Dear Kunyung Families! 🙂

Surely it hasn’t been a year since I started at Kunyung Primary School??

Well, actually, it has and I have to say….it has flown by at break neck speed!

Kunyung is the third school I have worked at and I have to say that it has quickly become my favourite! I have loved everything about it- the CHILDREN, PARENTS, STAFF, CURRICULUM and let’s not forget the BAY VIEW!!!!

Learning @ Kunyung………..

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”  
―     Benjamin Franklin

Kunyung Primary School is an ‘Inquiry Based’ School……………….we not only want to teach explicit skills (which we recognise are important and essential to learn) but we want to involve our students in the learning of them! We promote asking questions, understanding where you are in your learning journey, what you know and what you need to know! We want students to know where to find the information to answer their own questions, interpret this information and present it to an audience!

We are well on the way on this journey as I have witnessed so much authentic learning in my constant travels around the school and I have very rarely seen any student who wasn’t thoroughly engaged in their learning!

Through Assemblies we have recognised individual students’ and their achievements or efforts and highlighted so much of the wonderful student learning through class presentations!

Communicating this learning to parents has been a focus this year. Hosting parent morning teas, family picnics, open afternoons and parent information forums as well as implementing some digital initiatives (Newsletter, Blogs and Skoolbag App) has hopefully increased the home/school communication channels. 2014 will see us work harder to develop some of these new ideas….our aim is to keep you as up-to-date as possible with what’s happening at our school!

As well as the traditional Kunyung Events such as the Musical and many sporting events- we also entered our very first Aerobics Team in the State Schools Aerobics Competition! We also reintroduced Fun Fitness Friday which has seen us currently exiting Warnambool!

Kunyung is a happy, vibrant place to be……………….our students are divine and deserve the best learning environment we can possibly provide!

Thank you for allowing us to teach your children! Get on board for 2014 as it promises to be bigger and better!! 🙂

The Teaching and Admin Staff at KPS wish you and your families a wonderful, restful and safe Christmas and New Year’s break! Enjoy the time with your children and we look forward to seeing you all back Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed in 2014!!

Cheers

Kim Jackson XX

 

WOW! The Kunyung Fun Fitness Friday Team have run/walked to Warnambool so far…………that’s approx. 362 kms!!!!!!

Some super efforts have been rewarded so far for children achieving a personal distance of 10 kms and we are now seeing students approaching the 20 km mark!! Our first student to do so is one of our Preps Sebastian Farrelly!!!! Super Job! 🙂

We have over 110 members of our community participating every Friday morning SO ‘Come on down……’ if you would like to join us! We are on the oval every Friday morning starting at 8:20!!

Thanks again to all the parents who come and support the mornings- many also participating in the exercise with their children and toddlers! ALL WELCOME!!

Hope to see you there!! 🙂

 

Please have a look at an expert on Emotional Intelligence! What does it mean? Why is it important? How can we develop Emotionally Intelligent children?

Thanks to some of our parents for making Emotional Intelligence something we want our children and teachers to further develop @ Kunyung PS! 🙂

Firstly, what a wonderful day was had by all last Wednesday for French Day! 🙂

The children sparkled and the day was full of learning and excitement! How cool was the fashion parade!! 🙂 Loved it!

Now, where were we……..We have spent this year breaking down the essential elements of PYP! We have looked at Transdisciplinary Skills, Learner Profile Attributes and Attitudes in the newsletter and on the blog! We haven’t broken down the next essential element of TRANSDISCIPLINARY THEMES but we do refer to them all the time. Let’s just take a minute to explore them. They are listed in colour but in brackets I have included the umbrella they may have fallen under in my day!!!!! (I know that most parents at the school are now younger than me!!!! :()

Who we are (Personal & Social Studies)

Where we are in Place & Time (History & Geography)

How the World Works (Chemical & Physical Science)

How we organise ourselves (Social Studies)

Sharing the Planet (Biological and Earth Science)

How we express Ourselves (The Arts)

So, as you can see, the content of what we learnt hasn’t gone anywhere- it’s been repackaged and made quite clear and succinct with the focus on HOW the children learn about these themes not WHAT they learn! It allows for the focus to be on developing the skills to find out about their world as opposed to being told ‘This is what you need to know, remember it and we will test you to make sure you know it!’ This is great for children (like me!) who have a good memory but not so good for those who don’t! Even worse is when you start to consider how much of that information you actually retained form these kind of sessions at school!! I studied the VIKINGS in Year 6 and don’t remember a thing……..I do remember getting an ‘A’ for my ‘project’ though because of the beautiful presentation!!! I think I drew small versions of Asterix all around the border!!!! Should that have made it worthy of an ‘A’????

