Welcome to the latest edition of our school newsletter. We welcome Ange Burbury to our school community as Acting Principal until week 6 while Kel Innis is taking Long Service Leave.  Ange is on loan to us from Collinsvale Primary and has seamlessly transitioned into her role here, leading staff and students through a busy start to the term.

As this newsletter comes to you, the half way mark in our school year has come and gone. At LPS it has provided a timely opportunity in many aspects of our teaching and learning to check in, reflect on what has been achieved so far and create goals and identify areas for further growth in the second half of the year.

I know these are the types of conversations that I have been having with my Kindergarten students.  We have reflected upon where we started together as a class group and we talked about the achievements that they have already had as individual learners and absolutely celebrated these!  As they begin their learning journey it has been so important for me to teach them that everyone learns differently, at different rates and that everyone has areas of strength in their learning and areas to focus on.  Whether it has been learning how to zip up their school bag, remembering the name of the first letter in their name, remembering all of the letters in their name, speaking to the class for the first time, recognising and reading a word in a book, learning to hop – all achievements are celebrated on an individual level and success is shared with others in the class.  And the where to next conversations are just as important, ‘What is the next focus for you as a learner?’  Research supports being articulate and explicit around the intention of the learning experiences we provide our students and what it is we want them to learn.

Our teachers also started Term 3 with this mid-year check in focus.  On the Student Free Day we measured our progress so far against the goals that we set for our school in our School Improvement Plan in the areas of reading, number and community engagement.  Our Behaviour Management systems and procedures were reviewed and each teacher finished the day with having to set priorities for their curriculum delivery in the second half of the year.

The start of Term 3 marked the beginning of our Pre-Kinder program.  The program runs each Friday morning between 9-10am in the Kinder building.  We encourage all in-area families with children turning 5 in 2023 to hand completed enrolment forms into the school office ASAP.  Completed forms are a pre-requisite for attending the program.  Pre-Kinder sessions enable students and families to make connections to each other, to our school, and become familiar with the teaching program and routines and structures that are part of our Kindergarten program.

Week 2 of the term saw our first whole school assembly of the year which included parents.  We were delighted to be able to have our school community together to celebrate the wonderful learning happening in classrooms across the school.  We would also like to congratulate Peyton for being our new Aussie of the Month.

Thank you again to families who made time to attend last week’s Essential Assessment Open afternoon. 

Strong home/school relationships are a great way to work together to help improve student outcomes.  Please read on in the school newsletter to get a full wrap up of this event.

Kind regards,

Purdie Hudson
AST