Dear Kunyung Families!

What a wonderful community spirit we are lucky to have!

Just to name a couple of highlights……..Fair organisation, Family Picnic, Open Classrooms, Lucy K driving the Eco Schools Program with our Eco Monitors,  including the Kitchen Garden design which is nearing completion, Fiona M working quietly and regularly in our Resource Rooms, Mr Jepson and the Year 6 ‘I See I Care’ Leaders swimming with the dolphins, hosting the Dolphin Research Institute student/teacher meeting, Bronwyn B meeting with all of our enthusiastic Contact Parents……the list just goes on…….

Whilst all of these supporting acts are going on………our students are learning, learning, learning!!!

THIS COMMUNITY SPIRIT SUPPORTS OUR CURRICULUM (Teaching & Learning) 
OUR CORE BUSINESS!

Last week we looked at one of our BIG curriculum ideas- ‘Learners Teaching Learners’…..
This week we move onto INQUIRY!
“Inquiry based Learning” (The process initiated by the students or the teacher that moves the students from their current level of understanding to a new and deeper level of understanding.)

At Kunyung it can mean students:
• exploring, wondering and questioning
• experimenting and playing with possibilities
• making connections between previous learning and current learning
• making predictions and acting purposefully to see what happens
• collecting data and reporting findings
• clarifying existing ideas and reappraising perceptions of events
• deepening understanding through the application of a concept
• making and testing theories
• researching and seeking information
• taking and defending a position
• solving problems in a variety of ways.

It can also look like students working through the stages of an Inquiry Cycle as they explore their Unit of Inquiry! The Kunyung Inquiry Cycle looks like this…….

Our teachers and students will spend this year deciding as a class what we might ‘think’ and ‘say’ at each stage of the inquiry cycle, what they might do at each stage and what it might look like if they were successful at each stage of the cycle!

Inquiries can be personal, teacher driven, student driven or collaborative………throughout the year our students will have the chance to experience all of these different types of inquiry! 🙂

Inquiry isn’t the only way to best learn but it is our lead way @ Kunyung….

To finish with a lovely experience, I met with the Preps last week! When I asked them what they thought my job or responsibility was in the school, these were some of their responses…..
‘You use a computer’
‘You walk around the school’
‘You check to see if we are learning’
‘You make sure we are happy’
After our conversation they left my office with the understanding that ‘I am a teacher and that I teach the teachers!’
They thought this was very funny but seemed to be impressed at the same time!
Ahhhh…….working with Preps……gotta love what they think and say! 🙂

Have a lovely week everyone!

Kim Jackson

Good Day Kunyung! 🙂

What an absolute delight to see you all back so bright eyed and bushy tailed- ready to learn!

To start our curriculum journey for 2016 I just wanted to revise our BIG curriculum ideas!

If someone asked you what makes Kunyung learning so great……..here are some complex ideas written as simple statements!

“Learners teaching learners” (Students, Parents and Teachers)

“Inquiry based” (Learning how to find out for oneself and not just being told information)

“Concept Driven” (Understanding BIG transferrable ideas)

“Gratitude, Empathy & Mindfulness” (Developing a balanced student)

“Learner Agency” (Taking ownership of one’s own learning)

“Personalisation of Learning” (Learning that is at a student’s point of need)

Each week we will break down these simple statements so we ALL understand how curriculum works @ Kunyung!

Let’s make Kunyung even greater in 2016!! 😉

Good Day Kunyung!

This fortnight has been another ‘typical’ Kunyung fortnight……………learning, learning, learning and some more learning- and that was just the teachers!!
Through some wonderful life experiences and through some explicit, ‘sense of urgency’ teaching and learning we are ‘humming’ along in more ways than one……………..we also received our Staff School Survey results back and I have outlined two of our most positive areas- even though they were all great!

COLLECTIVE EFFICACY and RESPONSIBILITY………say what?
Our Staff School Survey results showed that our staff strongly believe we have a high amount of collective efficacy at Kunyung- that we all have a responsibility for the planning, teaching and assessment of all students in our teams…..what does that actually look like? Here are some examples…..