Yes, presentation is an important component of research and inquiry, but the focus is on providing students with a wide variety of ways to present their understanding and to make informed choices about which way would best suit the purpose! I digress…………………

Each level in the school completes a UNIT OF INQUIRY into each of these 6 themes every year. So, for the mathematicians out there, that equates to 42 Units of Inquiry the children participate in over their 7 years @ Kunyung PS!

It is during these Units of Inquiry (and also through Maths and Literacy) that we model and explicitly teach the other essential elements (Skills, Attitudes, Attributes) and promote the taking of ACTION (The 5th and final essential element!)

The Units are carefully planned for by each teaching team , with a BIG focus on ‘Is this idea actually worth knowing?’ and ‘What do we want the children to understand about this?’ We carefully plan learning tasks to support this and slowly but surely we are handing the direction of these units over to the children! This is our next stage of development. This is based on the theory: When do you learn something best “When you have a need or purpose for finding out!!!!” 

Check out the Juniors Blog as they have posted some great examples of good questions to ask your children at home! 🙂

The final article for 2014 will be focused on Assessment! So until then hope you are enjoying the ‘business’ of Term 4!!

Cheers

Kim Jackson 🙂

Time flies when you are having fun………that’s what this job @ Kunyung is to me!! Hard work BUT lots of FUN!! (Yes! I’m a curriculum nerd and love everything about it!!)

Whilst we are doing so much this year to further develop our teaching practice, further develop our use of INQUIRY in the classrooms and further develop gaining consistency in the way we do things across the school………….I had an interesting question from a parent during a recent discussion!

He said to me…..’Look! We are already sold on this school but what exactly are the benefits of being an IB PYP School?’

Great question!!!

At Kunyung we are an INQUIRY based school…………………this basically means that we explicitly teach, and support our students to, take responsibility for their own learning. This can be done by developing their ability to ask good questions, showing them how to find out information that will help them to find answers, interpret this information and present it to an audience. They can take responsibility for their own learning through knowing what they are learning, why they are learning it and what they will need to learn next.

EXPLICIT teaching of important skills in Reading, writing, spelling and Mathematics are still a most important aspect of our daily teaching but articulating to our students what we are learning and why has become equally important. It’s actually called developing a ‘Visible Thinking Culture’ and is becoming a most prominent part of Kunyung’s daily curriculum programs!

Empowering our students with the skills to learn about ANYTHING, and to do so as a collaborative team member are the skills required for 21st Century living!

Any schools can do these things….you don’t need to be an IB School to be an INQUIRY based school!

SO………………what are our students getting that makes us so wonderful!!

TEACHERS PERSPECTIVE: IB PYP Schools have a framework that ALL classroom teachers and administrators adhere to as part of our IB contract! We have a set of Standards and Practices that are both rigorous and of the highest quality, that we need to meet to continue to be authorised. These Standards and Practices generally take a while to ‘kick in’ in a new IB school……. but once the school understands them and what they mean- it is like an ‘Ah Ha!’ moment! This has been my experience in the 3 IB Schools I have been involved in! Kunyung is on the way!! 🙂 IB send out school reviewers to conduct thorough reviews of IB schools to ensure the quality of the delivery of the program! The curriculum is required to be clearly and strategically planned, taught, assessed and documented. This is also the case in NON IB schools but  a) The quality assurance of this all being done well depends on the particular Principal at the school and whether they have structures in place to over see this and b) There is not an assurance of consistency across the school. IB School also use a common language………we have our Learner Profile Attributes, Attitudes, Transdisciplinary Skills and Concepts that are the same in all classes. Teaching can obviously display individuality, as it should, but the language remains consistent! It also provides us with access to Global Professional Learning and the opportunities to make International connections for us and our students!!

