Principal's Report
Back from Abroad
It's been a bit of a shock to the system to return to the cold Melbourne weather after a short period of leave. I returned home on the weekend from Helsinki in Finland where I attended the 12th Convention of the International Confederation of Principals (ICP). There, I joined more than 1000 Principals from around the world to hear a range of speakers on the conference theme of Leading Educational Design. We heard academics, researchers and school leaders on a range of topics and from all continents of the world, speaking about learning designed for the 21st Century.
Along with assistant principals, Kerry Bates and Marc de Ley, I also visited a Finnish school in Tuusula, hosted by a Finnish Principal who visited our school earlier this year. Finland has consistently lead the world in learning outcomes for students in the last 10 years and so it was a perfect location for the conference. We had beautiful weather with the sun shining and temperatures in the low 20’s.
I’m glad we weren't there in the winter though. Finland in winter is, of course, completely blanketed in snow and ice.
At lunchtime and recess, the children are sent outside in all kinds of weather and it’s not until the temperature drops below minus 20 degrees that they have the option of staying inside. Apparently though, most still choose to rug up and go out! When I told the Principal that, in Australia, we keep the children in whenever it rains, he said, “Why? Are they made of sugar?” Makes you think!
New Teacher
Last week, we welcomed Carolyn Burns to the school as a new teacher in year 3 in place of Penny Forster who has begun her family leave in preparation for the birth of her new baby. I wish Carolyn the very best in her new role, and welcome her to the Lyndhurst community. We also, of course, wish Penny and her husband all the very best of good fortune as they begin their family and take on that most challenging of roles, parenting.
PFA Trivia Night
Don't forget the PFA trivia Night coming up soon. It promises to be a fantastic night and I hope the community can support our hard working PFA in numbers. There are some great prizes and raffles and auction items as well as the promise of plenty of fun.
It’s also a great chance to meet other families and members of the community so I hope to see lots of you there to make this a really successful community evening.
Scout Raffle Tickets
Don’t forget that, if you have Scout raffle tickets, you MUST return them to school whether you have sold them or not. The raffle is a great fundraiser for the school so I hope you can sell a few tickets but regardless, we need to account for ALL of the tickets so please return them to school as soon as possible.
State Schools Spectacular
Rehearsals for the State Schools Spectacular are in full swing and it promises to be even more spectacular than in previous years. I know tickets are available and I can highly recommend the show. I wish all of our Lyndhurst “stars” all the very best as we move closer to show time. As they say in the theatre world, “break a leg”.
Greg Lacey
Principal