Principal's Report

Welcome back and welcome to new families joining us here at LPS. It has been a smooth start to the year with us being in the fortunate position of being fully staffed operationally, including having our new senior toilets open and ready to be used as well as our new DOME playground.

I keep in contact with Mr Moorhouse regularly and I am pleased to inform the community that as part of his return to work in the Department of Education he has returned 3 days a week. This is excellent news for him, but also a great addition of knowledge and experience working within DET. I will keep you updated if his situation changes.

I particularly welcome Miss Natalie Rowlands in Year 1, Mrs Sarah Luxford in Year 5 and Mrs Jill Balzary in Year 2. Welcome back to Mr Smith who will be working in the specialist team.

Our students and teachers are spending these first few weeks building relationships, developing clear expectations for learning and establishing consistent routines for all learning spaces.

After many months, all our ramps around the school have been completed and meet the new regulations and our super new DOME playground is getting a good workout from our Year 4, 5 and 6 students.

Below are some general reminders and some updated information to help our school run smoothly each and every day.

TOILETS

Any adults needing to use the bathroom whilst on-site are asked to come to the office and use the one situated there. Student bathrooms, are exactly that, are for LPS students only.

MEDICATIONS

Any parents with a child requiring any medications, this includes allergies, asthma, and anaphylaxis, should see Kelly at reception to ensure all paperwork is up to date and completed fully.

YARD SUPERVISION

Student safety at LPS is our highest priority and the safe and appropriate supervision of students is an important element of our duty of care to students. Part of this duty is ensuring parents and students are aware of our student supervision arrangement before and after school.

Before school – School grounds are supervised from 8.40am – 8.50am

After school – School grounds are supervised from 3.20pm – 3.30pm

Students on the school grounds outside of these times will NOT be supervised unless they are registered to attend Team Kids.

Parents are requested to ensure that students do not attend school outside of these supervised times.

CANTEEN – UPDATED INFORMATION

Ordering online system is through Quickcliq.
Go to www.quickcliq.com.au
Online ordering closes Monday - Thursday at 8am
Friday orders close at 8pm Thursday night
No late lunch orders will be accepted
If a lunch order needs to be cancelled, please cancel before the cut off time or call the office to be put through to the canteen before 9am.
When placing an order please double check the correct day and date and ensure it has been confirmed before you exit.
Paper bag orders are accepted every morning.
Please include child’s name, grade or room number, food order, cash amount enclosed and food allergies in red pen.
If a bag is not supplied, 30c for a bag will need to be included.
Please write clearly and in pen to ensure the information is easily understood
Thank you kindly for your understanding to these new changes.

EARLY PICK UP / LATE ARRIVAL

We are trying to streamline and reduce the number of interruptions to learning spaces. We are strongly encouraging any early pick ups to be at either 11.20am or 2.00pm. (this is just prior to our outside breaks and when students will be eating) I understand that from time to time unexpected appointments arrive and it can be out of your control what time a student needs to be picked up, but if you can try to follow the times above this will assist us with our uninterrupted learning.

I also understand that sometimes students run late for a range of reasons, we ask that you do your best to get students to school on time, however if arriving late, students MUST be signed in by an adult at the office. Students will then walk to class, and parents are not permitted to walk with them at this time. If a student need support to get to the classroom, we will gladly escort them with a member of our staff from the office or leadership team.

COMPASS

Please ensure that you are all set up on COMPASS and that you check your news feed regularly. If your child is going to be absent for the day, then we ask you log onto COMPASS and register your child as absent for the day. If you need help in doing this, the ladies at the office will always help out.

QKR

We continue to use QKR for all our permissions and payments for events, incursions and excursions. The cut off time is 4pm on the date of closure. There is NO EXCPETION for late payments. If you are experiencing any financial problems or issues with the app, please contact us well before the cut off and we can discuss what arrangements can be made.

VOLUNTEERING / HELPING OUT AT SCHOOL / ATTENDING EXCURSIONS & CAMPS

We welcome and encourage parent helpers for a range of experiences here at LPS. First and foremost all parent helpers need to have a current Working with Children’s Check and the office need to have a copy of this on file. Parents also need to read and sign off the yearly Child Safety Induction Pack and the Volunteer OH&S Induction Handbook. Both of these documents were sent out today via COMPASS along with a link to a google form to acknowledge that you have read them both.

NDIS THERAPISTS IN SCHOOLS

Schools are encouraged to support students and their parents/carers in exercising a level of choice and control with their NDIS supports at school where it is safe and practical to do so.

The department has produced guidelines for Victorian government schools related to requests for the delivery of funded therapy in schools.

Ultimately, the decision to allow funded therapists to conduct therapy on school grounds rests with the principal.

The supports funded by the NDIS are related to the student’s functional whole-of-life support needs, and not for educational purposes. The responsibility for supports for educational attainment remains with the education system. For information about supports for the inclusion of students with disability in government schools please refer to the Students with Disability policy.

As a parent you may want your child’s NDIS therapist to work with them while they are at school, for example to:

observe your child in the classroom or in the school environment
attend a student support group meeting, to monitor and tailor the support they provide to your child
deliver your child’s therapy at school in person.

I will decide if it’s safe and practical for the student to have NDIS therapy at school. I’ll consider:

individual circumstances
whether having NDIS therapy at school will affect the student’s learning
the safety of all students
whether the NDIS therapy can take place within the classroom alongside the other students in the class.

To discuss an NDIS therapist working onsite during 2026, parents need to do the following:

Arrange a meeting with the Principal together with themselves, the therapist, the classroom teacher, aide (if applicable) and a member of the well-being team.
At the meeting a time and day will be agreed for the therapy to take place.
Goals will be discussed on what the therapist will be working on, to ensure that it is in partnership with the classroom teacher.
Therapy must take place within the child’s classroom.

The parent will be responsible for letting the child’s therapist know:

the agreed times and conditions for therapy
occasions when therapy cannot take place. This may be because the child is absent or other school activities are taking place.
All therapists MUST work in classrooms.

WEEKLY EMAIL

We will continue to send a weekly email from the class teacher each Friday afternoon. Please ensure you read this to keep up to date with what’s happening in your child’s class and of course should you have any questions, you can just hit ‘reply’ and ask your child’s teacher.

ISSUES/QUESTIONS

Your first stop is your child’s classroom teacher; in most cases they have the most information and can answer your questions. If your issue is not resolved, or needing further follow-up then you may seek out one of our middle leaders that run each of our teams:

Mrs Hansted – Prep

Mrs Bear – Year 1

Mrs Putson – Year 2

Ms Quinn – Year 3

Mrs Craig – Year 4

Mrs Ninitch – Year 5

Mrs Payne – Year 6

Mrs Pask – Specialists

For more complex matters we have a range of staff in the leadership team that would be happy to sit and discuss your concerns:

Well Being – Brittany Taylor, Georgia Ryan

Junior School Learning Specialist – Jennie McDonald

Maths Learning Specialist – Ryan Jellie

Assistant Principals – Heather Soutar and Rowan Balzary.

MINI FETE

What an incredible response for our first free dress day supporting our upcoming mini fete – THANK YOU!

Please save the date – Wednesday 1st April – we would love you to come along to our fete and we would also love lots of mums and dads to help on our stalls. The more helpers we have the more stalls we can have.

NO HELPERS = NO FETE……If every class had 8 helpers for 30 minutes – that would be incredible.

Have a great fortnight,

Nicola Pepper