From the Principal

Dear LPS families and friends,

It is nice to be back amongst the buzz of school life. I had a family holiday in the week before school broke up so had a 3 week break these holidays. It is quite clear that I have not brought the Queensland weather home with me.

Term 4 is always a busy one, although this year seems more busy than ever before. Whilst we try to schedule our major events across the year sometimes the dates are beyond our control. Major events such as camp and the production are booked a long way in advance, often without us knowing the dates for other events that might pop up. One of the challenges of providing a huge number of opportunities to students is that there are inevitable clashes. The good thing about a jam-packed term 4 is that it will be over before we know it and everyone can just relax for a few weeks.

Each year our school develops an annual implementation plan that sets out our targets for the year. These targets and strategies we select to achieve them make up our core work for the year, alongside supporting student wellbeing and learning. Some of our data comes test scores such as NAPLAN whilst other data comes from the Student, Parent and Staff surveys. With NAPLAN being completed in March this year, the work we have done in 2023 has had no impact on those results. Where we would expect to see an immediate shift is in what our students see in the classroom and yard in regards to social and emotional development, attitudes to learning and teaching practice.

Below I have listed the areas of focus for 2023 with the previous scores listed, followed by our 2023 target and then the 2023 results in brackets.

Targets: Increase the percentage of positive endorsement for the following factors on the Student Attitude to School Survey:

Respect for diversity from 74% in 2022 to 80% in 2023 (result 83%)
Life satisfaction from 72% in 2021 to 75% in 2023 (result 92%)
High resilience from 12% in 2021 to 15% in 2023 (result 16%)
Emotional awareness and regulation from 73% in 2021 to 76% in 2023 (result 82%)
Student voice and agency from 64% in 2022 to 75% in 2023 (result 81%)
Self–regulation and goal setting from 82% in 2022 to 86% in 2023 (result 90%)
Sense of confidence from 74% in 2022 to 79% in 2023 (result 90%)
Motivation & interest from 71% in 2022 to 77% in 2023 (result (85%)

I am so pleased to see these results as our staff have been absolutely committed to the work we have done. We're sure that our efforts in doing the right work will translate to improved student outcomes in the years to come.

As the year comes to an end we will spend time as a staff reviewing our progress towards our goals before developing our new plan for 2024.

Student transfer

At the end of each year, we say farewell to our grade 6 students as they leave for secondary school. We also have many families that move house and need to transfer to a school closer to home. If you know that your child will be enrolling in a new school for the 2024 school year, please let the office know ASAP to assist with our planning. Conversely, if you know families that are moving to the area or are already in the area but yet to enrol in a school, please encourage them to contact the office as soon as possible.

Referendum

With the referendum on The Voice approaching, media coverage is extensive. Children might be curious to know what it is all about. Regardless of your voting preference, here is an article that might help you explain to your children what the referendum is.

https://www.happyfamilies.com.au/articles/how-to-talk-to-your-kids-about-the-referendum

Adam Wight, Principal