From the Principal

Dear LPS families and friends, 

It has been an exciting week across the country as we have been inspired and excited by the performances of the Matildas. The enthusiasm in our students on Wednesday brought a smile to my face and the video we made for Facebook was full of pride, if you haven't seen it jump on our Facebook page or on the Learning and Teaching page.  As a child I looked up to many athletes as sport was

 my favourite activity, yes every single sport! I'm getting old so my sporting idols are likely

 people most haven't heard of, Robbie Flower, Stefan Edberg, Andrew Gaze, Sharelle McMahon and Greg Norman. Having someone to idolise and look up to is an important part of childhood and is how many of us are inspired to continue or try something new. I have no doubt that over the past month, many of our students have found a new idol, someone to look up to and emulate.

At school, we have often seen and heard students talk about looking up to other students when they have done well in sports or had a leadership role such as school captain, this is important for our community. One area where we have always hoped to have students admire and want to emulate others is in the pursuit of academic excellence, and this week I heard a great example of how we are starting to cultivate this. 

Over the last 2 weeks, I have been completing mid-year Performance and Development meetings with all teaching staff. During several of these meetings, teachers have described to me the joy and celebration in their classrooms when a student achieves a new belt in the Maths Masters program. Our students feel an immense amount of personal satisfaction when they pass a skill or belt in Maths Masters but this sort of acknowledgment from their peers makes it even more special. Further to this, one teacher described to me how their students look up to and even admire the students that have achieved their Black Belts, commenting when they see the students or walk past the posters in the corridor. This is a great achievement by our staff and so pleasing to hear from our students.

A few weeks ago I sent a Compass message to all families asking who might be interested in a parent seminar covering topics such as student behavior in school, the challenges of the online world, discriminatory behavior, and how school and parents can help. The response was overwhelming. We have scheduled this parent-only event for Thursday October 12th and have booked the Rowville Secondary College Auditorium to ensure that all those wishing to attend, can. Speakers on the night will be from a range of fields including the Department of Education's regional office, an academic from Deakin University to look at how young people are influenced by the world around them and a world-renowned psychologist and expert in raising children. We are sure that those attending will be given a better understanding of the challenges children face, the mistakes they make and how we can support them.  Bookings for this session will at first be open to only parents from our school before then being opened to families of other schools, there will be no cost to our families.

Two weekends ago we held our first school trivia night for about 7 years. It was certainly welcomed by our parents with us selling out 24 tables. These types of events are great for our community with a lot of adults making their friendship connections through their childrens’ friends at school, they are also fun for our staff that are able to attend and I want to thank everyone that came along. The PFA did an amazing job in organising and promoting the night, raising much needed funds for our school. Thank you to Mel Cavanagh and the rest of the PFA for their outstanding efforts to create such a fun experience for our parents.

Adam Wight, Principal