Welcome to the New School Year
Happy New Year and welcome to the 2025 school year. Everyone at Lord Howe Island Central School hopes you’ve had an excellent break and are excited to be back at school for what promises to be a wonderful year.
Sarah and I felt privileged to be able to spend the entire break on Lord Howe Island, with family visitors along for the ride, enjoying this relaxing and wonderful environment. We even got some great family pics from Chelsea to celebrate a memorable festive season! We feel refreshed and ready to go!
This year, as a notable change, schools across NSW have four School Development Days to start the year instead of the traditional two, from Friday, 31st January, until Wednesday, 5th February, (inclusive). This means all students, including our new Kindies, start on Thursday, 6th February.
At LHISC, we are very much looking forward to working face-to-face with Speech Pathologist and accredited Sounds-Write trainer, Alison Perry, for the four days, upskilling and developing our teaching practice even further. All staff will be involved, which will bring consistency and collegiality across the whole team, a positive for all our students.
Staff Changes
As incredibly sad as we were to say goodbye to Ash, Neak, Dymi, Charlo, and Finn, we are excited to welcome two new faces to the team this year.
Firstly, we are excited to welcome Raven Bendersky as Ash’s very capable and experienced successor. Raven, who will be joined by his partner Julia, comes to us from Clovelly Public School and can’t wait to be part of the team. To help us get to know him, I asked Mr B, as he’s affectionately known, to write a brief introduction:
Hello Lord Howe Island community,
I am very excited to be stepping in as the new teacher at LHICS. It seems like a beautiful learning environment for the students with a supportive and talented staff.
I have most recently been an Assistant Principal and teacher at Clovelly Public School and prior to this have experience teaching in a variety of different inner Sydney schools, across multiple grades.
Growing up in Bellingen on the NSW mid north coast, I attended small schools myself and developed a strong love of nature and the outdoors. The LHI environment seems like a beautiful place to live, and we are excited to explore its natural richness. As well as academics, I love teaching creative arts, project-based learning and enjoy engaging in a variety of sports.
As we settle in, please introduce yourselves to us, as we will to you!
Warm regards and here’s to a great 2025 and beyond.
Raven (Mr B!) and Julia
Please join us in providing the usual warm Island welcome.
We also warmly welcome Sienna Toohey (who most of you already know) to the team as a School Learning Support Officer, positively supporting our teachers and students to achieve their best. Sen joins Kellie, Lisa, and Chelsea as a strong and vibrant support team to our teachers, students, and their families. Mrs Jones will continue to teach K-2, with Mr B teaching 3-6, ably supported Monday to Thursday by Mrs Tofaeono.
Bring on 2025!