Dear Families

It definitely is Winter!

And what a significant event that happened in Launceston last week to remind us that winter is here. My father is in his 80's and he cannot recall seeing snow of this magnitude in and around Launceston. I, like many, awoke my household at 2.00am to go outside to see the beautiful serene picture of snow all around our house. There is definitely a quite tranquil and peaceful feeling when it is snowing, and it settles gently on the ground and fauna like icing on a cake.

After a careful drive to school admiring the hills and suburbs all covered in snow, I arrived at another beautiful scene at school.  (Please have a look at the video and pictures below). After doing a site scan and mitigating some safety risk areas which needed to be blocked off, we welcomed our excited students to school. Recess and lunch time also proved to be a joy with students having fun in the sun and SNOW! To hear the squeals of excitement and harmless snowball fights was such a delight.

Retreat Day

Another fabulous occasion at school was our recent Retreat Day. Initially first tabled by the Grade 7 team as they had missed the opportunity to attend camp this year and spend time getting to know each other better and build relationships, it was easily decided that all grades would partake in a Retreat Day. Wellbeing continues to be a priority for us at Kings Meadows High School and this day enabled all grades to spend the day undertaking activities that were fun, cooperative and focussed on relationship building, friendship and supporting one another. Thank you to all staff for all the extra work in planning and running this successful day.

Assembly

Last Tuesday we held our first face to face, live assembly with all students in the gymnasium. This was the first assembly that this year’s Prefect Board have been able to co-ordinate and they did an exceptional job. Again, it was wonderful to see so many students receive awards, certificates and accolades as well as conduct and perform in front of their peers.

We have to ensure we adhere to COVID restrictions which means adults in the gym have to be physically distanced still and good hygiene practices present. At this stage we are still not sure what the end of year assemblies will look like due to restrictions but will keep families informed, particularly Grade 10 student families.

Excursions

We are now able to undertake school excursions as long as we adhere to the Health Department restrictions when we leave our school site. We have a very clear COVID safety plan which is available for both on-site and off-site visitors on request and we also ensure any off-site excursions are risk assessed including knowledge and understanding of COVID procedures wherever students go.

Last week our Packages of Learning students visited Crisp Brothers to learn more about the steel fabrication and engineering company. Thank you to Mr Wood for co-ordinating.

Academic Competitions

Last week we had a large number of students undertake the Australian Maths Competition. We have a vast number of competitions that become available for our students throughout the year and it is a wonderful opportunity for students to stretch and challenge themselves. It is also a fabulous edition to personal academic portfolios to have participated in such competitions. Thank you to Mrs Claire Lovitt for facilitating and supervising these competitions.   

CANVAS for Parents

Kings Meadows High School is a pilot school to introduce parent access to Canvas – our Department’s Learning Management System.

To take advantage of the platform’s capacity to also share information between home and school Kings Meadows High School will be using Canvas Parent to enhance the way our school communicates with families about the learning progress of their children. Canvas Parent will enable parents/carers to review upcoming or past assignments, receive alerts for student activity and most importantly, see ongoing teacher feedback for your child in order to progress their learning.

Please see the information following this report regarding this new app which we believe will be an excellent way for parents and families to continue to work together with the school around student learning.

Communication Procedures

A reminder to all families and carers that if you need to communicate with your child during the day please go through the main office. Also, if your child needs to communicate with you, we ask that they do this through the school grade teams or the main office. This is particularly important if they are unwell or injured as we need to ensure we follow our processes to track and monitor student welfare and wellbeing as our duty of care responsibilities require. If they message or call independently, we cannot do this.

The “Off and Away” mobile policy only allows students to check their phones at recess and lunch and they need to be secured in their lockers at other times. This is an Education Department requirement and we need to follow these instructions.

Absences can be communicated by phoning the school office on 6343 1000 or through the Schoolzine App “Absentee or Contact Us” tab.