kvs annual report - koonwarra village school kvs annual report.pdf · we are governed by a board...

School No. 2082

Annual Report 2018

KVS Annual Report 2018

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Contextual Information

Koonwarra Village School (KVS) opened its doors on 13th February, 2012 in the former Koonwarra

Primary School buildings – 20-26 Koala Drive, Koonwarra. The school is an Independent primary

school offering enrolment for children in Foundation-Grade 6.

Profile of the Student Body

At the time of the Federal 2018 School Census, 14 boys and 35 girls were enrolled at the school.

None of the 49 students had Language Backgrounds Other Than English, were indigenous or had a

disability.

In 2018, the school’s Socio-Economic Score remained at 94. This score is calculated from the

residential addresses of KVS students which corresponds to a per-capita funding amount of 58.7% of

the average Government School’s recurrent cost figure.

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Foundation Grade 1 Grade2 Grade3 Grade4 Grade5 Grade6

Boys

Girls


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Koonwarra Village School Board

It gives me great pleasure to report on the work of the KVS Board for the 2018 Annual Report.

In 2018, our KVS Board members included Fiona McKenzie, Alyson Skinner, Rebecca Cooke, Rachel

Carruthers, Jamie Sutherland and George Dimitropoulos. In addition, Sarah Maclean attended our

meetings from October as Principal, Philippa Lloyd provides secretarial assistance to the Board and

Natasha Rhodes provides insight to our finance reporting. During this year we accepted George

Dimitropoulos’s resignation. I would like to acknowledge the contribution that George make to the

KVS Board during his three year term.

We meet eight times a year. The major focus of the Board this past year has been to continue the

development and refinement of our Strategic Plan. This has now been adopted and provides a

template to guide and protect the vision, mission and strategic direction of our school and sits

alongside both an annual implementation plan and our long term financial plan.

During the past year, all members of the KVS Board, along with the PIVS Board, attended a two day

professional development governance program conducted by Independent Schools Victoria. This was

a valuable opportunity to learn of our strengths and look at areas for further development as our

Board gains maturity and strength. We all returned from this with renewed vigour and greater

understanding of both our roles as Board members and our commitment to the work of governing our

school.

Much of the work of the Board is to ensure that we have good policies and procedures to guide the

operation of the school, to provide strategic direction and financial sustainability for the school and to

ensure we meet all legislated reporting requirements. We also liaise between the Board, leadership

team and the school community.

We are governed by a Board Governance Charter and the constitution of the school. We have also

used the guiding standards for governing by Australian Schools Board template to undertake a range

of self-assessment exercises to improve and guide the work of the Board.

As part of our Board policy review process, the following policies were reviewed in 2018:

• Reporting Policy

• Mandatory Reporting Policy

• Critical Incident Plan

• Anaphylaxis Management Policy

• Working with Children Policy

• School Fee Policy

During 2018, as part of our succession planning, we said farewell to founding School Coordinator

Fiona McKenzie, and welcomed Sarah Maclean to the new role of Principal. Fiona’s contribution to the

establishment of the Village schools at both Koonwarra and Phillip Island is significant; her vision,

passion and enormous drive enabled our small independent school to grow from an idea to a reality,

and to provide an inspiring educational environment where people and ideas flourish. Fiona remains

on the KVS Board and will also oversee the capital works project in 2019.


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It is always pleasing to see the achievements of our school set out in the Annual Report. It remains a

privilege to be able to contribute to the inspiring and wonderful independent school that is Koonwarra

Village School.

Alyson Skinner, KVS Chairperson


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Program Highlights

Koonwarra Village School uses the Victorian Curriculum as the basis of its academic program. The

school’s Philosophy and Guiding Principles outline the broader framework in which teaching and

learning occurs.

The Village School Curriculum is a series of additional programs and elements integrated across all the

features of school life and overviewed on our website

Learning Contracts

At the heart of our teaching and learning

model is a comprehensive (KVS-created)

framework that allows incremental

development of the skills and attributes

to become an Effective Learner.

Learning Contracts provide a

framework for teaching and learning at

KVS. The intention is to support

children to become independent and

effective learners.

Contracts include a range of core

numeracy and literacy tasks that can be undertaken by each child independently. The Foundation

level contracts are simple in nature and aim to develop children’s awareness of their ability to make

choices which lead to success. As the children’s skills develop, the complexity of the contract increases

and they begin to share the decision making with their mentor about the order and timing of their

work tasks (Guided Contracts). Over time, the level of guidance from the mentor reduces until

children are working as Autonomous Learners.