·       Every week staff bring their class Student Data to our planning meetings- we look at this maths and reading data and discuss what teaching needs to be the focus for the following week, how we can move students further along in their learning and how far are they away from reaching their next benchmark (how can we get them there?). We discuss what direction the students want to take in our Unit of Inquiry and what are we actually looking for in our students to be able to say ‘Yep, they understand that!’

·       Teachers have been completing assessments that will inform end of year school reports and part of that process has been ‘moderating’ student work. At our weekly collaborative planning meetings, teachers have brought in samples of student writing to share, ask questions about and decide on a level as a team. We have discussed maths outcomes and reading levels- trying to share our collective experience, understanding and thoughts. Our aim has been to give every student the best possible opportunity to demonstrate their learning before a final assessment is made!

TRUST IN PARENTS & STUDENTS
Another area of high scoring was the trust our staff have in you as parents AND the faith we have in our students’ ability to learn! How positive is that!!! It matches the high result from the Parent Opinion Survey that showed the high level of trust you have in our staff!

We thought that perhaps the work we are putting into opening up communication channels (Skoolbag app, newsletter, blog, diaries) between home and school, in regard to the ‘learning’ and events happening around the school, that parents have more of an idea about what is being learnt at school and how best to support their children. Our Staff have TRUST in you guys….what a compliment to you!!!!

Our staff also have confidence in your children’s ability to learn! Our work on developing a Visible Learning Culture where not only do teachers know What is being learnt, How best will it be learnt and How will we know what has been learnt BUT your children know the answers to these questions as well!!!! Our staff know that not all students are working at the same level (In fact our teachers know EXACTLY where your children are and so do they!!) but they have confidence that your children are al capable of learning and to be the best they can be…………

Just wanted to further reinforce two of the many positive things our staff feel about our school………..

Meanwhile in other news……..

Our Preps have been observing things in the environment they we have a responsibility for and, acting as custodians, as they learn about Sharing our Planet through the eyes of an environmental scientist! Reading and writing is starting to ‘take off’ and the Prep Swimming Program has just finished!!!!! Excitement reigns supreme!!!!!!

Over in ‘Junior Land’ our Juniors have also been looking at the world through the eyes of an Environmental Scientist……their focus being on structural features and adaptations help living things survive in the environment.
Their focus is on ‘how things function’ in the environment and that we all have roles to play if things are going to work!

Our Middle Students, not to be outdone, are spending time inquiring into how we organise ourselves. Their focus is on how we create organisations and systems to meet personal, local and global needs. They are looking at the systems and organisations we create to assist us in our learning. What roles do we play in these systems?

Our Senior Students have continued their inquiry into ‘Who we are’ and are spending time deeply thinking about what makes a ‘balanced’ person. It has been a perfect way to approach transition and has allowed students to address some of their concerns, worries, fears and excitement about growing up! A highlight has been the Family Life Program run by Family Life Victoria! Kelli is a wonderful presenter and the Seniors have approached such issues as developing positive relationships with maturity and confidence (and Kelli’s humorous approach has certainly supported these discussions!) SB have also been fortunate to have welcomed into their classroom, Ulli, grandmother of one of our Preps. She has worked with SB on developing the positive attributes inside them and attributes that a confident and resilient person displays. How lucky are we to have such expertise in our community! J

Let’s not forget FRENCH DAY next week………….our students will look amazing!!

Now……..after reading ALL OF THAT………which Learner Profile attributes do you think our students and teachers have exhibited over the past fortnight????? Have a look below and try to identify some they may have not only used but had the opportunity to develop!!!!

IB LEARNER PROFILE
The aim of all IB programmes is to develop internationally minded people who, recognising their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more peaceful world. The IB learner profi­le represents 10 attributes valued by IB World Schools. We believe these attributes, and others like them, can help individuals and groups become responsible members of local, national and global communities.
IB learners strive to be:

Good Day Kunyung Families!

