Key Messages

• For children who aren’t in Year 6, if your family is leaving us at the end of the year please let us know as soon as possible to help us make plans.
• Similarly, if you know of any families that are joining us in 2026 that haven’t already completed an enrolment form, please encourage them to contact the office.
• There is a lot happening in Term 4, so please be sure to read the diary for upcoming events.
• Today is R U Ok? Day; an important reminder that a simple conversation can change a life.

Celebrations

• Congratulations to KLPS for being recognised as outstanding in the area of facilitating High Performing and Gifted Education.
• Donuts for Dad was another wonderful event. It was great to see so many dads in attendance.
• The Book Parade was amazing! Well done to everyone for their outstanding costumes.
• Zone Athletics Championship results below. Congratulations to team KLPS on winning the carnival!
• Last week was SASS Recognition Week. Thank you to our amazing SASS staff for all that they do.

Welcome to the Week 8 edition of the Log. Yes, you read that right… it’s already Week 8 of Term 3. Late last week I was walking through the school and I found myself being drawn to the hall where our Year 6 students were belting out an absolute classic from the late 1990s. I walked into a sea of smiling faces, with all of the students thoroughly enjoying the music and the moment. I made a few enquiries and found that the song was part of a larger medley that the children are working on as part of their end of year celebrations. It was at this moment that two very sad thoughts entered my head. Firstly, songs that I grew up with have reached the point of being considered ‘retro’ and, as such, I must be getting old. Secondly, the end of year is fast approaching and in just twelve short school weeks we will be farewelling our current Year 6 cohort as they move onto high school.

Now, this anecdote my make you start thinking about the need to start Christmas shopping, or perhaps things are so busy that 12 weeks seems like a lifetime. For me, it brings into focus how much is still yet to happen in a relatively short period of time. Mr Starr has already started the process for the election of our 2026 student leadership team. Mrs Knight has been working tirelessly on our transition programs for our incoming Kindergarten students. Mrs Hutton and I have begun formulating our school organisation and class structures for next year. Mrs Wills has wound up our representative sport commitments for the year and now gets a fortnight without it… before she begins the work on the 2026 pathways programs. Mrs Davidson is busy coordinating our Year 6 students careers expo, with a number of VIPs coming along to see what our children have put together. All our performing arts teachers still have performances upcoming, including the School Spectacular. We have Mini fete, the Athon, Party Day, end of year assemblies, excursions for Stage 1, tennis for Kindergarten, rugby league gala days, high school transition sessions and, of course, Year 6 graduation. There is a lot to come, and it’s all coming up very quickly.

We have currently enrolled 70 kindergarten students for 2026, a number which will likely be close to what we move forward with to start the year. Above, I mentioned that we are in the midst of organising classes for next year. If you are leaving our school at the end of the year (Year 6 students aside), could you please contact the office and let us know as soon as possible. This advanced notice helps us ensure that classes are well balanced and staffed appropriately. I know that people moving house have many other things to worry about that are much higher on the priority list… but just a simple email or phone call can be really helpful for all of our students. Similarly, if you know of a family that is moving into our area and likely to join us in the new year, can you please encourage them to make contact with us as early as possible so that we can make plans for their arrival!

Earlier this week, our staff were invited to present at the Quakers Hill Principals Network Meeting to share our work with High Potential and Gifted Education. Kings Langley PS has a great reputation of extending our high performing students, both with a high-level differentiation in class, as well as additional programs to support their intellectual, creative, social-emotional and physical development. It was a wonderful accolade to be recognised as exemplary in this area, and I was incredibly proud of our team- not only for the presentation to the network, but for the work that they do each and every day. It’s one thing to think that you are doing something well, but it is another thing entirely to have the feeling validated by your peers.

