Principal's Report

This year started with the same enthusiasm and positivity we have seen at Lalor Secondary College for both staff and students over the past 10 years. The school had built significant momentum around the great work completed in 2019, with a renewed focus on the schools new strategic plan. We commenced our Berry Street Best Practice Initiative focusing on the two domains of Body and Relationships, as well as the schools new Pastoral Program at Years 7 and 8 that also draws on the key messages from the Trauma Informed Positive Education ™ domains associated with Berry Street. The school was commencing its focus on Reading as a school priority with a targeted reading program at Year 7 and the re-development of the schools Literacy Action Plans across all key learning areas. We had the joy of running our Athletics Day with the whole school and our Year 12 students parading in front of the college as has been done in previous years.

Then at the end of Term 1 the world faced an event that had not been seen globally for over 100 years. A Pandemic that was very quickly moving across the globe with devastating health effects for many within our community. This saw all students move into the first holiday period early as part of the initial government strategy and was the start of our first lockdown period. At this time the school mobilised its resources within days and provided over 400 devices to students over the following weeks so students could continue to engage with their learning through a remote learning program. With a lot of uncertainty around what the future would hold for the college, teachers were forced to create and adapt a teaching and learning program to a remote learning environment. This took trial and error and the development of new skills for both teachers and students, however everyone should be proud of what was achieved over this period with such short planning time.

The lockdown period was challenging for as all and we relied on each other to get through this period. Many of our staff undertook Wellbeing roles throughout the lockdown period and I thank all of them for their work in this area. 

I believe the school was able to provide some connection to our regular routines and a sense of confidence to our community that helped everyone get through the most difficult of periods. As I write this, I am confident that now our students have returned we will continue to support them in both their learning and their Wellbeing. I remain optimistic about what the students at our school will achieve in the coming years.

The year finished with some very positive news in that we will receive $26 million in Capital works funding for the modernisation of the schools buildings as part of the Victorian Government’s Infrastructure Planning and Acceleration Fund. The school capital program is at the forefront of the Education State reforms, which are providing students and teachers across Victoria with 21st century learning facilities. We are all very excited and cannot wait to see what our new school will look like in the coming years.

I wish our entire community a restful break after this very trying year. I hope you get to catch up with all of your family and friends, and we look forward to 2021 and hopefully getting back to our normal school life.

Best regards,

Corey Jewell

Principal Lalor Secondary College