Thank you for the warm welcome to the Kangaroo Valley community. My name is Jen Arnott and I started as the Relieving Principal at Kangaroo Valley Public School at the beginning of Term 2. I grew up locally and continue to live in the beautiful Shoalhaven.
I started my teaching career at Bomaderry Public School, where I spent eight years as a classroom teacher and enjoyed several opportunities to relieve as an Assistant Principal and Deputy Principal.
I was also given an amazing opportunity to perform the role of Home School Liaison Officer for the Shoalhaven and Shellharbour areas, where I worked across 20 local schools and with various agencies. It was an interesting and rewarding experience that I often look back on as one of the highlights of my career to-date.
During my two years as Assistant Principal at Tomerong Public School, I fell in love with small schools and loved working alongside students, parents and the wider school community to support learning and wellbeing.
I gained a permanent Assistant Principal position at Illaroo Road Public School, a much larger school with close to 600 students and taught Kindergarten, relieving as the Deputy Principal and Principal on several occasions. I’m thrilled to be returning to a small school setting and am excited about being part of such a vibrant school and community.
New books for our school
We would like to thank the Valley Voice for contributing $10,000 for purchasing new decodable readers for our school, which will be a great resource for our younger students as they are learning to read. We really appreciate this donation and look forward to providing parent workshops to showcase how these resources are being used in our school.
One of our long-term goals for our school is to purchase some new, high interest guided readers and home readers, as our current selection is in need of an update. If you think you might be able to help by donating to our P&C fund to purchase new reading resources, please contact our P&C President Trudie on kvps.pandc@gmail.com.
Playground projects
We have a group of dedicated volunteers with some creative landscaping skills who have started transforming some of our playground spaces. We have some great ideas and would love to organise regular working bees for any interested parents, grandparents or community members who might have some time to help with some small outdoor space projects around the school. If you think you could help with either your time or a donation to support our outdoor learning space upgrade, please email me at jennifer.arnott3@det.nsw.edu.au.
Soccer Clinics
We have been lucky enough to have Mark Johnston from Shoalhaven District Football Association visiting our school every Tuesday and working with all classes to develop their soccer skills.
KV Family Flicks
The KV Family Flicks Movie night was a huge success. It was so nice to see everyone coming together at the KV hall to enjoy a movie and each other’s company. Thank you to Kate Hole and everyone for all their hard work organising such a great night out. Follow the KV Family Flicks Facebook page for more information about the next event.
Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre excursion-13th Storey Treehouse
Our Years 2-6 students went to the Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre on Thursday 2 June to see the play titled The 13th Storey Treehouse. Our students enjoyed watching the much-loved book by Andy and Terry transform into a play.
Happiness Through Helping Fundraiser for the Shoalhaven Homeless Hub
A group of our caring students held a second-hand clothing and book stall in the school library, raising funds for the Shoalhaven Homeless Hub. At the beginning of Term 2 Elsie, Georgie, Matilda, Maddie and Colbie once again decided to raise money for a charity. This time they decided to hold a second-hand clothes shop. They researched various charities and ended up deciding to support the Shoalhaven Homeless Hub because their web page says they give 100% of donations directly to the people in need.
Mrs Robinson and Mrs Gripper helped determine the final details and coordination of the event – with a goal of raising $150. The students advertised their fundraiser to the school community and asked for donations of clothes, shoes and books to be brought into their class over the next few weeks. Lots of great donations were received with thanks and the clothes were set up for sale in the Library. The sale was held on Friday 3 June and the students ran the sale themselves, which included coordinating a time for each class to come to the library and helping the KVPS students find any items they might want to purchase.
The students returned to the library at the end of the school day when there were even a few more customers at pick up! The total raised was $252.85, which was a great result.
What’s happening in Art?
Students in 2/3J and 4/5/6R have been producing their own amazing portraits in art class. 2/3J students have been learning how to draw faces using correct facial proportions. They produced colourful and unique ‘Bubble-gum self-portraits’, complete with a balloon ‘bubble’.
4/5/6 R students have learnt about grid drawing through the art of Chuck Close. They then drew their self-portraits using this technique and produced some excellent art work.
Beautiful Autumn leaves have been the focus of art classes for all students. The students have collected and drawn Autumn leaves and made colourful leaf rubbings with wax crayons. The rubbings were then painted with a watercolour wash.
Students in 1/2TA and 2/3J then turned their leaf rubbings into beautiful lanterns which now hang in their classrooms.
Home reader bags
Our new home reader bags have arrived. The Cochrane family raised $3,000 selling sunflowers to purchase these for our students. We will be launching these new reader bags at the beginning of Term 3.
Thank you for your warm welcome and support throughout Term 2. I feel incredibly lucky to be part of such a wonderful school community.
Jen Arnott
Relieving Principal
Kangaroo Valley Public School