‘Long time no newsletter article from me’……..well, to be honest, I had a lesson in ‘flexibility’ and ‘adaptability’ last week…….I wrote my newsletter article twice and lost it ‘into the ether’ both times!!!

I admit that I was grumpy and frustrated with myself as it took quite some time to construct and, let’s be honest, we are all time poor! So maybe my lesson was really in ‘backing up my work’ or ‘not rushing’???

I’m not really sure what it taught me specifically BUT I do know that I could have looked at my situation through so many different lenses and I would have learnt a good lesson that could transfer into any situation!

FLEXIBILITY- Things are NOT always going to go as planned!

ADAPTABILITY- always look for a PLAN B!
SAVING- It’s always safer to save- just in case!

TIME MANAGEMENT- Manage your precious time so, if things don’t work out, you have time to fix it!
For me, these BIG understandings were far more important to take out of my lesson than the simple one of what my newsletter article was actually about!! (Ha! Not that it wasn’t excellent reading!!!!)
This is what IB calls ‘concept driven’ learning……..and it’s how we learn at Kunyung!
We use concepts to drive our teaching…….these are the BIG IDEAS that can be transferred and applied in many life situations. They are timeless and not value laden!
You may have heard your children talking about them (or not!) but once a concept is chosen, teachers use this concept in all areas in the classroom.

The key concepts include: responsibility, reflection, connection, perspective,

form, function, causation, change

Some example related concepts include: bias, evidence, opinion, loss, systems, consequences
You can probably see that these ideas are not ‘taught’ in a lesson but are used during class time tasks to develop an understanding of what they mean and why they are important to understand!

Our curriculum is ‘INQUIRY BASED and CONCEPT DRIVEN’ and all staff @ Kunyung work together to develop this………….please just ask if you would like any further information about how we use CONCEPTS to drive our teaching and learning!! 🙂

Please look below at our new Units of Inquiry for all Level Teams- this will be the final Unit of Inquiry for 2015 for all levels…….as always please contact me, or your child’s class teacher, if you would like to assist with any of the inquiries below!

PREPS

THEME: Sharing the Planet
CENTRAL IDEA

Living things share resources in order to survive and grow
AN INQUIRY INTO

Characteristics of living and non-living things

Plants and animals having similar needs

The need to share resources to sustain plants and animals

CONCEPT: Responsibility

RELATED CONCEPT: Custodianship

JUNIORS

THEME: How the World Works
CENTRAL IDEA

Structural features and adaptations help living things survive in the environment.
AN INQUIRY INTO

Adaptations that help survival

How adaptations aid animal survival

Adaptations of living things suited for particular Australian environments
CONCEPT: Function
RELATED CONCEPT: Roles

MIDDLES
THEME: How we Organise Ourselves
CENTRAL IDEA:
Organisations and systems are created to meet personal, local and global needs.
AN INQUIRY INTO

Personal, local and global needs

The structures of organisations.

The functions of and within organisations

Local and Global Organisations
CONCEPT: Connection
RELATED CONCEPT: Roles and Responsibilities
SENIORS

THEME: Sharing the Planet

CENTRAL IDEA

Personal well-being is dependent on a complex balance of interconnected factors
AN INQUIRY INTO

The concept of ‘well-being’

Factors that contribute to well-being

Personal issues affecting our well-being
CONCEPT: CAUSATION, RESPONSIBILITY
RELATED CONCEPT: adaption, growth, relationships

Have a lovely week and GOOD LUCK to all of our previous Kunyung students who are right in the middle of Year 12 Exams! Do your very best and remember that an ATAR score doesn’t define you, there are many ways to measure your success as a member of the community- a score is one way only……
Happy Days

Kim Jackson
Assistant Principal
PYP Coordinator

Dear Kunyung Families! 🙂

Firstly…….major apologies for such a large gap between posts!!

