From the Principal Team

This week I would like to celebrate some high achievers in our community.

In the sporting arena, a number of Lakes students competed at State Little Athletics over the weekend drawing on our school values, digging deep and acquitting themselves well and achieving enormous personal success - congratulations Chloe T and Charlotte A.

We also celebrate Arnie S who has been invited to trial for a youth rugby league competition and Charlotte A, Devony H and Jesse C who are in squad training, hoping to make representative footy teams.

Again, well done.

We need you to tell us about your successes because we want bragging rights for the great things you do. Please send me an email and share with me: Kerrie.Heenan@education.vic.gov.au

Sport, dance, martial arts, debating, music, spelling, scouts anything you are proud of, we are too!

Our Secondary athletics carnival highlighted the community spirit of our students and staff as they proudly displayed their house colours and competed with both drive and dignity. Having a go, cheering on others and being inclusive were very obvious throughout the day. It was reassuring to see such spirit and leadership.

Congratulations to Evans and to all the winners on a most successful day.

Our House Captains were named congratulations to:

Evans: Nick T and Kudzi M

Rafter: Makita W and Charlotte A

Beachley: Sasha K and Abbey Z

Jackson: Rebeka S and Romeo P

We look forward to your inspiration. And I hope the next chapter of leading at The Lakes.

This week we also held the first meeting of our new School Council. Derek W has accepted the role of President and is very keen to invest in some succession planning to strengthen our team moving forward. Thank you Swati, Jaspreet, Katherine, Todd and Anna Lisa for representing our parents. We still need two more parents - please help us!

Student representatives are Angela R and Caitlin D while staff are Annette, Marcus and Renee. Our Annual Report to the School Community was presented together with a video - 2020 The Year that Was Built - by Kitty, sharing the amazing successes of our community.

True leaders don’t just want the badge or the title, they want to support, assist, encourage and inspire others. They do the jobs others baulk at - pick up rubbish, clean tables, make sandwiches, find sponsors, meet others to hear ideas, and invest lots of time. Good leaders listen.

Leadership is not about always winning and getting your own way, it is about being humble and gracious and accepting that in life’s journey there will be disappointment. Over the past few weeks I have watched our students put their hands up to lead an array of programs. I have seen excitement and I have seen disappointment; for the resilient there will be more opportunities as the year goes on and remember we are all leaders every day and how we behave and react is how we will grow and move forward. Lakes leaders become Lakes Legends. So, let me tell you where our very first school captains are now:

Bella - Communication and Marketing Manager Chobani

Zoe - Qualified Midwife

Mustafa - Secondary Dance/Drama Teacher

Jake - UFC Martial Artist

These are just the beginning of our Lakes Legends.

Over the next few weeks there are many things happening at The Lakes:

Monday March 22 - Parent teacher interviews open on Sentral;

Tuesday March 23 - we have a fabulous program to celebrate Harmony Day on Secondary Campus from 4.00pm. Refer to the program later in this special newsletter;

Wednesday March 24 - we have the beginning of information for Year 9 families starting the journey toward post school pathways at 6.00pm on our Secondary Campus;

Thursday March 25 - is Cultural Diversity Dress Up Day on our Primary Campus.

Times are extremely busy and I remind everyone our community relies on adults modelling appropriate behaviour. Please try to be calm, control your voice level, respect each other’s personal space and listen.

We are experiencing a range of anxiety-related issues in our community and if we act rather than react, we can work through this. When mouths go off, or tempers flare, when fists and feet become weapons we need to work together. This was affirmed for me this week when some Year 5 students presented to me the four most important values in our world gathered by a survey.

In order of preference:

Kindness, Respect, Honesty and Equality.

Key words that came through our discussion were modelling and challenging inappropriate behaviour, trusting and caring, looking after each other and the planet and making sure men and women don’t hurt each other. It makes you stop, listen and imagine the world our young people want to live in. Let’s work together to make this happen.

Kerrie, Bill and Marcus