From the Principal and Deputy Principal

What a wonderful start to the year, SRC is up and running. We had a very successful sports day and had perfect weather for Interschool. Camps and excursions have been up and running with 3 or 4 more to go this term along with Field Days this week and our daily school learning programs. We have a lot to be grateful for and appreciate and we would like to thank all our staff, students and volunteers who have made the effort to make all of this possible.  

SRC Captains Interviews on the ABC: While we hope you can visit us at the Field Days at both the school site and wine tent, please keep an ear out for our school captains who will be on ABC radio at the field days around 9am on Friday 17th.  

Annual Leaders Meeting: Was held in Adelaide last week where Site Leaders from across the State have gathered to learn about and help set the directions for Public Education in South Australia. This included time with our Chief Executive, Minister and Premier. In short it will see our State continue to progress with Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence software like Chat GTP, we will lift our focus on wellbeing for learning and spend time defining what world class education means for South Australia in the coming year. At Lucindale Area School we will continue to advance our access and use of digital spaces and technology, we will also review and increase student voice in construction of learning tasks and being accountable to their best learning, this alongside a push for improvement in Numeracy should see our school continue to grow and prosper.

Numeracy Education Summit: We had 3 staff attend the Numeracy Summit following the Leaders Day, this summit has allowed access to some of the best practices and researchers around Numeracy from Reception to Year 12. Our school will be implementing the works from the Summit at our upcoming student free day at which all teachers will look at the Big Ideas in Number for their learning areas and review practices to improve student engagement and success with maths across the curriculum.

Governing Council Nominations: With our AGM coming up on Tuesday March the 21st at 7pm please keep your nominations coming in as we would love to ensure all positions are filled along with finalising sub-commitments for the 2023/2024 school year.

Student Free Days: On March the 27/3/2023 we have a student free day to implement staff training in the Big Ideas in Number and to review teaching methodology around Numeracy and Mathematics. Please ensure you have saved this date in your calander along with 5/5/23, 24/7/23, 27/10/23 as student free days and our school closure day on 1/9/23.

Interschool Sports Day Summary: Congratulations to Kingston on the overall win and Kangaroo Inn on their most improved result. While we finished a close second, we can be proud of the efforts shown by all athletes, our Canteen Committee and many Volunteers led by Alisha on the day. We could not have asked for better weather or sportsperson ship across the day along with Denise’s expertise on the microphone keeping us all on track along with providing a laugh or two.

Master Plan Community Forum: Our School Captains along with Evie, Louis and Adrian attended the Masterplan working party at the Town Hall last Thursday to help set the direction/review of the masterplans for our Council. The chance to contribute and listen to a broad range of ideas and suggestions including upgrades to the airstrip, housing for our region, rail trails, transport and community facilities was wonderful, and we look forward to seeing the next stage of the plan. It was fantastic to hear that our Council region has grown in population over the last 5 years, and it would be great to think about what we can all do to assist this further and help with the job shortages. We know our Council area is great so let’s all keeping working to make the Lucindale/Naracoorte region known as the place to be.

NAPLAN Testing 2023: All students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are assessed using national tests in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy. As such, NAPLAN results provide teachers with useful feedback about a child’s literacy and numeracy skills from a point in time. In 2023, these tests will take place during 15th to 27th March using the online platform.

Communication and Contact Details: Communication with our parent community is very important; and relies on up-to-date addresses, mobile numbers, and email addresses. Please remember to notify our Front Office if any of your contact details have recently changed, so that our records can be kept up to date. Teachers are highly committed to maintaining effective communication with parents and carers. To help us improve the school-home partnership we ask that you consider the following points:  

• Teachers may not get the opportunity to check messages or emails until sometime after they are sent. If you have an urgent message for your child’s teacher, please phone our Front Office staff, who will pass on the message.  
• Please remember to phone the Front Office to notify us if your child is absent or late. If you email your child’s teacher, they may not receive the message in time, resulting in an unexplained absence SMS notification being sent to you.  
• If you would like to raise an issue with your child’s teacher, you are welcome to send a brief email outlining your concerns. Teachers will make a time to talk about the matter in person or over the phone so that the issue can be given the depth of discussion it deserves. 

Yours sincerely,    

Adrian and Louis.   

P.S We look forward to seeing you all at the Field Days later this week and would like to thank the Lions Field Day Committee and the many volunteers who pulled this event together!