Lalor East Primary School opened in 1972 in an established residential area of Thomastown, approximately 30 kilometres north from Melbourne Central Business District. It serves a diverse multicultural community, with over 70% of parents were born overseas and 50% of students who speak a Language Other Than English (LOTE). The school has an enrolment of 213 students in ten classes.
The school’s mission is to “Make Good People” with every child being literate, numerate, happy and healthy and to reflect its values through their individual actions and active participation in their local and global community. The school believes that every child can learn and is committed to ensuring that students develop to their full capacity. The school values are Respect, Honesty, Cooperation, Caring and Personal Best. These values underpin decision making and interactions with each other and the broader school community.
A co-teaching approach is utilised across the school with a group of teaching staff and aides working with several classes. Staff come from a range of diverse cultural backgrounds with most teachers having taught more than seven years.
Teaching teams meet weekly in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and with the Literacy and Numeracy Learning Specialists to plan lessons and to assess, monitor and review student progress. Programs operate across the school to extend students and to identify and address any learning concerns.
Lalor East Primary School implements the School Wide Positive Behaviours Program and is a Lead School for the Resilience Rights and Respectful Relationships Program.
Student voice and agency is valued at our school through our Junior School Council, Cyber Action Team and Gardening Leaders program. Students work in partnership with staff and members of the broader community on school improvement initiatives.
Specialist programs include physical education, visual arts and music. The language taught was Spanish, integrated through the music program for students in Prep to Year 6. A one-hour play based oral language program was implemented weekly for students in Prep to Year 2 as part of the literacy program. Classroom teachers delivered lessons in digital technologies and library. Cross-age student electives were implemented through weekly wellbeing clubs.
The school’s facilities consist of an administration building, Prep to Year 2 learning community (Azure building) and Years 3 to 6 learning community (Octane building). A multipurpose centre provides additional flexible learning spaces for physical education, music and class/whole school activities. It also contains a kitchen that delivers a breakfast program. The oral language centre supports play-based learning and language development. A separate relocatable is used by a provider for out of school hours care and houses a weekly playgroup run by an outside provider. Another building is used by a not-for-profit organisation focusing on helping young Australians overcome educational inequality caused by poverty.
The school had a strong commitment to the innovative use of Digital Technologies. In addition to banks of laptops available to support teaching and learning programs, there are banks of iPads and Chromebooks. Each teaching space is also fitted with a large digital display.
The school has worked hard to build strong connections with families and community organisations as it believes these relationships and opportunities help to improve educational expectations and support student engagement and achievement. Its strong partnerships with several agencies and organisations are integral to the school’s work to support students and their families.