Dear Families,

It is a great privilege to serve our Lalor North learning community as Acting Principal.

I have very much enjoyed meeting staff and many students and have had the opportunity to meet some families since my arrival last month. Lalor North is indeed a special community, and I hope this new newsletter format, including the ability to receive our college newsletter in many languages, will help to bring us closer together over coming months. We all seek the same things for our young people in education – opportunity for growth, achievement, positive social relationships and a strong sense of wellbeing through which to imagine, to flourish and to create our future.

By way of brief introduction, I have had long and varied experience as an educator in both the independent and government sectors over many years, and in a variety of settings. I am a passionate advocate for our wonderful public school system in Victoria and seek through my leadership to extend all the opportunities we offer to all our families at Lalor North. Due to in part to its intimate setting, Lalor North offers something quite different for our community. We have a special interest in assisting young people to explore their potential and discover new opportunities, and we work exceptionally hard to understand the individual needs of each young person.

Personal learning, the needs of the individual learner, has always been a focus of our community and we always seek opportunities to maximise this goal, so please be in touch with your thoughts and hopes for our students. Of course, a trusting partnership is required with every family to ensure success and I very much look forward to continue building these close relationships with families. To this end I am always eager to meet parents/carers, or to have a chat on the phone, so please reach out and say hello.

The college is quite rightly a busy place and much has been happening. I congratulate the students of years 7 and 9 for successfully engaging in their NAPLAN practice as this will help them feel positive about the assessment next term. I was very pleased to note that our year 12 VCAL students enjoyed a terrific camp experience, and I thank students for

participating so beautifully, and our staff for providing this opportunity. All were quite weary upon return, but a productive and joyous time was had by all accounts.

Progress reports have also been completed, along with accompanying parent-teacher conferences. I hope all families have taken the time to carefully consider the progress of your child, to celebrate progress, and to take on board the suggestions of staff for that will assist learning.

We are in transition season from 6 to 7, and many potential new families are taking the opportunity to tour the college. We have also enjoyed hosting visits from many primary students from our feeder schools. Much fun has been had, and I particularly thank our own outstanding students who have assisted in the running of these transition programs. It has been a wonderful experience for me over the last few weeks also to show many students through the college at other year levels, a range of whom have become new members of our community. I warmly welcome these families.

There continues to be great interest in our school from across our communities. Should anyone know of families who seek a high quality and intimate learning experience for their children, please encourage them to be in touch.

I ask that with the colder months upon us, please be sure that correct uniform is carefully observed, and to consider the option of students wearing appropriate insulating under-garments that can be worn as part of the uniform. As these are not visible beneath the uniform, they are entirely appropriate as an addition where students may feel the cold. Correct footwear is also critical to ensure warmth and safety.

It was a great pleasure and source of pride to share in the opening of the Darebin Creek Bridge at Childs Road with two of our wonderful year 12 leaders. Our students met our local Member, The Honourable Lilly D’Ambrosio, Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change. Our students represented our College with distinction and created a very strong impression upon the Minister. See further information in this edition.

Please take time to enjoy our new newsletter, I am sure you will appreciate the new format. Thank you to Vicki Buckler who has been working hard to launch our first edition.

Finally, my best wishes to every family for a restful break, and I look forward to seeing everyone back in term two. Please remember that the first day back is Tuesday, 26th April following the Anzac Day public holiday.

Timothy Cottrell

Acting Principal

Garden Project

VCAL

Garden Project