Fairhills Forum

STEM

Monash University Holiday - Science Careers and courses

Two of our Year 11 students, Emily Le and Mey Manic, attended a STEM conference held at Monash University over the holidays. This was a great opportunity to be involved with the Science Department at Monash and learn more about the courses run, what they cover and how to get into them. The girls followed up on this opportunity which was posted on COMPASS.

Upcoming STEM Opportunities

The following opportunities are coming up. Interested students should see Mrs Nickels.

Girl Power in STEM

  • Camp for year 9 / 10 accelerated students at Melbourne Uni in July school holidays
  • Limited spaces available
  • Engineering and IT
  • Applications close Monday May 8

Big Day In – IT careers 

  • Year 9-12
  • June 6th
  • $10 entry
  • leading speakers from companies such as Microsoft, Westpac, IBM, WiseTech Global, Adobe, Autodesk, TCS, DXC Technology plus loads more to come
  • talking about the future of technology and how students can get involved in shaping the future.  Hear from cool industry speakers & visit exhibitor stands to learn about where a career in IT can take you – don't miss out, book your seats early!!

How to support your child's learning in STEM related subjects

Visit ABC Splash School Hacks for Parents on:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/abcsplash/videos/?ref=page_internal

Naplan

You may be aware that Fairhills High School was going to be a pilot school for the NAPLAN Online Testing in 2017. However, on 20th April 2017 the government announced the decision to defer NAPLAN Online until 2018, due to unresolved technical issues with the NAPLAN Online platform and supporting technology. As a result of this decision, all NAPLAN 2017 tests will be administered via pen and paper in Victoria in 2017. 

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) 2017 for Years 7, 9 and accelerated 10 students will be held on Tuesday 9th May, Wednesday 10th May and Thursday 11th May 2017. 

 

NAPLAN tests assess student knowledge and skills in Writing, Reading, Language Conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy. The results of the tests provide information for students, parents, teachers and principals which can be used to improve student achievement.

All students are expected to participate in the NAPLAN tests. 

 

Catch up tests will be available for individual students who are absent on test days on Friday 12th May 2017. Support can be arranged for students with disabilities, if the student regularly uses similar support for classroom assessment tasks.

 

Exemptions may be granted to students with significant intellectual disabilities and to students who have been learning English for less than one year. 

 

If your child is eligible for support due to disability or an exemption, you should discuss this with Mrs Nickels prior to the tests. Parental consent is required before any support due to disability or exemption is granted.

 

Students may be withdrawn from NAPLAN by their parent or carer. This is a matter for consideration by parents and carers in consultation with the principal. Please contact the principal if you are considering this. If, after consultation, you decide to withdraw your child, you must sign a Student Withdrawal form. These forms are available at the school.

 

Later in the year you will receive your child’s personal NAPLAN report. The report will describe your child’s particular skills in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy. The report will also show how your child performed in relation to national minimum standards. These describe the minimum acceptable standards for students across Australia.

 

I am confident that the information you receive as a result of your child’s participation in the NAPLAN tests will be valuable in helping you to assess your child’s progress in literacy and numeracy.

 

For more information about the tests, please visit the VCAA website at www.vcaa.vic.edu.au or the NAP website at www.nap.edu.au

 

Michelle Nickels

Director of Assessment and Reporting

In Science

On Friday 24th March, the Year 10 Applied Science class attended the Melbourne Grand Prix to learn how STEM is important in making this event happen.  Students were able to get up close and personal to many amazing cars and had the perfect weather to watch the high performance cars fight for top position in timings around the circuit.  The education centre included talks about how STEM was important for all the racing team members including engineers, mechanics, body specialists, electricians and many other technicians.

 

Our students reported back with many positives.  “A great day!”  “The cars were awesome!”  “The cars were so fast!”  “The cars were so loud” “I didn’t know aerodynamics was STEM”  “I didn’t know Science was so important to tyres”.  Despite the difficulties in getting a tram to the circuit, all the students remained hugely positive throughout the long walk around the track and the day.  I was also particularly proud of our students who quickly offered up their seats on packed trains to people who needed a seat, without prompting.  Thanks to the class for making me proud to teach at Fairhills High School.

Mrs Robyn Grunberg

Australian Video Game Challenge

Entries are now open. We have already had one student enter and if any others are interested they should visit the link posted on COMPASS and see Mrs Nickels. No previous coding is necessary. For any students interested in the Video Game Industry as a career, this is a great activity to participate in and is highly regarded on resumes. Students can enter individually or in a team. This years theme is: Reaction Time! www.stemgames.org.au

Kiosk Visits

At Fairhills, we are very fortunate to be able to run classes at KIOSC. All of our students in Years 7-10 have scheduled classes at KIOSC for Science and Humanities. In addition, many senior classes attend the facility to use the state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment.  The sessions at KIOSC form a valuable part of our curriculum and assessment. They are compulsory classes and not optional excursions. As such, it is important that students participate in these. Not doing so is likely to affect their learning and assessment outcome results. Photos below are from a Year 9 class studying Forensics.