Dear Parents/Carers,

‘Empowering students for learning and life’

Welcome Back and Staffing Updates

As we start Term 2, I would like to welcome everybody back to school, refreshed and ready for learning. I trust that you had an enjoyable holiday with a chance to spend time with family and friends. I would like to extend a warm welcome to the students and families who are joining our College this term and look forward to working with you this year.

We have some staffing updates; Mr. David Upfal who was working with our metal classes and Year 9 Inquiry in Term 1 finished with us at the end of the term. He was with us as a Replacement Teacher covering our Technology classes while we advertised for a technology teacher. In Term 2, we will be running Food classes instead of metal work for our Year 8's and our Year 9 technology elective. I welcome Ms. Anita Jonauskas who will be working with us this term running our Food classes as well as working with the Year 9 Inquiry team. I welcome back Mrs. Gayle Ericksen who has been on leave for most of Term 1.

I would like to farewell Ms. Tabitha Benjamin from the Wellbeing team who, over the last 6 months has been working and supporting our students with their wellbeing. I would like to thank Tabitha for her dedication and work with our students and we wish her all the best.

I am very pleased to welcome Ms. Daniella Panozzo to our team. Daniella is a Special Education trained teacher and will be supporting our students with Special Needs. Starting with us at the beginning of Semester 2 is Mr. Josh Newton who is a graduate Media teacher and we are very excited to have him join our team.

Open Night

This evening we will be hosting our annual Open Night where we will open our school to the community and prospective 2020 Year 7 students. Our students will be running the school tours and we have our various programs on display, including our Academy program which provides students with choice; our auto students will showcase our State of the Art Automotive centre; our Systems Engineering program will be on display as will our innovative science area and our amazing digital technology space, to name just a few. Our student leaders will outline the opportunities students can take in having a voice as well as the various leadership roles students can be involved in. We look forward to welcoming members of our community to our College.

ANZAC Assembly

The legend of ANZAC was born on the 25th of April, 1915, recognising and celebrating what is now referred to as the ANZAC spirit – courage, endurance, initiative, discipline and mateship. Our soldiers were renowned for these values. On Friday 26th of April, the College will honour the memory of soldiers who fought for our freedom and for the life, we enjoy today with a whole school assembly. We will have the honour of Mr Barry Rodgers from the Cranbourne/Dandenong RSL attend and speak to our students about the meaning of ANZAC and what it meant to be an Australian solider. Our College captains will lead the assembly, with other student leaders, reading poetry and laying wreaths in memory of soldiers past and present. Our whole school community will observe a minute of silence.

Student Attitude to School Survey

At Lyndhurst Secondary College we want our students to tell us what they think.

We are conducting a survey to find out what your child thinks of our College. The Attitudes to School survey is an annual student survey offered by the Department of Education and Training. The survey assists schools in gaining an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school.

Our College will use the survey results to plan programs and activities to improve your child's schooling experience.

This year the Attitudes to School survey will be conducted at our College between Monday 29th April to Friday 7th of June. The survey only takes 20-30 minutes to complete and occurs during your child's class time.

As outlined in the March newsletter, we listen to our students, run focus groups and where possible make changes, examples of which are the upgrade to the toilets, changes to our school uniform, and students wearing their uniform on PE/Sports and Academy days.

What our students have to say matters and we look forward to receiving more feedback from our students.

NAPLAN

This year, our College is undertaking NAPLAN online which will take place over an 8 day period starting from Tuesday 14th of May to Thursday 23rd of May. This will involve all of our Year 7 and 9 students and is known as the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). The NAPLAN testing assesses students’ knowledge and skills in Writing, Reading, Language Convention (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy.

We encourage all of our students to do their very best when sitting these tests as the results from these tests provide information for students, parents and teachers which can be used to make improvements.

Year 10 Work Experience

Our Pathways Team has been working with our Year 10 students to support them in gaining a work experience placement for the second last week of Term 2, following their exam period. Part of the process included our Year 10 students being involved in the “Best Practice Interviews’ program during the last week of Term 1. This program involved students selecting a job to apply for, writing a cover letter and preparing a resume. The students then had to sit for an interview in front of a panel of two adults which included staff from our school, parents and representatives from local businesses. It was a great experience for our Year 10 students and we greatly appreciate the time given by members of our local community to support students.

While on work experience, we expect all Year 10 students to make the most of this valuable opportunity to see what a workplace is like and potentially learn some new skills. As always, we would expect our students, to be ambassadors for our school, to present themselves in appropriate attire for their work and to be model members of the workforce community while they are experiencing work.

The deadline for returning the required forms is approaching. Any students who have not returned these forms in time will be expected to be at school and follow an alternative program. We are looking forward to visiting our students while they are ‘on the job’ and hearing about their experiences.

Primary School Visits

Over the course of the Term 1, Kelly Bendon led her Transition Team in working with our local primary schools, providing opportunities for the current Grade 6 students to experience life at Lyndhurst SC. Together with our staff, our Student Leaders have supported this program by taking school tours, running activities, and providing an overall engaging and positive experience for the primary school students.

I would like to acknowledge and thank Kelly and her team, for the many hours of work they have put into organising the Grade 6 visits and the Open Night and to all the staff and students who have supported them in ensuring the program we run is of the highest quality. We look forward to continuing to work closely with our local primary schools over the course of the year.

House Athletics

The College Athletics event will take place on Friday 24th May, and I encourage all students to consent as soon as possible. This can be done through the events module in Compass. We encourage all of our students to dress in their house colours on the day and get involved in as many events as they can. We look forward to another great College sporting event.

Lynbrook Art Competition

Once again, Lyndhurst Secondary College is working with Lynbrook Village to host an Art competition, where our students from years 7 – 12 submitted their art pieces at the end of last term

Wellbeing

Positive Parenting

Headspace Factsheets