Junior School News
JUNIOR SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
It’s been a busy second half of term for junior school students. Our year 7 and 9 students have now completed all of their NAPLAN tests. Thankyou to Mr. Luke Wilson for organising these and to our I.T technicians, Malan Mudalige and Lucky Liyanage for making all the online material work smoothly. Also, to our students who undertook these with enthusiasm.
In home group sessions students from years 7 to 9 have participated in activities on communication, resilience and diversity. Next term, Year 9 students will undertake 3 home group sessions on developing a career action plan. This will be run by our dedicated career staff.
As has been communicated by the school previously, Lyndale Secondary College has a policy to promote students to be on time to class and to provide a productive learning environment, minimising class disruptions.
A reminder to parents that parent/teacher/student meetings are coming up on Thursday 1st May. This is a great opportunity for parents and guardians to hear about the progress of your child at school, from their teachers. Please look out for notices from the school allowing you to make those appointments through compass.
Lateness to school
Students who arrive late to period 1 classes (starting at 8.50 am) will not be allowed to enter the class and instead must report to room J2, have their name marked, and complete their classwork in room J2 under the supervision of a staff member. This is meant to act as a deterrent for students being late and to allow for minimal disruptions to classes.
Unfortunately, the number of students attending room J2 for lateness has not decreased as the term has progressed. We are seeing some students make a habit of being late to school at the start of the day.
It is imperative that all students make an effort to be at their period 1 class by the bell at 8.50 am. We advise that student arrive at school by 8.40 am, leaving them 10 minutes to get to their lockers, gather all the resources they need for class, then move to class.
Students who have multiple occasions in which they are being late to class, will have contact home from the year level co-ordinators and further consequences may be put in place.
Lyndale Secondary College prides itself on helping our students be responsible young adults, and this includes requiring students to be in class on time.
School Wide Positive Behaviours at Lyndale
The goal of School Wide Positive Behaviour Support at Lyndale Secondary College is to create and maintain a positive and safe learning environment that enhances our school culture, where we maximise individual academic and social growth. It focuses on teaching and reinforcing positive behaviours while providing targeted assistance to students who may need extra support, leading to a more successful and inclusive learning community.
Lyndale students and staff have all worked together to develop a key set of behavioural expectations that are in line with our key College values. These behavioural expectations can be found in our matrix, which clarifies what our behaviours and values should look like across the school environment. Our matrix is displayed in all classrooms across the school and will be referred to and discussed with all students on a regular basis.
Positive Behaviour Acknowledgement
Staff at Lyndale Secondary College have the opportunity to acknowledge and recognise the positive behaviours of students by creating a positive post on the student’s Compass newsfeed. The student and family receive the acknowledgement, through Compass, when students demonstrate the school values or positive behaviours shown through the matrix.
Continuum for Responding to Challenging Behaviours
Whilst a majority of our students arrive at school consistently demonstrating positive behaviours, there are times when students may not demonstrate our values to the standards we expect. In order to create and maintain a safe and supportive learning environment, we held various student focus groups across the College last year, to give us feedback on what a positive learning environment looks like to them.
Students had to outline the behaviours they see in the classroom which they feel may disrupt their learning opportunities, as well as the behaviours that have potential to make them feel unsafe. This information was then shared with staff, where together we developed a continuum for responding to challenging behaviours.
You will see in the flowchart that we will inform families when students have challenges adhering to the values, as we believe it is important to work together in helping our young people demonstrate these positive values in both the school and wider community moving forward.
The College SWPBS Matrix and Responding to Challenging behaviours flowchart is attached for your reference.
We welcome any feedback the College community may have on these learning documents, which can be emailed through to Assistant Principal, Luke Wilson, by Tuesday 22nd of April.
Luke.wilson2@education.vic.gov.au
Some of the feedback may be in regards to our process, communication, demonstrating values, any minor/major behaviours that need to be modified, or any other suggestions that you feel may further enhance the safe and orderly learning environment.
This feedback we collect annually goes towards implementing potential improvements to our learning environment at Lyndale.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
A reminder of the staff in the Junior School Office
Mr. Adam Nettleingham- Junior School Co-ordinator
Mr Chuc Hua- Attendance/office manager
Mrs. Lucy Hawkes and Ms Lucy Tusan- Year 7 co-ordinators
Ms. Megan Maxwell and Mr. Matt Neilson- Year 8 co-ordinators
Ms. Karen Huynh and Ms. Eliza Lanz- Year 9 co-ordinators
We wish all students a restful Autumn break and look forward to working with you all in term 2.