Key Messages

• Class information for 2025 included below, including class names, teachers and stage supervisors.
• Welcome to Ms Palin, Mr Besre, Miss Marshall, Mrs Dabit and Mrs Woods who join our team for 2025, and welcome back to Mrs Lee who returns from maternity leave.
• The Literacy Lab is a new project that will commence this year for selected stage 1 students.
• All parents will receive an email tomorrow with four permission notes that we need completed to start the school year. Contact the office if there is any issue.
• Sadly, our Catholic scripture service have informed us that they don’t have the volunteers to provide scripture classes at this time. Information around this detailed below.
• We will be offering Sikh scripture classes for the first time in 2025.
• Our first P&C meeting for the year will be held on Monday the 17^th March in our school library.
• High School EOIs will open on Monday 3^rd All students in Year 6 must have an EOI completed. Please see details below. Year 5 parents may also benefit from reading to know what the procedure is ahead of time.
• Road safety reminders- Do not pick up or drop off in the staff car park, follow kiss and drop rules as listed below, follow all road safety rules for the safety of our children.

Celebrations

• Welcome to all of our new students and their families.
• Kindergarten have enjoyed a great start to school!
• Our students leaders have hit the ground running and have done a wonderful job supporting our new kindergarten students.

Welcome to the first edition of the log for 2025- a strange thing to say in Week 4 of Term 1! With the school calendar officially starting when teachers returned to school on Friday 31^st January (officially Week 1), it is going to feel like we are a week behind for the duration of the term. With Easter being relatively late and with the newly mandated four staff development days to start the year, the term has started later than usual. With that being said, it has been a wonderful start to the year for staff and students. The staff worked hard over the additional staff development days to ensure that everything was prepared for a seamless and immediate start to learning for our students. This allowed us to form classes on the first day, and I cannot remember a more settled start to the year. All classes have found their groove quickly, and students have slotted into their new classes almost without issue.

While I am always excited to see all of our students, it was particularly exciting to welcome the newest members of KLPS, the Kindergarten class for 2025. While it was a little hectic having Kindergarten starting on the same day as our returning students, it was just fantastic to see that our excitement was matched by the students. I had parents telling me stories of children who had been up and dressed in their uniform at 4am, while another child had insisted on wearing their school hat everywhere they went over the summer. The enthusiasm of the children was matched only by the teachers, who were absolutely buzzing as they greeted each child. They, like me, are looking forward to watching the children develop over the coming months and years. When I look at our returning Year 1 students, it is hard to believe that they only started 12 months ago. The time really does fly, so I hope that children and their parents are able to savour every moment.

Historically, we have completed Best Start Assessments for Kindergarten children before they commence at school. We are then able to utilise this information to ensure that all classes are balanced and all needs supported. With students starting on the first day back, this wasn’t possible, and subsequently there was always going to be a chance that classes may need to be recalibrated over the first few weeks. I am pleased to say that our teachers, having formed the classes based on observations from transition days in 2024 and information from their preschools, got it exactly right and there will be no need to make changes to the current class structures.

Across the school, our student numbers have fallen heading into this year, but are consistent with what we had forecast. For 2025 we have formed 22 classes, one less than 2024. As with previous years, we have four kindergarten classes and they are located in the same location as they have been for a number of years now. Stage 1 (Year 1 and 2) only has seven classes this year after having eight last year. This has allowed the entire stage to be grouped together in blocks 3 and 4 (please refer to the map below). Stage 2 (Year 3 and 4) and Stage 3 (Year 5 and 6) remain in the same areas as last year with the same class structure as previous years.

While some teachers have changed grades this year, the nucleus of the staff remain the same. We welcome Mr Ashwin Besre, Mrs Woods and Miss Kristen Marshall (that’s right- a second Miss Marshall- I’m sure that won’t be confusing at all) to the staff in a more regular capacity this year, though all three have been working at the school throughout 2024 and know our structures and systems well. Our long serving school librarian, Mrs Andrews, is taking some well-deserved long service leave this term, with Mrs Woods joining Miss Chiu in delivering library lessons for this term.

The other exciting news is that Mr Starr and his wife welcomed their first child, Norah, into their family over the holidays. From all reports, Mr Starr has taken to his new role as a father like a seasoned pro, and has even said that the sleep deprivation hasn’t been too bad. Let’s check in on that in a few months time. Mr Starr will be on leave until Thursday of next week, returning to his role as classroom teacher and Assistant Principal for Stage 3 on Friday. Mrs Mathew has taken on both of these roles until Mr Starr returns, at which point she will be heading off on maternity leave herself.

