Assistant Principals' Updates

It has been a very disruptive last two years for our students (and staff) when it comes to onsite learning and it is worth examining some of the impact according to the Student Attitudes to School Survey initial results (not state-normed until Term 4) and our Year 7 and Year 9 NAPLAN results for 2021.

Student Attitudes to School Survey 2021 (preliminary results only)

This year there was an 89% student participation rate in the student survey.

It was pleasing to see some good results in the following areas of teaching and learning that connects to our school goals for school improvement. There was an increase in the percentage of students rating the following school areas as positive: 

• Effective teacher practice for cognitive development such as clear learning intentions for lessons, providing feedback on student learning, clear explanations, the use of challenging questions in class and teachers being well prepared for class. Stimulating Learning was rated positively, as was effective classroom management and teachers providing extra help when required.
• Teacher-student relations showed that there are ‘high expectations for success’ across the school and students agreed that teachers encourage all students to do their best. Student effort was also very high, with a high percentage of students paying attention to the work in class.
• Learner characteristics also showed that our focus on the Box Hill High School Learner behaviours of active participation, self-regulation and growth mindset are having a positive impact, for example 71% of students report ‘trying again when they don’t get something right the first time’.

There was a very low occurrence of bullying incidents reported overall (6%), however around 30% of students reported that they had been sent something online that made them feel uncomfortable. There was a strong feeling of safety at the school (77%) and most students believed that teachers treated them with respect. Emotional health and emotional regulation appeared also high for our students, as was their perception of their physical health (90% of students rating their health fair to excellent), and their social connections this year (77% rated their peer relationships as positive and 90% had good friends).

There are still some areas for improvement that we will continue to focus on as a school. School Connectedness has dipped somewhat, mainly for students in Years 9-10, although 73% of students reported that they liked Box Hill High School and were happy to be at this school – historically these results have been high compared to like schools. The factor ‘Teacher concern’ also continues to be lower than other measures with only about 50% of our students believing they can talk to their teachers about their wellbeing concerns – which is maybe normal for teenagers who might prefer to discuss wellbeing concerns with their peers than with adults. 

We would also like to focus our efforts also on continuing to build student voice and agency across the school, and to develop the ability in our students to set their own learning goals.

NAPLAN 2021

Our school NAPLAN results compared to state results have been very strong again this year for both Year 7 and Year 9 and across each of the writing, reading, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy outcomes.

We achieved excellent achievement results in both year levels, especially for the Numeracy overall achievement outcomes.

Year 7 SCHOOL MEAN COMPARED TO STATE MEAN

Year 9 SCHOOL MEAN COMPARED TO STATE MEAN

Our goal as a school is to improve the learning growth of every child, so Relative Growth measures are more valued as an indication for how we are going as a school when it comes to standardized testing like NAPLAN, especially the relative growth of Year 7-Year 9. This year as part of our Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) we had a whole-school focus on writing.  We were very pleased to see such a high percentage of our students achieve high growth in Writing (Year 7-9) this year.

Summary of Relative Growth Writing (Year 7-9)

Summary of Relative Growth Reading (Year 7-9)

Summary of Relative Growth Numeracy (Year 7-9)