Learning Contracts

integrate with a

structured daily

timetable which

includes periods of

small group direct

instruction and whole

group activities.

Sample contracts

and the contract

pathway are on our

website.

http://koonwarravillageschool.org/teaching---learning.html

http://koonwarravillageschool.org/assets/traits-of-an-effective-learner-checklist.pdf

http://koonwarravillageschool.org/assets/all-contracts.pdf

http://koonwarravillageschool.org/assets/contract-pathway.pdf

http://koonwarravillageschool.org/assets/contract-pathway.pdf


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Playgroup & Foundation Transition Group

Held each Friday morning, the

KVS Bush Playgroup allows

families who are planning on

joining the KVS community to

become familiar with each

other, the school’s philosophy

and routines. The program was

facilitated by Dinah Brownfield for Semester One

and Dave Paxton for Semester Two. The playgroup

meets at Nirvana Park, Koonwarra and then the

group joins the KVS community for morning tea.

Our Sun Room students also visited the playgroup

for a Teddy Bears Picnic in Semester One, which is

a lovely way for the Foundation students to

reconnect with their pre-school life.

Tribes

A new whole school program has been introduced in

2018, called Tribes. Each student is placed in a tribe

group along with a number of mentors. All students and

mentors are included. The intention is to create smaller,

supportive ‘webs’ of cross-age groups, so the students

have the opportunity to develop stronger ties with a

broader range of students. Tribe Time occurs each cycle

and includes activities and, on occasions, shared meals.

This dedicated time together encourages conversations

between students across different age levels and allows

new relationships to blossom. It is also a group of people from across the school that you can go to for

support and allows older students to role model to younger students. This program is expected to

deepen and become further embedded in the school culture in 2019.

Nature Journaling

Nature Journaling is the regular recording of observations, perception, and feelings about the natural

world from first-hand experience. The intention for including regular nature journaling sessions in our

program is to expose children to the value of the connection between people and their environment.

We have found that it also helps to develop stillness in the children as they tune in to the sounds,

sights and smells of nature.


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In 2018, Nature Journaling was incorporated in a number of Camps and excursions. For the dedicated

Nature Journaling outings, students explored the Bunurong Coast and were joined by students from

the Phillip Island Village School (PIVS). Each outing had a

different focus and for the Bunurong Coast it was all about

texture, how to see it, feel it and draw it. The Wonthaggi

Wetlands were the next area of exploration and the focus

was on size and

magnification of water.

The Sun Room students also participate in nature journaling and

they began their nature journaling adventures for the year by

blindfolding each other and guiding a partner around to help them

tune into the sounds, textures and smells experienced when walking

between the school trees.

Personal Learning Projects (PLPs)

PLPs are a series of sign-up classes where students have the opportunity to learn and practise skills

beyond those offered through regular curriculum activities. Generally, two PLPs are offered to Triskel

students each cycle.

In 2018, the children signed up for a wide range of PLPs, kicking off

with a Pony Pals PLP, which was an opportunity for students to gain

knowledge about caring for horses. This included brushing, cleaning

hooves, leading as well as learning about the different horse breeds

and behaviours.

Students had the opportunity to try their hands at a number of art-based PLPs. These included; shoe-

decorating, teapot mosaics and a drawing PLP with techniques using fine-liners or shading. Later in

the year students worked with modelling clay to create mini pottery log cabins and finished off with a

Crazy Collage PLP that involved creating collages of irregular combinations and shapes.


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Various life skills PLPs were also offered for students to sign up to. Sewing and cooking were popular

and the cooking PLP involved students from across the school preparing morning tea to share with

the KVS Bush Playgroup families and our school community each Friday morning.

KVS Parliament and morning meetings are run by the

students and are living examples of ‘student voice’.

To ensure that anyone wanting to facilitate, or assist

Parliament, has learnt techniques and skills needed

when you are working with a larger groups of

students we run a Facilitation PLP every year. This

year the group included beginners and more

experienced students who enjoyed role playing

scenarios and discussing potential variations on the

current Parliament model.

As part of our Arts program, every student was given the

opportunity to experience making music with the marimba in

the first cycles of 2018. Students were keen to experience more

of the marimba so a marimba PLP was offered and KVS

resounded weekly to the joyous boom of the marimba!.

A stand-out PLP highlight for 2018

was the Fire-Twirling PLP. Students

learnt how to craft fire sticks, safety

considerations and basic

movements. After demonstrating

their readiness, they got to light the

sticks and twirl fire. Students show-

cased their skills at an impressive

demonstration at the whole school

Winter Gathering event in August.


