Principal

I welcome all of our returning families to the 2025 school year and hope the holiday period has been an enjoyable one that has allowed all members of your family to relax and recharge for 2025.

I would like to especially welcome our new families who have a child commencing at the college for the first time in 2025. You join a community that has changed significantly over the past 3 years due to major building works, and the college is now ready to develop programs, curriculum and new approaches to learning as part of the continual improvement journey of the college.

While in previous years the school has faced significant challenges around the national teacher shortage, I am pleased to say that we have all teaching positions filled for 2025 and will have all classes covered by a designated classroom teacher.

Over the past 10 years our school has seen significant improvements across a range of areas including academic achievement, student culture and leadership, extra-curricular opportunities and involvement, and the quality of teaching being delivered by our staff.

This year is the 3rd year of the 2022-2026 Strategic Plan. Over the first 2 years we have seen a significant staff response to the areas of challenge identified as part of the whole school review. This has led to visible and tangible changes to the school program that can be directly attributed to the work of staff across the college. These include the following:

Assessment Reform - this includes the ongoing use and construction of developmental rubrics, the embedding of the Year 7 to 10 assessment schedules and the number and type of assessment used.
The development and use of the LSC Implementation Map providing a common tool for all staff to use when developing the teaching and learning programs of the college. This has provided for consistency across the following areas:

Common Curriculum planning templates for consistency across all Key Learning Areas.
A focus on assessment tools.
Access to the relevant resources and links to all LSC initiatives.

The continued use of data by leaders and teachers to respond to the learning needs of students across the college.
A consistent focus on Literacy to address the learning needs of our students.
The consistent implementation of the LSC Instructional Model providing for more consistency in teaching practice across all classrooms
The development of the LSC Engagement Framework and continued discussions around what student agency looks like at LSC.

In 2025 we will continue with the identified areas of challenge and continue to build on the work of the previous 2 years. The focus of 2025 will be the following:

Review and develop the LSC Engagement Framework
Further develop consistency in the use of the LSC Instructional Model via an observation model.
Embed the use of the LSC Implementation Map as a school wide planning tool
Review the KLA Literacy Action plans for 2025
Student Agency Trial – Explicit teaching and use of the LSC instructional model at Year 7

I am confident that our staff will embrace the areas identified to directly influence the continued improvement journey of our college and lean into the work required to achieve the goals we have set for 2025.

The class of 2024 stood out as a wonderful group of students with close connections to each other and the staff of the college. Their VCE results were an improvement on previous years with many students performing at the highest level.

The class of 2024 had many high performers with ATAR scores over 90. We congratulate Suganja Sathiyananthan on being the Dux of our college, but no matter the ATAR score achieved we are extremely proud to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of all students to achieve a senior school certificate. I look forward to supporting the class of 2024 in their efforts of moving into a pathway post-secondary school.

In keeping with our commitment to the continuous improvement of student performance and learning outcomes, Lalor Secondary College continues with its Framework for Assessment and Reporting incorporating the provision of online continuous and end of semester reports in 2025. The school has now established the majority of communication onto Compass which is the school’s primary source of communication. All parents must ensure that any change of contact details with regard to address, home phone numbers, mobile phone numbers and email addresses are provided to the school as soon as the changes occur. This will minimise the risk of important information being missed by families. It is also important as we may need to contact parents or guardians at times to provide support, or in cases of emergency. I ask that you keep the school informed, through Kayla Dugdale on 9463 7349, our student enrolment administrator, of any changes that occur to contact details.

The school takes the responsibility of providing a safe and secure environment for all students very seriously. Organisations providing services or facilities specifically for children in Victoria were required to meet new Child Safe Standards from July 2022. As part of meeting this requirement the school reviewed its existing Child Safe Policies as part of the school review in 2022 to ensure it clearly outlined how it meets the guidelines outlined in the legislation passed by the Victorian Government. These policies are available on the school’s website, as are all the schools’ policies. All of the policies available on the school website can be found at the following link - http://www.lalorsc.vic.edu.au/ Two policies that I ask all parents to become familiar with are the Uniform Policy and the Student Code of Behaviour.

These are working documents that are constantly referred to and consistently enforced across the school by all staff. I ask that all parents support the content of these documents, as these documents help provide a calm environment for all students and staff that allows the teaching and learning within the school to be delivered in the manner it was intended. I therefore ask parents to ensure their child are in full school uniform from day one of the school year and continue to support this aspect of the school throughout the year. If you are having difficulty meeting this expectation, please contact the school for the assistance we can provide via our hardship fund.

Over my time at the college, I have built a narrative around the school’s values of Achievement, Caring, Cooperation, Honesty and Pride. It is my expectation that all members of our school community embrace these values and support the educational opportunities afforded to the students at Lalor Secondary College by working in partnership. Through working together, we are confident that the school can provide successful educational and wellbeing outcomes for all students.

My staff and I are enthusiastically looking forward to the 2025 school year and encourage all parents to contact the relevant personnel if you have any queries or questions.

I look forward to seeing our entire community over the course of the year whether it be at Parent Teacher Conferences, Information Evenings, school events or in passing. I have no doubt that the ongoing success of the school will continue into future years and look forward to celebrating it with you and your children.

Yours sincerely,

Corey Jewell

College Principal