Writer in Residence @ Kunyung Program: Rowena Wiseman-Published Author

This week our Writers Workshop lunchtime program held its first Writer in Residence @ Kunyung lunchtime program. This was open for Years 3-6 students. Our Writer in Residence @ Kunyung program has been established to engage our serious young writers and will be open to our Junior school students in the future.

Writer in Residence: Rowena Wiseman – Published Author

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Rowena has offered her support and will be attending and making suggestions on how we can grow this program to benefit our young writers and illustrators. The students who attended our first Writer in Residence @ Kunyung were a pleasure to listen to. Their ability to compose rich questions reflected the talent of these students. Thank you Rowena!

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Rowena brought her notebook, drafts of published works and explained how she collected ideas, honed her skills as a writer and the resilience required to become a published author.

It was interesting to hear how a writer asks others to read their work, comment and make suggestions, as well as the editing process a published piece of writing is subjected to as part of the publishing process.

Rowena is a parent member of our school community. We are also seeking other community members (grandparents etc.) involved in a writing based profession e.g. illustrating, advertising, journalist to name a few to become involved in this exciting program.

Our aim is to have a Writer in Residence @ Kunyung each month. We would love to hear from you and invite you to become a part of our Writer in Residence @ Kunyung program. This is the beginning of a wonderful school initiative which we hope will engage more of our students as word spreads.

 

Welcome back to Term 4! :)

 NewsGood Day Kunyung Primary 

How great is it to be back!! The final Term of 2014 is going to be just as ‘jammed packed’ as the rest of the year…….and we love it!!

Let’s start Term 4 by looking back to the final week of Term 3……..in the midst of a wonderful and bright ‘Footy Day Parade’ and extremely talented ‘Star Search’ final……..our Senior Students shared their incredible learning in their EXHIBITION!

The comments from parents, students and teachers from neighbouring schools were overwhelmingly positive and such a credit to our students (and their wonderful teachers!)

Not only were our students able to articulate their learning and understanding of their inquiries, they were also able to take us through their learning journey by articulating the process of learning AND the action they wanted to take as a result! Very impressive indeed! J

Looking forward to this term………it started with a ‘bang’ on Monday (Not for students but definitely for staff!)

We were at a Professional Learning Day held at Mornington Primary School. There were over 110 staff from Mornington PS, Benton Junior College and Kunyung PS (All Local PYP Schools) and the focus of the day was ‘Visible Learning’- an important part of personalised learning and inquiry!

Here are some of my thoughts on the day

  • We have been working on developing a ‘Visible Learning Culture’ @ Kunyung for a couple of years and I think the day was affirmation of our choice of direction and of a lot of our current teaching practice.
  • The day also gave us things to really think about moving forward………..lots of questions for sure! The Professional conversations throughout the day were invaluable and have continued back at school! So much so we have dedicated next week’s staff meeting to further discussions about Visible Learning! (Please contact me if you would like to know more!)
  • There are many things that were discussed on the day that I think will shape our thinking during collaborative planning each week and also in classroom practice.news2
  • One thing I did think that we need to work towards is the development of a ‘Learning Process @ Kunyung’  …………………stay tuned! J
  • We have the ‘What to teach/learn’ in the form of continuums in the classroom, the attributes required to be a good Learner (What does a good learner look like), the attitudes and the skills BUT it’s time to be able to articulate the ‘How we are learning’ component!

Ultimately the main outcome of the day was to inspire our thinking back in the classroom……..how can we continue to support our students to understand what a ‘good learner’ says, makes and does! A really productive day! J

The first Units of Inquiry for this term are listed below! Please contact your child’s class teacher or myself if you would like to get involved! J

PREPS: Living things share resources in order to survive and grow (Sharing the planet)

JUNIORS: All living things are connected (Sharing the planet)

MIDDLES: Living things depend on each other and the environment to survive (Sharing the planet)

SENIORS: Children worldwide face a variety of challenges and risks (Who we are)

news4 Have a great first couple of days back and I look forward to seeing you around the school! 

