I would like to warmly welcome back all of our students, staff and families for 2023 and to our first new look newsletter! I hope that everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable holiday break and has returned to school feeling refreshed and prepared for a new school year. We have had a very settled and productive beginning to 2023.

I would like to extend a very special welcome to our Year 7 students and our new students and their families who are starting with us this year. You are joining an exciting learning community and we are looking forward to watching you learn and grow throughout your time with us.

We are also welcoming several new and returning staff this year at Lilydale Heights College. As we continue to grow as a school, it is wonderful that we are able to increase the number of amazing staff that we have here to support our students.

New & Returning Staff

Ashley Roberts - Maths

Sam Critchley - Psychology/Maths

Kelly Taylor - Humanities

Julie-Ann White - Science

Helen Trewavis - Product Design

Yuting Huang - Maths

Melissa Eccleston - Drama/English

Molly Golding - Humanities/Tutor

Krystina McCrory - Food Studies/English

Ethan Wake - Maths/Science

Lara Kinder - Humanities/VCE-VM

Debra Truin - Humanities

Lesley Sutherland - Tutor

Lucinda O'Brien - Tutor

Katherine Rusch - Humanities

Karen Sargeant - Humanities

Joanna Stolfa - Wellbeing

Sian Buddy - Inclusion

Azusa Matono - Japanese Assistant

Taryn Guilfoyle - Inclusion

Kimberley Taylor - Inclusion

Catherine Pepping - Inclusion

Learning Focus

It has been an exciting few weeks at Lilydale Heights College. Staff spent the first few days of the school year focused on our goals for 2023, which are designed to ensure that all of our students are able to learn, grow and thrive. We are focused on developing an inclusive learning community which enables all of our students to be lifelong learners and confident global citizens. Our core purpose is underpinned by our three College Values.

Excellence: Challenging yourself to achieve your best

Respect: Respecting yourself, others and our environment

Responsibility: Being accountable for all your actions

In particular, it is our College Value of ‘Excellence: Challenging yourself to achieve your best,’ which frames our Learning Focus for 2023 and beyond. To achieve ‘excellence’, we will be focusing on two goals:

To optimise the learning growth of every student.
To empower students to be aspirational and proactive learners

How do we do this? We do this by striving for excellence each and every day.

We will focus on:

Evidence based and high impact teaching strategies to enable point of need learning for all students
Building staff capability in data literacy
Shared instructional leadership
Student wellbeing, engagement, learning confidence and inclusion
Student voice and agency

At our first assembly for the year, I spoke with our school community about the idea of ‘excellence’ and what does that mean for each of us.

I asked our teachers, how are they demonstrating excellence on a daily basis and challenging themselves to be the best teachers and advocates for their students?

I asked our Education Support Staff, how are they showing excellence within their role to make our community the best that it can be?

For our students, I asked them to focus on their role as a learner at Lilydale Heights College. How are they demonstrating excellence on a daily basis? How are they challenging themselves to be the very best learner, best friend, best student, community member, best sportsman, best musician, best performer, artist, ally that they can be?

And I ask myself, how can I demonstrate excellence and be the best Principal that I can be so that all students at Lilydale Heights College have every opportunity to learn, to be empowered, to develop learner confidence and to be the best version of themselves so that they are able to thrive.

Excellence is the result of always striving to do better and I would ask our community to face this year with a mindset on improvement, always focused on trying to do that little bit better each day. It is a fresh start and I have asked all of our students to begin their 2023 school journey aiming for excellence, on being the best version of themselves and to committing to being an active partner in their learning.

College Contacts

Below you will find a list of key contacts at the College that may be able to assist you regarding your child. For all classroom based questions, we would encourage families to first make contact with their child’s classroom teacher via phone or email. As all teachers have classes during the day, please be mindful that staff will endeavour to respond to you as soon as possible around their teaching commitments.

Year 7 Team

Michelle Gaudion – Year 7 Learning Leader

Louise Martin – Year 7 Liaison

Chris Edwards – Year 7 Liaison

Year 8 Team

Jacob de Kunder – Year 8 Learning Leader

Julia Dowse – Year 8 Liaison

Fariba Riazati – Year 8 Liaison

Year 9 Team

Ashlea Gell – Year 9 Learning Leader

Lauren Cuzens – Year 9 Liaison

Year 10 Team

Daniella Gentile – Year 10 Learning Leader

Jane Scobie – Year 10 Liaison

Senior School Team (Y11/12)

Emma Steeper – Senior School Learning Leader

Troy McGown – Year 11/12 Liaison

Teaching & Learning

Mathew Smith – Leader of Teaching & Learning (Acting)

Wellbeing & Engagement

Emily Gerson – Leader of Student Engagement & Wellbeing

Assistant Principals

Tim Wright – Assistant Principal: Student Learning Growth

Isabella Phillips – Assistant Principal: Empowering Students

I hope that you enjoy our new look newsletter for 2023! Please take some time to explore our newsletter and read about all the wonderful things that are taking place at Lilydale Heights College. Please enjoy!

First Aid

Rebecca Sikhali & Samantha Morabito - First Aid Officers