Things to Know

School Board

Our School Board plays a very important role in the strategic direction and running of our school. This year, we farewell Heather Rea (Parent Representative and Deputy Board Chair) and Sarah Paterson (Teacher Representative) from the School Board and thank them for their service over the past two years. Kaleen Primary School is in an amazing place right now and this is only possible because of their valuable contributions. I would like to welcome Rochelle(Shell) Wood (Parent Representative) and Bec Hadfield (Teacher Representative) to the 2019 School Board. They will join our Parent Representatives Emma Snowden and Bruce Whitby and Teacher Representative Danielle O’Connor. I would like to congratulate Bruce on his reappointment as Board Chair and Emma Snowden on her appointment as Deputy Board Chair. We are very lucky as a school to have such high calibre representatives and I look forward to working with the new Board to get the best outcomes for our students.

New Building at Kaleen Primary School

As announced in the last newsletter, the Directorate has approved the construction of a new multipurpose building at Kaleen Primary School. The construction of the building is scheduled to be complete in Term 4. Between the beginning of Term 2 and the end of Term 4, access to the gym for our hirers and before and after school care programs will be restricted. The YMCA and school will send out relevant procedures to affected families in the near future.

Learning Progress Statements

Your child’s Learning Progress Statements were sent home earlier this week. If your child’s teacher has requested an interview, or you would like to meet with them, please contact the teacher directly via the email listed on at the bottom of the Learning Progress Statement. If at any time throughout the year you would like to meet with your child’s teacher to discuss your child’s learning please email or contact the school on 6142 1750.

Have a happy and safe holiday and we look forward to seeing you in Term 2.

Bye for now,

Chris Shaddock

Principal

Administration

Voluntary Contributions – Library Trust Fund

For many years, students have benefited from the financial resources provided through voluntary contributions from parents, carers and other citizens. With these contributions, our school can purchase additional educational materials and resources for students. Our P&C have approved the same contribution rate as previous years - $95 for one child or $150 for a family. Voluntary contributions may be made in full, in part or in instalments to our Library Trust Fund that has been established to enable parents to make tax deductible contributions of $2 or more. A note was sent home this week and will be available on the website and on Seesaw.

Newsletter Distribution Survey

We are looking to streamline the avenues in which we distribute our newsletter. We currently deliver the newsletter via SeeSaw, email and on the school website. Please take a moment to fill out our short surevy to tell us how you view the newsletter. Click HERE to complete the survey.

Enrolling for Preschool in 2020

Online enrolments for our Preschool 2020 opens Monday 29 April 2019. Please visit the enrolments portal HERE on the Education Directorate’s website to submit your enrolment application. In 2020, we are offering three preschool sessions with a maximum of 22 students in each session. Priority is given to residents of Kaleen.

ICAS 2019 Update-

UNSW have made some changes to the way ICAS is administered in schools. In 2019, the assessments will be conducted in Term 3 over 3 consecutive weeks (Weeks 7,8 and 9) and they will now be completed online (except for the writing task for Years 3 and 4). To ensure minimal disruption to core learning and resources, we will be conducting these assessments at 8:15 am on the designated days. Once the program details have been confirmed, permission notes will be sent home.

Kaleen’s Circle of Sustainability Expertise

Kaleen has immersed itself in the past twelve months in a new and exciting chapter of its Sustainability involvement. In the past, Sustainability experiences were only offered through the Green Team. Since 2018, Kaleen students have all been given the experience of a dedicated 45-minute lesson every week in Sustainability understandings which stem from the subjects of Science, Geography and Technology. Students are also involved in maintaining school gardens which are all currently thriving and producing large amounts of fresh produce.

We believe that in every school community there lies a wealth of information and expertise which our students can benefit from. We also know our students love to involve their parents in their daily school life. In which case, we are fielding any possible parents who have backgrounds and/or a passion for the environment, sustainability, conservation, protection or gardening who may like to come in and share this knowledge and expertise with our students.

We would also be extremely grateful to receive any donations of plants or seedlings which we could add to our school gardens.

Our whole school Sustainable events for the remainder of the year are:

World Environment Day – Term 2

National Trees Day – Term 3

Nude Food Day – Term 4

These dates may assist you in joining in with us on one of these special and significant days.

If you would like to assist, share or donate with us in our Sustainability journey this year, please feel free to contact us at:

Melissa.Chiles@ed.act.edu.au Kelly.Reeves@ed.act.edu.au

Many thanks

The Sustainability Team

P&C Corner

Dear Kaleen Parents and Carers

The P&C held its AGM on 26 March which was well attended. The newly elected P&C Council is a nice mix of experience and enthusiasm and I’m looking forward to the year ahead.

