Dear Parents/Carers,

As we progress through Term 4, the college is working to conduct extensive planning for 2023, as well as ensure a continued focus on maintaining a safe and supportive learning environment focused on learning. The following is a summary of key activities happening for our college at present.

Ministerial Announcement re: Facilities Upgrades

I received a call early in the term from Member of Parliament for Narre Warren Gary Maas to confirm that we would be hosting a visit from the Minister for Education The Honourable Natalie Hutchins MP on Wednesday 19 October. As part of the election boundary redraw, Lyndhurst Secondary College will no longer be located within the Cranbourne electorate and will become part of the Narre Warren electorate after the upcoming election, moving from the During this visit, the Minister met with student leaders, was invited to watch a welcome dance performance and have a chat with Year 7 students. During her visit, the Minister announcement that if a Labor Government is re-elected, Lyndhurst Secondary College will receive $13.6M in funding for the improvement of facilities. This potential funding will go a long way in bringing the quality of our physical spaces up to the standard our young people deserve and will target some of our oldest buildings for works, with a focus on the following areas:

Improved facilities for physical activity and health (including community use)
Improved facilities for the delivery of vocational and applied learning
Improved facilities for the delivery of high quality STEM education

2023 School Review and Preparation

As part of a state-wide process, all schools have a 4 year cycle for review. This important process involves members of our community (students, staff and parents/carers) all contributing to a review of our successes and areas for growth based on the last four years and our School Strategic Plan (SSP). For Lyndhurst Secondary College, our SSP runs from 2018-2022, meaning we will be entering our review in Term 1, 2023.

As part of this process, the Executive Team for the college are currently leading a pre-review self-evaluation process during Term 4 this year. This process involves three key actions:

Reviewing school policies and updating these as necessary, including updates to reflect the new Childsafe Standards and associated requirements
Reviewing the curriculum plans for Years 7 to 12, including the curriculum delivery of mandatory elements
Gathering student, staff and community feedback on areas of strength and growth

Members of our community will be invited to participate in the feedback stages in Term 4 2022 and Term 1 2023 to ensure we have a robust review process and use this to guide the development of our next School Strategic Plan

Term 4 Reset Assemblies

As a college, we have a strong focus on establishing and maintaining a safe and supportive learning environment for all students. Unfortunately, we had a very small number of students whose behaviour recently has contravened our College Values and reduced the feeling of safety for students and staff.

As a college, we take a strong stance against physical violence that is either committed or threatened to be committed towards students and/or staff in our community.

In response to this, we have issued appropriate consequences for students involved in perpetrating physical violence, as well as students involved in inciting or aggravating situations to potentially cause physical violence. Furthermore, we will be issuing appropriate consequences for students involved in the filming and/or distribution of footage of students on platforms including social media, a behaviour that can further aggravate situations.

As part of this response, we are holding year level assemblies for all students to reiterate our College Values and to reaffirm our response to student behaviour that contravenes our College Values. This will include clear information about the information above as well as the concept of bystander behaviours to ensure our students are clear on what our high expectations look like from all students to move forward.

School Response to Student Vaping

We have had increasing reports of students vaping which presents a major health risk to students. Furthermore, we have recently seen an increase in students using vapes when on the college premises, which presents not only a risk for their health, but also potentially contributes to reducing the feeling of student safety in our college community.

Health experts are reporting increasing rates of children and young people using e-cigarettes – known as vaping.

There is emerging evidence that vaping can lead to adverse health impacts such as cardiovascular disease and respiratory disease, and that young people who use e-cigarettes are more likely to go on to smoke cigarettes.

Schools, together with parents and carers, have an important role to play in providing a protective environment and educating children and young people against the harmful effects of smoking and vaping.

It is important to note the following information surrounding vaping, including Victorian laws related to this:

In Victoria, a person must not smoke or use e-cigarettes on school premises or within 4 metres of any pedestrian access point to school premises.
Inhaling vapour from an e-cigarette is known as ‘vaping’. When using an e-cigarette, the user inhales and exhales the vapour, which can look similar to smoking a cigarette. The prohibition on smoking includes the use of e-cigarettes (vaping) and applies whether or not the e-cigarette contains nicotine.
Cigarettes and e-cigarettes cannot be sold to people under 18 years of age.
Smoking and vaping are also not permitted during school events and excursions held off school premises.

The college has both preventative education through our Health curriculum as well as reactive education measures in the event a student is caught vaping or using other illicit substances.

Under guidelines from the Department of Education students found to possess, use or sell or deliberately assist another person to possess, use or sell illicit substances (including vapes) are subject to suspension. As a college, we will be including information in our Term 4 reset assemblies to inform them of the college’s response, consequences and steps for students who are found to be involved in this behaviour that contravenes our College Values.

Ms Eloise Haynes

Principal

Senior School

Schoolies 2022