The past two weeks have absolutely flown by and it is scary to think that this term is nearly half over! They say that time flies when you are having fun, so that certainly explains the speed with which the days have past this fortnight. Whether it be Year 1’s trip to the farm, STEAM Team, Swim Scheme, classroom learning, disco preparation, the cross country or the aptly named Band Fun Day, there has been plenty of fun things happening at KLPS.

Last Friday, our school champion cross country runners travelled to Glenwood to pit themselves against the best athletes from across the Seven Hills and Wentworthville area at the Zone cross country carnival. I was fortunate enough to have a front row seat for the day, and loved watching our students compete in their respective races. Cross country is such a challenging event, and to see our students display perseverance and determination in each and every race was outstanding to see. Cross country is quite a unique event in the way that the points are scored. As opposed to swimming or athletics, the champions of a cross country carnival are decided based on the school with the lowest score. Every child who runs in the race gets a place. Each child’s place in their event has a significant impact on the result of the carnival. If a school runners finished 1^st, 2^nd and 40^th, they would score 43 points as a team. Similarly, a school with runners finishing 9^th, 10^th and 11^th would score 30 points as team, which is a better result for the school. This is one of the reasons why I love the cross country event- it really is a team effort to determine who wins the carnival, rather than simply the school with a few really good runners. It is for that reason that I am incredibly proud to share that KLPS have won the 2025 Zone Cross Country Carnival! What is even more special, is that we won by a very narrow margin. The reason that this makes the result more special is that every student should be proud in the knowledge that their efforts made the result possible. If even one student had given less effort than they did, our school would not have had such a wonderful result. Go team KLPS!

While the whole school should be incredibly proud of the result, I would also like to congratulate Archer L and Raivu D for winning their events, as well as Mason P and Ulamila A for finishing 2^nd and Charleigh D and Anna M for finishing 3^rd in their races. Congratulations must also go to Andie H for also finishing 6^th and qualifying for the regional team, while Valerie M, Ezekiel F, Neo G, Piper M and Charlee W only narrowly missed out on qualifying for the next round.

A huge thank you must go to Jonelle McDonell for volunteering to support the children as team manager. The team could not have done it without you! Also a huge thank you to all of the parents who were able to come along and support the students. When you are running in a long race, it means a lot to hear some cheers as you run past and it certainly gave them a lift. Finally, thank you to Mrs Wills. As with all of our sporting programs, she does so much of the hard work behind the scenes to make things happen. We are so lucky to have such a dedicated sports coordinator and I am beyond grateful for all that she does.

While on the subject of sport, our Paul Kelly Cup team head out to Eastern Creek for the regional finals next Tuesday. We wish Miss Tobin and her team the very best of luck!

While our current sporting superstars have been showing their stuff in the last few weeks, our next generation of stars have been working hard to grow and improve. This past fortnight, some Year 2 students have been getting intensive swimming lessons as part of swim scheme. While the lessons alone probably won’t make them Olympians, the lessons may be enough to save their life one day. Water safety skills are so incredibly important, especially in a pool/beach culture like we have in Australia. While the intensive program certainly isn’t a substitute for regular swimming lessons, they certainly make a difference. Thank you to all of our Stage 1 teachers who made adjustments to their routines and programs to accommodate swim scheme, but an especially big thank you to Miss Marshall for all of her work in organising the opportunity for our students.

Regular swimming lessons are a great way to keep fit and healthy, as well as ensure that children are safe around water and I would always encourage families to get children into swimming lessons wherever possible to do so.

Last Thursday was the launch of the BLC STEAM Team initiative. Staff and students from across the Blacktown Learning Community came to Kings Langley PS for the launch of this years event. A handful of our students attended a design thinking session hosted by the Department of Education’s Digital Support Team, while our teams coordinators, Mrs Madden, Mr Starr and Miss Chiu completed training on how to support students through the program. Participating Year 5 and 6 students will utilise communication, collaboration, critical thinking and collaboration to try and come up with some solutions to global challenges. These weekly activities will be taking part in our High Potential Hub and form just a small part of the school’s ongoing push to extend our high potential and gifted students to higher heights. I look forward to seeing what they come up with!

Speaking of things I’m looking forward to, tonight is our school disco! While I am unable to attend myself this year, I can’t wait to see some photos of the amazing costumes our students come up with. You are all so creative! Thank you to all of our volunteers, both staff and parents, who are making this event a possibility for our students. I know that the children will have a great time. Just a reminder to all of our parents that this is a student only event. No parents will be admitted into the hall until pick up time. Thank you for your support in making sure that this is a fun, safe event for all of our students.

On Tuesday I had the distinct privilege of listening to our Stage class champions from the Multicultural Perspectives Public Speaking competition. Andie, Henry, Kai, April and Eloise absolutely blew me away with both their prepared and impromptu speeches. With a mix of humour and thought provoking content, all of the speeches were truly amazing, and it was hard to believe that they are only in Year 3 and 4! The students have certainly made the adjudication of a winner incredibly difficult! We will announce the full public speaking results for both Stage 2 and Stage 3 when the competitions conclude. If the Stage 2 competition is anything to go by, I can’t imagine how good the Stage 3 students are going to be!

Thank you to all of our regular readers who answered our survey about a potential KLPS podcast. With just over 80% of respondents indicating that they’d like to listen to a KLPS podcast, it certainly sounds like there is an appetite for it! Once we’ve got the students all trained up on the technology (and perhaps the Principal as well), we will put something together.