Metropolitan South and West School Performance Directorate – St Andrews Principal Network Awards

I would like the congratulate Mrs Tracey Oates and Mrs Stephanie Bromfield on being nominated for awards for their commitment and service to the education of students at Leumeah Public School.

Mrs Oates has been a member of the P&C since her daughter started at LPS in 2016. Over the years she has been key in the organisation of community activities and fundraising events. Mrs Oates’ focus on the P&C has been about making LPS better for students. It would be impossible to name all the events and fundraisers she has been involved in or led, but the largest, most recently, was the Community Movie night held in early 2023. Thank you to Mrs Oates for her continued service to the community and leadership of the P&C.

Mrs Bromfield was nominated because of the significant impact she has had on the LPS community since her arrival in 2022. Mrs Bromfield was key in the organisation of the 50 Years celebration and has been instrumental in establishing the school vision, ‘Striving for Excellence’ and the excellence student awards. Mrs Bromfield has closely supported K-2 staff in the implementation of the new English and mathematics syllabus documents and has ensured a continual focus on School Improvement Plan implementation through ongoing professional learning. Mrs Bromfield has also ensured that our LPS learning environments are inclusive through her leadership of the Learning and Support Team. I thank Mrs Bromfield for her leadership.

2023 Aboriginal Student Achievement Awards

Further in our newsletter there will be more information, but I would like to acknowledge the hard work of our deadly Aboriginal students who received recognition at the very prestigious Aboriginal Student Achievement Awards on Monday 20 November. I was a very proud principal watching these amazing students receive their awards, well done.

Representing NSW – Athletics

Congratulations to Tahlia in 3/4H who is high jumping her way to representing NSW in Athletics in Tasmania later this month. We are all very proud of Tahlia’s athletic skills in a very difficult event. While this is amazing achievement for Tahlia, the cost was great on her family. Thank you to our P&C and community who have donated and bought raffle tickets to help Tahlia and her family to get to the event.

Good luck Tahlia! We will be cheering you on from Leumeah.

Coffee Chat

Thank you to Mrs Stephens for her baking skills and organisation of the latest Coffee Chat session with Mrs Bromfield. Additional thank you to the parents who joined the session. There was rich discussion about our current communication processes and some quality feedback about how we can improve.

There will be further Coffee Chat sessions in 2024. We would like your feedback and attendance so you can be informed about our LPS initiatives.

P&C disco

Thank you to our P&C for hosting a highly popular Halloween disco for students on Thursday 26 October. It has been several years since we have been able to safely hold a disco, so to provide this opportunity to students and raise money for the P&C and consequently the school, has been an advantage.

Congratulations to our P&C and their volunteers for making the evening so successful.

Unsafe driving behaviour on Burrendong Road

I have been disappointed to witness over the last couple of weeks, at afternoon pick up, several parents and community members doing 3-point turns over the double white lines on Burrendong Rd. This is incredibly unsafe and is an illegal driving practice.

I understand that there are times when the crossing supervisor needs to hold up traffic to allow our community to cross the road safely, and this can add minutes to someone’s trip. However, it is safer for our students and community, for your trip to be delayed by minutes than for someone to be hurt by impatient driving choices.

I request that parents and community members stick to the driving rules and complete a U-turn legally at the end of Burrendong Road.

Exiting the school using the carpark

Students are aware that our carparks are out of bounds. They are out of bounds as they are areas where cars and, at times, delivery trucks and student transport can enter and exit the school. While we try to minimise traffic entering the car park next to the pedestrian gate on Burrendong Road, at pick up and drop off, there are times that it cannot be avoided.

An increasing number of parents, walk across the carpark to exit the school of an afternoon. At times, parents are not holding their child’s hand. While the carpark may not be in use most afternoons, there could be times when it will be. For this reason, it should not be used to move around the school. I understand that there can be delays exiting the school with the number of people leaving at once, but this is only minutes.

I would like all parents to be safe and use the paths when exiting the school in the afternoon.

2024 classes

I will remind you about the information I provided in the previous newsletter about our numbers fluctuating. For this reason, students will need to begin 2024 in their 2023 classes. We hope that this will be a short period and students will transition to their 2024 classes early in the term.

If your family is going to be on leave early in 2024, please notify the school as soon as possible. The process of moving into classes is delayed when we are unable to locate students who are often overseas. If we are aware of the trip, it makes the process much easier for us.

If your family is not returning in 2024. Please let the school know as a matter of priority.

Students early to school

Last newsletter I wrote to families about the high number of students who were arriving to school before 8.30am. For a period, this number reduced. This week however, staff have noticed that the number of students attending school before 8.30am has increased again.

Please access care options for your child, like the LPS YMCA, if you are unable to care for your child/ren until 8.30am in the morning. Parents will be contacted by class teachers if your child is consistently early to school.

Revised Student Behaviour policy

The NSW Department of Education has revised the Student Behaviour policy for implementation in 2024. The school is already utlising several of the strategies suggested and will effectively transition to implementing the policy in 2024.

Information for parents an carers about behaviour can be found here. The Behaviour Code for students has remained in place and a copy of that has been included in the newsletter too.

Staff changes for 2024

We farewell the following staff for 2024:

Congratulations and farewell to Mrs Jessica Ibrahim and Miss Kaitlyn Pakowski who have secured work closer to home.
Mr Martin Ferrier has been successful in receiving an offer of permanent work.
Miss Felise Geolagon has received a transfer so will not be continuing with us next year.
Mr David Mitchell has been offered permanency at the school that he has been working at in 2023 and we have a vacant GA position.
Ms Bianca Turrin an Assistant Principal (AP) with us who took maternity leave from 2021 has decide to relinquish her position. We will have a vacant AP position to fill in 2024.
Mrs Angela McGlinn-Hall has been successful in securing a Lead Specialist position with the Department of Education for the next 3 years. Her Assistant Principal Curriculum Instruction (APCI) position will be filled on temporary basis in her absence.

We thank all these staff for their contributions to LPS and wish them all the best for their future professional endeavours.

This newsletter is the last one before the holidays. Thank you to our students and staff for their hard work. It has been an extremely busy and rewarding year.

I wish all our families a relaxing, rejuvenating and safe holiday break. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. If these are not important days to you, I expect that you will spend and enjoy time with your family.

I look forward to seeing all students, staff and family in 2024.

Stage 2

Striving for Excellence