Key Messages

• Our Kindergarten student’s Best Start Assessments will be completed by the end of this week.
• NAPLAN assessments for students in Year 3 and Year 5 commence from next Wednesday.
• School costs for 2025 were emailed out last Friday.
• Please let the office know if your contact details have changed.
• Our first P&C meeting for 2025 will be held in our school library on Monday 17^th March in our school library at 6pm. It would be great to see you there!
• High School Expression of Interest opened on Monday. If you have any questions about the process, please contact the office.
• The outcome of the consultation process for the provision of a co-educational high school options is outlined below. All families in the Kings Langley Public School catchment area will now be considered a local applicant for Blacktown Boys/Girls as well as Seven Hills High School.

Celebrations

• Congratulations to our school representatives at yesterday’s Seven Hills/Wentworthville Zone swimming carnival
• Congratulations to all those students who have made representative teams at last week's zone sports trials.
• Thank you to the Parramatta Eels for visiting the school last week to talk to our students about the importance of respect.

Welcome to the Week 6 edition of the Log. As with the start of any school year, there is a lot happening across the school as we establish our various extra-curricular opportunities for our students. Children have had the opportunity to try out for dance groups, sporting teams and the choir, and there are still many more opportunities to come. Our school’s philosophy on extra-curricular activities is simple- we strive to provide as many opportunities for our students as possible. We know that every child has their own skills and gifts, and we always want to find ways to allow them to both showcase what they can do and learn some new skills along the way. With things like debating, public speaking, maths Olympiad, interschool sports, state knockout teams, premiers spelling bee and many more still to come, there are plenty of chances for our students to represent our school.

Yesterday was the first of the annual representative carnivals, with our amazing aquatic athletes heading out to Blacktown for the Seven Hills/Wentworthville Zone Swimming Carnival. This year felt a little bit different to previous years as we needed to hold our school swimming carnival late last year following the change to the school start date for 2025. This meant that our representatives had the entire summer holidays to train and prepare for the big day. While we are still awaiting final results for the carnival, I can say that I was incredibly proud of our students for the way that they competed throughout the day. Irrespective of the result in their race, all of the children gave their very best effort and should be proud of what they accomplished. Kings Langley PS has a rich history of sporting excellence, and being a representative of our school is already a wonderful achievement. I will provide full results from the carnival in the next edition of the log, including those students who will be going on to represent the Seven Hill/Wentworthville zone at the regional carnival.

Last Friday the zone also hosted their annual trials for various representative sporting teams. As is usually the case, Kings Langley had a number of representatives in each of the teams. Congratulations to the following students who will be representing Seven Hills/Wentworthville at the Sydney West Championships throughout the year.

Girls softball- Maia V

Girls Soccer- Ulamila A

Girls Touch- Ulamila A and Ivy D

Netball- Ulamila A, Ivy B, Zeppina C, Audrina K and Lizzy R,

Rugby League 11s- Raiviu D

Rugby League 12s- Raiviu D

AFL- Raiviu D , Alex H and Braxton R.

Boys basketball- Jayden DJ and Braxton R

Boys Soccer (subject to 2^nd zone trial)- Jackson C, Neo G and Lucas B

To round off the sports section of this week's log, our primary students were also treated to a visit from the Parramatta Eels last week as part of the annual Eels Blitz program. This year Brendan Hands was on hand (sorry) to deliver the students a message on the importance of respect. While this is a message that we consistently deliver to our students through our school expectations, hearing it from a different voice just helps to drive the point home. The Eels donated a supporters pack which will be a prize at one of our raffles later in the year. Please don’t let the fact that it’s an Eels pack deter you from supporting the fundraiser.

All jokes aside, we are very thankful that the players were able to step away from training to visit our students as it is always a highlight on the calendar.

In amongst all the excitement of the extra-curricular programs, students have been busy with the day-to-day task of learning! While it may not get the fanfare of some of our other activities, it is without doubt the most important work that we do. We have just finalised the last few Kindergarten Best Start Assessments and parents will receive feedback in the coming weeks. More information on the Best Start Assessment can be found here:

While one assessment is coming to an end, another is just about to start up, as our Year 3 and Year 5 students will commence their NAPLAN assessments from Wednesday of next week. Students will complete their writing assessment on Wednesday, with Year 3 students completing a paper-based assessment, while Year 5 students will complete the assessment online. All other NAPLAN assessments are online for both Year 3 and Year 5. Many of you with older children will notice that the tests are earlier than they have been in previous years. This has been done to get results back to schools more quickly so that we can start implementing programs to support students growth and development.

