Principal's Report

 Principal’s Report 9th February

Welcome back to a new year of learning at Lyndhurst Primary School to all of our existing community members and a big welcome to all those families that have joined us in 2024. As we move into our 14th year as a school, it’s exciting to look forward to what 2024 will bring. After spending a year away from the school in 2023, whilst I worked at the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership, it was such a joy to walk back into the school and see so many smiling faces on day one! The playground was full of children, happy to be back at school and eager to get into their classrooms. It was wonderful to walk around and catch up with them, as well as many parents who were around as well. Then, on Thursday, another smooth and successful first day of school for our Preps was also great to be part of. We were talking the other day about how well the children have started and, it seems to me that this might be the first year that children have come back to school refreshed and near enough to fully recovered from the COVID years that so impacted on their learning, and more importantly, their development and wellbeing. I have to say also, that it seems this might be the first year that I have seen teachers truly refreshed and ready for another school year, since those awful years of 2020 and 2021. It’s exciting to see!

Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership

Last year, I was privileged to work as a Principal in Residence at the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership. The Academy is a professional learning organisation, set up to provide high quality professional learning for teachers and school leaders. I worked in the Middle Leaders Team in the Leadership Excellence Division, working mainly with young and emerging leaders from schools all across Victoria. Lyndhurst Primary School has a wonderful record of preparing and developing successful middle leaders in our school, many of whom have gone on to middle and senior leadership roles in other schools. Working at the Academy gave me the opportunity to leverage from the experiences at Lyndhurst to bring that same level of preparation and learning to many leaders and schools. During my time at the Academy, I also learned a great deal by working with amazing educational experts, other Principals and Academics; learning which I am bringing back to Lyndhurst to make our school even better.

Flying Start Week

Each year, we begin with our Flying Start week. Flying Start is a week where students and teachers take the time to build and strengthen relationships, as well as establish quality learning environments in every classroom. Learning in our schools is highly dependent on the environment in the classroom, one where students are welcomed and valued but where they are also challenged to strive for improvement. As I have walked around the school, especially as I have conducted school tours for new families joining our community, I have been nothing short of impressed with the ‘learning buzz' that exists in every classroom in our school. Our teachers and our students are working hard to maximise their learning and Flying Start is a fantastic way to ensure that the year starts off with positivity, collective effort and the joy of learning. Flying Start culminates with a Flying Start Celebration Day, giving our whole learning community the boost they need to really take on the challenges of school and learning.

New Staff

We have a number of new staff who have joined us this year and more will join us soon, hopefully. This is the first year since I have been a Principal (24 years now), that we have not started the year with a full staffing complement. The teacher shortage that you see in the media is real. Many schools are in a desperate situation, with many, many classes with no teacher and all sorts of arrangements being made to cater for student learning in very difficult circumstances. So far, we have been very fortunate to be only a couple of permanent teachers short but we have been able to cover these shortages with quality temporary replacements. Whilst this is not ideal, we are hopeful that we can fill those positions soon. Currently, we have a year 5 class still to have a permanent teacher and we also have temporary arrangements in Digitech. This week, we are interviewing to fill those positions. However, the teacher shortage is real and likely to get worse before it gets better. 

Greg Lacey

Principal