Principal's Report

End of 2018

Well, what a year 2018 has been for Lyndhurst Primary School! Not only have we achieved the best academic results in the school’s short history, having become an “influence school” according to the Department’s ranking system, but we have gained recognition in so many areas as well.

As a long-time Walker Learning school (since the school opened in 2011), we have been a leader in promoting and implementing this innovative 21st Century pedagogy. You, as parents, have seen the results of this across our school as this internationally acknowledged program, based on the very latest of research into the young brain and how children learn, has created an environment of engagement and inquisitiveness in every classroom.  In 2019, the school and our staff were recognised for the authentic and professional way in which the pedagogy has been implemented as Kobi Howe, one of our junior school teachers, gained accreditation as a Walker Learning Practitioner. The school has also become accredited as a “study tour school” by Early Life Foundations, meaning that schools implementing the program and staff who are being trained in the pedagogy, visit Lyndhurst as part of that training. High praise indeed for our staff and wonderful recognition of the school and the work we have been building on since we opened only short few years ago.

Alongside our academic pursuits, you will already know that we have placed considerable effort into focusing on the well-being of our students. Our innovative well-being team, led by Elaine Lesiuk and supported by our Well-being coordinator Simone Smith, has headed the field in so many areas and, once again, there has been ample recognition of the quality of the work of our staff in 2018. At Lyndhurst, we have always had a commitment to engaging students with the natural world in a variety of ways, for example through our environmental science program and the development of our play spaces in line with our playground master plan. Of particular interest in 2018, has been our Forest School program which engages children in outdoor activities, connecting them with nature in order to improve their well-being, self-worth and their engagement in learning. The program has gained recognition from Forest Schools UK, the originators of the program, who wish to produce a podcast and do a case study of the program in our school, which is unique in Australia.

Our intervention team has also gained recognition this year for the way in which we support children falling behind in their learning. In 2018, we have had several schools, both from within and outside of our local network, come to us to learn about our intervention programs that supports so many of our students to catch up, keep up and advance in their learning. Across the school, we have far fewer students working behind their expected level than ever before, much lower indeed, than other similar schools. So many of our students are now on the path to a quality learning journey where before, they saw none.

Our literacy program, also, has been gaining significant traction and recognition in 2018. Nicky Walker is now a Network Literacy Leader. Her role is to present a program of professional learning for teachers on the implementation of a quality literacy program in their school. Nicky, within the school, has always had great credibility as a teacher of literacy and we have benefited, for many years now, from her expertise. Now, she is spreading that expertise across many schools in our network through the Literacy Leader training.

Finally, one of the consistent binding factors that has been with our school since we opened, has been the use of an inquiry cycle, supported by coaching as a means of continually improvement of the teaching practice that goes on in our classrooms. A large number for our staff have been trained as professional coaches, enabling them to work alongside their colleagues to support them in developing and implementing meaningful improvement plans.

Several of our staff are accredited coaches with Growth Coaching International. I have just recently been re-accredited by Growth Coaching International after my first 3 years of coaching practice. Recently, we were approached by Growth Coaching International to do a podcast of our coaching journey, focusing on the coaching culture that we have built in our school. This will be accompanied by a case study into the way in which we have developed our coaching program and the way that staff have embraced the concept of coaching as a highly effective means of professional development and practice improvement. Further, we have been asked to submit a proposal to present at the upcoming National Coaching in Education conference  - “New Insights in Coaching Practice: Creating Conditions for Effective Learning” in Sydney in 2019.

It’s now 8 years since we first opened with about 13 staff and 150 students. Now we are 75 staff and 880 children! The growth in size has been amazing but the growth in the quality of our school, our staff and the education we provide has been simply mind-blowing. I am so proud of everyone at this school and what we have been able to achieve together. Athough I’ve mentioned a few individuals in the passages above, it’s the collective effort, the teamwork, the camaraderie and the unswerving focus on our students that has brought so much together over those 8 years. In 2019, we will set our sights even higher as together, we set new goals and embrace new challenges.