Don’t think for one minute that there hasn’t been any teaching and learning happening at Kunyung- quite the opposite actually!!

The problem has been that I have been in Elaine’s Principal position for the past 7 weeks and…… to be honest…..simply forgot to add anything to the blog!

It has been a great reminder to me that, when things are going well, we do tend to stop thinking about them or prioritising them. It’s a bit like us, as parents, when our children are reading well……we stop listening to them read, stop asking them about reading or don’t bother reading the blog about reading! We just put it to the back of our minds because our children can read!

It’s the same when something isn’t going as well as we would like- we obsess over it, ask a million questions about it, read blogs on it, speak all the time about it…….

I guess I have been reminded that, like everything in life, moderation is the key! 

So, back to me and this teaching and learning blog………I didn’t need to post HEAPS of information on it but I shouldn’t have left it alone so completely either!!

We are always learning and I look forward to sharing with you your children’s learning over the coming weeks! 🙂

Cheers and here’s to a wonderful final term of the year! 🙂

Kim Jackson

Assistant Principal

Well... we have nearly reached the end of Term 3 and, it could be said, that it has been a fairly busy one!

With so much going on in our daily lives it is so easy to get caught up with the ‘busyness’ of it all and not take the time to be ‘present’ in the moment and to really enjoy what we are experiencing.

Elaine and I spent time talking with other PYP schools at a recent day in Geelong about how to develop mentally healthy people (adults and children).

We discussed the importance of being grateful for what we have, displaying empathy for others and being mindful and present in the moment we are living in……not always thinking about the next 10 things we have to do!
We discussed the importance of good nutrition, a good night’s sleep and participating in physical activity to sustain healthy people both mentally and physically.

These things have never been more relevant and topical as the present time…….so what does that mean for our school community?

As a staff we are talking about how we can continue to foster these elements of being mentally well in our everyday practice, not only educating with these factors as a driving force BUT also modelling these practices to our students.

What are some ways this can flow on from school to home…….spending time in the day talking about ‘What went well today?’ and ‘Tell me something that you really thought you or your friend did well today’ at dinner time can change the whole way of thinking of your children. Focussing on what went well turns the conversation into a positive one!

Encouraging our children to show acts of gratitude ‘Thank you for sharing that with me’, ‘I really like how you did that drawing’ are ways that not only make others feel good but make the person making the statement feel good as well!

Putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes is something that can be encouraged, modelled and, more often than not, comes naturally to children….if someone is being mean to your child, asking them ‘Why do you think they might be doing this?’ ‘What could you do to help this person to be nicer to others?’……..only slight changes but it is modelling how to think in a positive manner…….

Short, daily meditation sessions assist people to give their brains a rest from the hustle and bustle of daily life……our staff are trialling the use of an app called ‘Smiling Minds’ in classrooms…….providing our students with the opportunity to be present in the moment and rest their minds. It is recommended that you download this app and try it with your family!

As we enter the school holidays perhaps you might try some of these ideas and work with us to really try to develop a positive psychology and vibe @ Kunyung Primary School. Being positive and trying creative and imaginative solutions to solving problems is one sure way to model to our children how to stay positive and be mentally well!

Thank you! We have so many things to be grateful for as members of our school and local community and Term 3 events such as the Marvellous Musical are reminders of this! Once again we would like to thank Mrs Lynne Edwards, our staff, parents and our gorgeous students for the effort and support they displayed in putting this community event together!

Good Day All! 🙂

Just a little reflection I wanted to share!

We are always encouraging our students to be risk takers with their learning, try something new and always look for better, more efficient ways of doing things; be curious by asking questions and thinking deeply about problems to find solutions we say! 🙂

It amazes me that, as adults, we do these things without thinking. We are ‘unconsciously skilled’ at using these learning attributes and finding solutions. I believe that I am able to demonstrate these things calmly (mostly!) and without much fuss!!

