Dear Parents/Carers

I hope that students and those staff with leave, enjoyed the holiday break and found time to recharge.  I always look to Term 3 with great optimism and positivity as we are into the second half of the year and it is really a time when teachers can focus on teaching, students on learning and leadership can continue our collective work on school improvement.  However, as with any break, this can disrupt the routines and habits of students.  Parents and carers can support students returning to school by helping their child(ren) get back into good daily routines, talking to them positively about school and by taking an interest in their learning.

You may be aware that the YMCA building in Kings Meadows closed down a few years ago but this City of Launceston site has been taken up by the St Vincent De Paul Society (Vinnies).  You may have noticed an article in The Examiner newspaper on 28 June where some of our students have been involved in a renaming project for the updated and improved site.  It is wonderful that students can contribute to an authentic project of this nature within our local community. As City of Launceston community connector Sarah McCormack stated in the article, the Council was helping build a sense of place and ownership that will benefit both the site and the community.  I am sure our students contributed some fabulous ideas and possible names for this community asset.

Yesterday, our Year 7 students participated in Poetry in Action and immunisation catchup day was held for students in Years 7 and 10.  Last Friday, we held a celebration afternoon tea for students who achieved outstanding results in their mid-year reports.  It is important that we acknowledge success, achievement and growth in all forms and this was a positive way to start the term and to reinforce our value of Growth. Congratulations to all students who were recognised.

You may have seen advertised the upcoming school Trivia Night on the evening of Friday, 8 August.  This is one of the major events for our Year 10 Student Leaders and requires extensive organisation and preparation.  I know that the team is actively seeking donations of prizes, so if you are an individual or business, or know someone you could persuade, I encourage you to reach out with the donation of a gift or service that could be provided.  I know that the students would really appreciate this.  This is always an enjoyable evening of fun competition, so I urge you to share this information with family and friends and get your table together for the Trivia Night.  Our catering students and staff will also be preparing and selling scrumptious food platters and mocktails on the night.  I encourage you to get involved and support our school community!

Schools have now received Individual Student Reports (ISR’s) for NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy) and these were provided to students in Year 7 and 9 to take home on Monday.  If your child has not shared this report with you, please let us know by contacting the school office.  These reports provide useful information about student achievement in key areas of literacy and numeracy.  They are also useful as these reports compare students from right across Australia.  As with any report, this data should be considered in context and as part of the broader information that we gather regarding student achievement and progress, such as Australian Curriculum Framework (ACF) reports and Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT). If you are interested, further information for interpreting reports and proficiency levels is available at:

• https://nap.edu.au/naplan/results-and-reports
• https://nap.edu.au/naplan/results-and-reports/proficiency-level-descriptions 

While we have a very capable and stable staff team, there are inevitably some changes from time to time. At the end of next week, we farewell Steph Sheedy.  Steph has been an integral member of our Mathematics teaching team over the last few years and we wish her well with her travels and employment overseas.  With some internal changes, her classes will primarily be taken over by Mrs Geet Deol, who is already part of our teaching team.  We also farewell Amanda Rittman and thank her for her service as part of the Education Facility Attendant (EFA) team. We also welcome Suzie Limbrick to our EFA team and Will Marshall to our Information Technology (ITS) support team, working only on a Thursday.  I am sure everyone will make our new staff feel part of our positive school community very quickly.

Looking ahead, Year 8, 9 and 10 Music, Dance and Drama students will be attending Launceston College’s production of ‘Once Upon a One More Time’ on Thursday, 7 August. That evening is also the next School Association Committee meeting and Write A Book In A Day occurs on 11 August for juniors and the following Monday, 18 August for senior students.

I look forward to an exciting, positive and productive Term 3 for our school community where everybody is embracing opportunities and accepting responsibilities.

Regards

Cary Stocks
Principal

As part of our Positive Behaviour Support Program at Kings Meadows we will be acknowledging students who have been contributing positively to our learning environment.  This means that they have been supporting our school-wide expectations.

Respect for others, self and environment

Organisation

Commitment to learning

Keeping safe

Sensible behaviour

We would like to acknowledge the following students:

Year 7:

Skye - For her persistence and resilience in the classroom when faced with challenges and change.   

Darcy – For being a supportive class member and helping others adapt to recent changes in our classroom. 

Year 9:

Alex - For improvement, commitment and participation in Health and Physical Education lessons during the term.

Jarvis - For demonstrating compassion and care for other students in his grade by helping them when he noticed a need.

I would like to start our Year 9 article in the newsletter by congratulating the following students who participated in the celebration lunch last week for being acknowledged for their high achievement in both academic learning and for their commitment to learning as demonstrated in their reports and continuous efforts last term:  Halle, Sarah, James, Charlotte, Caleb, Amalie, Bella, Oscar, Anabel, Isla, Nathan and Savvy.  While I was attending the lunch both Mr Chamberlain and Mr Stocks took the time to provide personalised speeches to all students in KMHS who were acknowledged.  Mr Stocks in particular, reinforced previous messages shared at our whole school assembly earlier this year by reminding all students to do their best in ‘embracing opportunities and accepting responsibility’.  I’m sure this will continue to be a focus throughout Term 3 as we progress further into the term.

A reminder to all parents that there are still opportunities to submit your feedback form from camp if you haven’t done so already and I would encourage you to take the time to supply feedback as this will not only help us improve camps for future years but will also help us acknowledge and share some of the successes of the camp to ‘Spring Beach’.  While one camp ended last term planning is also now underway for our Year 10 Melbourne trip and on Thursday last week, we shared this with students asking for expressions of interest for those who thought they might want to attend.   Numbers of students wanting to attend initially look quite high and we look forward to sharing more information with parents in the coming weeks.  During our grade assembly reminders were also shared about our uniform expectations and procedures and it was pleasing to note all students were in their correct uniform during the assembly.

Can I please ask parents/carers to have a talk with children about making sure that they have everything needed to achieve success in class this term as staff have noticed a number of students missing important resources needed to complete their learning during lessons, especially pens and pencils.

In our next newsletter I would like to focus on sharing some thoughts on our Year 9 achievements in NAPLAN this year as I have had the opportunity to look over some of our results as a cohort already and they are particularly encouraging, especially our achievement in reading which continues to be a major focus for our staff and School Improvement Plan.

YEAR 9 CONTACT DETAILS:

Leadership Staff

Support Staff