Class Placement for 2024

It is that time of year when we start the process of allocating students into classes for 2024. These allocations are based on friendships, learning dispositions, individual needs and personalities. When considering classes, there are many factors we take into account and classroom teachers work hard to create cohesive and balanced classes for the following year. Children are given the opportunity to nominate five peer learners with whom they would like to share a class next year. The peer lists will be completed in class by the children at a suitable time. Children are guaranteed to have at least one of the peers they nominate with them in 2024. We encourage you to talk with your child about who they learn best with and who they might like to be in a class with for the following year.

I believe that teachers are in the best position to decide a child’s placement because they know all the children and how they function within our school environment. Parents also have the opportunity to provide information regarding their own child and any details that may impact their child's class placement. Whilst this information will be considered seriously, there are no definite guarantees regarding parent requests as there is much to consider when formulating classes. 

We welcome Parents/Carers to complete this Google form to inform us of anything that they feel needs to be considered, for their own child’s well-being or development. Please be aware that requests for particular teachers cannot be accommodated on most occasions.

Our goal is to work with you to get the best outcomes for your child. Access to this Google Form will close on Friday 17 November 2023.

Kaleen Writers Festival - Overall Winners

Harry Laing (local author) has been our critical friend throughout the 2023 Writer’s Festival. He happily took on the role as independent judge, reading through 21 teacher selected student entries before deciding on 4 overall winners across the school. He commented that it was a lot of fun to read all the entries and that we have some great writers at Kaleen Primary School. Harry also kindly donated 4 of his books as part of the prize and made time to congratulate our winners and present them with their prizes.

Here are the names of the overall winners, with feedback from Harry.

K/1 section – Hugo K (1HT)

“I loved Hugo’s story of the aliens that needed to be moist (The Aliens) and who ended up eating the school.”

Yrs 2-4 section - David F (4AP) and Josephine C (4JS)

David F’s story ‘The Shadow’ is extremely well written and imaginative with some highly poetic lines ‘it was made of pure shadow and darkness with no emotion.’ He gets the aliens in there and yet creates a world entirely his own. Well done.”

“I also really like The Magpie by Joey. I enjoy the fun with language and rhyming.”

Yrs 5/6 section – Elle L (5KT)

“Elle L’s story ‘Fearless’ was an original, brave and emotionally action-packed piece of writing, with a hopeful ending. Excellent.”

A huge congratulations to our winners!

Finally, It’s been a busy couple of weeks with many school excursions and Year 5 camp. I’d like to thank all of our staff for providing the students with these fabulous opportunities. Also, many thanks to our parent/carer community for keeping up with all the notes and messages on Seesaw that are being sent home. What a great team we are!

Bye for now,

Michelle

Check out our wonderful Japanese Choir singing Tangerine Hill, Remember me (From the movie COCO) and Always With Me (From the movie Spirited Away)

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

Mindfulness Matter

Schools continue to be very busy places! Although our busyness can often be positive with lots of learning, we may also become tired, worried and overwhelmed at times. It can be helpful to pause for a moment and take a deep breath. Research suggests even just one deep mindful breath can send a message of calm to the brain. In simple terms, mindfulness can be defined as being ‘here’, bringing our attention back from thinking about the past or the future to pay attention to what is here in the present moment. 

At Kaleen, staff have been exploring one mindfulness technique a week as a strategy to help with teaching and learning. The practice of mindfulness can help calm our bodies, restore positive attitudes and help us get back ‘on track’ with learning. We are practising breathing strategies such as Five Finger or Starfish breathing; walking while using our senses to see 5 objects, listen for 4 sounds, smell 3 scents, touch 2 objects and recognise 1 taste in our mouths. 

We have also been trying Smiling Mind, a free App which offers short, guided meditations for adults and children to ‘put a smile on your mind’. Maybe you’d like to try some of these mindfulness techniques at home too. See them below. 

Fiona Manton

Kindergarten Teacher 

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