Last Thursday was a massive day at KLPS as we combined two of our major events into one. In the morning we celebrated our Fathers with our annual Donuts for Dad celebration. As always, the event was incredibly well attended and the students simply couldn’t stop smiling. We place so much value on our home-school partnerships and it’s always lovely to bring our families into the school so that students can share their learning space with their loved ones. While we obviously put these events on to celebrate our dads and give them a treat, it is important to acknowledge the power of these events for our students. When our families come into the school, it reinforces the messaging that education matters and that parents value what happens here. This positive messaging instils values in our children that last well beyond the Donuts for Dad day, the week or even the school year. When education is valued in the home, it creates a lifetime of values that children carry with them wherever they go. You may have thought you were just sitting down for a donut and a coffee, but your attendance was probably more powerful than you realised. Thank you to those dads who were able to come along to the day and make it special for our students. Similarly, thank you to all of our dads, whether you were able to make it to school or not, for all that they do for our students. I hope that you each enjoyed a wonderful day on Sunday!

While all of our staff put a lot of work into the day, I wanted to say a special thank you to our organising committee who did so much work in coordinating the event. It is a big job and one that requires a lot of organisation, and the fact that the day was such a resounding success is a credit to all involved. Thank you to Miss Allen, Mr Besre, Mrs De Kauwe, Mrs Delarue and Mrs Tai!

Normally after Donuts for Dad, we send students, loaded up with sugar, back to class to get stuck into their learning. Instead this year, we popped them all into costumes and got them to strut their stuff as part of our annual book parade. Now, I am always blown away by the creativity of our families, but I think this year went to another level. I was very thankful that I only had to be the judge for one grade, because that was hard enough! You can often tell a lot about the quality of costumes that won by those that didn’t, and the standard this year was incredibly high. From transformers that actually transformed, to papier mâché with working electrical components, to detailed dioramas around students' head, to a student that literally disappeared into a giant hat… this year had it all! I think we need a new category for next year- best team costume! If we had that this year I think the Green Sheep would have been a strong chance of taking it out.

Our students were so excited to see what everyone else had come up with and were absolutely buzzing throughout the day… and I don’t think it was all the sugar. Just as our Donuts for Dad celebration helps children see the importance of their education, days like the Book Parade help to foster a genuine love of reading… and we all know how important that is for future outcomes. Once again, events like this don’t just happen. Thank you to Miss Chiu, Mrs Delarue, Miss Kelly, Mrs Tai and Mrs Woods for your hard work and flexibility in coordinating the event. You helped to create some core memories for our children!

The Book Parade did have an additional element this year. Often our teachers coordinate outfits across their stage with specific themes. This year, a number of staff decided to purchase inflatable costumes, which then quickly turned into the need to have a teachers inflatable race. Now, Workplace Health and Safety may need to review footage of the race for future injury claims, but that is a small price to pay to make the day special for all involved. If this is to become a part of future book parades, we may need to reconsider where we seat our students (and the super competitive principal will need to order a costume with longer legs), but otherwise it was just another wonderful part of a wonderful day. Thank you to all the teachers who got involved in dressing up, whether they were in an inflatable or otherwise.

In the last log I foreshadowed that I would include the full results of the Zone Athletics Championships in this edition. I know I mentioned that the school did very well, but I didn’t realise how amazing our collective team effort was. I am incredibly proud to share that our school was once again crowned champions of the Wentworthville/Seven Hills Zone. This is amazing enough on it’s own, but I think it’s important to pay respect to how we achieved this. While we had a number of outstanding individual performances, the final tally of points saw KLPS finish with 383 points, with second place less than 6 points behind. I bring this margin up only to reiterate the importance of every team members contribution. After the carnival itself, the 1500m event was held at Glenwood last Wednesday afternoon. Heading into that afternoon, the result of the carnival was very much in the balance. We had so many wonderful performances on that afternoon that helped get us over the line, and all of them were invaluable. If any of those students who attended that afternoon didn’t race, the school likely would not have won the carnival. Mason P won his event and claimed maximum points, but the points from Georgia C (4^th), Andie H (5^th), Kai P (6^th), Ezekiel F (11^th competing against children two years older than him!), Ivy D (4^th) and Braxton R (7^th) were all huge. To show how a little extra effort can go a long way, one of the biggest results was in the 11-year-old girls 1500m race, where Charleigh D won her event in a time of 6:26.20. This is significant, because the child that she beat was just 0.39 seconds behind her… and that child was from the school that came second in the carnival. The student who finished second certainly gave it her very best and made it hard for Charleigh. Had Charleigh given up at the end of a long race, the result of the carnival would likely have been very different. There’s definitely a lesson in that. Never give up, a little effort goes a long way, and sometimes it’s the smallest things that have the biggest impact.