Please remember that NAPLAN, like Best Start Assessments, are a useful tool for giving us information about how children are tracking against standardised norms. They are a moment in time assessment that can be impacted by anything from a lucky guess through to a student having a bad day. While the results are interesting and help us with future planning, they do not define a child’s capability and do not always line up with what we see on a regular basis. For a more accurate picture on how your child is progressing in their learning, please refer to information shared as part of our parent-teacher interviews later this term, as well as their Semester 1 and 2 school reports.

Last Friday we sent out information relating to school costs for 2025. In order to support our families and our community with cost-of-living pressures, we have significantly reduced the amount of money we are asking families for. In line with this approach, we have left our voluntary contributions at $50 per family for the 2025 school year. The money raised from these contributions go directly towards providing the very best education for your child. If you have any questions about school costs or require assistance with any payments, please contact the school office.

Entering a new school year, families may have had a change in personal information- either a new mobile number, a new email address, and in some cases even a new residential address. If you have any changes to your contact information, please ensure that you contact the office to have it updated in our system.

Our first P&C meeting for the year will be held in our school library on Monday 17^th March at 6pm. It would be wonderful to see all of our returning members and some new faces as well. As always, we will have some laughs as we discuss fundraising and other P&C initiatives, and I will provide information and updates about what is happening within the school. It would be great to see you there!

While it may seem a long way off, High School is only around the corner for our current Year 6 students and on Monday the Expression of Interest process commenced. This time is often a period of great uncertainty for many of our students and their families. We hosted an information session on Tuesday to assist families with completing the process. If you were unable to attend this session and have questions about the process, please don’t hesitate to contact the office.

This year's process will look slightly different following the completion of the consultation for co-educational high school options. The NSW Department of Education has determined that Blacktown Boys High School and Blacktown Girls High School will remain as separate single-sex schools. Adjustments have been made to surrounding intake areas to ensure all students in the Blacktown area have access to a co-educational high school option.  

In response to feedback gathered during the consultation process, the department will also explore co-educational academic, sporting and extracurricular opportunities for students at Blacktown Boys and Blacktown Girls high schools and will work closely with both schools to identify and implement initiatives.   

This outcome was determined following careful review of feedback received from the Blacktown community during the consultation process and reflects the community’s preference regarding local high school options.  

The final intake areas are now available via School Finder and will be applied for any new enrolment application for 2026. 

Families interested in applying for Year 7 in 2026 at their local high school or for an out of area high school placement, including for Blacktown Boys or Blacktown Girls high schools can express interest through the high school application process on department’s website 

Thank you to all students, parents, carers, staff and community members who took part in the consultation process, which ran from 28 October to 6 December 2024. Your feedback was valuable in ensuring that the Department of Education continues to provide the most suitable schooling arrangements for students in the Blacktown area.  

More information is available on the department’s website.

The Premier’s Reading Challenge has officially begun. We are encouraging students to participate in the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge.

Children can read suitable books from the booklist above their year e.g. 3-4 can read from 5-6 booklist. Books read to or by students at school, in library lessons or at home all count.

Mrs Woods and Mrs Andrews will be working closely with K to Yr 2 to enter books that are read in classrooms. She will also enter books treated in the library. So, if you are ever entering your student’s reading records and notice some extra books listed this is where they came from.

Students in Years 3 to 6 will be given opportunities in some library lessons to enter their titles with Miss Chiu

We have attached steps below on how to access PRC online from home to add any additional books. Students’ DET (Department of Education) username and password have been set by the classroom teacher. These are the same login details when students are signing onto school laptops.

Entering of student’s reading must be completed by FRIDAY, AUGUST 22nd.

Miss Veronica Chiu, Mrs Woods & Mrs Christine Andrews

 Teacher/Librarians. & PRC Coordinators.

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