Dear LPS Families and Friends,

Values

In my first year at Lysterfield Primary School, we went through a process to review our school values. We engaged with students, parents and staff to choose values for our community that were reflective of our beliefs and that we believed would effectively guide our community in getting great outcomes for students. Over the past 8 years, these values have become engrained in our minds and practices to the point that our students and staff use them regularly to understand how they should behave or think in certain situations. They are fundamental in guiding our practice.

When developing our Annual Implementation Plan at the end of 2023, it was apparent that whilst our current values are still relevant, it was time for us to review them. Since the last values review:

we have completed a School Review and developed a new Strategic Plan
we experienced a global pandemic, which had a profound impact on society
all students that were at the school have moved to secondary school

We have already started the values review with staff and students and it is now time to engage our parent community. On the evening of Wednesday 4th September from 6.45pm-8.15pm, we would like to invite all parents to participate in this review. If you have a passion for this work please save the date in your calendar and we will provide further information closer to the date.

Respect and support for others

As a parent, it can be difficult to navigate our children's challenges in the school yard, other parents and the emotions that come along with supporting our children. I have 3 children, 2 of them finished with school and 1 in year 10. During their time at school they were involved in the following:

Getting punched in the eye
Yelled at by a teacher
swore at other children
forged a diary note to say they couldn't do homework
etc

In each circumstance, all I could say for sure, is that I never had the full story about any of these incidents. I'd like to think that I knew my children well enough to know that in some circumstances they probably didn't make poor choices and others they probably did. The only people that I was confident did have the full story was the school.

Like most of you, I was often in a position where other parents would tell me about things that had happened at school. My position as principal meant that I had a different perspective than most, and in general, I didn't listen to what these parents had to say.

I am asking that when you hear stories from other parents you take them with a grain of salt. Those families generally don't have the full story and often have the wrong story. In addition, even if a parent tells you about something from school and you know that it is true, we are talking about children. Heaven forbid we were all discussed for the things we did and continue to do wrong. Please be considerate of other families and the children in our community. Let's try and build each other up as opposed to bringing each other down.

Pegasus Award

Last week at assembly I announced that we would be presenting a Pegasus Spirit award to a parent that had displayed kindness by doing things for others within our school community. I am pleased to inform you all that the award recipient was Mel Cavanagh. Mel is the president of our Parents and Friends association and whilst she does an immense amount of work in this role, she received this award for her other selfless acts. Recently and in the past Mel has either lobbied her workplace, or personally donated, items to our school that will benefit others. She has done this without fanfare and only intends to make things easier for others in our community. There are often times that other parents do these things and we will keep an eye out for these instances to continue to recognise them.

As with our students, many parents go out of their way to support others in our community, and it is difficult for us to recognise them all. Please don't take offence if your child, or yourself, does not receive an award, it is not a reflection of how much we value you or your actions.

Prin Conference

On Monday of this week, Mrs Roose, Mrs Mowat and myself attended the Victorian State Principal's conference. It was refreshing to hear the main themes of the conference as they very much aligned to work we are doing and planning to do. The speakers we heard focussed on 3 main concepts:

Not everyone will want to do this, and you don't need to unless you are becoming a teacher, but if you click on the concepts above it will take to some reading to expand your knowledge.

Presentation to Area School Improvement Team

Whilst the media often highlights poor funding or class sizes as the reasons behind low achievement in schools, research shows that one of the most important factors in improving student outcomes, is to improve teacher practice. I always maintained with my own children that I would prefer them to be in a class of 30 and experience exceptional teaching, than in a smaller class with less effective teaching.

Today I was proud to represent Lysterfield Primary School at the Outer East School Improvement Team meeting to talk about the work we are doing in improving the capacity of our current and future leaders. This has been a priority over the past 2 years and we have implemented many sustainable practices to ensure that leaders receive professional learning to help them complete their jobs and also to inspire and upskill our future leaders, so they are ready to lead when the time comes.

It is pleasing to be recognised for the work we have done in this area and to impart this knowledge to others so that all schools can improve.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone.

Adam Wight | Principal

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