provide schools with more flexibility and options to ensure even class sizes and a balance of student social and academic needs within and across year levels.  

All classes, whether a single year level or composite age group, have children with diverse learning needs and abilities. When planning for student learning, teachers take into consideration the strengths, prior knowledge and needs of every student. They use this as a starting point to design the learning and work from where each child is currently at. In any class, there will be teaching and learning that occurs as a whole class, in small groups and at an individual level. This is a key component of the craft of teaching, drawing on high impact teaching strategies, and evidence-based approaches to teaching and learning. 

Alongside this, many learning areas within the Victorian Curriculum are “banded”, with student achievement measured and reported against in 2 or 3 year stages. This includes Science, The Humanities and Technologies. In planning for student need at KPS, teachers effectively collaborate through Professional Learning Communities, drawing on data to target teaching and provide a differentiated, impactful learning environment. 

In planning for the 2024 school year, and the class make up at each level, there are a range of factors to consider. These include, but aren’t limited to: 

• The cohort of students in each level and their academic, social and emotional strengths and areas of growth
• The staffing profile of the school
• The numbers within each cohort across the school

These factors, along with a range of other considerations, mean that planning is a fluid process. At the core of any decisions at KPS, is the child and children withing our school. It is expected that there will be composite classes across a number of levels in 2024 at Kingsville Primary School, and as we move closer towards the end of the year we will provide more information as we are able to finalise this process. 

For any parents or family members seeking further information about composite classes, there are a range of resources below you may like to access: 

https://www.smh.com.au/education/many-parents-dislike-composite-classes-but-the-evidence-does-not-support-their-anxiety-20150413-1mk4g9.html 

https://www.uts.edu.au/news/education/my-child-composite-class.-good-thing#:~:text=Composite%20classes%20are%20more%20common,as%20students%20move%20through%20school.  

Sam Eason
Assistant Principal

Each year schools receive 4 student-free days (when student instruction does not occur) for professional development, school planning and administration, curriculum development and student assessment and reporting.

These days offer an opportunity to professionally collaborate as a staff, engaging in focused reflection, learning and development.

On Monday 20^th of November, Kingsville staff will engage in semester two report writing. This allotted day for report writing is a day all schools in Victoria have in the allocated four pupil free days provided by the Department of Education (D.E). All schools within D.E are required to plan for four Pupil free Days and have the dates recommended by the school approved by School Council. Out of the last Agreement, one of these days must be allocated to report writing for teachers.

As communicated on Wednesday via Compass, a pop-up exhibition of the portraits entered by the students int the Young Dargie Portrait competition will be on display in the quiet play area next week. There was a huge interest in the yesterday afternoon’s chance to view the works entered and further opportunities to view the amazing pieces of artwork will happen next Monday afternoon, Wednesday afternoon and Friday morning. We invite those able to view these incredible works of art to wander through the display when they are rolled out into the quiet play.

At the Friday morning assembly on Friday 10th November, the competition winners will be announced. Three prizes will be awarded.

• The Young Dargie winner – judged by Ms Ginnane
• The Packers award – judged by the ES staff whole created the exhibition
• The Teachers choice – judged by the Kingsville teaching staff

At 11 am on 11th November 1918, the guns of the Western Front fell silent after more than four years continuous warfare.

Remembrance Day, on the 11th of November, marks the anniversary of the armistice which ended the First World War (1914-18).

Each year Australians observe one minute's silence at 11am on 11th November in memory of those who died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts.

Due to Remembrance Day falling on the weekend this year, the school will reflect on this major event the day before, Friday 10^th November giving the students and staff an opportunity to contemplate on the sacrifice of our nation's servicemen/women and the war whose enduring legacy shaped the social, military and political fabric of the 20th century.  More information about how parents/carers can be involved in this ceremony wil be communicated via a Compass post.

After many weeks of intense, challenging and thought-provoking work, our grade 6 students presented their personal and collaborative learning journeys to the Kingsville Primary School community this week at the Exhibition. The staging of the Exhibition was the culmination of an extended investigation around the transdisciplinary theme of Sharing the Planet.

The Exhibition was a huge success for all those involved, particularly for our grade 6 students who followed a passionate inquiry that lead to new knowledge and understandings. Every student exemplified what it means to be a PYP student by living out the mission statement of the IB:

The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.

