Dear Parents/Carers,

As we head towards the end of Term 2, I would like to thank all members of our community for their continued support of our college as we strive towards our Commitment to Excellence of high expectations for every student, in every classroom, every day. Term 2 has been a short but busy term for our college community. It has seen many excursions, incursions, sporting teams competing and above all, great opportunities for our students in their classroom-based learning. Below are some important updates regarding our college over the past few weeks.

Update on Facilities Upgrades

I am very excited to announce that Lyndhurst Secondary College was named in the 2023-2024 State Budget as receiving our first lot of funds to support the planning for facilities upgrades. This is the first part of the $13.6 million facilities upgrade commitment for our college.

This first stage will see us engage in a detailed planning process, and will involve student, staff, parent/carer and community consultation. We will also be working with experts from the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) who will guide and support us through a full master planning process as we reimagine our physical spaces to ensure we have top class facilities for learning for our students.

Students Attitudes to School Survey 2023

We recently conducted our annual Attitudes to School Survey which surveys all school students to get their important feedback for improvement. I wish to thank the Assistant Principal team for their work over the past three weeks in running multiple sessions for students. This year, we worked with students in individual classes to unpack the reasons why the survey is important and explain how their feedback is used, as well as unpack the meanings behind key terms in the survey to ensure all students both understood the importance of giving accurate feedback, as well as ensuring all students understood the meaning of the statements.

I am very pleased to share that our preliminary results for 2023 are indicating strong improvement in student perceptions of their education and social experiences at Lyndhurst Secondary College. More detailed results will be shared in Term 3, but some highlights include strong growth in the following areas:

At this school, there is an adult who cares about me = 73% in 2023 compared to 56% in 2022
There is a teacher or another adult at this school who believes that I can be successful = 81% in 2023 compared to 69% in 2022
My teacher sets clear rules for classroom behaviour = 85% in 2023 compared to 74% in 2022

Student voice forums will be operating in the final week of Term 2 to unpack the results further, as well as discuss possible actions moving forward so we can continue to improve these.

Assessment and Reporting

On Thursday 15th June, all VCE and VCE Vocational Major students studying a Unit 3 and 4 subject sat the General Achievement Test (GAT). This is an important assessment that provides not only information on student literacy and numeracy levels, but also serves a very important purpose in validating assessment results for VCE studies. I congratulate all our students in sitting their first VCAA exam and am proud of the way in which students conducted themselves in this formal assessment environment.

On Thursday 15th June, the college will also hold our school-wide Assessment and Reporting Day. This student-free day provides staff with the opportunity to finalise assessments and complete semester reporting information. Assessment results are uploaded to Compass under Learning Tasks for all students within 3 weeks of being completed using our live/continuous reporting. Semester reports provide an overview of student performance for the semester, including general behaviour measures. These will be available for parents, carers and students to view by the end of Term 2.

Uniform Blitz

We are excited to announce that our new knitted rugby tops have arrived in store and are available for students to purchase. This alongside the super fleece jumper provide students with a more modern looking mid layer to stay warm with during the winter months. We also recently ran a pop-up uniform shop to provide students, parents and carers with the ability to buy new uniform items on site and make it as easy as possible to get ready for the winter months.

There have been a small number of students who have been regularly wearing non-uniform items which goes against our Student Dress Code Policy (available from

https://www.lyndhurst.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Student-Dress-Code-Policy-2022-2025.pdf).

Some common uniform breaches include:

Wearing black pants or tracksuit pants instead of navy blue
Wearing non-Lyndhurst branded navy tracksuit pants
Wearing cargo pants (blue/black) instead of the school-regulated pants
Wearing non-approved shoes with the academic uniform

Please note the image below shows the approved shoes to wear with the academic uniform.

Shoe Requirements according to our Student Dress Code Policy are:

Academic uniform: Black, leather polishable school shoes or all black, all leather runners – no mesh parts
Sport uniform: Students wearing the sports uniform are permitted to wear any coloured unners (fully leather or leather look highly recommended)
Boots, ankle boots, slip ons, zipped, canvas, suede, ballet flats are not acceptable options for school shoes

Please also note the list of approved accessories that can be worn with our college uniform:

Beanie – plain navy or beanie with College name/logo
Baseball cap – plain navy or cap with College name/logo
Head scarves or other religious head coverings (e.g. hijabs, turbans) in plain navy or white
Scarf – plain navy or navy scarf with College logo

In the final week of term, we will be conducting a uniform blitz to ensure that all students are aware of uniform non-compliance and have the opportunity over the school holiday break to rectify any uniform issues by purchasing new items from our uniform supplier Beleza.

I wish everyone a safe and restful holidays and look forward to seeing all members of our community recharged and ready for learning for Term 3.

Ms Eloise Haynes

Principal

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