Director of Students
Senior School Term in Review
VCE has well and truly started for our students. By now, our Year 11s have experienced their first SACs. With nerves of steel and practice SACs under their belt, the Year 11s have successfully completed their first areas of study for their subjects.
Our Year 12s have returned to their path of study, homework and assessment - with the added privilege of the Common Room and its coffee-making facilities.
To support our students, we have employed Monash Tutors. This is a free tutoring service for our VCE students. Our Tutors attend 3 days a week and private sessions can be booked via the 2021 Tutors Teams that all VCE students have access to.
Andrew Leap (2020) and Kristin Zhou (2019) are also running study-skills MasterClasses on Fridays. This program is designed to support students’ subject-specific study-skills. The VCE Teaching Team has also begun its MasterClasses.
The English Department delivered its session on analytical writing and the play ‘The Women of Troy’. The next session will be a CAS Calculator Skills session conducted by the Mathematics Department, in early Term 2.
Grace Terdich
Director of Students
Senior School
Student Services: Term in Review
To say that Term 1 has been busy would be an understatement. Term 1 was not only about the start of a new year and new subjects, it was also an opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with the rigours of school, both socially and academically. Indeed, students, staff and parents have negotiated the return to school with both courage and hope, realising a new sense of normality within the greater community.
Students Services strongly encourages all students to use this break to recharge themselves both physically and mentally, remembering Term 2 brings with it a new set of challenges; including, more advanced assessment tasks, the exam period and the approaching colder months. Use the holidays to catch up on any key learnings, read ahead to prepare for new units of work and ensure you have all the tools to for learning. These include a working laptop, textbooks, access to ICT learning platforms (Compass, One Note, Teams and Edrolo) and any other materials. Finally, make sure you have the complete, and correct, winter uniform, both academic and sports.
TUTOR LEARNING INITIATIVE
The Victorian State Government recently announced funding for all schools for the Tutor Learning Initiative (TLI). The TLI is designed for students to be able access literacy and numeracy tutors at school, and is aimed at those students whose academic progress was interrupted through remote learning in 2020.
South Oakleigh College has employed three tutors (Frank de la Rambelya – numeracy; Susan Petousis – literacy and numeracy; Tim Columbus – literacy) to work with students in small groups to improve their literacy and numeracy outcomes.
Students who are part of the initiative will be removed from class once a week to take part in a 60-minute tutoring session. The sessions will involve a maximum of five students, so as to provide maximum one-on-one time with the tutor. Every five weeks students will be reassessed, and may move out of the program if they achieve their goals.
In Term 2 we aim to include Year 7 and VCE Students in the program. If you have any questions about the program, please do not hesitate to contact me via email or on the school’s phone number:
Damien.Landini@education.vic.gov.au
03) 9579 2322
Damien Landini
Director of Students
Middle School