These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

During the Exhibition, students shared with attendees the knowledge they had gained, the attributes they demonstrated, the skills they developed and the meaningful action they took to make a positive difference in the world.

Significant to the success of the Exhibition was the dedication of the grade 6 teachers - Christie Miller, Jacqui Leslie, Myffy Scott-Walker, Lucy Oates and Lauren Anile - who provided rich and rewarding learning experiences and personalised guidance to each student throughout their journey.

Equally important to the Exhibition’s success are the families of our grade 6 students who not only took the time to visit the Exhibition but supported their child through every stage.

The Exhibition is an experience for the whole school community to understand why we value the Primary Years Programme of the International Baccalaureate. Thank you to everyone who attended this year. We appreciate the way you asked questions, listened intently and offered feedback and words of encouragement to our students.

Lauren Anile
Grade 6 Teacher
Learning Specialist – Literacy

This year, our Level 5 and 6 students participated in the 100 Story Building’s Early Harvest Program, a creative project supporting primary students to write, edit and illustrate a professionally published book.

In Terms 1 and 2, students were supported in crafting a narrative that explored the theme of ‘escape’ and submitted it to the student editorial board. This board included four students from Kingsville Primary School: Luna B, Gauri G, Lucy B and Izzy G. The editorial board were tasked with naming the book, curating the collection of stories and briefing illustrators. They read 177 stories written by students from across six schools, and provided personalised written feedback that detailed what they liked about each story. A massive effort from the editorial board!

Last term, we were proud to learn that the writing composed by four of our students would feature in Write, Fight, Flee, this year’s short story anthology.

Levi G – author of the short story ‘The Dog Kidnapper’

Marlo C – author of the short story ‘Le Reveille’

Chloe Y – author of the short story ‘The Shadowed Stranger’

Sophie M – author of the story ‘Blue Light’

On Saturday 28 October, teachers and students from Kingsville Primary School attended the launch of Write, Fight, Flee at the State Library of Victoria where we celebrated the incredible work of our student authors and editors. Hosted by students from the editorial board, we enjoyed an afternoon of games, activities and interviews.

Well done to all students who submitted a story this year, and thank you to the teachers who encouraged and supported our students through the creative writing process.

Copies of Write, Fight, Flee will be available in level 5 and 6 classroom libraries and our school library soon.

Lauren Anile
6LA Classroom Teacher
Learning Specialist - Literacy

Are you in the mood for an escape from ordinary life? Well, this is the book for you! Experience feats of escape artistry as you try to break free from monsters, curses, imprisonment, boredom and more in these fifteen stories, written and edited by young Australians from across Victoria.

Copies of Write, Fight, Flee will be available in level 5 and 6 classroom libraries and our school library soon.

This week has seen a number of students representing Kingsville Primary School at Regional and State level. Liam K-J has represented Kingsville Primary School from our school-based athletics carnival at shot put all the way to throwing over 10m at the State finals to win a silver medal. This was well and truly a PB for Liam, and he represented KPS with aplomb.

Today, both our boys and girls T20 blast teams represented KPS at the Western Metropolitan Regional finals. Ably coached by Abbas, these students also represented KPS as great sports.

As with many events KPS runs, we wanted to also thank the many parent volunteers who support us through their time in these sports. Without this we wouldn’t be in a position to have so many students representing KPS in the multitude of ways they are currently able to.




Girls Regional Hoop-Time Team

Big congratulations to our 3/4 Girls Hoop Time Basketball team who represented the school and district at the regional tournament on Monday this week.  They played 4 games against other schools across the western region.  Whilst we didn't come home with the win, the girls played well.  They tried their best, never gave up, demonstrated teamwork and above all had lots of fun.  Thank you to Sarah Williamson for leading the team and supporting everyone in making it a great and memorable experience.  We can confidently say that our team is in the Top 5 for the region!  Well done to all players:

• Baradu A
• Olivia B
• Neenah C
• Seren D
• Astrid F
• Elizabeth J
• Iris M
• Tali T
• Harper W
• Elke Y

Hi, MEG Global Ambassadors here,

So far, we have taken 8 classes on walks around Cruickshank Park, paying special attention to things that may affect the water quality such as rubbish bins, stormwater drains and dog poop.

We have had amazing feedback from KPS students and teachers. Classes have also been using the walks in their other classroom activities such as data collection and writing!








Little Litter Website Now Live!

