Principal's message

VET Tasters Program

Over the last couple of weeks we have been conducting “taster” workshops at LHCS Coburg for Year 10 students of nearby secondary schools. The intent behind this is to raise awareness of our offerings to students who may consider enrolling with us in 2024. This is part of a concerted effort to build connections with other local schools. Alana Smith (Leading Teacher - Applied Learning) has also been representing LHCS at the Hume - Merri Bek Schools Network.

WILD Camp

Barney and I drove to Walhalla last Tuesday night to join LHCS students and staff at Coopers Creek Campground. The following day we took a historic train ride, and enjoyed a gold mine tour with the group before heading back to Melbourne. All in attendance were having a great time. The school's recently purchased camping gear will enable us to continue offering these types of adventures regularly into the future.

Time-in-lieu for camps

This week the Department of Education and Australian Education Union reached agreement on appropriate time in lieu arrangements for staff on camps. This includes a commitment from the Government to fund schools to provide staff with overnight camp payments in addition to time in lieu for required work outside of regular hours. As a small school with limited human resources, we welcome this agreement as it provides us with certainty around about ability to run a camps program into the future. 

Flexible Learning Program

From the beginning of Term 3 we will be offering different programs in Years 9 and 10 at LHCS Richmond. Currently we are providing a standard full-time Victorian Curriculum based program for two middle (Year 9/10) groups, with scope for negotiated changes to each student’s program through Individual Supports. From our current attendance data we can see this program is not meeting the needs of a large portion of our cohort. It is evident the resources tied up in this structure could be more effectively employed. One of our groups will continue to undertake a 30 period per week Victorian Curriculum based program. The other group will undertake Flexible Learning programs, developed to meet the specific needs of individual students.

DSSI Update

We have confirmed that the team from the Differentiated Support for School Improvement will continue working with us until the end of Term 3. Following this we will continue our journey with increased internal capacity and assistance from our regional Education Improvement Leader.

Contra Workshop

We continue to reap the benefits of our contra partnership with The Projects at LHCS Coburg. The vegetable gardens are providing for our Hospitality program, the side lawn is establishing nicely and the native plantings are looking especially lovely at the end of Autumn. I would particularly like to thank Kieran Stewart for the care and thought he has put into our grounds over the past couple of years.