Hour of code #hourofcode

Last week, we welcomed one of our parents in to speak ot our students as part of our ICT focus on coding. Phuong Mai Nguyen, a programmer and strong advocate for her profession, spoke to an  engaged audience of possible future “coders”.

Here’s how she described the session.

“What does a programmer look like?” I asked the kids.

“A white man wearing glasses typing away his keyboard in an old lab”, was one response.

“What job do you think I do?”

*crickets*

Eventually I said, “I’m a programmer, but I am nothing like what you just described. Actually, programmers are very cool. We are like superheroes that help make people lives easier using technology.”

They believed me. Kids love superheroes

 My work here is done ✅ 🤣

I loved getting the opportunity to speak at a local primary school to over 300 kids from prep to grade 6 during #HourOfCode recently. The response was overwhelming. So many kids came to me, after my talk, asking how they can learn more about coding 🤩

What a marvellous opportunity for our students!

Staff changes 2018

We don’t often have teachers leave our school, in fact it’s very rare. It’s even rarer to lose one of our foundation staff! However, this year we say goodbye to our much-loved foundation teacher, Sunita Kalia.

Sunita was one of our original Years 1 and 2 teachers when we opened in 2011, before she moved eventually into the middle years classrooms. Sunita has accepted a promotion to Dandenong North Primary School as a Learning Specialist where she will, I am sure, make a wonderful contribution to the development of their teaching and learning program as she has done here, over the last 8 years.

In a school that has a large number of younger staff, Sunita has always brought the steady head of experience, gently supporting and developing our young teachers. She has also made significant contributions to our curriculum program, particularly with her extensive knowledge and expertise in the teaching on mathematics. She made those contributions “under the radar” as we say, not looking for recognition and fanfare but just getting on with the job.

We will miss Sunita greatly. We will miss that unmistakeable smile and bright manner. We will miss her expertise and knowledge. We all wish Sunita the very best in her challenging new role at Dandenong North and congratulate her on her promotion to leadership.

Choir at Hampton Park Carols

Congratulations to our school choir who sang at the recent Hampton Park Carols by Candlelight. The choir was invited to sing as part of the ‘rising stars’ section of the evening and performed wonderfully well last Friday. Thank you to our dedicated music teachers Craig Sketcher and Julian Flanagan for giving the children a wonderful performance opportunity. Thanks to the parents who were able to get the children to the event but thanks mainly to our wonderful students who made us all so very proud.

OSHC Survey Preliminary Results

Thank you to the 72 families who responded to the recent OSHC survey. The survey has now closed and we are sorting thorugh the results. Briefly, there is a fairly consistent 50/50 split in attitudes towards the program in a range of areas. I will be forwarding the results of the survey to Camp Australia and will schedule a meeting prior to school starting. I will ask them to respond to the survey results and present us with their improvement plan moving forward. The results have also been forwarded to School Councillors and will be discussed at our first meeting in 2019.

Year 6 Day Out and Graduation Ceremony

It’s a busy and emotional week for our departing year 6 students with their annual day out and the all-important Graduation Ceremony. The students have been practising hard and I know they will do us all proud with their performance and their conduct on what is a really significant event in their lives. I’m really looking forward to it.

Final Assembly

Of course, all parents are welcome to come along to our final assembly on Friday. It’s always a wonderful way to finish off the year before we break of the holidays!

Student Reports

Don't forget that the reports for students will be available online on the Sentral Portal tomorrow at 5pm. The reports and a comprehensive summary of your child’s learning this year and I am sure you will find them interesting reading.

Finally

I wish everyone a wonderful holiday break. For me, Christmas has always been all about family and I’m looking forward to the celebrations. I’ll be heading off camping with family for a couple of weeks, one of my favorite past times of course. I hope that everyone can take the time to enjoy family and friends over the break before we return in 2019 for another wonderful year at Lyndhurst.

We have a number of families who will be leaving our neighbourhood and heading off to new schools in 2019 and we wish them the very best as well. I trust that you will leave us with fond memories of your time as part of the Lyndhurst community and I hope that your experience in your new school and community is just as wonderful.