Violet has finished our website which is now live! You can find it at https://sites.google.com/view/littlelitter/home or scan this QR code!

Guest Speaker from Melbourne Water

We were also lucky enough to have Richard from Melbourne Water come to our classroom and take US on a walk around Stony Creek, discussing the native and invasive species that call Cruickshank home. We also discussed the problems that affect the water and the initiatives they are taking to try and improve. Thanks to Olivia for organising this ?

Finally, we had these cool t-shirts made using the original logo that Hazel created to wear on our walks! We have been very busy, but it has been a fantastic experience so far.

Working Bee
Last Saturday morning a small contingent of parents and carers, along with their children volunteered their time to the working bee. The group focused on adding a protective coating to the new Gaga pit. The job was a significant piece of work and before we knew it, we were all sitting around having a sausage, pleased with our work! 

Gaga is a fast-paced form of hand ball/dodge ball played in a purpose-built court.  A Gaga Pit is a ball court designed in a hexagonal or octagonal shape to contain the game of gaga.  It keeps the ball in play and allows the players to hit the ball off the walls to improve their chance of knocking a component out below the knee.

Players start in the Gaga Pit, an octagonal or hexagonal shaped pit or court.  The GaGa Ball is thrown up by one player in the middle, on first bounce everyone yells “Ga”, on the bounce everyone yells “GaGa” and rushes to the ball hitting or rolling it with their hand attempting to eliminate other players by connecting the ball with them below the waist.  When a player is hit below the waist they are out, but an evicted player can re-enter by catching a wayward ball on the sidelines. This is a game of last person standing!




School Disco
The School Disco will be held on Friday 24th November, as an incursion during school hours, beginning at 10.15am in the school hall, where kids' entertainers Bop Till You Drop will fill the space with lively tunes and engaging activities.

This event is open to all KPS students, with 4 x 45min-1hr dance sessions scheduled for Foundation, Grade 1-2, Grade 3-4 and Grade 5-6.

For students who prefer a more relaxed environment, a designated wellbeing/quiet area will be made available. Students are also welcome to bring in their own noise cancelling headphones.

Students may wear ‘casual clothes’ on this day and are encouraged to wear neon clothing for the disco, however it is optional.

Parents/carers can provide consent to attend and payment via Compass. Please keep a look out for this event post

Included in the $3 cost of attending, is the option of a zooper dooper and a temporary tattoo. If you do not want your child to have one or both of these items, please email your childs teacher by Wednesday the 22^nd November. For these students not able to have one or both of these items an alternative ‘treat’ will be available.

Decoration & Temporary Tattoo Donations: We invite families to contribute to the event by donating any colourful party decorations (new or lightly used only please) or any unused temporary tattoos you may have at home. Please drop these off at the front office in the clearly marked ‘Disco’ tub by Wednesday 22^nd November.

Volunteers: Additionally, we need a minimum of 2 parent volunteers per class on the day. Volunteers must have a Working with Children Check (WWCC) and completed the school’s volunteer induction. The parent volunteer sign-up sheet link can be found here: https://volunteersignup.org/YQACQ

The FOKPS sub committee and the School Disco Working Party appreciate the communities support in making this event memorable for our students. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to bringing this disco to life!

Warm regards,

FOKPS and the School Disco Working Party

Please see below the list of children who will be presented with their award at assembly on Friday 10^th November:  

Please see below the list of children who were presented with their award at assembly today, Friday 4^th November:

Happy Birthday to Arihia G, Cassandra P, Ari M, Hudson M, Austin B, Harriet E, Grace M, May T, Hannah S, Rory F, William H, Eamon O, Stella M, Thomas G, Felix R.

Term 4 Friday Assembly Roster
10th November - No Assembly Item (Tues 7th Nov - Public Holiday)
17th November - 3/4H
24th November - No Assembly Item (Mon 20th Nov - Student Free Day)
1st December - 1/2E
8th December - FMC
15th December - No Assembly Item


2023 Term Dates
          
Term 1            Monday 30 January to Thursday 6 April
Term 2            Monday 24 April to Friday 23 June
Term 3            Monday 10 July to Friday 15 September
Term 4            Monday 2 October to Wednesday 20 December


2024 Term Dates

Term 1            Tuesday 30th January to Thursday 28th March
Term 2            Monday 15th April to Friday 28th June
Term 3            Monday 15th July to Friday 20th September
Term 4            Monday 7th October to Friday 20th December