Kaleen Fest

Congratulations to our P&C and Krissy for organising and running Kaleen Primary School’s first ever KaleenFest! It was an absolutely amazing event and it was lovely to see so many of our parents volunteering, spectating, participating and having fun alongside the children. Thank you for supporting this event and we look forward to sharing how much money we raised, once it is all counted. The money raised will go towards future P&C events and supporting the school to purchase necessary resources and equipment to enhance student learning and the learning environment. What a fabulous achievement! Please enjoy the slideshow of photos below.

It’s time to slime Mrs Northey (and some brave friends)

I have challenged the students to continue being safe, respectful and responsible learners throughout Term 4 and have accepted the proposal from the Ministers for Wellbeing to be slimed when the school reaches 5000 W@K tokens (yes, can you believe how passionate I must be about creating a positive school culture!). Initially I was happy as it is Term 4 and thought that everyone had ‘switched off’ however, this is not the case, as I can see the PBL tubes filling up…FAST! I am very lucky to have a list of staff members who will be joining me ‘if’ we reach the target, and the students will get to vote on who will be joining me. The student/s from each class on the highest levels will be placed into a draw and could possibly be selected to be the one to slime me or my friends! Dare I say it… please encourage your children to continue to be safe, respectful, responsible learners! 

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. Thank you to the families who have already completed the form. Access to this Google Form will close on Friday 17 November 2023. 

Finally, as you are aware, Chris Shaddock is currently on a temporary transfer to Macgregor Primary. Following a recent expression of interest, I will continue to lead Kaleen Primary School in his absence. I am so proud to be the Acting Principal for this incredible school and feel so fortunate every day to work alongside our fabulous students, teachers and school community. 

Keep Smiling! 

We have been learning about saving the oceans and the problem of plastics. Today we put our learning into action. We thought of a way to educate teachers when they buy coffee from the coffee van. We reminded them to bring their keep cups or gave them one if they didn’t have one. The keep cups were from opshops! Everyone was excited and passionate. We love shouting a good slogan! 

Preschool students have been busy working on their indigenous art inspired by our new school mural. 

Congratulations to all our winners at the SEAACT Science Fair this year.

Yash R in Year 1, 2nd place for ‘Rubbish near the letter box’.

Georgina C in Year 2 Highly Commended for ‘My Budgie loves music’.

Madeleine L in Year 3, First place for ‘The Power of Popcorn’.

Oliver S, in Year 3 Highly Commended for ‘Wheelie Powerful Water’.

Cate C in Year 5, Highly Commended for ‘Feeding Time’.

Leila E, Ameya E with Sophie Henry in Year 6, Second Place.

Year 2 Highly Commended for ‘The Curious Life of a Seed’.

Kindergarten First place for ‘Kindy Grass heads’.

Your Science Fair projects were creative and inspiring. I’m so impressed! Looking forward to more amazing Science opportunities next year!

40 Year 6 students represented Kaleen at an Interschools Sporting Event at Giralang Primary on Wednesday Week 4. We began the excursion by walking from our school to Giralang – what a great way to warm up before the games! Students wore the Kaleen representative sports jerseys designed by the Year 6 cohort earlier on in the year. We played a few round robin style games against Year 4-5 Giralang students, where all games were extremely close with both schools winning a few games each. By the time the finals rolled around, we watched the Kaleen Cougars take victory over the Giralang Geckos in a nail-biting score line of 2-1. Our students cheered for both schools and were very appreciative of such an opportunity to represent their school in our first ever interschools oz tag event. This will be the last sporting gala day Year 6s will participate in, in the Kaleen Primary jersey before they head off to high school. Check out some of the photos from the day!

KaleenFest

Firstly, a massive thank you to the few volunteers we had that made it such an amazing day for our community. We are still working through the finances for the event but the consensus from everyone we've spoken to is that a great time was had by all, which makes it a success. Thanks also to the school, especially Krissy, and to the YMCA for their contributions as well. If you haven't already, please take a minute to fill in the feedback form so we, as a community, can make it even better next time.

Upcoming P&C meeting - 23/11

It's almost the end of another year but don't forget our last P&C meeting is in two weeks, Thursday 23rd November from 7:30pm. As always feel free to wander down to the school for some adult conversations or you can join the meeting virtually and still be involved. We look forward to seeing you there.

That's enough from me, take care of yourselves.

Simon - President KPS P&C

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

Mindfulness Matters

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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