Principal's Report

Principal Report 

Welcome back to all staff, students and parents for semester two, 2019. I would like to start by congratulating all students on what was a very successful semester one this year. I had the opportunity to attend all of the year level assemblies at the end of last term and take part in the celebration of the efforts and achievements of all students from Years 7 to 12. I was extremely impressed by the formal nature of awards ceremonies and very proud of the many students who were recognised for the efforts. Each student who received an award also received a new badge highlighting their achievements and I really encourage all students to be proud of their achievements and wear their badges with pride. The number of Gold Honours certificates this semester was outstanding and I look forward to seeing if this can be repeated in semester two.

The semester one reports were completed in the last week of term 2 and made available to all parents. All parents should now have viewed their child’s report and we hope discussed the information contained in it to gauge the academic progress of your child. Having checked the log in details of all parents it is disappointing to know that some parents are yet to access their child’s report. Any parent who is yet to view their child’s report should log onto Compass and view it through this portal. If you are having trouble completing this, please contact the general office so this can be arranged.

For those students who underperformed in semester one, the start of a new semester provides them with a fresh start and the opportunity to improve the content of their next report. Student managers at each year level also look at those students who have under achieved and not met the academic requirements of Lalor Secondary College.  Parents of these students will receive a letter outlining the schools concerns, as well as providing advice on how families can support these students to improve their results. Student Managers will be meeting with a number of students and parents over the coming weeks to discuss some strategies on how this can be achieved. I ask all parents who have been contacted to please make an appointment with the relevant Student Manager so this meeting can take place.

2019 Parent Opinion Survey

WE WANT OUR PARENTS TO TELL US WHAT THEY THINK!

Our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents think of our school. The Parent Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is conducted amongst a sample of randomly selected parents. It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of parents’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour and student engagement. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies.

Approximately 90 per cent of parents will be invited to participate in this year’s survey. All responses to the survey are anonymous. This year the Parent Opinion Survey will be conducted from Monday 22rd July to 11th of August.

The survey will be conducted online, only takes 10-15 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the allocated dates of completion on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. The online survey will be available in a range of languages other than English. These include: Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Chin (hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Somali, Turkish, Punjabi and Greek.

The survey results will be reported back to the school at the end of September. Lalor Secondary College will inform our school community of the survey results through annual reporting and via school council. Last year we used the survey results to provide direction in leading the school review process that led to the development of the schools new strategic plan.

Please contact the general office if you would like more information.

Information Evenings - 2019

This term sees information evenings running for Years 12, 11, 10, 9 and VCAL. I encourage all parents to attend these evenings so they are informed about the changes that occur as your child transitions from one year to the next. The evenings take around one hour to complete and there is plenty of time to ask questions and gather information from staff about the transition process. The information evenings will be held on at the following dates and times.

At the end of semester one I had the pleasure of attending a number of wonderful events that highlighted the opportunities made available to the students of Lalor Secondary College. Firstly I was able to attend and open the Local School convention hosted by Lalor Secondary College that saw a variety of public and private schools come together to discuss the question -  ‘Does Social Media promote free speech or hate speech?’. The schools in attendance included Thomastown SC, Epping Secondary College, St Monicas College, Marymede Catholic College, Whittlesea Secondary College and Camberwell Grammar School. The guest speakers of Andrew Giles, David Mould, Ecehan Gulbayrak and Sam Kotsopoulos provided excellent information to be debated and set up the day so that al students and staff involved were engaged and involved from start to finish. Congratulations to the Humanities team on their efforts to again run a wonderful event. Refer to the attached video in the relevant article in this newsletter to see how the day unfolded.

I also enjoyed viewing our students in partnership with Lalor North Primary school rehearse for the State Schools Spectacular. Our local Bronwyn Halfpenny was able to attend these rehearsals and it was a great day enjoyed by all.

The schools will be running its final Curriculum Day for 2019 next Wednesday the 7th of August. This is a student free day and all families should make the necessary arrangements for their children to remain at home.

I look forward to a very successful semester two for all students and staff, and ask that if you have any questions about the above information above that you contact me on 9463 7300.

Mr Corey Jewell