ENTER THE NEW COMPUTER INTO MY LIFE…………

Moving from a Lenovo notebook to a Mac has taken me back to being a true learner!! I am hamstrung when trying to complete basic computer tasks, I am learning a new language- things look the same but work differently, what would normally take 2 minutes takes 10, moving all of my information from one computer to the other (using an external hard drive I might add????!!!!) is proving so ‘beyond my understanding’ that it still isn’t done…..I feel like a member of the CSI MIAMI Team as I move between multiple computers to complete tasks!! I have been given really valuable and explicit, east to understand instructions on how to do this BUT it is just not computing…….

Basically.……everything that is familiar to me has become unfamiliar in a micro second!!

So…….what am I going to do? Sit back, as I have for the past 4 days, and pretend the problem doesn’t exist OR use the attributes and attitudes we encourage our students to use on a daily basis!!

The latter I say!

Tomorrow I shall:

* Find an expert in Macs and ask lots of questions…LOOK OUT those peeps!

* Find someone who has already transferred their data for more information on the process they used and to seek clarification

How we ask children to show what they know is incredibly important when gathering prior knowledge. We can’t assume what a student knows. One of our Junior students, Will, chose to draw a map to show his way home. Wow!

The question was ‘open’. Our students could have chosen to build or draw the way to their home. What did we learn? We learnt that Will has an innate sense of direction, ability to visualize and sketch maps.

The ‘right’ questions are the key to finding out what a student knows, so we can plan what a student needs/wants to learn and how best she/he will learn. This is an example of the Kunyung Learning Cycle (picture 1) in action.

I hope your holidays were everything your family wanted, or needed, them to be!

What bright, happy faces we were greeted with on Tuesday morning, and that included the parents! The children were so happy to see friends and teachers, and so switched on to start learning, that classrooms were alive with conversations, stories and questioning! (Whilst Monday was an extremely productive day for our staff……..work doesn’t feel right without children there!)

Our daily Reading, Writing and Maths routines are in full swing and our Inquiries have started with excitement and enthusiasm…………..children are natural inquirers as we know and the questions have been coming thick and fast already!

Our Preps are being scientists and inquiring into what makes things move! They will be looking at the BIG IDEA of CONSEQUENCES through experimenting with many different objects and discovering what makes them move and why? They will be learning the skills of being a scientist and I can’t wait to share with you their questions and findings over the next few weeks!

Our Juniors are inquiring into the processes that products go through and their BIG IDEA is CHANGE. They are visiting the YAKULT factory this week to see the origins of a product and the process these materials go through to become a useable product. The questions asked by our students at the factory have been amazing- get ready for many questions about how things are made parents!!

Our Middles started with a ‘bang’ also on Tuesday with the provocation ‘what ideas, beliefs, values are important to you’ and ‘if you had to express these to aliens how could you do it?’ Their inquiry is looking at how people express these things to others and how do we know this? The BIG IDEA is REFLECTION and what EVIDENCE can we find to support our thinking!

Our Seniors spent yesterday in Melbourne at the Immigration and Chinese Museums………their inquiry is focussed on immigration and the impact it has on individuals and communities. The students have been asked to put a box together that represents their families’ history including evidence of any movement or relocation they have been involved in.

The teachers also spent time this week inquiring! Our three Professional Learning Teams used Monday as a Project Day’. The Mathematics Team, Literacy Team and Transdisciplinary Team set goals for the day and, after expending the kind of energy you see on the Amazing Race, achieved many of the set goals. There is a common understanding at Kunyung about how we teach our students and Monday was ensuring all of our planning documents, big ideas and skill based continuums, for example, were consistent throughout the school and  all up to date and accessible. It was both a productive and enjoyable day with a clear purpose. In all rooms, where teams were working, it was ‘heads down’ and work, work, work!

As I said at the start of this article, it was ‘hit the ground running’ at Kunyung this week and, when I think about it, it’s only Thursday!!!!I

I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible throughout the term and just can’t wait for the Musical!!!!