STUDENTS PERSPECTIVE: They are not taught at BUT encouraged to question, discuss, think, solve problems, collaborate and make personal, local and global connections! Can this be done at any school…..YES it can………….but the curriculum planning at an IB school demands it! The whole program is based on developing Global life long learners….lots of schools would say the same BUT this does not simply happen because a school motto says so! IB Schools have to act these words out- take action on these words and evidence that it is actually happening in the school!! Learning is engaging…….students can ask questions and follow through with personal inquiry. They can also take part in collaborative inquiry and teacher led (or guided) inquiry. Traditional ‘projects’ are replaced by  authentic inquiries!

PARENTS PERSPECTIVE: The school has a mission statement that is enacted in classrooms everyday! We have a rigorous planning structure in place that ensures your children are learning ‘What is worth knowing!’ as opposed to a series of unrelated facts from a text book (remembering that this textbook learning served US well back in the day BUT it isn’t developing the skills our children need to function in this century!) See article on the BLOG!! Many other schools also plan rigorously BUT IB Schools must make a commitment that there is a substantive IB PYP Coordinator in the school (Preferably in an Assistant Principal Position- ME!!) to drive and oversee this curriculum planning, teaching and assessment; a person who will coordinate all of these processes and structures across the whole school to develop consistency between Year Levels. (That’s my job by the way!! And NO I’m not trying to justify what I do all day BUT this is my job in a nutshell!!)

SO……..schools can be brilliant and NOT IB…….schools can also be IB and not be brilliant as there are many factors that can make a school brilliant………………….HOWEVER being an IB WORLD School definitely provides schools with the structures and processes that set the foundations to be an AMAZING school if the personnel and administrators work to the Standards and Practices that IB set………………..KUNYUNG is ABSOLUTELY one of these schools!! 🙂 

PS Hopefully this parent didn’t regret asking!!!!! He was probably late for work though!! Only kidding!! 🙂

Our very first Middles Aerobics Team ‘Kunyung Kidz’ had a great morning at the Spring Challenge competition in Geelong on Saturday (even though it was a very early 8.30am start!).  Our girls gave an awesome performance and placed 5th out of 13 teams competing.  This is an awesome result, especially given this was our girls’ first time on the aerobics stage, performing against teams that had perfected their routines since competing in the first May competition.

Congratulations to our Kunyung Kidz team and a big thanks to their families for
supporting the girls on the day.

Photo: Our Kunyung Kidz aerobics team: Ella Swales, Reese Mestdagh, Holly
Prossor, Amelia Daff, Brooke Fischer, Ella Fischer, Poppy Rich and Eden
Mestdagh

AEROBICS CLUB

Middles students: come along and learn the Kunyung Kidz aerobics routine during
Monday lunchtimes in the BER building.  Bring your drink bottle!

Thanks

Jo Clarke (Parent and Aerobics Coach!!)

Groovy would answer that with ‘Let’s start at the very beginning…a very good place to start!’

Tuesday was a day to celebrate! Our Senior School students were outstanding as they presented their work during the Senior School Exhibition! We were all amazed at the quality of work that was presented to the school community! What I was most amazed about, and proud of, was the children’s ability to articulate not only WHAT they had learned but, equally importantly, HOW they learned…..their understanding of the PROCESS of learning they went through to gain a deep understanding of their area of interest.

The children could explain the research skills they used, the different ways they needed to communicate with others (peers, mentors, teachers, community members), the social skills they needed to employ and the thinking behind their decision making!!! So really they had to use ALL of the PYP skills we have talked about in the newsletter!

Above and beyond all of this was their ability to reflect on EVERYTHING they had done……….asking themselves the questions:

If I had to do this again (which as adults we know they will need to undertake research and employ social and communication skills for the rest of their lives!!) how might I do it differently to improve?

What did I do well? What could I have done better?

What did I see other people doing that I would like to try next time? What worked for me? What didn’t work for me?

The success of the Exhibition was not just the fact that it looked engaging and bright and colourful…..it was the quality and depth of research, the articulation of the process of learning and the SO WHAT factor!!!! All students were able to articulate, and wanted visitors to know, as a result of our learning this is what we really  got out of it, this is our SO WHAT! This is what we would like to influence your thinking to be……………………..surely THAT is learning transferred into ACTION at its best!!

