Senior School Report

We are now approaching the conclusion of what has been a very busy and eventful Term 3!
On Monday 31stAugust, our Year 11 and 12 Assemblies featured presentations from our SRC students about the upcoming “Are you OK” Day, raising awareness of mental health issues and the support structures that are available to help. Our students are committed to raising awareness about how these health issues affect our community. Our Year 11 SRC made a presentation about the Year 12 Jackets for 2016, which displayed their excellent organisational skills and their commitment to taking care of their cohort. Our Year 12 Assembly featured a presentation from our Pathways team about the Preselection Programs for Universities that we support, and about the Scholarship opportunities for our students.
Year 12 VCE Progress Reports were made available to parents in Week 7 this Term via the SAMs Portal, so that parents, students and teachers could take stock of how students were progressing. These reports were then followed up with our Parent Teacher Interviews on Tuesday 1st September.1 This session was very well attended and it is always a valuable meeting time for the parents to discuss their concerns with us. It was also a great opportunity to build on the positives, and such a pleasant experience when there was so much good work on which to comment.
Enrichment programs for Year 12 students have been running in English, Accounting, Business Management, Maths Methods, Specialist Mathematics, and History of Revolutions.
For our Year 11 students, we have running tutoring sessions in the Library afterschool for English on Tuesdays and Psychology on Wednesdays.
Please be advised that there will be Practice Exams in all Year 12 classes during the September holidays. The full end-of-year VCAA exam timetable for Year 12 exams can be viewed on the VCAA website through the following link:
http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/vce/exams/timetable.aspx
On Tuesday 1st September, our senior school coordinators took eight Year 11 girls into the city offices of Norton Rose Fulbright – at the RACV Tower, 485 Bourke St Melbourne - for the third session of their “ABCN Focus Mentoring Program for girls”. The girls continued work on developing their ideas around the qualities of leadership. They are looking at different female leaders they admire from any field of endeavour such as sports, politics, academia, business, religion, community, family, science, medicine, volunteering, charity, IT, arts, music, literature or performance. Senior female executives from Norton Rose Fulbright are continuing to work with our girls as their mentors, and our students are documenting their progress in a learning which they write up throughout the program. Mentoring programs of this nature aim to build on the principles of Positive Psychology. “Positive Psychology” is the work of world leading psychologist and expert adviser on wellbeing at the highest level of international public policy, Professor Martin Seligman. Seligman believes that happiness is not the result of good genes or luck. It comes from focusing on personal strengths rather than weaknesses and working with them to improve all aspects of your life. We look forward to hearing the feedback from this group about their experiences over the coming weeks.
The STRETCH Study Skill Program for Year 11 students in continuing throughout Tern 3. STRETCH provides support with Study Skills Exam Preparation and Time Management for students who might be struggling. Other interested students are also to attend if they wish to.
Many thanks to the parents who contact us when their child is absent for any reason. This is of great assistance to the Year Level Coordinators, as we will call home regularly if there are any unexplained absences for your child. The Case Management process continues to monitor closely the attendance, achievement and individual needs of all our students. Please contact us on 9366. 2555 if you have any queries or concerns about the progress of your child.