We also welcome the wonderful Mrs Lee back from her maternity leave to commence 2025. Mrs Lee has loved her time as a first time mother and whenever I spoke to her over the last year, I could hear the joy and pride she had in her voice whenever she spoke about her daughter. On her first day back, I asked her how it went separating from her daughter. She replied that her daughter didn’t cry at all and handled it without issue… at which point I told her that I wasn’t asking about her daughter, it was Mr Lee I was worried about! Mrs Lee will be supporting curriculum instruction across the school, alongside our other curriculum expert Mrs Pullinger, It is wonderful to have her back.

This year, the school will be implementing a new initiative know as The Literacy Lab. This intensive, targeted initiative will be lead by Mrs Eves, our Assistant Principal and head of wellbeing, and will support our Stage 1 students. Operating from 9-11, five days a week, the program will focus on building the reading and writing skills of students and lower teacher to student ratios in stage one classes during our school literacy block. Two classroom teachers will be in the lab at any one time, with Mrs Eves being ably supported by both Mr Besre and our highly experienced Learning and Support Teacher, Mrs Moulds. This is an incredibly exciting initiative and I am looking forward to seeing the results as the year progresses.

Below is a list of all of our classes for 2025. It includes the class name, teachers name and, in the case of job shares, what day each staff member works.

On the subject of the office, there has been a significant change in the staff supporting our community in this space. Many of you would recall that the school was part of a pilot program where we were allocated additional office staff to assist with administration burden. While this program was highly successful, the funding has unfortunately come to an end for the time being. Additionally, the wonderful Mrs Fenton has been successful in obtaining a promotion position and will be operating as an administration manager in one of the newly built schools. It was incredibly sad for the staff and I to farewell Mrs Fenton at the end of last year, but we are obviously all incredibly happy for her. We were fortunate to have an experienced administration officer, Mrs Melissa Dabit, join the team in Mrs Fenton’s stead. Mrs Dabit has been working in school offices for many years and will bring so much to our amazing team.

Our office staff for 2025 are:

Administration Manager:      Mrs Michelle Portlock (T-F)

Administration Officers:        Mrs Stephanie Seny

                                                      Miss Samantha Bowring (M, T, Th, F)

                                                      Mrs Melissa Dabit (M-W)

The other significant change to our staffing for 2025 is in the school counselling space. Kings Langley PS has been allocated a new, permanent school psychologist. This permanent allocation will mean that we see consistency in this space into the future, something that is incredibly important for the students that the counsellor supports. Ms Regan Palin has joined the team and has quickly become an integral part of our service. Ms Palin has a background in schools, having worked as a teacher for a number of years before re-training. This unique skillset will be invaluable as she works with children and their families over the years to come. Ms Palin will work at KLPS on Wednesday to Friday.

One person who hasn’t changed is our wonderful Community Hub Coordinator, Mrs Sandra Anderson. You will hear a lot from Sandy over the year as she continues to coordinate opportunities for all members of our community to connect with the school. Whether it be school events for our parents, TAFE courses and classes for the broader community, or our highly successful playgroup program, there is always a lot happening in the hub. Please take advantage of any of the opportunities made available- we always love to see our family members up at the school.

A new year also brings with it a new collection of school leaders. Following an exhaustive process at the back end of 2024, it is exciting to see the new leaders start the year and their new roles with gusto. I am very proud of this leadership team and I know that they will represent the school with distinction throughout the year.

Leadership Team for 2025

Sports Leadership Team 2024

Tomorrow, parents will receive an email from the school with four forms that need to be completed. These documents had previously been held in paper form, but we are now transitioning all of our notes to digital form, and as such we will require the notes to be completed again for all students. There will be a note regarding access to Golden Grove, permission to publish, before school supervision and scripture preferences. Thank you for your assistance in ensuring your child’s permissions remain up to date.

On the subject of scripture, there have been some changes to the schools offerings heading into 2025. Unfortunately, due to a lack of volunteers, Catholic scripture will not run to start the year. We remain hopeful of new volunteers coming on board to deliver Catholic scripture, and we will be collecting this as a preference in case we are able to get it running again. We are similarly in the process of trying to obtain ethics providers. While we will not be offering that as a preference to start the year, it may become available throughout the year if volunteers can be obtained. We will be offering Sikh scripture classes for the first time in 2025.

Our first P&C meeting for the year will be held on Monday the 17^th March in our school library. The P&C are a wonderful group of parents who do so much to support our school and our students. At these meetings, I speak with those in attendance about everything that is happening within the school and answer any questions they may have. I provide insights into things that are happening in the future and parents are able to give their input into what is happening in the school. It is always great to see new faces at these meetings and it would be amazing to see you there.

