It is hard to believe that the crazy 2020 year is drawing to a close. Term four flew by very quickly and now we are well and truly into Christmas Carols and thinking about what we would like Santa to bring us.

Congratulations to our graduating students

Congratulations to our year six students who have their primary school graduation tomorrow, Thursday morning followed by their end of year celebration excursion. Thank you to our year six staff team for the organisation and effort they have made to ensure that these events are memorable ones for our graduating class in 2020.

Kingston Leadership Changes 2021

While 2020 has been the strangest year for us all and a very different school life has arisen from it, I have really enjoyed my time here at Kingston Primary School. As I have said on many occasions, it is the people that make a school great, and Kingston definitely has great students, great staff and a great community. I would like to specifically commend the staff in our school who work extremely hard to ensure that your children are afforded the best opportunities to learn.

Next year, Kingston Primary School will have a relief Principal for term 1. Mr Peter Jones will be filling in as Principal while the Department of Education run a process to find a permanent Principal. In the mean-time our leadership team will strengthen in the first instance. Our Deputy Principal line up in term one will include Mr Dornan, Mrs Curd, Mrs Eckersley, Mrs Tither and we will welcome Mr Chris Eagle.

School times 2021

At our last board meeting the school board approved a minor change to the school bell times at the start and end of the day. We have noticed that the afternoon session is very disruptive and the effective learning time is shortened due to the early departure of our students who catch the bus. This disrupts most classes and basically wastes the last 10 or so minutes of the day. In 2021 the school day will end 5 minutes earlier at 2.55pm when all students will pack up and be dismissed at the same time. To compensate for this 5 min at the end of the day, the school day will officially start 5 minutes earlier at 8.40am instead of 8.45am.

In 2021 the school day will start at 8.40am and conclude at 2.55pm.

Class and teacher allocations

Our team has been working very hard to set up structures for the 2021 school year. This includes our classes.  There are still adjustments that need to be made before we finalise our teacher/student allocation for next year and we will be working on these during the vacation period. Class lists for 2021 will be posted in the undercover area on January 28 2021 from 12 noon and again on Friday January 29th from 9am - 3pm.

Reports

It is also that time of the year where our final student reports go home to parents today. Please take the time to read these reports carefully.

I would like to thank our team of staff at Kingston for doing such a fantastic job in 2020. It has been a pleasure to work with this team. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy new year.

Ashley King

Principal