Newsletter 17th May 2023

Principal's Message

Volunteer Week

This week is Volunteer Week where we recognise all those people in our community that volunteer their time to support others.  At Kensington Primary School, we are particularly grateful for all those who help out at our school – parents, ex-parents, ex-students, Bahai volunteers, Ed Connect mentors, and Curtin Volunteers.  While our students have been giving thank you cards to our mentors, we, as a school, would particularly like to take this opportunity to thank our P&C – our parents that work tirelessly to make this school the best it can be.  Please take the time to look at the video thank you the children (with the help of Mr McNerney, Mrs Carpenter and her son, Harry – an ex-student from KPS) put together to show how much we appreciate our P&C.  The official P&C Day is Friday 19^th May.  We will push a notification out about this video via SZapp on that day, but here is a sneak peek.

P&C Day video 'thank you' link

Term 2 Swimming Cancelled (rescheduling for later)

We have recently been informed that we need to reschedule our PP- Year 5 swimming lessons.  While we don’t have a new date at the moment, we will let you know as soon as we hear.  We will update the SZapp calendar accordingly.

Preston Street IGA Support

Thank you to Preston Street IGA, represented by Mrs Steenkamp, for presenting the school with a cheque for $500 at this morning's assembly.  This is as a result of the community support for KPS at IGA.   Thanks to Mrs Nuthall for registering our school. This money will go towards the mural in the quadrangle made with mosaics that half the students will be working on next week. The rest will be finished next year. The image below is of the cheque in front of the white panels where the mosaic murals will be installed.

Enrolling for Kindergarten for 2024 Now Open

If your child will be four years old by 30 June 2024, enrol them in Kindergarten now.  Applications close on 21 July 2023.  Find out more by contacting the school or visiting education.wa.edu.au/enrol.

Pre-Primary enrolments will open soon - we will keep you updated.

Premier's Reading Challenge

Anyone from Kindergarten to Year 10 can register to take part in the challenge. You can access over 7,000 book titles, which can be logged onto your child's bookshelf. While the challenge is for your child to log a minimum of 12 books, feel free to log more!

You can log a book that is on the booklist, or add a book.

By logging books, your child can be in the running to win fantastic weekly prizes. The prizes include experiences such as a zipline from Matagarup Bridge.

All students who log a minimum of 12 books over the challenge are also in the running for an end-of-year prize. 

We want everyone to be able to access books in any format. We have partnered with the State Library of Western Australia, who has a wide and growing range of electronic resources available for members and visitors. 

These include eBooks, online journals, audiobooks, eMagazines, current and historical newspapers and content services such as Ancestry and Kanopy. You can access these resources with your local public library membership. Your school library may also have these books. 

Find out more about the Premier's Reading Challenge prizes.

The challenge starts on Monday 8th of May.

RATS – Saliva and Nasal

If you want saliva or nasal RATs, please pop into the office and we would be only too happy to give them to you – as many as you would like.  

Regular testing for COVID-19 continues to be an effective strategy to keep our schools and communities safe. It is best to test if you have COVID-19 like symptoms such as:

• fever (37.5°C or more)
• cough
• shortness of breath
• sore throat
• runny nose
• loss of smell or taste.

Upcoming Events

Artist in Residence – Mosaic Workshop

Each year the P&C funds an artist in residence program.  This year we begin a two-year project with a mosaic artist.  Next week students in Years 1, 3 and 6 will work with this artist to create half of a series of murals on the Noongar season of Makuru.  As the classrooms around the quadrangle are now called Makuru, this mural will be installed in the quadrangle to reflect that. Next year this project will be finished by the students who did not participate this year.  We thank the P&C for their ongoing support of this artist in residence program.  We will let you know when the first half of the mural has been installed.

TREK 2 SCHOOL – Year 5 & 6

IMPORTANT: Help make your child’s commute to school safer

Dear Parent/Carer of Year 5/6 Students,

This is a final reminder that the TREK2School Study is a chance for you and/or your child to provide feedback directly to the Department of Transport about Kensington Primary School! The school and the Department of Transport will receive specific recommendations for Kensington Primary School, but we need your input about streets and crossings like at Banksia Tce and Fourth Ave. This is such a valuable opportunity to help make Kensington safer for kids to walk and ride their bikes/scooters.

Students in Years 5-6 will be asked to complete one confidential 30-minute online survey at school during class time. Parents/carers of students in Years 5-6 are also able to complete one confidential 20-minute online survey at home.

It only takes 1 minute to complete the consent form with your child online at https://redcap.link/trek2school by Monday, May 22^nd.

