Triathlon

Today over 40 of our primary students braved the cold and blustery conditions and used their strength of courage to participate in the Schools Triathlon Challenge at Bellerive Beach. Our students represented our school with pride while being respectful, enthusiastic and courteous. They displayed excellent team and individual sportsmanship, and we are very proud of everyone who participated. A special thank you to Miss Hudson, Mr Des, Sarah Oldham and all the parents who also used their resilience to support the students outside in the elements all day!

Christmas on Henley

We are all looking forward to our annual Christmas on Henley concert, which is on this Friday 13th December. We are hoping that the weather gods will be kind to us on the night! Kicking off at 5pm, we can’t wait to celebrate the end of a successful year with lots of fun singing, dancing, both choirs as well as our very own Rock Band. There will be a BBQ provided by the School Association as well as an ice cream van.

Grade 6 Assembly and Awards

In a couple of weeks we will be farewelling our Grade 6 students. At their Celebration Assembly we will be awarding many of our students and I want to take this opportunity inform students and families that all awards this year are presented on the basis of merit. We acknowledge that this may be different than in previous years where they may have been awarded with a priority on gender balance. Our Grade 6 team have spent considerable time using agreed criteria so that the award recipient is the most deserving of this recognition. Invitations for the Celebration Assembly went home with students today. 

Carpark and road safety

Leading up to the end of the year I would just like to remind all parents about our responsibility to our families, and especially our students to be extra careful and courteous when dropping off and picking up your children. I have witnessed some very questionable driving over the last week. While I appreciate that parking is a challenging practice here, we are all in the same boat and I encourage you to be safe and follow all the road roads, especially the 40km limit around the school zone.

Staff Leaving at the end of 2019

 Miss Wai Chan has been a familiar face at LPS for the last 18 years. Wai made the extremely hard decision this year to transfer, and used her strength of courage and growth to challenge herself in a new context. Wai will be moving to Howrah Primary School. Wai’s ability to extract the absolute most out of every student will be missed here at Lindisfarne. Her organisation, dedication and drive to see students perform at their very best will be remembered by almost two decades of students and families. We wish Wai all the very best at her new school and we know that the early childhood block will not be the same without her in it next year.

Mrs Jodie Donovan has been an early childhood teacher here for 9 years. In 2020 Jodie will be joining the team at Risdon Vale Primary School. Starting over in the Kinder, Jodie was instrumental in the early days of many LPS students, creating wonderful first experiences for them in their introduction to formal schooling. Jodie moved over into the early childhood a few years ago, while also acting as one of our Advanced Skills Teacher for the past two years. Jodie has had a big impact on some whole school approaches including, but not limited to, the SMART Spelling program, the Refocusing Teaching and Learning initiative, as well as a huge early adopter of our play based learning pedagogy. We wish Mrs Donovan all the best at Risdon Vale Primary,  and look forward to seeing you around the school in your role as a parent.

Mr Neil Denman has entertained us with his theatrical talents for the past 7 years. In 2020, Neil will be joining the primary team at Lindisfarne North Primary School where I know they will appreciate his unique sense of humour and love of music. Mr D, as he is most affectionately known, has taught in the early childhood area and has given up many of his lunchtimes for the past few years to develop and encourage our school guitar group and rock band. We will miss Neil’s easy-going, ‘nothing is too hard’ attitude and look forward to working with him in the future through moderation and network collaboration days.

Mrs Janet Matton-Johnson has been an EFA with us for the past 9 years. Janet has accepted an extension of her current contract at Howrah Primary and will be taking 12 months leave from LPS. Janet is our ‘pocket rocket’ when it comes to cleaning, and it will be hard to replace her ability to whip in and out of a classroom without being noticed. She is so respectful of the learning environments that she is able to leave a room sparklingly clean without any disruption to the teaching and learning. Good luck at Howrah, Janet, I will miss your hilarious farming tales and unique sarcasm.

Kind regards,

Kel Innis

Principal