Another term has flown by and somehow we find ourselves halfway through the year! We kicked off this term with a busy couple of weeks, opening the doors of our school to the wider community on open night. The chance for us to meet and share our experiences with prospective students and their families was a proud moment for us all, as it gave us time to reflect on how truly great our school really is and the memories we’ve made here. With only a few hours rest, we were once again representing Warrnambool College, this time at each of the local ANZAC day services to commemorate the centenary of the First World War. The solemnity of the dawn service is always a surreal experience, and we are very grateful to the Warrnambool RSL for inviting us to partake in such a significant ceremony.
Alongside this, we have been working towards our long term SMART goal for the year. Our focus so far has been collecting quantitative data from year 10s regarding their experience in the PhoenIX program in the previous year. This input from students has proved valuable to us in our attempt to understand their thoughts and feelings regarding their expectations and experiences of the program, and their valuable feedback will help us to shape the actions we take going forward and help to form the basis for our interview process in the final weeks of term.
These interviews will consist of small groups of year 9 students, with the intention being to collect qualitative data that reflects the opinions of the students of the school in greater detail. With this data in mind, we plan to find ways in which the PhoenIX program in year 9 can be improved or redesigned in order to increase the engagement and enjoyment of students and teachers alike. At the beginning of next term, further interviews will be conducted with current year 10 students completing a VCE subject in order to gauge how well PhoenIX has prepared these students in terms of study techniques useful for VCE and beyond. We understand that all students learn differently and have their prefered study techniques, however as year 12s, we question how well younger students are being prepared for the coming years of learning, with a focus on building their confidence with studying and lowering their levels of anxiety regarding assessments.
We plan to present our findings to PhoenIX teachers and other teaching staff during term 3 so that they can personally reflect on ways that the school can be further improved as well as understand how students are feeling in regards to their future at Warrnambool College.
Have a safe and happy holidays!