Students that sign up to take part in this research program will be given VIP tickets and go in the fortnightly draw to win prizes at the assembly the following week (31^st May).

Best wishes,

TREK2School Research Team

Approval to conduct this research (Ref: 2021/ET000413) has been provided by the University of Western Australia, in accordance with its ethics review and approval procedures. Any person considering participation in this research project, or agreeing to participate, may raise any questions or issues with the researchers at any time. In addition, any person not satisfied with the response of researchers may raise ethics issues or concerns, and may make any complaints about this research project by contacting the Human Research Ethics Office at the University of Western Australia on (08) 6488 3703 or by emailing to humanethics@uwa.edu.au. All research participants are entitled to retain a copy of any Information Form and/or Consent Form relating to this research project.

This project has also met the policy requirements of the WA Department of Education.

What's Been Going On At KPS

Student Voice Forum

Student Voice Forum

Last week the Student Council met with representatives from each of the Year 1-6 classrooms.  They asked the students for feedback on what they liked about the school, what they didn’t like, any new ideas to improve the school and any ideas for charities we could support as a school (giving back to the wider community). Below are the responses to the first question – things they like.  We will present more feedback in future newsletters.

Honours and Values awards

Foyer Display - S4

This week’s display has a collection of photos from the year so far in S4. The photos focus on some of the highlights, including beach swimming lessons, the Colour Run, an excursion to Escape Hunt in Fremantle and time with our buddies from Room 3. The photos are surrounded by pictures the students have drawn of themselves, showing what they want to be when they grow up or what superpower they would love to have.

Sports News

Walk to School Friday 19th May

Kensington is participating in the Walk to School Day. We are encouraging everyone to walk to school, or part of the way to school, this Friday 19^th May. Students may wear a sporting uniform as part of the day’s activities.

Faction captains will be at all the gates to hand out stickers and tattoos to students who walk to school.

We will have some visitors from the West Coast Eagles to greet and hand out souvenirs in the undercover area. Active kids learn better!

Running Club

Running club this Friday will be on the new running track. There will be no running club next Tuesday 23^rd May. We will return to running on the oval next Friday from 8.00am – 8.30am. New runners are always welcome.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Aiden, our Instep PE work experience student, who has been selected in the State U18 AFL team. We wish him all the best as he competes in the upcoming national competition.

School Board

School Board Meeting

Last week the Board met to look at reviewing the attendance target in the business plan, the new funding agreement, the guidelines for student leader election and what the school is doing to implement its environmental citizenship target.  Unfortunately, we did not have a quorum, so decisions have been deferred until the next meeting in Week 9 (Monday 19^th June).

P & C News

2023 Colour Run

We hope you all enjoyed the recent Colour Run event. It was an unforgettable experience filled with vibrant colors, joyous laughter, and a true sense of community.

The energy and enthusiasm displayed by the children made the event truly special. We extend our deepest thanks to the parents and guardians who supported and encouraged their children to take part in the run. Your contributions have made this the most successful colour run we have ever held! We're still finalising the amount and will announce the total and prize winners soon so stay tuned.

We would also like to express our gratitude to our dedicated team of teachers and volunteers who helped on the day. Your efforts ensured that everything ran smoothly. 

If you would like to know more about fundraising, have feedback on the event, or wish to help in any way then please contact us at kensingtonpsfundraising@gmail.com

Uniform Shop

Please note the uniform shop is closed this Thursday 18th May, and will re-open again next Thursday 25th May. Online ordering remains open as usual.

DUCKS Term 2 update

Thank you to all the KPS Dads and father-figures supporting the children of our school. There was a great turnout of dads at the recent Colour Run earlier in May, so well done. We also had a Dads Catchup last week, which went well.

Reminder to book your place in the popular Dads and Kids Indoor Climbing event at the Rockface in Balcatta. It is open to all family members, and mums - please encourage dads to sign up and bring the kids along for a fun day out. Please book via the link below ASAP to help us plan for numbers at the climbing gym.

Dads and Kids Indoor Climbing

Saturday 10 June 2023, 2:00pm, Rockface in Balcatta. All welcome to this family event.

RSVP  CLICK HERE

For any questions and for new dads that want to join the group or for further information, please email us at:

DUCKS.KPS@gmail.com

For other resources for dads, please check out The Fathering Project and sign-up for weekly tips:

https://thefatheringproject.org/subscribe/

All the best, 

Conrad Slee - DUCKs

Dads United for the Children of Kensington (primary school)

Containers for Change

We have a wheely bin and a wool bale in the quadrangle where you can deposit containers, help the environment and fundraise for the school all at once.  We hope, with sufficient support from everyone, to expand this program.

Community News