Culture and Community
To commence our school year in 2021, our Staff PD Days to have reflected on culture and community. As a College we have so much to be thankful for with a 25% enrolment growth over the last two years, but we have also needed to ensure that we intentionally focus on our culture and community, the two very areas that can be attributed to the growth we have experienced.
As a staff it has been critical for us to explore our culture and community, what makes as unique and how do we maintain our Lutheran identity. As a staff our culture and our sense of community is instrumental in growing that of our College’s.
This last week we have welcomed 9 new staff to our team, in itself a fairly rare experience for our college! We are so blessed to have such amazing staff, with half of our new team relocating some significant km’s to join us. To share our community with our new colleagues we embarked on the ‘Road to 2021 @ TLC’ scavenger hunt. A morning filled with laughs, much fun and opportunity to get to know our new teaching partners whilst sharing a little of our college and our local community. Tik Tok videos, Road to Abbey Beatles covers being reproduced, selfies being taken with Trinity graduates working in local businesses and local take away menus being collected (bonus points if they were from a College family) were just some of the highlights.
Whilst not focussed on a specific theme of latest pedagogy nor unpacking the never-ending policies and procedures of a school, the ‘Road to 2021 @ TLC’ was a chance for us to focus on the areas of a school that cannot be written in a procedures manual or planned in a unit of learning. The ‘Road to 2021 @ TLC’ was a chance for us to focus on building further that ‘stuff’ that is felt in a school, the vibe, the sound. A chance for us to further build relationships with colleagues and get to know new ones. A chance for us to build our culture and build our community.
2021 also sees an exciting build time commence for us as we embark on the first stage of a major refurbishment program seeing all of our Year 5-10 classrooms being completely rebuilt. With final planning underway before the tender process begins the excitement is growing!
We will also focus on our continued IB journey in 2021. In December last year, we were authorised as a PYP school and will now work towards MYP authorisation. A huge achievement for our College, staff, students and parents alike!
We are excited about a new year to continue to grow and develop all of the projects underway, while maintaining and strengthening the core of who we are at Trinity Lutheran College, Mildura.
Eloise Beveridge
Principal
