Principal's Report
Shane Kruger
Maximising learning growth to ensure all students can thrive.
Leadership Planning: Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) 2025/2026
The College Leadership Team has recently spent time evaluating our progress against our 2025 AIP and planning for our 2026 AIP.
We spent time reflecting upon what we have achieved this year and the strong progress we have made on our Annual Implementation Plan (AIP). Some of the highlights included: the introduction of Learning Pathways, positive growth in our Students Attitude to School Survey results, increase in staff and student confidence, stimulated learning in classrooms, literacy intervention, student voice and agency and a culture of collaboration. We were pleased to identify numerous achievements from our 2025 AIP, which contributed to positive growth across a range of school performance measures.
Some highlights have included:
- Improvements in Differentiated Learning Challenge
- Improvements in Stimulated Learning
- Improvements in Self-regulation and goal setting
- Improvements in Academic emphasis
- Improvements in teacher judgements (Numeracy) at or above expected level
- Improvements in teacher judgements (Reading) at or above expected level
- Improvements in Instructional Leadership
- Improvement in the Attitudes to School Survey factors:
- Sense of confidence
- Sense of connectedness
- Student voice and agency
- Improvement in the Parent Opinion Survey factors:
- Student voice and agency
- Student motivation and support
High expectations for success
We then turned our focus to the future, spending time planning for and developing our 2026 Annual Implementation Plan (AIP). The AIP outlines the key actions we will take next year to progress the goals of our Strategic Plan. The day involved thoughtful reflection and strategic discussion as our leaders worked collaboratively to shape the next stage of our improvement journey. Our 2026 AIP will continue to guide our efforts to maximise learning growth to ensure all students can thrive.
GO! Program
Our Year 11 students officially stepped into their Year 12 classes recently as part of the Year 12 GO! Program. This program gave students a valuable start to their Year 12 subjects and helped them build strong foundations for success in 2026. It has been fantastic to see students engaging positively in their GO! classes and embracing this opportunity to begin their final year of schooling with confidence.
Our Year 10 students will begin their Year 11 GO! Program next week as they prepare to begin their VCE and VCE VM journey. We wish them all the best in this next chapter of their education.
Year 12 Valedictory
On November 21, we came together for our final celebration of the Year 12 cohort at their Valedictory Dinner—a special occasion to acknowledge their journey, reflect on their time at the College, and celebrate all they have accomplished. It was wonderful to join with students, staff and families to recognise this momentous occasion and look ahead to the exciting futures that await the Class of 2025. We are incredibly proud of each student and look forward to seeing them thrive in this next stage of their lives.
New Website
Our new college website has now been completed and officially launched. The site has been designed to engage prospective families and strengthen our connection with the broader community by showcasing who we are and what we offer. For current Lilydale Heights College families, Compass will continue to serve as the primary platform for information, communication, and documentation.
The updated design is easier to navigate, visually engaging, and reflects the modern, growth focused learning community we are proud to be. Our new website is available at: https://www.lilydaleheights.vic.edu.au/
Staff Opinion Survey & Parent Opinion Survey
We recently received our Staff Opinion Survey results and our Parent Opinion Survey results which were once again extremely positive. It takes the collective efforts of students, staff and families to create the positive conditions and culture we have to ensure that all students have the opportunity to thrive in their learning and wellbeing. I have included some of the results below so that our community can join us in celebrating these great results. You can see below how we achieved in comparison to Similar Schools, Network Schools and the State.
Staff Opinion Survey
LHC | Similar | Network | State | |
| Collective focus on student learning | 88% | 73% | 79% | 74% |
| Collective responsibility | 81% | 70% | 73% | 73% |
| Guaranteed and viable curriculum | 79% | 61% | 68% | 64% |
| Parent & community involvement | 71% | 56% | 59% | 57% |
| Cultural Leadership | 84% | 66% | 76% | 66% |
| Flexibility | 74% | 52% | 65% | 53% |
| Instructional Leadership | 77% | 63% | 68% | 62% |
| Intellectual stimulation | 78% | 68% | 69% | 66% |
| Leading change | 79% | 64% | 73% | 64% |
| Parent & community involvement, engagement, and outreach | 89% | 74% | 80% | 72% |
Parent Opinion Survey
LHC | Similar | Network | State | |
| School Communication | 81% | 73% | 75% | 75% |
| Promoting Positive Behaviour | 78% | 70% | 69% | 73% |
| General School Improvement | 72% | 62% | 59% | 65% |
| School Pride & Confidence | 78% | 70% | 74% | 74% |
| Physical Environment | 89% | 76% | 85% | 76% |
| High Expectations for Success | 84% | 78% | 83% | 79% |
| Student Voice & Agency | 74% | 66% | 69% | 70% |
Shane Kruger
Principal.