Brilliant job Senior School students and teachers!!! You were all amazing! Please refer to the Senior School BLOG over the coming days for reflections and photos!

FAMILY LIFE NIGHT! 🙂

We were approached at the start of the year by one of our parents, Julie Burton, to organise a FAMILY LIFE Night at the school! We said ‘sure!’………………………..it was held last night and we had over 100 children, parents and grandparents attend!! Was it wanted- yes!

The night was magnificently facilitated by ‘Kelly’ from the Family Life Program, who made the conversations funny, relevant, student centred and enjoyable! Parents leaving the sessions were full of praise for the night!

As a result we will aim to run another night of sessions in 2014! So please spread the word and we can lock it in on the 2014 calendar!! 🙂

FUN FITNESS FRIDAY!! 🙂

This morning saw another 70 students, parents, siblings take to the oval to ‘walk’ their way into fitness on a PERFECT Spring morning! Really proud of our community members for taking up this opportunity and strutting their walking, jogging (crawling) style!!! I’m not sure if riding a scooter would count at the Olympics as a walk or run BUT @ Kunyung PS we LOVED to see it!! Mind you our scooter rider was only 3 years old!!! How cute!! 🙂

Please feel free to come and join us every Friday morning @ 8:30am on the Oval!! Siblings and family members welcome!!

 

 

We invite you all to our Senior School Exhibition!

Please see the invitation below for more details. Click the image to enlarge. 

The students have been working very hard to prepare the day. You are welcome to attend any of the sessions listed on the invitation.

Can you believe it?

We are about to head into the final term of the year and it only feels like yesterday we were welcoming our Preps to their first day of school! 🙂

Term 4 promises to be as busy and exciting as Terms 1,2 and 3!!! We have excursions, Whole School events such as the ‘Walk-a-thon’, Friday Fun Fitness and Coach Approach, Preps’ and Juniors’ Athletics Day, Parent Information Nights such as ‘Family Life’ Sessions, 2014 Prep Transition Sessions, Year 6 Exhibition and Graduation, Whole School and Sub School Assemblies and much more…….stay tuned!!!!

We have our normal weekly homework and nightly reading expectations at all year levels and you can follow Level Team BLOGS to keep up-to-date with specific requirements!

All level teams start to look into new Units of Inquiry…..please have a read below to keep up with what your child/ren will be inquiring into this term! Please let your child’s teacher  know if you have any expertise or interest in any of these areas!

Our Preps are going to start looking into ‘Living things having certain requirements in order to survive and grow.’ They will be looking at the characteristics of living and non-living things, similar needs of plants and animals and the resources we need to share (food, habitat etc) to sustain plants and animals.

Our Juniors will start to inquire into ‘All living things go through a process of change.’ This will include researching the following focus areas:

Living things have a variety of external features.

Living things live in different places where their needs are met

Living things grow, change and have offspring similar to themselves

Our Middles will focus their learning on the central idea ‘Water is essential to life, and is a limited resource for many people. They will focus their research on the following areas: Sources of water and how water is used, what happens to water after we have used it, distribution and availability of usable water and our responsibility regarding water.

Our Senior students, once the Exhibition is completed, will focus their learning on the central ideas ‘Children worldwide face a variety of challenges and risks.’ and ‘Trading depends on the ability to produce goods and supply services that can be exchanged.’

Throughout the term we will continue to develop and enhance the Attitudes, Learner Profile Attributes and Transdisciplinary Skills we have written about in the newsletter throughout the year!!

What a term ahead…….I, for one, can’t wait!!! 🙂

 

 

On your marks……get set………GO!!!!!!

Calling all students and parents who want to walk/jog/run to improve their fitness!! Starting in Term 4 we will be ‘bringing back’ our Fit Fridays! Some very enthusiastic parents, led by Julie Burton, will be reigniting Caroline Munroe’s (Parent of Anna) program that she started a couple of years ago!

When: Friday mornings @ 8:30am

Where: School Oval

Why: To improve our fitness and enjoy keeping fit with friends

What: We will be tracking how far we walk around Victoria!!

Bring sensible walking shoes

Certificates will be issued when students/parents have walked 25, 50, 75 kms…….

Turn up on Week One and receive your lap tally card!

All welcome! 🙂