From the Principal

Being Thankful for our Teachers

I have been a teacher for nearly 24 years and the job is the most complex it has ever been (like it is in other professions I am guessing).  At Langy Park, we are very fortunate to have a team of highly experienced and dedicated teachers, who deeply care about meeting the individual needs of the students under their care. Every teacher spends a considerable amount of time to plan their curriculum and look after the emotional needs of each student.

We need to sometimes remember that teachers are not robots and they are human like everyone else.  Sometimes teachers need to take personal leave because they are unwell, or caring for a sick child.

We are currently experiencing the biggest shortage of teachers in my career. When teachers are unwell, replacement teachers are very difficult to find.

Like our teachers do for our students, we always need to place a priority on looking after all our teachers (and all school staff) and be thankful for the work they do, because they are very difficult to replace.

School Review

It has been a massive couple of weeks at Langy Park Primary School, in particular finishing off our school review process. As I have previously communicated, the purpose of the school review process is to take a highly rigorous approach to evaluate our current school strategic plan and then formulate a new set of long term goals (4 years) for our school.

I could not have been happier with the outcome of the 4 days our panel spent on site across the first three weeks of this term. They spent a considerable amount of time observing in different classrooms and attending PLC teacher planning sessions. They also met with a number of teacher, parent and student focus groups. The data that the panel collected during these sessions, greatly assisted with building clarity with what our new goals will be in our strategic plan. By the end of this term, our school reviewer will have his report written and this will be shared with our staff and school council. I will ensure to keep you updated with this.

I would like to thank our school community for actively involving themselves in this highly important work.

100 Days at School

What an amazing 100 Days at School celebration we had for our Foundation students today.  We were also able to welcome their Grandparents to this special occasion.

It is fantastic that we are able to host these important events again.  More photos further in the newsletter.

2023 Intentions

It is hard to believe that we are already at the stage of the year where I am beginning to plan our workforce plan for next year.

To assist with my workforce planning, if you know that your child will not be attending Langwarrin Park Primary School next year and you have not informed us, can you please do this at your earliest possible convenience.

We will be sending out 2023 Foundation enrolment confirmation letters to in zone and sibling parents on Friday (5th August). If your child is starting school next year and you have not handed in their enrolment form, please do this as soon as possible.

Staff Spotlight

We are very fortunate to have the staff we do at Langy Park Primary. Our Education Support Staff are sometimes not 'seen' and their work is so important to making our school a great one. We have an amazing office administration team, consisting of Sue, Joyce, Bridgit, Fiona and Shona, who provide amazing 'front of house' support to our parents and students.

Our school grounds are looking the best have been in a long time and this is due to the work of Ron, Carol and Bluey.

We also have a special group of teachers aides/support staff- Luana, Kerryn, Naomi, Travis, Trudi and Caitlin, who provide the highest quality support to our students and teachers.

Kate is the best librarian going around and the work she has done in building school partnerships with our kinders and early childhood centres in the Langwarrin area has been nothing short of sensational!

Maybe the next time you see any of these important staff members, thank them personally.

2024 BYOD Program

This is a message for our Grade 3 parents and for any other interested parents. From Grade 4, we run a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Program. The last few years we have used Edunet as a provider of our devices. They provide an online portal that parents can access to purchase a device, accessories, finance and insurance. We hope our school portal will be open early next week. Once this is finalised I will communicate the necessary information out to everyone.

Student Safety and School Car Park

Just a friendly reminder about using the school car park. There is no parent parking allowed in the school car park. This car park is only used for school staff and for families attending swimming lessons at YMCA. Please do not use the staff car park as drop off and pick up point. We have a large number of vehicles entering and leaving the car park and we do not want any parent or child getting injured.

Please use the designated parking on either Northgateway, Jackson Dve, Bush Crt or Burgess Dve.

I wish everyone a very relaxing weekend.

Cheers

Richard