From the Principal's Desk

 Mid Term Update

As the weather becomes colder and it feels as if winter has arrived it has been great to see nearly all of our students in the correct uniform and for the most part the absence of hoodies. A reminder to all families that if you need assistance in purchasing school uniform, such as one of our soft-shell jackets, please reach out to your student/s Year Level Coordinator or a member of our wellbeing team. There are supports in place to assist families in obtaining brand new uniform items, meaning there is no reason for any Lara Secondary student to be out of uniform. 

On Friday May 23rd we held our first Rugby Academy home games on oval 4 (behind the school), hosting Sunshine Secondary College. It was fantastic to see our boys and girls teams playing on our new rugby pitch, which has been supported by the Lara Community Bendigo Bank. Thank you to families who the effort to come down and support our students to retain the Mana Shield, which we won off Melton Secondary College 3 weeks ago and will be on the line each time we play. We’re incredibly proud of our Rugby Acadamy students and what they are achieving on and off the field. 

It has been great to see our students engaging in the Attitudes to School Survey over the last two weeks. This annual survey provides us with valuable insights into students experiences at Lara Secondary College and helps us to inform the next steps in providing the best secondary school experience possible. 

Cyber Safety Session 

Thank you to the parents who attended the Parent Cyber Safety session on the evening of May 15th. For parents who missed the session please check out some of the free resources at https://cybersafetyproject.com/resources/ to help you navigate students use of devices and the internet. As a school we will continue to run sessions for our students on this topic. 

Student Collection and Car Park Access  

Thank you to families who have been communicating with us about student absences. We greatly appreciate this and have been working hard to ensure that students are at school as much as possible. Research confirms that there is a strong correlation between students attendance and their social and academic outcomes. All students should be aiming for a minimum of 95% throughout. 

Finally, I would like to again remind families of when they are picking students up during the school day that to minimise disruptions to learning, we kindly ask that student pick-ups be scheduled during our break times to allow continuity of learning. Wherever possible it is best if students know what time they will be picked up. If you do need to collect your child during class time we will not make unnecessary calls to classrooms, as we do not want to disrupt the learning of all students. 

Please see our break times below:

Recess: 10:14-10:35am

Changeover between session 2 & 3: 11:49-11:55am

Lunch: 1:09- 1:50pm

I would also like to give a friendly reminder to please drop off students to school outside of the school gates, the carpark next to the school can be an excellent spot for this. We have experienced issues of congestion in our staff carpark.

 Thank you for your assistance with this. 

Luke Skewes 

Principal