Dear Parents/Carers,

“Empowering students for learning and life”

Welcome back to Term 4 for all members of the Lyndhurst Secondary College community.

My name is Eloise Haynes and I am excited and humbled to have been appointed the new College Principal.

I have worked in education for over 15 years and during this time, have had the opportunity to work in a variety of different schools and settings. I have worked most recently as a member of the Principal team at Hampton Park Secondary College and during this time, was able to lead improvements across a range of areas all designed to improve student learning, engagement and wellbeing outcomes.

As an educator and leader, I am driven by the idea that all students deserve a high-quality educational experience that they have a voice to help shape and guide. I believe that as a school, we are responsible for ensuring that we not only create students who excel in particular fields, but more importantly have the responsibility of building young people that are literate, numerate and have the skills to take on the demands of life during and beyond their school years.

I am looking forward to being able to meet the staff and students in real life over the next few weeks to hear from them around what makes Lyndhurst a great school and areas for improvement. I am also interested to hear from our parent and carer community around these areas, so please keep an eye out for these opportunities as they arise.

The first group of students I met were our students who sat the General Achievement Test (GAT) on Tuesday 5th October. It was very pleasing to see almost all our students still in the room working hard all the way through the 3 hour exam. Congratulations on your efforts Year 12s, and I look forward to seeing this level of dedication extend to other exams commencing at the end of October. A reminder that Year 12 students will have their final day of formal classes on Friday 22nd October.

As we move into Term 4, we see a staged return to on site learning. This has already commenced with our Year 12 students returning on site last week. It is important that all students, parents and carers are checking Compass, emails and social media regularly for important updates regarding this return.

Please find below a summary table from the Department of Education that gives key dates to remember about on site learning:

Furthermore, commencing Monday 18th October, we will be making adjustments to our remote learning structures to support students to get ready for a return. This includes an increase in live lessons on WebEx and changes to the ways in which we gather attendance. Further information will be shared by the end of week 2.

As we move towards this return, I would like to encourage all students to be really focusing on their attendance in their classes, particularly for our students working remotely. Looking at our attendance last week, we had an average of 75% attendance from Years 7 to 11 based on our daily check in data. However, this does not capture attendance in each and every WebEx class, which is where the important instruction from teachers and support occurs. I invite all students to take on this challenge to improve their attendance to help get themselves ready for on-site learning.

I want to thank the community for the positive start to the term and hope to see the good work continue.

Ms Eloise Haynes

Principal

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