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Principal's Report

Learning Lots

Goodness, it’s been such a busy time! There is so much happening at the moment. Every day, it seems, the calendar is full of wonderful events, celebrations and opportunities for learning. We are so fortunate that we have such dedicated and hard-working staff at our school who are always looking for new ways to engage children in real-life learning. Across our school, children are preparing for life. They’re not just learning literacy and numeracy (although we know what critical skills these are), they are applying those skills in an authentic context. They are exploring their talents, testing their leadership, problem solving, creating and performing. That’s genuine learning!

Spanish Day - Ola!

Hola amigos. ¡No olvides que el martes es nuestra celebración anual del día español! Será un día de color, música, baile, comida y cultura. Disculpas Sra. Marroquin, si este es un español incorrecto pero puede culpar al traductor de Google.

 

(Hello friends. Don' forget that Tuesday is our annual Spanish day celebration! It will be a day of color, music, dance, food and culture. Apologies Senora Marroquin, if this is incorrect Spanish but you can blame Google translate.)

National Coaching in Education Conference

Last week, Nicky Walker and I travelled to the University of Technology, Sydney, to attend the 6th National Coaching in Education Conference. We were both so very proud to be presenters at the Conference, telling the story of coaching at our school and how it has underpinned the strong culture we have built here. As the only primary school presenting and one of only a couple of government schools, we were honoured to be asked to present our story. We are so very proud of the culture we have established here at Lyndhurst and it was wonderful to be able to tell that story to an appreciative audience.

Lightning Premiership

On Friday, weather permitting, our senior students will be competing in the District Lightning Premiership. They will compete against other schools in a range of sports and I know they will perform to their best and be proud and worthy ambassadors of our school.

Planning 2020

Planning for 2020 is well underway. To support that, we need families to inform us, as soon as possible, if there will be changes to their circumstances for next year. That includes both enrolling new students and letting us know if you are leaving the area. The better and more up-to-date the information we have is, the better we are able to plan to cater for all students at our school.

PFA Trivia Night

Thank you once again to the incredibly hard-working team who put together the PFA Trivia Night. Thanks also to the staff and families who attended to make the night such a success. Not only was it a wonderfully entertaining night but we were able to raise $6800 which, this year, will be going towards funding new reading material across our whole school to support quality reading education for all students.

Swimming Program

The swimming program is well underway and it seems it has gone pretty well. The change of venue seems to have been a success and the feedback from parents and students has been positive. I popped over to the pool recently to check it out and it seemed to be running very smoothly with students engaged and enjoying themselves in this critical skill development. Hopefully the positive results from this year’s program will mean many more students attend next year!

Fathers’ Day Stall

Another round of applause please, for our small but wonderful PFA who ran last week’s Father day Stall. I’m sure many children were able to get a lovely gift for their dad, or someone who’s just like a dad.

Year 4 and 5 Camps

Coming up over the next few weeks will be the years 4 and 5 camps. I’ll be attending the year 5 camp at Woorabinda and I’m really looking forward to it. On camp, we develop a very different relationship with children and, for me, it’s one of the most enjoyable times of the school year. It is certainly one of the most useful and authentic learning experiences for children, where they develop skills, attitudes and capabilities that will carry them successfully through life.

PFA Domino’s Pizza Week

Next week, we are having another Domino’s Pizza Week. Every pizza that is bought at Dominos next week means a $1 donation to our school. So, do your bit, buy a pizza next week. Get your friend to buy a pizza too, and they can also feel good about helping out our school.

Walker Learning Study Tour

Another team of teachers from around Victoria and interstate will be visiting our P-2 classrooms to view the Walker Learning program in action. The teams who visit are a combination of those who are from schools already using the program and are learning how to best implement it in their classrooms as well as those who are from schools who are considering implementing Walker Learning in their schools.

We are proud to show off how well the program operates in our classrooms and who engaged our students are in their learning as a result. Many schools are, only now, realising the positive impact of play-based co-operative learning combined with academic rigour. The word is spreading, and we are helping to spread it. This is contemporary, 21st Century Early Childhood Learning at its very best and teachers from all over come to see it in operation at our school.

State Schools Spectacular update (2 days)

This week is an enormous week for our State School's Spectacular participants. They will have two days of rehearsals in the city followed by two massive performances on Saturday at HiSense Arena. It’s a spectacular opportunity for our children to experience the thrill of performance, especially in an ensemble event like the State School's Spectacular. I’ll be there on Saturday, beaming like a proud dad and enjoying every minute.

REMINDER: National Cross-Country Representative

Recently, one of our students, Soha Abdelrahim, competed at the School Sport Victoria State Cross Country Championships in Bundoora. We are so very proud of Soha. She ran a fantastic race, completing the 3km course in 11 minutes and 18 seconds, finishing in 3rd place! Soha now has the opportunity to compete for Team Victoria at the School Sport Australia Cross Country National Championships in August, in New South Wales. She will compete in an individual and team event across the 4-day championships. Soha is a wonderful runner, a determined competitor and a fantastic ambassador for our school. Competing at the Nationals is an expensive exercise and we really want to help Soha and her family. To help cover the costs of the National Championships, School Sport Victoria provides it's team members with raffle tickets to sell. The tickets cost $2.00 and the prizes are:

  • 1st Prize: Kia Rio Sport (on Road) RRP $24,211.82
  • 2nd Prize: Travel/ Accomodation Voucher RRP $10,000.00
  • 3rd Prize: Apple Macbook Pro RRP $2,699.00
  • 4th Prize: Vintec Wine Bottle Cellar (40 bottle) RRP $1,999.00
  • 5th Prize: Vitamix Ascent A23001 RRP $895.00
  • 6th Prize: Apple Homepod RRP $499.00

Please help us to support Soha by purchasing a raffle ticket, and put yourself in the draw to win one of the wonderful prizes mentioned above. Raffle tickets can be purchased from the Admin office at the front of school.