Aside from the students who performed so admirably at the 1500m afternoon, the following students finished in the top 3 in their track events. (Field results still haven't been released at this stage).

Mason P (1^st 800m)

Maia V (3^rd 800m)

Sophie S (2^nd 100m, 3^rd 200m)

Jazmin S (3^rd 100m)

Archer L (3^rd 100m)

Anna M (1^st High Jump, 2^nd Long Jump)

Ava W (1^st Shot Put, 1^st Discus)

Zac B (3^rd High Jump)

Cooper N (2^nd High Jump)

Harrison S (1^st High Jump)

Andrew C (3^rd Discus)

In addition to these individual efforts, congratulations to our junior boys relay (Kai S, Nikus V, Zac B and Archer L) for their 3^rd place finish, and our senior girls (Ivy D, Audrina K, Isla-Rose S and Anna M) who finished 2^nd.

A special congratulations must also go to Anna M who finished 2^nd in the senior girls age championship by just 0.5 points (49.5 to 49), and to Mason P who finished in 4^th.

Finally, congratulations to Ava W who broke the zone record in the 11 year olds discus! What a great achievement! I believe that there was also a record broken in the track events, but I haven’t been provided with those details yet.

Well done to all the team and all the students who now progress on to the Sydney West regional carnival as representatives of the Zone.

For any of you that were in the office last week, you may have noticed little notes celebrating our amazing SASS staff. Last week was SASS recognition week, an opportunity to thank the unsung heroes of our schools. There isn’t an event in our school that would run without the support of these amazing individuals who do so much work behind the scenes. Many people have a job, but not everyone has a calling, and the latter certainly applies to our SASS staff. Their work is filled with heart, they brighten our days, they keep us calm and collected and we are incredibly lucky to have them all. I honestly can’t imagine the school without them. So thank you to our SLSO team of Mrs Bowering, Miss Dal Cin, Mrs Monaghan, Mrs Regan and Miss Wood, our admin team of Mrs Dabit, Mrs Kelly, Mrs Seny, Mrs Wallace and Mrs Wood and our General Assistant Mr Hutton. A special thanks must go to Mrs Portlock, our relieving admin manager, who not only does a wonderful job looking after all of you… but does a wonderful job looking after me, too!

Finally, today is R U Ok? Day, an annual event to encourage people to have meaningful conversations about mental health and wellbeing. We all acknowledge that every day should be R U Ok? Day, but we know that in the busy day-to-day part of life, that doesn’t always happen. Asking someone if they’re okay is a simple question, but it can have a huge impact. None of us truly know what is happening in the lives of others and I think it is always great to be reminded to think and act with kindness. As the Dalai Lama once said “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”

Congratulations to the following students on earning their PBL Award. Well done!

On Saturday and Sunday 15 & 16 November the 99th NSW Talent Enrichment Weekend MindQuest will be held for primary students from Year 1-6 at Glenwood HS. These include gifted and high potential students, gifted underachievers and students with above average ability with a special interest. Students will have an opportunity to participate in over 35 exciting, fast paced courses in the two day program. They include courses in chemistry, earth sciences, drama, Lego robotics, art and much, much more. Many of these highly successful courses have been run in the past and students' evaluations suggest they have been challenged and enriched by the experience. The cost of the weekend is $250 (including GST).

You can enrol online at mindquest.net.au

Contact your school for a brochure or Shelagh Poray 02 9748 1084

Closing date Friday 17th October 2025