Senior Executive

Principal's Message

What a terrific beginning to the year we have had!

I must pay special tribute to our wonderful year 7 students who have transitioned so well into high school. They are a delightful group of young men and women and have certainly made a positive impact around the school. Well done to you all! Of course the vast majority of the students in years 8 to 12 have also began the year well and have been taking advantage of everything that Lake Illawarra High has to offer.

We have had a number of exciting events so far this year including our Swimming Carnival, our EXPO night as well as a large number of sporting events. What is really pleasing is the participation of our students in all of these....well done and thankyou.

This week we have taken delivery of the first of two new 12 seater minibuses that we know are going to open up a range of new experiences for our students. These buses will be free for our students to travel in and I am sure that they will appreciate the fact that they are there for them to utilise.

Our CLONTARF program is up and running and it was great to see so many of the boys give up their Friday afternoon after school to go to the foreshore of the lake to clean it up. Well done to all of the lads involved.

We are always looking for parents and caregivers to join the school P&C. I promise that there is no fundraising involved and that the priority of the P&C is to give input on what they would like to see happening in the school for the benefit of their children. If you can make it , meetings are held in the library at 6.30pm on the first Wednesday of each month.

An early reminder that our first parent teacher afternoon for years 7 to 12 will be held on Thursday 11/4/19 from 2.30pm to 6pm. We certainly hope to see as many parents and caregivers as possible there!

Kindest regards

Tony Hicks

Principal

Deputies' Desk 

With the term speeding by it is amazing just how many things have taken place. In saying this, I would like to acknowledge all the hard work of both the staff and students, who are eagerly working to set us on the right path for a successful year.

Last week we held our annual expo night which is an event to showcase the great things happening at Lake to our prospective 2020 Year 7 students. This was a successful night where each of the faculties either ran displays or demonstration lessons to be either observed by or included in by our community. Our senior leadership team ran the tour groups and over 100 staff and students stayed for the evening to show our community a taste of high school life. I would like to thank the team (staff and students) for the efforts and in particular Mr Chaseling our Transition Advisor for his organisation. I would also like to congratulate Mr McAndrew who was successful in his application and has been selected as our 2020 Year 7 Student Advisor. We wish Mr McAndrew the best of luck.

Following on from our expo night, Lake re-introduced the Year 7 family BBQ. This event was an opportunity for the new families of year 7 to meet the teachers of their kids and likewise for our teachers to meet the families of their students. It was great to see the staff, students and their families having a chat about how the kids have settled in these last few weeks and what’s happening in the classroom. We will be definitely running the event again next year and again thank you to Mr Chaseling and the SRC students who put together a well organised and cooked BBQ.

Last week we had several staff attend the David and Claire Price Project Based Learning (PBL) course. PBL is an approach to teaching and learning that engages students in rich and authentic learning experiences. In a PBL environment, students gain knowledge and skills by investigating and responding to an engaging question, problem or challenge. Our staff have come back with some exciting programs to be implemented in term 2, some of which are subject specific, where as other projects will see a cross-curricular aspect to learning. This with our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) programs, our students have the opportunity to engage in the latest approached to learning. I am looking forward to seeing what our students will be producing in class next term.

We have had an increasing amount of students who are either locking their bikes outside the gate of the bike compound or who are just placing their bikes outside the fence of the bike compound. This is causing a concern as it is a WH&S risk for staff and students and the practice is also encouraging other students to do the same. I have spoken to many students regarding this, as well as, each day moving bikes back into the compound. As of next week, any bike found outside the compound will be chained to the fence by the Deputies and the students who owns the bike will need to speak to the Deputy to have it unlocked. If your child rides their bike to school, can you please encourage them to secure their bike inside the compound.

As always, if you have any questions about what is happening here at Lake, please feel free to contact myself or Mr Meizer.

Mr T. Wilson                                                                       Mr C. Meizer

Deputy Principal                                                            Deputy Principal                  Years 7, 9 and 11                                                           Years 8, 10 and 12