The Senior Student Leaders are Year 10 students Joshua, Makira, Jye, Rochelle, Tilly, Amalia and Cleo. Each of these students applied for the role and had to answer questions from a panel that was made up of senior school staff and School Association members. By choosing to be part of the Student Leaders program, these students have chosen to extend themselves, learn new skills and be open to many new opportunities. They are able to provide a student voice to issues in the school community such as student wellbeing and curriculum as well as supporting events and representing the school.

This week the Student Leaders discussed what they think a leader is. Below are some of their responses:
“I think a Leader is someone you can trust to go to if there’s a problem.” – Rochelle
“I think a leader is someone that shows interest and companionship” - Makira
“A Leader is a person who leads the crowd the right way.” – Tilly
“A Leader is someone who will step up to do anything and will always participate and try their hardest.” – Josh
“A leader is usually an intelligent and confident person that is in charge of a group.” - Jye
“A Leader is someone who motivates and supports a team or a single person to improve and do their best.” – Amalia

They also identified the strengths that they see in attending Lilydale:

“At Lilydale everyone includes people even if they are not your friend.” – Rochelle
“A Positive I see about Lilydale are the opportunities we get; work experience, apprenticeships etc.” – Makira
“A positive we see about Lilydale is the team spirit, the community and how including we are.” – Tilly
“Positives about Lilydale are the people. The staff, students, family and community that attend and help at our school to make things better.” - Josh
“Lilydale is a smaller school, but this is an advantage when it comes to one on one help in a classroom.” – Amalia

The Student Leaders will be officially inducted in a whole school assembly on Tuesday, 9 April at 9:15. Parents and families of the Leaders are invited to attend and join them for the morning tea that is held afterwards.

In 2024, the Junior Student Leaders from year 5-6 are Annabelle, Storm, Charlie, Chaise, Riley and Maggie.  There is also 2 Maralinga Junior House Captains (Makayla and Bede) and 2 Corinna Junior House Captains (Madeleine and Nikki).

The group have started their meetings, and are full of ideas for fundraisers and fun events.  We were able to attend the leadership conference which was a fantastic experience that has taught us a lot.  On the 12March we held the lego competition and are very excited to announce the winners very soon!

During the year we hope to have some of our traditional fundraising events (cupcake day and footy colours day) as well as some further morale events for all to join in.

Year 10 Celebration Dinner Survey

NAPLAN

Over the preceding two weeks our students in Year 3, 5, 7, and 9 have participated in NAPLAN testing.  We have been impressed with the positive attitude that was taken across 4 tests – Reading, Writing, Conventions of Language and Numeracy.  The results will be available later in the year – our teachers will work in their Professional Learning Teams to analyse and digest the data when it becomes available to inform decisions about where students are at and plan opportunities to consolidate and extend future learning.

Communicating Learning Progress with Families

Progress reports go home Thursday, 4 April. This report will focus on application to learning P-10 in the areas of effort, attitude, organisation, and behaviour across all subjects taught.  There is no A-E rating for this report. Kindergarten students will receive an evidence of learning against the Early Years Learning Framework. Families are encouraged to get in touch with their teacher if they have any questions or queries about the report. Mid Year reports will go home in Week 9 Term 2 to be followed by Parent/Teacher opportunities in Week 10.

Induction of 2024 Student Leaders.

Our student leaders play an important role in the life of the school. Representing Lilydale at various events such as GRIP Leadership Conference, Anzac Day/Remembrance Day services, giving regular reports to our School Association as well as planning and organising events throughout the year.

On 9 April we will be inducting our 2024 Junior and Senior Leaders at an assembly followed by morning tea – invitations have been sent to families of students involved and we look forward to presenting blazers and badges to our 2024 leaders.

Lifting Literacy

At Lilydale School students in P-3 participate in UFLI lessons 4 times a week. UFLI is an explicit and systematic program that teaches students the foundation skills required for proficient reading. Teachers follow a scope and sequence to ensure students receive practice and acquire new skills with automaticity and confidence. As part of the DECYP Lifting Literacy Priority Deacon University has been asked to evaluate the UFLI scope and sequence.  In recognition of the work our Quality Teaching Coach Kate Heazlewood has been doing in this area at Lilydale she has been identified as one of a small number of educators who have been invited to participate in a review of the program.

We wish all our families a wonderful short break and remind everyone that school will resume on Wednesday 3 March.  There are no student free days for the remainder of Term 1.

Lisa Bailey
Acting Principal

The School Association's AGM is on Monday, 8 April at 7.00pm in the Kindergarten building. All parents and guardians of students at Lilydale District School are automatically members of the School Association and therefore, are welcome to apply to join the committee.

Nominations to join the committee are currently open, closing 3.00pm, 4 April 2024. Nomination forms are available from the school office. The committee meets approximately 2 times per school term on the first or second Monday of the month. All members of the School Association are welcome to attend meetings, it is a great way to find out what is happening in the school. 

If you need to get in contact with members of the School Association, please contact the school office on 6395 0100. Thank you.