Learning Expo

A huge congratulations and thank you to all our students, parents and staff for all their hard work in making our learning expo a great success.  It was lovely to observe the students in the driver’s seat, navigating and explaining their learning with confidence. Thank you to all our visitors who came along and supported the students. It was lovely to see so many families connecting and supporting our passion for learning. Thank you for the positive feedback and it is so nice to have everyone together again. We can’t wait to do it all in 2024!

Please enjoy some photos of the 2023 Learning Expo

Writers Festival

Over the past few weeks, students have been engaged in a variety of writing opportunities. This may have included contributing to the creation of class books or writing individual pieces of work based on their own choice. As part of the festival, students have produced a published piece of work. Teachers have read the published pieces from their class and selected one student to receive a Writers Festival prize (see photo). These finalists will now be shortlisted and Harry Laing (local author) will read and select three overall winners for Kaleen Primary School. We would like to acknowledge the enormous effort of the students and teachers during the festival and for creating a ‘buzz’ about writing. We would also like to thank the Literacy School Improvement Team and Harry Laing for organising and supporting this initiative.

Congratulations to our class winners!

Kindergarten     Year 1   Year 2 Year 3 Year 4   Year 5   Year 6 

KKH - Vivian 1HT - Hugo 2MH - Thanushri 3SL - Gerrie 4NV - Henry 5MS - Kushal 6TF - Cam 
KMP - Hazel 1TS - Lucy 2DO - Edith 3JF - Sarah 4JS - Joey 5KT - Amelia & Elle 6TA - Romy
KFM - Elsie 1KK - Liam 2CR - Zara 3BH- Annabella 4AP - David 5CJ - Nina 6SD - Beatrix

External After School Programs

In Term 4, a number of organisations will continue to run after school programs on our school grounds. These programs are offered through external providers and are not supervised by school staff. Please contact the businesses directly to find out more about their terms and conditions and/or to book a spot for your child. 

Mondays:

Get Set Tennis coaches are offering group lessons for Kindergarten to Year 6 students on the Kaleen Primary School tennis courts 3:00pm-4:30pm each Monday. In cases of wet weather, the program will move to the school hall. A new program will commence at the beginning of Term 3 and will cost $225 for nine weeks ($25 per session). Currently there are no spots available, however, please email nelson@getsettennis.com.au or phone 0422 809 160 to find out more and/or register on the waiting list. 

Tuesdays:

Join Perform Australia for drama classes in the school hall from 3:00pm-4:30pm - learn acting skills, play drama games, and explore characters! The program begins Week 1 of Term 4 and will cost $250 for the term. Please enrol online directly at www.perform.edu.au/kaleen or call Perform Australia on 1300 908 905 to find out more. For Kindergarten to Year 6.  

Thursdays:

Next term, Code Camp will be offering an after-school program for our (Year 2-6) students in the Kaleen Primary School library 3:00pm-4:30pm each Thursday. The program runs for 8 weeks and commences in week 2 of Term 4. The cost for Code Camp is $260 for eight weeks. Book now HERE or call on 1300 263 322. Our popular coding program incorporates weekly challenges, functions, algorithms, branching, variables, game logic, user experience and maths. Coding after-school offers students a new project each week, and the fun doesn't have to stop after class! Your child will be provided with their very own Code Camp World account which they can use to continue creating at home and to share their projects with family and friends.

PE@K Program

Separate from our external provider program, Kaleen Primary school will be offering chess coaching from 3:00pm-4:30pm in the Library on Wednesday afternoons. This will be for any interested students in Years 3-6 who are looking to develop their chess playing skills and receive support to improve their strategy and critical thinking. This program will commence from the beginning of Term 4 and will cost between $50 and $60 for the term (depending on numbers). Please contact Callum Joce at callum.joce@ed.act.edu.au for enrolment information.

Finally, we hope you all have a fabulous holiday break, and we look forward to more amazing teaching and learning in Term 4.

Keep Smiling

KPS Leadership Team

Student Leadership Message

Our Dance Nation students, along with Mrs Turner and Mr Allen were very proud to represent KPS at the Kulturebreak 24hr movement challenge today.  This important event raises funds and awareness of youth resilience and mental health in the ACT.

Our students participated in a variety of challenges that required them to be physically active for 3 non-stop hours!!!  Well done students!

Kaleen Primary ACT Track & Field Championships Results

Congratulations to Mitch, Rayyan, Violet, Millie and Umar who competed in the SSACT 12&U ACT Track and Field Championships on Tuesday against all other schools in the ACT.

Mitch placed 13th in the 9 years boys 70m sprint, Umar placed 17th in the 12 years boys shot put throw, and Millie placed 6th in the 12 years girls discus throw.

A huge congratulations to Rayyan who placed 3rd earning a ribbon in the 8 years boys 70m sprint, as well as Violet who placed 2nd earning a ribbon in the 10 years girls discus throw. Violet will be eligible to represent ACT in the National Championships held in Tasmania in November.

Go Kaleen! That wraps up yet another great year of sporting carnivals!