Kim Jackson

Assistant Principal

Good Day Kunyung Families 

Having worked in quite a few schools over a number of years, I have seen many similarities and differences in workplaces.  A similarity in all the schools I have noticed is parent interest and comment on a school’s curriculum. I think that parents, in general, really want to make sure that what their children are learning is the best it can be (Which is awesome!) and I love the fact that parents feel they can share their thinking with the school. (On that note, a HUGE THANK YOU for taking the time to see our school in action for our Student Led Tours- we were so proud of our students and their ability to articulate their learning to you all!) J

We really appreciate the feedback we get from parents and, always consider what has been communicated to us. Does it mean we can, or will be able to, implement every suggestion that we get? No………that would not be possible BUT in the crazy, busy place that a school is……time is always given to consider suggestions and look for possible ways to address ideas! Some solutions are quick and easy and others take time to develop plans for implementation, some are considered and not acted on at all. Please know that we have many hours of discussions and planning per week to ensure we have a well-balanced, rigorous and dynamic curriculum that will allow all of our students to develop and grow!

We recognise that we can always improve on our curriculum and there are many factors that influence this growth and development. Some include:

1. STAFF: We are our own worst enemies as we push ourselves to be the best teachers we can be- always reflecting!
2. STUDENTS: Another push to improve comes from our students! As they accept more and more ownership of their learning, they raise their expectations of what we need to provide for them!
3. PARENTS: Many parents communicate with us the areas they would like to see lifted or focussed on and their thoughts, feelings and questions about what we are teaching.

A couple of areas of focus being developed, as a result of student, teacher and parental feedback, include our School’s Spelling Program and Sustainability @ Kunyung Initiative.

Spelling @ Kunyung

All classes have outlined their current spelling practices in Level Teams and have decided to make spelling (as part of writing) an enhanced focus for 2015 and beyond. As well as maintaining current evidence based practice, we have discussed ways to further develop our spelling program. We want improved spelling results that can be evidenced in student writing not just improved results in isolated spelling tests.

We have decided that all students- particularly Years 1-4 will be using the online program Spellodrome for homework, as a way to support our classroom focus. We would really appreciate parental support at home to help us really lift our students spelling and the quality of their writing as a result. Each class teacher will be outlining their expectation for weekly spelling homework and information will also be available on the Kunyung Level Team Blogs.

Sustainability @ Kunyung

In the coming weeks the KEAST/I See I Care Team will be launching our Sustainability @ Kunyung Program. Dave Walker is our KEAST Teacher and he is going to be supported by Jenny Mann from Bunnings, Lucy (Noah’s mum JM) and Alison (April’s mum JI) to launch our program. We will be looking at ways to authentically link to our Units of Inquiry and make our changes sustainable:

Term 3 Units of Inquiry with a possible Sustainability Link:

PREPS

CENTRAL IDEA

Living things share resources in order to survive and grow

JUNIORS

CENTRAL IDEA

Earth’s resources including water are used in a variety of ways

MIDDLES

CENTRAL IDEA

Earth’s surface changes over time as a result of natural processes and human activity

Our new program may involve activities like (These tasks will be determined by the students so are only a guide at this stage):

1. The election/choice of 2 ‘eco monitors’ from each class.
2. A composting process in each class
3. Development of kitchen gardens
4. Active use of worms farms and composting bins
5. Work on reducing the ‘litter’ in the yard/Nude Food
6. Designing signs to promote respecting our facilities ie. Toilets

Our Units of Inquiry look something like this for the rest of Term 2…………………..the Preps and Middles are looking into ‘How we express ourselves’, the Juniors and Seniors are looking into ‘How we organise ourselves’ The Seniors have a focus on Entrepreneurship.

Parents are invited to attend a short Parent Forum on Tuesday 9^th June @ 5.30 (In Kunyung’s Conference Room). The purpose of the forum is to provide input into our 2015 IB PYP Evaluation process.

Kim Jackson (Assistant Principal)