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From the Deputy Principal

Published 20/05/2022 · Academic

Term Two has begun with the juggling of a raft of testing across the College, with NAPLAN in Years 3, 5, 7 and  9 and the Externally Set Task for the Year 12 General students. I would like to extend my appreciation to both staff and students for their flexibility and resilience during these weeks, as they have been working around the challenges of Covid isolation periods, catch up sessions plus maintaining their regular classes. For our NAPLAN students each year I remind them that this is only a snapshot of their abilities and talents in a small number of areas, these do not measure the creative, sporting, spiritual and relational gifts that you possess.  We see the incredible amount of work that goes into each lesson you attend and the tasks completed in the classroom throughout the years, we value the progress that your teachers and parents see each day. We will use the results in our planning and tracking of overall progress across time, to affirm the quality of teaching and learning we see each day. To our General students, we are looking forward to seeing your results, as we know you have been working hard this past term and a half, to continue to demonstrate your potential.

Our Year 10 – 12 students are all moving towards our examination week (and our School of Distance Education students the week prior).  Teachers are available to assist students not only during class but have availed themselves to be able to assist at various times during the day, please do encourage your student(s) to take advantage of the times offered.  Some simple hints for the weeks ahead

  1. Start revision early
  2. Prepare your revision notes ahead of time
  3. Develop a study schedule to be balanced
  4. Find a ‘study buddy’ someone that will keep you motivated and focussed
  5. Find a good place to study without distractions
  6. Maintain time for yourself during the examination period – this includes eating a healthy diet and getting plenty of sleep
  7. Ask your teachers questions well before the exam
  8. Use a variety of study techniques
  9. Minimise mobile phone and social media time – it’s a great time to have a break from such distractions
  10. Learn from your success this past semester and the challenges you are faced with

I also wish our certification students and Flexitrack High students all the best, as they are involved in some intensive study days during these weeks.

The planning for the upcoming Subject Selection process for Year 11 2023 is well underway and in the coming weeks Year, 10 teachers will be speaking with students re: offerings and entry requirements.  As noted in the College Calendar our evening is scheduled for the 29th of June (Wednesday) and will be via TEAMs again this year.  We decided to continue this format due to the importance of the content and the unfortunate possibility that we will have families unable to attend face to face in a few weeks’ time. Our feedback from the past years has been very positive and the format well received.

I would also like to extend my huge thank you to our Parent Forum for their generous donation to the Lexile Reading programme at the College, across 2021/2022 over 500 books have been able to be purchased for students in both the Primary and Secondary to access.  It has been amazing to keep building our collection!

Remember ‘Learn continually – there’s always ‘one more thing’ to learn’’ (Steve Jobs)

 

Janine Walsh

Deputy Principal

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