On Tuesday September 5, Year 6 held their annual Sausage Sizzle Fundraiser for graduation. It was a huge effort by all involved. A massive thank you needs to be given to Roch, Roy and Dan who cooked all of the nearly 600 sausages. Through the generosity and support of Coles in Kaleen, who provided all of the sausages and bread free of charge, we were able to raise a significant amount of money that will go towards the cost of the Year 6 Graduation in December.

Our lost property bins are full again! 

We do our best to return the items with names on them back to our students but unfortunately a lot of jumpers, lunch boxes, drink bottles and various items are not labelled and we are unable to return them back to the rightful owner. 

Please ensure your child's belongings are clearly labelled so that they can make their way back to them. If you are missing any of your child's belongings, please pop into the hall and take a look.

Last weekend the Girls Under 10's League Tag team for North Canberra Bears Club had a nail-biting win (28-32) against Gungahlin to put them through to the Grand Final this Saturday. Well done to Roxy, Amy, Chelsea, Chloe and the rest of their team! 

Last week one of our Year 6 students, Shrestha, presented Her Excellency, Mrs Linda Hurley, with a basket of wattle at the 2023 Wattle Day celebrations. Shrestha was a representative of the IMP ACT Primary Concert Choir. What an amazing opportunity! 

If you would like to have your child's achievement acknowledged here, please email a short blurb to KaleenPSAdmin@ed.act.edu.au 

Supporting Kids with Separation Anxiety

As its name implies, separation anxiety disorder is diagnosed when children develop intense anxiety, even to the point of panic, as a result of being separated from a parent or other loved one. It often appears suddenly in a child who has shown no previous signs of a problem. This anxiety is so intense that it interferes with children's normal activities. They refuse to leave the house alone, visit or sleep at a friend's house, go to school camp or go on errands. At home, they may cling to their parents or "shadow" them by following closely on their heels. Often, they complain of stomach aches, headaches, nausea and vomiting. They may have heart palpitations and feel dizzy and faint. Many children with this disorder have trouble falling asleep and may try to sleep in their parents' bed. If barred, they may sleep on the floor outside the parents' bedroom. When they are separated from a parent, they become preoccupied with morbid fears that harm will come to them, or that they will never be reunited. 

Separation anxiety may give rise to what is known as school phobia. Children refuse to attend school because they fear separation from a parent, not because they fear the academic environment. Sometimes they have mixed fears such as fear of leaving the parents as well as fear of the school environment.

What will my child be doing in therapy sessions?

Treatment in cognitive-behavioural therapy will involve both learning both in the sessions and outside of the sessions, e.g. in the home or other environments. Usually learning that occurs in session will be followed by one or more exercises or “homework assignments”. Learning goals for anxiety problems are:

• • Psycho-education for the parents: Educating the parents about the nature and treatment of anxiety in children, including information about the cognitive-behavioural model, so that parents can understand the aims of therapy and continue them in the home.
    
    

  •  Psycho-education for the child: Information about the nature of the problems with an emphasis on developing some basic ‘psychological’ understanding of the problem and encouraging the ability to self monitor - that is, the ability to step back and understand their feelings and thoughts as separate from them as a person.
    
    

  • Cognitive restructuring: Once the child is able to understand his or her thoughts, exercises look at teaching the ability to evaluate those thoughts in terms of their helpfulness and, if required, to have more helpful thoughts.

• • Self-soothing: Often in anxiety disorders the child seeks all calming or soothing of their thoughts and feelings from the parent, instead of being able to self-soothe. This is an important skill to learn as the child becomes more independent in life. Simple techniques such as relaxation and distraction skills are taught.
    
    

  • Graduated exposure and response prevention: Once self-soothing is mastered, graduated exposure to the feared stimulus is attempted slowly and with parental support. A hierarchy of goals is established and parents are encouraged to congratulate the child when a step is achieved.

In order to achieve this learning, behavioural management must be used at home. This consists of:

Reward for brave behaviours. The hierarchy of goals that was introduced in therapy involves performing behaviours that the child will find anxiety-provoking to start with. As the child engages in the behaviour and uses some of his or her self-soothing techniques, you should reward him/her. Rewards are commonly things such as stickers or tokens, with an agreed-upon reward if the child reaches, say, ten stickers. We encourage rewards to be activities that the child enjoys doing with the family, but they can be any agreed reward between child and parents.

Extinguishment of fear behaviours. Cognitive-behavioural therapists do not suggest punishment of ‘wrong’ behaviours. Fear reactions to behaviours can be ‘extinguished’ or stopped through a lack of reward. This means that when the child engages in fear behaviours, such as crying or clinging, do not remove the feared object or remove the child from the feared object. This will reinforce his or her behaviour and it will happen with more intensity next time. Instead, re-state your belief that the child can handle the situation, remind the child of the self-soothing skills learned in therapy, tell them that they are safe, and ask them to remain in the situation for another five minutes. Remember, start with ‘baby steps’ – never start too far up the hierarchy of goals.

If you would like to learn more about the supports available, parents can access ACT Education Central Telehealth by calling 6205 1559 between 9:00am and 4:30pm.

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