From Principal Team 

Good Afternoon to our Lakes Families.

Our week started with a lovely morning tea to celebrate the impact on our school by our wonderful Education Support (ES) Team. We cannot function without their efforts and they have a significant role to play on our operations ranging from working with our students to support in our classroom, on facilities and administration. It was an important event to have and I would like to thank Charlotte and the organising team for this. It was definitely appreciated by the ES team!

As part of our Year 5 and 6 Program, our students participated in a three day school camp to Forest Edge. Forest Edge is an activity-based adventure style camp that promotes friendship, fun and building self confidence in children. The students participated in a range of varied activities, including sports, arts, and adventures in an effort to develop their leadership, communication and organisational skills.  

Students also participated in activities including high ropes and the flying fox designed to challenge themselves in an unfamiliar setting. The anecdotal feedback has been extremely positive as this is their first camp post last year’s lockdown and restrictions caused by Covid-19. Thank you to all the staff and student organisers. There is a full report in this week’s Newsletter.

This year’s NAPLAN administration went off without any issues and it feels and looks like our years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students undertook the challenge with vigour and concentration. Thank you to staff on supervision and particular thanks to Gemma, Renee and Megan for their organisation of the program. Similarly, the roll out of the Attitude to School Survey for students has begun. Again, this involves significant organisation and movement, disruption to classes and flexibility. Marcus, Rob, Bec and Jackie are trying extremely hard to minimise impact on learning so please be understanding and supportive at all times- this is another important survey for our school and our accountability. We look forward to analysing and sharing the results of the survey later this year. 

It seems to me that the current processes we are using for event applications is smooth and the communication is clear. The Sentral Calendar is your guide to “Whats’s On @ The Lakes.”  It is updated weekly and it is live! Our only changes in recent memory are some changes to sports days but this is often out of our control. Thank you to the staff and students who have coached and led teams to the sports days and given their time to training at lunchtimes, complimenting the lunch activity program that has taken off! This is really important to our students and develops relationships and connections in ways that are sometimes not possible in classes. A school culture that reflects our school values and creates a commitment from students is the end goal and to that end, improves their connection to school, their engagement and achievement. 

I am noticing that our freshly implemented secondary behavioural model is going well. It has been embraced with so much excitement by staff and students. I absolutely love the thinking process that we have adopted focusing on the “good deeds” as a matter of importance as well as the consistent approach to dealing with students that will test us occasionally by not representing themselves in the best light. Regular feedback that I have received from students and parents/carers is that they understand the processes in place and are respectful of the huge amount that is being done by our community to address student needs. Home Group teachers need to be commended for their communications with student and parent/carers on the success of the rollout and the year level leaders for their guidance and technical leadership. Well done. 

Finally, I am most impressed but not surprised by the way our school community has embraced our new staff over the last few weeks. Nina, Robert and Fontaine have settled in really well and so quickly because of staff and student kindness, support and often professional judgement enabling them to ease in to their roles with a high degree of confidence. We will continue their induction over the next few weeks but on the job learning is often the most effective and this is being proven true once again. Thank you to the staff who have taken on mentor roles and led them with aplomb in teaching and learning. Also, thanks to the teachers who have taken on mentor roles with student teachers. Their feedback is also very positive and they are being supported and assisted daily by our caring and wonderful students. The impact you will have on them as successful teachers is very significant and will always be remembered. Their experience will also be important to our external voice about our school performance to their own communities. 

To all of our families, a reminder that next Monday, May 24 is a Curriculum Day. There will be no teachers or support staff onsite. Thank you for making suitable arrangements for your children to accommodate teacher professional development leaning days. This is an investment in our college and its success.

Just a couple of reminders:

Could all our Year 9 families go online to Sentral and give permission for Year 9 Pathways to the Future Camp.

Please use our Facebook posts to celebrate our student successes.  We do respectfully ask questions be referred by messaging or through the complaints process.

We are very happy to address any feedback but we ask that the Parent— Principal Agreement be honoured and respected.

Primary Campus Staff Car Park

Every day this week our families have blocked the Merriang SDS bus garage in the front car park.  You are not permitted to park in front of the roller doors. We must be considerate of our neighbours to ensure their programs are not impacted.  Thank you for your cooperation here.

The sun will be shining brightly this weekend so enjoy your precious family time with the children. 

Thank you for your support.

Kerrie, Bill and Marcus