Newsletter

Term 3 Start Date

Please note Term 3 commences with a Staff Development Day for both teachers and administration staff on Monday 22 July.  We look forward to welcoming students back for Term 3 on Tuesday 23 July, 2024. 

Staffing Update

We would like to advise the school community that Mr Delanty is currently on leave . Mrs Saunders is the relieving principal for Week 1.  

This term we are excited to welcome Miss Shannon O'Connor back from maternity leave. Miss O’Connor will be with us Monday to Wednesday and joining Mrs Freedman to teach KM for the remainder of the year.

We are also thrilled to share with you that Mrs Bush will be returning each Tuesday to co-ordinate our Small Group Tuition (SGT) program providing teaching and learning support for groups of 2-5 students.   SGT provides short-term support for students Needing Additional Support (NAS) as identified by the new NAPLAN standards and/or school-based assessments.  Year 4 students will be the focus of the program to start with and students who have been identified for the program have already received a note informing their parents/carers of their involvement.

School Uniform Subsidy

On 9 April 2024 the Education Secretary announced significant cuts to the NSW Education Budget to the tune of $148 billion being slashed from Public School funding.  These budget cuts have had an impact on our school budget and adjustments have had to be made to maintain our current staffing levels and provide quality teaching resources and programs for our students.

The uniform subsidy offered to assist families in purchasing school uniforms will unfortunately need to come to an end on Friday 9 August (end of Week 3). 

We have maintained the subsidy for as long as possible to allow all families to have the opportunity to purchase uniforms at the discounted prices however, the NSW Education Budget cuts are out of our control and directing the funds that we do have to employ teachers and purchase teaching resources allows us to continue to provide a quality education program to our students.

We welcome any families who would still like to purchase uniforms at the discounted rate to do so in the next couple of weeks.

School Reports

School Reports for students absent on the last day of term will be sent home with students on Tuesday 23 July.  With all staff involved in Professional Learning tomorrow and most reports still sitting in classrooms with teachers, we ask parents not to contact the school office tomorrow to collect reports.  

As previously communicated, we experienced numerous issues with the reporting platform when completing Semester One reports. We emailed a document to all families that we hoped would support families to understand the recent changtes to the NSW syllabus and provide parents and carers a clear understanding of the English and Mathematics areas which have been assessed.  We highly recommend all parents book a Parent/Teacher Interview with their child's class teacher to discuss their child's progress and areas for improvement. 

Parent/Teacher Interviews

Parent-Teacher Interviews will be held on Wednesday, 31 July, and Wednesday, 7 August.  

Parents and carers will have the opportunity to book either a face-to-face meeting or a phone meeting where the classroom teacher will call you at the scheduled time.

Bookings will open on Tuesday evening and parents will be able to use their School Bytes Parent Portal to book an appointment.  A banner will appear across the top of your portal once bookings open on Tuesday evening. 

• Click on this banner or the Interviews icon on your dashboard to be redirected to create your booking
• Enter your child's name
• Selected your preferred session (ie Wed 31 July or Wed 7 Aug)
• Choose your child's classroom teacher
• Select the date
• Select your preferred time
• If you would prefer a phone interview, please ensure you note your preferred contact number in the Comments box
• Select Submit

Confirmation of your booking will show on the “Your bookings” panel at the bottom of the screen

Repeat the steps to make further bookings for additional students

To cancel your booking – Visit the “Your bookings’ panel at the bottom of your screen and select the bin icon in the top RHC of the booking you wish to cancel

School Bytes Parent Portal - Attendance

From the start of this term, we have transitioned how we record and monitor student's attendance to School Bytes. This means parents and carers should now use their School Bytes Parent Portal to notify the school of an absence and/or respond to SMS messages to provide an explanation. 

To notify the school of an absence

•  Log in to your School Bytes Parent Portal
•  Click on the Attendance Icon on your dashboard (available from Mon 22 July)
• A pop up window will be displayed for any unexplained absences
• Click on the respond button and select an absence type from the available options
• Parents and carers have the option to upload documents such as medical certificates
• Enter a reason for the absence in the Comment field (ie specialist appointment, unwell etc)
• Press submit

The absence will now appear as pending approval. Once the school has reviewed and approved the absence, it will no longer appear in the absences list.

Kindergarten 2025

If you have a child who will be starting Kindergarten in 2025 or know of a friend, neighbour or relative with a child starting with us next year, now is the perfect time to complete their application for enrolment.

Applications for enrolment can be completed online  by clicking on the Enrolment tab on our school website. If you require further information, our enrolment procedures can be located on our website: Click here for more information. You can also speak with our friendly office staff who will be happy to assist.

NAIDOC Week Celebrations

At the end of last term, LPS came together to celebrate NAIDOC Week. Our celebrations included our ATSI students working on an Aboriginal  display  with Mrs Cooper, a NAIDOC assembly including performances by the LHS Dance and Didge group, a Community Gathering of families who identify as Aboriginal, a colouring in competition and an out of uniform day.  Our artist made a start on our mural and we can’t wait to show you the finished product in the coming weeks. We were blessed to have many community members join us as we celebrated the proud culture and history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.  A huge thank you to our Aboriginal Education Committee for their planning and organisation of our NAIDOC week celebrations.