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One Act Plays

Each year, KVS participates in the One Act Play Festival in Foster. In 2018, we had two entries in the

Young Players Festival section with a total of 36 students from Levels 1 to 6 acting in the plays. The

students were very dedicated with their preparation and their practices included some lunchtimes, an

overnight camp and a day in the cycle break. The first performance at the Winter Gathering (whole

school community event) delighted the parent audience and was a highlight for the students.

At the One Act Play Festival in

Foster, "The Three Fractured

Pigs" won the best production

award, with Emelia and Lola

winning an outstanding

performance award for their

roles as the narrators. Ruby

Alaska was also awarded an

outstanding performance prize,

for her role as the wolf in "Once

Upon a Grapevine”.


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Kitchen Garden

The KVS

kitchen

garden

curriculum

incorporates

the

Victorian

Curriculum

and the Village School Curriculum. It involves garden and

kitchen activities for all the year levels and builds on the skills

and knowledge acquired in the previous year. Many activities

are related to growing, harvesting and cooking as well as

delving into the world of food production and processing,

including looking after our own beehive. There are also projects

involving improvements to the overall kitchen garden

environment. In 2018, students went about restoring a pond

that attracts beneficial bugs and provides a home for aquatic

life in our kitchen garden. The end result of the hard work, design and

construction was a lovely and impenetrable pond, ready for an assortment of

water plants and other aquatic life.

Camps

Throughout the year there are several camping excursions to support personal learning projects

(PLPs) as well as develop student’s independence, confidence and resilience.

An annual event that kicks-off each year is the larger community Family Camp (FAMP). All students,

their parents and siblings get together over three days for a mix of structured activities and

connection as a community. In 2018, FAMP was held at the Cape Paterson Caravan Park.

Our camping program for younger students begins with the Level 2 School Sleepover Challenge. This

is the first camp KVS students attend without parents. The aim is to provide an experience that is fun

and relaxed in a comfortable and familiar environment with mentors who are well-known to the


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students. A small number of older students are also present to provide peer support and build on their

leadership skills.

An element of our camp program is to match opportunities to student interest as well as finding

opportunities to interact with students from other schools. In 2018, the camps included our very first

Science Camp, which took place in

the Sale area. Ten students in total

from both KVS and PIVS attended.

Students applied in writing to come

along, addressing what sparked

them about the camp. Activities

included a tour at the Vortex -

Gippsland Water Factory in Maryvale as well as exploring The Heart Morass, whilst learning and

applying lots of scientific techniques.

Building on the camping collaboration with Fitzroy

Community School (FCS) from 2017, five KVS and five PIVS

students headed off to FCS for a second visit. Students

enjoyed being in a city environment and experiencing a

different school setting (terrace buildings) whilst immersing

themselves in the daily FCS life and experiencing moving

around in a city.

Triskel students from Levels 3-6

participated in camps to Walkerville

and the program focused on camping

and bush survival skills. Cooking on

an outdoor fire, choosing good

campsites, learning to track and bush

first-aid skills were all part of the mix.


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Later in the year, all of our Level 2-6 students experienced a camp to Walhalla focused on bonding and

connecting as a group. A range of games and exploring took place, all capped off with fireside stories

and shared meals.

Immersion Learning

Immersion Learning is a new program

that offers a different style of learning

experience to students in Levels 5 and

6. In 2018, students from both KVS and

PIVS spent a week staying at Wilsons

Promontory, in one of the group lodges

and mentors from both village schools attended the camp.

The idea of the program was to 'immerse' the students in an

environment and explore different learning areas on site. For

this experience we undertook a fungi study (science and

specialist maths), as well as studying astronomy, geology and

humanities. The students completed learning tasks on the

camp, as well as being given a series of tasks once they had

returned to school. There was also a physical challenge component to the camp, with the students

completing a 19km day hike to Sealers Cove. The students feedback from the camp was extremely

positive, and we will be developing this program further next year.


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Honey Harvest Day

KVS has its own beehives and as part of our Kitchen Garden

Program, students learn why bees are important to the

environment and how to care for them.

In 2018 we had another Honey Harvest Day to celebrate the annual

harvest of honey from our hives. The celebrations began early,

when local artist and beekeeper, Amanda Diamond, came to work

with the students and make miniature bees! These bees adorned

the runway of the highly anticipated Honey Parade. Students,

playgroupers and mentors dressed as bees, flowers, pollen and

pots of honey. Students spent the morning in a range of honey and

bee-based activities capped off by the Honey Parade. The day

finished with a whole school choreographed bee dance.

