Teaching and Learning Initiatives in 2021

From the Parents and Friends Association

KIRSTEN BROOKS, Pfa PrESidENT

our wonderfully inclusive community culture supports an environment that maximises learning and individual growth. Our volunteers are integral in offering opportunities for families to find space for participation and contribution, and none is more important than our team of CSRs (Class Social Representatives). We have 46 CSRs across 15 cohorts! this year, it has been essential to reconnect, support each other and share stories with our cohort and across our community. The volunteer engagement for roles and events has been exceptional. CSRs have organised well-attended events; and the warmth and smiles from our families have been generous and comforting. the kilvington cares Food Program continues to be well championed and very well received, making a difference to the wellbeing of families. Thank you to everyone for their continued support and engagement in our community.

Sahkee Kotecha and Bronwyn Giles, 3YO ELC Co-CSRs

Bronwyn and I are joint CSRs for Marine Group. We thought it would be a fun way to get to know parents and kids alike! We’ve got a fabulous group, and have already enjoyed some lovely catch-ups at the park as well as a wine night for some mums.

We look forward to lots more fun times ahead for our gorgeous little ones, as well as a fabulous group of parents!

Magdalen Khoo, Year 7 CSR

This is our first year with Kilvington, and everything about the School, be it the curriculum, teachers or the PFA, is inspiring. What initiated the decision to get involved?

I vividly remember sitting and listening to Kirsten’s speech as an audience member at the parent information night ... it was then that the desire, enthusiasm and determination to achieve a closer relationship between the School and parents developed in me and eventually drove me to sign myself up!

My favourite event so far has been the parents and kids dining out together – it was a fabulous night and everyone went home with big smiles. This is what we want to see with what we do – laughter, fun and better connection together!

Michael Lin, Prep CSR

As a family with an international background, we speak our mother language at home instead of English. My daughter Gloria is shy, and I always want her to step up and take on some challenges. I really think CSR is a good opportunity for me to step up.

My hope is that I will be a good role model for Gloria – so she can see how her father takes on challenges. This opportunity will also give us the chance to get to know other kids and families.

Tiffany Rudik, Year 3 CSR

After several years of attending CSR events organised by others, I wanted to give back to Kilvington as well as to the parent community by being a CSR this year. It has been so rewarding engaging with the Year 3 cohort of families.

We have organised several get-togethers over Term 1, with one of my favourites being the Sunday Family Picnic at the start of term. We had a great number of Year 3 dads, mums, kids and dogs come down on a sunny Sunday afternoon. It was so lovely to meet and chat with new and existing Year 3 families.

Melinda Tassone, Years 9 and 12 CSR

The role of CSR is one I have taken on since my kids were in kindergarten, and I find it an invaluable role for lots of reasons.

When new to a school, it gives a perfect opportunity to meet other parents from your child’s year level, and you can make instant connections which can be difficult with our busy lives. This is especially important in the later years of kids’ schooling where parents’ involvement is usually far less.

It also gives you a great excuse to bring people into the fold who otherwise might be a little hesitant or time poor, and this in turn gives them more connectedness too. It is the perfect way to make friends with people you otherwise may not have met, which has been the case for me personally, and these people have become a very integral part of my life.

Alex Hopley, Year 10 CSR

I love being a CSR, as I love being involved in the School, in the community and in my kids’ lives … and I love meeting and connecting people together.

Karen Wynter, Year 11 CSR

I’m a CSR because I remember how important it was for us when we first arrived at Kilvington to be welcomed by the CSR, introduced to other families, and included in social events. I wanted to offer the same feeling of inclusion to new and existing families.

>Alumni Highlights

DEB DUCE, coMMuNiTy rElaTioNS officEr

It’s been a busy first half of the year, and after the limitations due to COVID restrictions in 2020, we couldn’t be happier about that!

We have hosted the Class of 1970 for their rescheduled 50-year reunion and our Walsh Club Lunch for those who attended Kilvington 50 or more years ago. These events were held at Kilvington in our Sport Centre and were very well attended. More than 40 Kilvonians attended the Walsh Club lunch in early March. It was so good to see everyone’s smiling faces and the joy of being face-to-face once again.

An absolute highlight of the day was listening to Rosemary Wright, Class of 1950, regale us all with a colourful account of her time at Kilvington in the 1940s. We are indeed lucky to have the history of the School remembered and recorded in this way. You can have a read of some of Rosemary’s story in the article on the right side.

One year late for the Class of 1970, but we got there in the end. After a few cancellations and rescheduling, the class of 1970 gathered for their 50-year reunion on 4 March this year.

A wonderful time was had by all, with much reminiscing, reconnecting and laughs. We toured the whole School and saw the many additions and improvements that have taken place over the years. A very different place from when the assembly hall was in the current upstairs language’s classrooms, well before the Dalton Hall days!

We look forward to welcoming the following peer groups to their reunions in the next half of the year (pending Government restrictions). • Class of 2001 and 2006

Friday 23 July, 6.00 – 8.00pm • Class of 1971

Friday 6 August, 6.00 – 8.00pm • Class of 2020

Thursday 26 August, 4.00 – 6.00pm • Kilvonian Konnections All Peer Event

Friday 10 September, 6.30 – 8.30pm • Walsh Club Lunch

Friday 8 October, 12.00 – 2.00pm • Class of 2011 and 2016

Friday 22 October, 6.00 – 8.00pm Rosemary Wright, Class of 1950

My name is rosemary, and i have been invited here today to talk about my memories of my school days at Kilvington. A little bit of history – I started in kindergarten, and one of my friends was Jeanette’s mother, Jean – and we are still best friends today! the School only had about 100 pupils, and boys only in kinder. The School was an old house in Walsh Street, with a vacant block as our playground and an asphalt tennis court. we had an ancient tram in the playground that doubled as a classroom and lunchroom. i was considered one of the naughty girls and always getting into trouble, but my version is that i was the one who owned up or got caught, as i had a loud voice! My earliest memory was in kinder when our teacher Miss Scott said, ‘who said shut-up?’ (that was considered a very naughty word) and I owned up. I was taken to a small kitchenette off the classroom and had my mouth washed out with soap and water. I’m still indignant about that incident, as it was taken out of context. My friend had made a farmyard with a gate and I had told her to ‘shut up the gate’.

Some of the things we got up to, mainly because we were unsupervised in a little bungalow out the back – We had one leaving student (Year 11) and four intermediates (Year 10). We would play jacks on the floor, take the wrong books to lessons, drop our pencil on the floor so we could look up our teacher’s skirt and change the page when she left the room. The games we played – Skipping was very popular; French and Double-Dutch. Swapping cards, jump the river, kick the tin, sardines and rounders.

Some of the lessons we had were French with Madame Loftus, a big, big French lady. Embroidery, speech training, art (in the attic) and ballet. We would walk to the Baptist church hall for physical education. We only had two houses, Fethers and Burman. On sports day we had some novelty events like egg and spoon, sack race, potato race, three-legged race and basketball events like cross ball and circle ball. For swimming we would travel by bus to the Brighton Baths. our outings consisted of visits to the Zoo or to the Melbourne Town Hall to listen to a symphony concert. We walked in a crocodile line, two by two like Madeline. The whole School formed the choir; I was flat as a tack and the music teacher Mr Monteith asked me just to open and close my mouth to pretend i was singing! To build a community of former students who enjoy and contribute to Kilvington’s rich culture of connection, relationships and care.