 Cheers

 Kim Jackson

 Assistant Principal

COMMUNICATION @ KUNYUNG in 2014! :)

This year we created a Communication @ Kunyung strategy with the following purpose: To create better links between the school and students’ homes as this will encourage positive learning experiences for students as the more parents know about our school, the more likely they will be able to improve and support their child’s learning. Better communication also supports our efforts to build our school’s reputation.

Please find below a copy of the ‘Communication @ Kunyung’ Strategy that we would like your feedback on! Receiving feedback will be one way to improve communication in 2015! Please add a comment below! Perhaps mention anything you have liked so far, new ideas and/or ways we could improve some of our current ideas!  We can’t always do everything but we will give many things a go! 🙂

Action Target   Audience Timing Responsibility

Start   of Year Communication

Welcome week ‘Parents and teachers consider communication the number one factor to   increase trust (Adams and Christenson, 2000)’ – letter / welcome classroom   environment / listening / phone calls, directing lost parents to the correct   area / person, etc. All families Term 1, Week 129 – 31/01/14 All staff
Prep Parents’ Morning Tea Prep Parents Week 1, Friday31/01/14 Prep team

Regular All Year Communication

Assemblies  All parents All staff
BlogsMaintain a lively, informative school blog, including introductory   information (usually in parent information handbook)More information to follow – What to include / person/s responsible   e.g.General information – Level leaderLiteracy information – Literacy PLT level leaderNumeracy information – Numeracy PLT level leaderTransdisciplinary information – Transdisciplinary PLT level leader All parents Introductory information – by 13/02/14Then regularly throughout the year Level LeadersPLT level leadersSpecialist teachers
Skoolbag App All parents Regularly throughout the year All staff (Level Leaders in particular)
Newsletters All parents Regularly throughout the year

Whole   School Events

Getting to Know You InterviewsPurpose:Teachers should take the opportunity to gather background information,   to answer the parents’ questions, to address their concerns, and to help   define their role in the learning process. The parents should take the   opportunity to provide the teacher with the cultural context of the student’s   learning (MTPYPH pg. 52) All parents Week 4, Term 117 & 19/02/14 Classroom teachers
Family Picnic Lunch / Open   classrooms Lunch: 1.30 – 2.30Open classrooms: 2.30 – 3.30pm (NB: No senior sport) All parents Friday: Week 5, Term 128/02/14 Classroom teachersPrincipal class
Carnival All families Week 7, Term 114/03/14 Assistant Principal
Grandparents’ morningTea and scones – 10amChildren write an invitation to their grandparents Grandparents Term 2, Week 2:9 – 10Classroom Leadership Team
Student-led tours(MTPYPH pg. 52) Term 2 -Education WeekDuring Planning sessions
Three-way conferences(MTPYPH pg. 52) Term 2,Last week
Written reports(MTPYPH pg. 53) Terms 2 and 4
Morning Tea with Principals  All parents Term 3 Principal class

Learning   @ Kunyung Primary School

Learning @ Kunyung 1:   Reading with your children Thursday, 20/03/14:2 – 3.30pm Literacy PLT leader
Learning @ Kunyung 2:   Learning and Teaching Tuesday,Term 26.30 – 7.30pm Transdisciplinary PLT leader
Learning @ Kunyung 3:   Numeracy 9.30 – 11Term 3 Numeracy PLT leader
Learning @ Kunyung 4:   Literacy 9.00 – 10Term 3 Literacy PLT leader
Prep presentation eveningFOCUS: Science Expo Prep parents & interested community members Term 32.30 – 3.30pm
Juniors presentation eveningFOCUS: Science Expo Junior parents & interested community members Term 36.00 – 7.30pm
Middles presentation eveningFOCUS: Night of Explorers Middles parents & interested community members Term 36.00 – 7.30pm
Seniors presentation eveningExhibition ‘How we share the planet’(MTPYPH pg. 53) Seniors parents & interested community members Term 46.00 – 7.30pm