Sustainability

Following on from participation in the Leaders in Environmentally Sustainable Schools event in 2017,

KVS students implemented a number of sustainability initiatives back at school. One of them was to

establish Green Club with most of the older years students signing up. Green Club has formed two

groups, Level 2-3 ‘Evergreen Team’ and Level 4-6 ‘Peregrinus’.

A large group of our Green Club students attended the Sustainable Schools Expo held in Inverloch in

March 2018. ‘Waste Not Want Not – Living better with

less’ was the overall theme, with over 400 students from

around Gippsland at the event which showcased

sustainability in action at schools and within the wider

community. Our students attended workshops on a

variety of topics including renewable energy, birdlife,

Boomerang Bags and plastic pollution in the ocean. The

Expo provided the students with some new project ideas

for each of the Green clubs.

Both of our Green Club groups entered works into the

recycled art exhibition at the Southern Gippsland

Sustainability Festival in Wonthaggi on the 8th of

April, 2018 . The theme was “A plastic bag free Bass

Coast”. Our pieces were developed over several

weeks and were based around the impact plastic

bags have on the leatherback turtle population. The

display won the most viewer votes on the day!


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KVS Film Night

2018 was the second time KVS older year students entered

the ACMI Screen It! Competition. This involved students

creating stop motion or live animation movies around the

theme of Curious. Students worked in groups of three, and

each student had a defined role: Writing Director, Art Director

and Digital Director. The groups created a storyboard of their

ideas, developed sets and characters and wrote scripts. There

were multiple filming stations set up and each group spent

several hours creating films, editing and adding a soundtrack

or voiceovers. All the films were showcased at our school

community KVS Film Night and the students were excited to

see how they had built on their previous years’ knowledge and

experience. One of the films was a finalist in the ACMI Screen

It competition. There were 440 entries from all across

Australia, which included around 2000 students, so to make it as a finalist was truly something special

and it was a great experience for the students to attend the awards ceremony in Melbourne.

Grounds Master Plan and Capital Works Project

During 2018, we applied

for and were successful in

securing funding for a

capital works project to

extend our learning

spaces, improve our

kitchen facilities and also

provide an on-site school

office. The capital works

project will begin in 2019.

We also commenced

some playground

improvements identified

in the Master Grounds

Plan that included a

climbing wall, swing bars as well as a rebound wall. The grounds work has been led by Rachel

Carruthers (Board member and parent) and has involved volunteer time from a number of community

members including Greg Carruthers, Reece Letcher, Derek Ashby, Sharon Reid, Rebecca Cooke, Matt

Cooke and Colin Stockdale.


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2018 Graduates

Two students graduated in 2018. It was a particularly

notable graduation as one of our graduates

commenced when we opened our doors in 2012 so

has completed their entire primary school journey at

KVS.

The graduates were sent off with a rousing

Graduation Ceremony and dinner at the school.

Staff

Our teachers are known as Mentors, to reflect the partnership that we consider is involved in a holistic

approach to academic learning and personal development. Students have the opportunity to work

with several Mentors during the week which allows them to experience a variety of relationships.

Seven teachers were employed in a part-time capacity for classroom duties in 2018.

Sarah Maclean (B.Sci, Grad. Dip. Ed. (Primary)) worked part-time with children in Levels 2-6 for

Writing and Art. Sarah also held the Leader of Teaching role until this role was amalgamated with our

School Coordinator role and Sarah was appointed to the newly formed Principal position (from

October, 2018).

Jasmine Wales (B.Ed (Early Childhood)), worked part-time for the Semester One with children in

Foundation-Grade 1 and Kristen Elliott (B.Ed (Early Childhood)), worked part-time for Semester Two.

Scott Egan (B.Ed (Primary)) held the role of specialist teacher, working with the Level 2-6 students for

Specialist Maths, Humanities, Spelling and Handwriting. Marni Speed (B. Applied Science, Grad. Dip.

Ed. (Secondary)) held the role of specialist teacher, working with the Level 2-6 students for Reading

and Green Club and across the school for Science. Brad Kijlstra-Shone (B. Sci, Grad. Dip. Ed.

(Secondary)) as a specialist teacher focused across the whole school on PE and Kitchen Garden

(Semester One). Brent Crowley (Master of Teaching (Primary), B. Design (Multimedia)) delivered

Digital Technologies across the school and Mathematics for Level 2-6 students.

