Principal's Report

Dear Parents and Carers,

As we move into the second half of Term 1, the school continues to be a busy and vibrant place. It has been pleasing to see students settled into their learning and families engaging in the many opportunities to connect with our school community. Below are just a few photos of the many things that are happening within the school at the moment.

Attendance

As shared at assembly and through Compass, it has been a very positive start to the year in relation to student attendance. Regular attendance and arriving on time each day are well known to have a significant impact on students’ learning and engagement at school.

Our data so far this year shows a pleasing reduction in the number of students arriving late to school, as well as a decrease in unexplained absences. These are both strong indicators of positive student and family engagement with school.

In 2025, 47% of students missed more than 20 days of school across the year, a figure we are keen to significantly improve in 2026. So far this year, 30% of students have missed four or more days of school, a trend that if continued will see similar results to 2025.

While we understand that illness will inevitably result in some absences throughout the year, we encourage parents and carers to prioritise regular attendance and ensure students arrive at school on time each day to support their learning. 

Thank you for your ongoing support.

School Council

We were thrilled to receive such a strong response with nominations for the 2026 School Council. In 2025, we expanded the composition of our School Council to ensure a broader perspective from our parent community and to provide more opportunities for families to contribute to the future direction of the school.

Our Annual Reporting Meeting will be held on Monday, 16 March at 6:00pm and is open for members of our community to attend. This will be followed by our first School Council meeting for the year at 6:30pm.

We would like to sincerely thank the retiring members of our 2025 School Council: Michelle Richards, Sophie Atkinson, Naga Chayanum and Hayley Short. We greatly appreciate the time, commitment and contributions you have made over the past 12–24 months.

We welcome our new School Councillors for 2026: Hirenkumar Patel, Claire Greig, Sharna Hodges, Lubna Panchoo and Samia Khanum. Stephen Francis and Shannon Whittaker will also continue for a second term.

These members join councillors Marc Oliver, Anthony Lai, Casey Jenkins, Anthony Baker, Jason Holmes, Jacqui Nash, Dylan Rodger, Jen Plews and David Young.

Thank you to all of our School Council members. We look forward to a productive and positive year ahead working together for our school community.

NAPLAN 2026

This week, our Year 3 and 5 students will participate in the 2026 NAPLAN. This series of assessments will be conducted online (except Year 3 Writing) between March 11 - 23.

Conducting the assessments online present schools with several advantages including quicker access to results and more flexibility in the delivery of each assessment. Teachers have been preparing Year 3 and 5 students for the assessments to ensure we make the most of this learning opportunity.

There will be opportunities for catch up sessions should students miss a day. These will be organised with the students individually.

As a reminder, the following strategies can be used to support your child in the lead up to the assessments:

Parents:

1. Acknowledge that these assessments are part of the school day.

2. Talk about times you had assessments in school and how you approached them. (calmly and with a positive mindset)

3. Talk about challenge and how we approach moments of challenge. (Take a breath, grit our teeth, do our best and reflect on our efforts after the fact)

4. Maintain a normal routine on the morning of the assessments and maybe do something

relaxing and enjoyable in the evening.

5. Whatever you think of NAPLAN, keep the adult conversations away from the ears of your child. It is amazing how children will take on the attitudes and feelings of the grown ups around them.

6. When discussing the assessments at the end of each day, ask open, positive questions that focus on the process that your child may have used. For example; NAPLAN always pops in some tricky questions, what strategy did you use when you were completing those questions?

Year 3-6 Athletics

A huge congratulations to the Year 3-6 students who participated in the Athletic Sports last week. The students must be commended for their efforts during the day and the way in which they supported each other during the events.

The Athletics day is a great chance for students to earn points for their House. 

Thank you to Miss Down, Miss Middlin and Mrs Baker for the organisation that went into running this day. 

Ex-Prisoner of War Memorial

During the week, a parcel of books was delivered by the trustees of the Ballarat Ex-Prisoner of War Memorial. Lucas PS, amongst many other schools across Ballarat, have been recipients of this kind donation of books that go into our library to help educate our students about the sacrifice and impact of war. We thank the Ex-Prisoner of War Memorial Trustees for their very kind and continued donations. 

Evacuation Drill

Last week we conducted an Evacuation Drill which focused on safely and calmly moving students to the school oval. This evacuation process would be used if there were a safety concern at the eastern end of the school.

I am pleased to report that all students, staff and visitors were safely accounted for and assembled on the oval within eight minutes. It was particularly pleasing to see how calmly and responsibly students responded throughout the drill.

Begonia Festival Art Competition

Some fantastic news was delivered last night to inform us that Lucas PS are the winners of the Begonia Festival Art Competition. This year the Art Team, along with our Art teachers Mrs Glanville and Mrs Goldflam have created a wonderful painting of the cassowary. This painting received the most votes from the schools represented at the competition during the long weekend.

A huge congratulations to our artists and a big thankyou to everyone who voted.

Community Consultation - School Policies

Our school has a range of policies available on our website for your reference. These policies are regularly reviewed throughout the year to ensure they remain relevant and effective. We encourage and invite feedback from our community to help guide these reviews and improve our practices.

These policies include:

• Child Safety and Wellbeing
• Bullying Prevention 
• Complaints
• Digital Learning
• Student Wellbeing and Engagement
• Visitors 
• Volunteers

If you would like to provide feedback on any of the policies listed above, please don’t hesitate to contact Dave at the school.

HOT CROSS BUN DRIVE

This term the Junior School Council are raising funds for our 'School Playground Master Plan'. Hot Cross Buns can be ordered via www.quickcliq.com.au (You will need to register if you do not have a quickcliq account already).

 Hot Cross Buns are supplied by Bakers Delight Lucas and will be delivered to students to take home on Friday the 27th of March.

Orders close on Monday the 23rd of March so don't miss out!

Click on the button below and go to EVENTS to order.