Welcome to Term 2.

I hope the school holiday period provided an opportunity for families to connect and share important time together in very mild weather. I believe some winter woollies will be needed by the week’s end. So, it may be a time to prepare winter uniforms for the months ahead. As Kerrie embarks on leave and our resources are impacted, it is important that we continue to work collaboratively with a strong sense of team to support each other and our students effectively. Please be kind and perceptive, organised, calm and meticulous in your planning to enable us to perform at our optimum level through a busy term.

I will be based on the Primary Campus on Monday & Thursday, the Secondary Campus on Tuesday & Friday plus alternating on Wednesdays between both campuses. Marcus and Bonnie will continue to be our pillars of strength leading the Primary and Secondary campuses. Appointments are strongly encouraged to ensure that we can address your issue appropriately.

A reminder to secondary families that parent-teacher interviews have now changed to Week 4 on Wednesday, May 18 instead of the last week of Term 2 to meet student and staff needs as we progress to the end of Semester 1. Primary parent-teacher interviews will remain at the same time on Tuesday, June 21 in the last week of term. Both days are adjusted school days. Interview times are 10:00 am - 6:00 pm and will need to be booked through Sentral. Students are to attend interviews with you on the day. There will be no classes. More details will be posted over the next fortnight as an extra reminder. End of Semester 1 Reports will be completed as per normal for all students.

As Kerrie has explained in her report, thank you to families who continue to monitor the building and grounds on both campuses during holiday periods. Engaging a number of communities, sports and education provider use after hours provides some extra protection to our facilities across the year. Covid-19 staffing issues are still with us though the disbanding of household contacts to isolate for 7 days is extremely helpful for staffing. Please note that it is still a DET directive for staff to be vaccinated with booster vaccines in order to be onsite and all students and staff are strongly recommended to complete two RAT tests per week.

I would also like to acknowledge our previous and long serving Business Manager Marion Small who is officially retiring from the service. Marion has been on leave in recent times. However, many families and staff have been privileged to have worked with Marion over many years at the College. On behalf of the team and our community, I would like to firstly thank Marion for an outstanding contribution and secondly, wish her well in the next phase of her journey.

A huge thank you to our wonderful parent helpers Josie, Helen and Silvana who organised another wonderful Mother’s Day fundraiser. It is a huge effort at a very busy time of the year so on behalf of leadership and The Lakes community we sincerely thank you. We can never do enough to show our appreciation for all mothers and their determination to make our communities better.

We have a range of school tours to complete over the next few weeks for prospective families, Year 7 and Prep Information Days, Prep and Year 6 transitions, 2023 VIA applications and Year 8, 9 & 10 Subject Selection nights. Current Year 6 families do NOT need to complete any paperwork for their child to continue into Year 7 in 2023 on the Secondary Campus. I have added a flowchart with the details in this edition of the newsletter which was also sent to you via Sentral a few weeks ago.

Other key events for Term 2 include NAPLAN for Years 3, 5, 7 & 9. The NAPLAN tests will run next week between Tuesday, May 10 - Thursday, May 12. The tests are an opportunity to assess and report on a range of competencies in reading, writing, comprehension, and numeracy for individual students. All assessments will be online this year. Each test is approximately 45 minutes to one hour long. Results are tabled and presented in progression status. They will be made available to students and their families in Term 3.

Finally, as an FYI both campuses will be open as Federal Election Polling Booths on May 21.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Bill.

Acting Principal

Naplan Information