Children in both classes were supported during the year

by classroom assistants – Dinah Brownfield (Semester

One), Lizzie Price, Belinda Gray and Shannon Letcher.

Fiona McKenzie (B.Com, Grad. Dip. Ed. (Primary)) was

responsible for administration activities and facilities

and transitioned the School Coordinator role to the new

Principal role from October 2018. The administration

and facilities activities were supported by Philippa

Lloyd, Natasha Rhodes, Shannon Letcher and John


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Ogden. The kitchen was coordinated by Jacqui Haysom and our Bush Playgroup was coordinated by

Dave Paxton (Semester Two)

None of the staff identified themselves as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent

L-R: Shannon Letcher, Brent Crowley, Fiona McKenzie, Belinda Gray, Lizzie Price, Sarah Maclean,

Brad Kijlstra-Shone, Jasmine Wales, Marni Speed, Dinah Brownfield, Scott Egan, Natasha Rhodes.

Absent from photo: Philippa Lloyd, Jacqui Haysom, John Ogden, Dave Paxton

Staff Feedback

To begin 2018, all teaching staff were invited to complete a ‘Summer Reflection’ questionnaire to

provide feedback and reflect on their teaching experience and work-life at KVS .

All teaching staff participated in Professional Conversations during the year which provided a formal

opportunity to provide feedback to the School Coordinator and Leader of Teaching and Learning

about their work experience. Mentors discussed issues such as work-life balance, timing and number

of planning days during the year.

In September, a Staffing Questionnaire was distributed which enabled Mentors to directly state their

preferred teaching levels, learning areas and days of work for the following year. This information was

used to prepare the timetable and spread of teaching responsibilities in 2019.

Community Feedback

Parents and students have various forums in which to feedback their level of satisfaction on the

programs and operations of the school. The weekly whole school parliament allows students the

opportunity to input suggestions into the development of school activities and programs.


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In June and December, parents

were involved in formal meetings

(20 minutes) with a panel of staff

members to discuss their child’s

academic performance. This is

also an opportunity for staff to

receive parents’ response to the

semester’s activities. A Presentation Night is held in conjunction

with the distribution of Triskel students’ written reports. The

activities on the night showcase learning activities from the

curriculum areas of Art, Science, Digital Technologies, PE and our

Kitchen Garden program. The aim of the evening is to give families a

more experiential understanding of the skills their children have

developed during the semester.

For Sun Room students, presentation afternoons were held on the last Friday of some cycles where

children presented their work as a group and then showed their parents their portfolios which include

photos and work samples and teaching information including the learning intention and skill

development for each child.

Teachers maintain regular contact with parents via email, phone calls or direct contact after school

throughout the school year to ensure the flow of information between home and school is timely and

frequent.

The first Friday of each school cycle a whole school parent meeting is held to cover a range of topics,

policy updates and for parents to feedback any queries or concerns.

Student Outcomes

Written reports relating to student academic progress were provided to parents in June and

December, covering all learning areas as well as including a personal letter written to each child from a

Mentor. These reports were accompanied by a parent/teacher/student meeting, scheduled for all

families.

NAPLAN testing

Student Participation

Withdrawn from Test

Grade 3 78% 22%

Grade 5 73% 27%


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All students in eligible grade levels were prepared for the testing in the weeks prior to NAPLAN which

was held in May, 2018.

Student performance in 2018 when compared to all Australian schools was reported as ‘at’, ‘above’ or

‘well above’ for grades 3 and 5 in all of the testing domains. The writing domain for grade 5 was not

available for reporting.

The small number of participants means that results fall below the reporting threshold therefore no

data is available for comparison with 2017 or 2016 years testing. KVS will continue to support

NAPLAN and other types of outcomes testing to ensure student achievement in all areas of the

curriculum.

Student attendance

The attendance rate of all full-time students who were enrolled at KVS for the whole year was an

average of 92.54%. Some students were absent for longer than usual periods of time due to overseas

and domestic travel and with a small cohort of students this can affect the overall percentage.

When a child is absent, parents are expected to notify a staff member by phone call, email, text

message or direct contact. If no contact has been received from parents, staff contact the parents to

determine the cause of the absence.

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60

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120

Foundation grade 1 grade 2 grade 3 grade 4 grade 5 grade 6

Boys

Girls


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Income by Funding Source

$188,674

$531,030

$123,403

$26,406

2018 Income

Tuition Fees (23%)

Commonwealth Govt.Recurrent (61%)

State Govt. Recurrent (14%)

Other (3%)

kvs annual report - koonwarra village school kvs annual report.pdf · we are governed by a board...

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