At the last P&C meeting I spoke at length about things that the school are doing to support our families amidst cost-of-living pressures. In the coming weeks, information will be coming home to parents about associated costs for the upcoming school year and I am hopeful that parents will notice a change in this space. As always, if you are experiencing any financial hardship or difficulties in paying for any school events throughout the year, please reach out to our head of wellbeing, Mrs Eves. She can be contacted through the school office.

While the dust has barely settled on our graduation celebrations for the departing class of 2024, the high school process for our current Year 6 students is about to begin. Students interested in attending a selective high school should already have completed their online applications. The applications close tomorrow, Friday 21^st February. No late applications will be accepted.

All students, whether they have applied for a selective high school or not will need to complete an online expression of interest form for placement in a high school in 2026. The online portal will open on Monday 3^rd March, at which time parents should already have a strong idea as to where they would like their child to go. As we do each year, we will have a short information session on Tuesday 4^th March at 5pm to support parents in completing these applications. The session will be held in the school library. We will help with walking you through the process and explain how the selection process works. We cannot give advice or information on each specific high school and I would encourage parents to reach out to each school to find out when their open nights are, as well as what information they consider in assessing non-local applications (if you are seeking enrolment at a high school that is not your local high school). For parents who have children in Year 5, I would strongly encourage you to consider attending open nights this year. As indicated above, you will need to make a decision on high school placement early in the year, and attending sessions this year will give you plenty of time to think ahead of making a decision. For parents who are considering enrolling at an independent school, I would strongly encourage you to complete the application process. At worst, it would give you a second school to consider. If you are absolutely committed to attending an independent school, you still need to complete an online form to indicate where they will be continuing their education. An expression of interest must be completed for every Year 6 child.

Each year, parents find it useful to know where our students went the year before. Below is a table of their high school destinations;

Finally, with the start of a new school year and a number of new families, it is timely to remind parents of the rules relating to picking up and dropping off students.

Firstly, the staff carpark is not to be used for afternoon pick-up or morning drop-off. Parents should either utilise Kiss and Drop or park on a neighbouring street and walk their child/ren to school. The school carpark is exclusively for staff and families dropping children off at Cubby House Long Day Care (NOT before school care). This is important for the safety of our students and I thank you for your cooperation in this space.

The rules around Kiss and Drop are governed by the council, who have put out the document below to explain the rules that govern kiss and drop zones. This a no parking zone and all the regular rules apply. You should not be in this area for more than 2 minutes and you should not leave your car to come into the school. On Monday, a car was parked in this area while the owner came into the school to pick up their child because it was raining. This one action caused a significant buildup of traffic down Isaac Smith Parade and made afternoon pickup worse than it normally is. If you are the first car, please move to the front of the Kiss and Drop zone, and if the cars in front of you move, please move forward to allow for steady traffic flow. If you are the first car, do not stop at the gate, move to the end of the zone and your children will walk to you.

None of the above is negated by wet weather. The rules apply in all weather conditions. i.e. if it rains, you are not allowed to park in the staff carpark to stop your children getting wet. There is a covered walkway at Kiss and Drop that will mean students walk in the rain for a shorter distance than if they incorrectly used our carpark… not to mention the chaos that would ensue if all 550 students were being picked up/dropped off in our car park.

Police and council rangers conduct regular patrols of these areas. The school has no insight as to when these random checks are happening, so the best course of action is to follow the rules at all times. On the first day back at school, highway patrol issued a number of fines to those that did not comply with road rules. In the interest of student safety and your own financial wellbeing, please ensure that you do your part and follow the rules.

For those who use the crossing at the front of the school, you would know our friendly crossing supervisor Karen. Karen works at our school crossing because she loves what she does and enjoys being part of the school community. The role of a School Crossing Supervisor can be challenging as they are working in live traffic and should be focusing on keeping the School Community safe. While we have not experienced it at our school, we have been made aware of other schools where supervisors have been subjected to some sort of verbal abuse. I know that this would never happen at Kings Langley Public School as that isn’t something that would be accepted in our community, but schools have been asked to remind all members of the community to:

• Be respectful
• Be patient
• Listen to the Supervisors instruction when using the Pedestrian crossing
• Be cautious when driving near/in School Zones
• Direct any concerns they may have with the Supervisor directly to Transport for NSW
• Follow the NSW Road Rules

I thank you all for this support… and be sure to say hello and goodbye to Karen each day. She is a lovely lady who cares deeply for the safety of our students and community and we are very lucky to have her.

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