There was a good discussion at the AGM about the possible development of a pub next door. As we understand it, the development is being considered by the Bears football club and we’d like to invite the club’s president to come to the next P&C meeting to hear about what’s being proposed and give feedback from the school community. That meeting is scheduled for Tuesday evening at 7pm, on 7 May (term 2, week 2) and will be held in the library. Please bring your questions.

The next P&C event will be on election day (no date yet) where we’ll run a stall selling food. Worst case it’ll be a plain sausage sizzle but we’re hoping there’s interest from the school community in cooking something more exciting. If you’re interested in getting involved, either cooking before the day or staffing the stall for a bit, please email kaleenpandc@gmail.com.

It’s also the time of year when the school sends out a notice about voluntary contributions. The fees are steady at 2015 rates and I encourage all families who can afford it, to make a voluntary contribution. The money we contribute gets spent directly on our kids who are, for the most part, good value.

On a related note, There have been a couple of news articles recently about the cost to families of public schools. While I don’t think those articles reflect the typical Kaleen experience, it’d be naive to think there aren’t some families in our community who are struggling financially.

While the P&C is interested in hearing how we can better support families feeling the pressure of school fees, excursion and incursion costs, uniforms, lunches etc, we understand that people probably don’t want to talk about their personal circumstance. If you find yourself making the impossible choice of sending your kid on an excursion, when you really can’t afford it, or risking your kid missing out or being ostracised in the playground then please reach out to the school directly. There are mechanisms in place to make sure no student has to miss out because of financial reasons – that no student has to miss lunch and go hungry. The school is well equipped to help you out in a confidential way. Please seek help if you need it.

If you want contact the P&C, please email kaleenpandc@gmail.com or my number is 0466 386 377.

Ben Peters Jones

P&C President

P&C Cohort Reps

2019 P&C Comittee Members

Ben Peters Jones - Returning President

Jen Rose - Vice President

Aler Locus - Returning Secretary

Scott Emme - Treasurer

Liz McGregor - Vice Treasurer (Public Officer)

General members

Siaan Ansori

Catherine McGufficke

Nicole Cortese

Mark Poretti

The next meeting will be on Tuesday 7th May at 7:00 pm

Contact Us

If you would like to raise any issues or propose any ideas to the P&C please email kaleenpandc@gmail.com or have a chat with one of the executive committee. You can also request to be included on the P&C email list to receive meeting reminders, minutes and agendas.

Congratulations to the Winners of the Photography Competition:

Congratulations to the Winners of the Sculpture Competition:

Congratulations to the 17 members of the Kaleen Primary swimming team that competed in the Belconnen Region Swimming Carnival held at the AIS pool on Thursday 28 March. What brilliant ambassadors our students were for Kaleen Primary. A number of swimmers swam in multiple events; some swam in only one or two. Some won or placed in their events, but all gave it their best effort! Our team members supported and encouraged one another, working cooperatively and responsively with teachers, officials and assisting parents. Thanks to the many parents that supported our swimmers throughout the day. Our swimmers certainly appreciated your support and encouragement. Kaleen finished 2nd out of 25 schools overall in the combined school teams event. Congratulations once again KPS swimming representatives. You were amazing!

Congratulations to following swimmers who qualified for the ACT Swimming Carnival to be held at the AIS pool on the Monday 6 May 2019.

Anna 6JS

AJ 5RL

Lola 5AC

Bayden 5LL

Mikayla 4TC

Elliette 4TC

We hope you do well and enjoy your day. Good luck!

Nikki Van Huizen and Alison Peebles

Kaleen Primary School 2019 Cross Country Carnival Information

Heroes' Corner

During this term, a team of Year 5 students have been creating water rockets out of plastic water bottles. They created, tested, modified and tested again in order to get their water rockets to shoot the furthest distance. We used an aqua launcher and a bike pump to shoot our rockets into the air. It was a great experience and heaps of fun.

“On Thursday 28 March, we went to Lake Ginninderra College to compete in a water rocket competition. We have been creating our rockets and testing the amount of water we put in. We had a lot of fun at the competition. There were four teams competing. The other teams were from Latham Primary School. We were battling with fourth graders. One of our teams came first and the other team came third. The aim was to get the best average distance.” Sai, Elfin, Alice – The Adventurous Avocados team

Michael and Andrew – Science Invasion team

Awards Assembly