Year 12 Graduation events

As best as we can, the College endeavours to host the following Graduation events on Friday, 23 October. We apologise that an earlier communication presented these events as normal, however, the extension of the Phase 4 restrictions have forced us to restrict our options.

Breakfast for staff and students – commercially prepared and individually packaged. This will still occur at 8:00am in the Ludolph Court but will not be our usual cooked breakfast by the Class of 2021 newly elected leaders. Year 12 students need to complete their breakfast choice by Wednesday, 14 October.

Year 12 Farewell Assembly – to be held in the O’Reilly Centre, with a limit of 2 tickets available to parents and families of Year 12 students to accommodate the physical distancing requirements. This event will be live streamed through our College secure social media platforms.

A reminder that a COMPULSORY rehearsal for the Year 12 Farewell Assembly will be held on Thursday 15 October from 9:00am – 11:10am. ATAR students are required to attend until 3:20pm.

Graduation Mass in the evening will be followed by the Graduation Ceremony. These special events will also be held in the O’Reilly Centre and not St Joseph’s Church to maximise numbers permitted.

There will be a limit of 2 tickets maximum per family of each graduating student.

Tickets for both the Year 12 Farewell Assembly and Graduation Mass/Ceremony will close on Monday 12 October. A link has been sent to Year 12 Students.

Families may need to discuss allocation of tickets to both events.

Graduation supper – unfortunately due to the COVID-19 restrictions, we are unable to provide supper for families this year. The cost of packaging and serving the food under these conditions was too prohibitive.

Year 12 students and parents/carers are advised to download and save all reports and statements from SEQTA before access is ceased in December.

Information from the SCHOOL CURRICULUM & STANDARDS AUTHORITY (SCSA)

This year, the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority) will, for the first time, request that Year 12 students provide their mobile phone numbers via the student portal https://studentportal.scsa.wa.edu.au/ Please ensure this is completed as soon as possible.

On the main Authority website, the Curriculum and Assessment Advice – COVID-19 page at https://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/curriculum-assessment-covid-19/overview has been expanded to include information about the arrangements in place for ATAR course examinations 2020. This information provides advice about the measures the Authority is taking to administer and process the 2020 ATAR course and practical and written examinations in a COVID-19-safe way.

The information for students on the Curriculum and Assessment Advice – COVID-19 page has also been expanded to include information for students sitting course examinations. This includes examination day protocols and FAQs.

The Authority has contingency plans in place should a venue become unavailable due to a COVID-19-related reason. If this occurs, additional information will be made available through a COVID-19 notices page on the Authority website at:

https://scsa.wa.edu.au/curriculum-assessment-covid-19/overview.

Both the Parent and community website and Student website have also been updated.

The Student website:

https://student.scsa.wa.edu.au/ opens in new window now includes a general advice page for Year 12s. The page also links to the Curriculum and Assessment Advice – COVID-19 page for students.

The updates to the Parent and community website https://parent.scsa.wa.edu.au/ opens in new window provide additional information and advice to support Year 12s. The new information is collected under an additional tab: How can I help my Year 12? The focus of the initial update is on finishing Year 12 (all students) and completing the ATAR course examinations (ATAR students). Much of the information will be relevant to other groups of students. Further advice and tips for parents may be added to encompass more year groups and contexts.

My best wishes to those Year 12 students sitting examinations during the coming holiday break.

Uniform Reminders

Year 7-11 and all Year 12 ATAR students commence Term 4 in FULL SUMMER UNIFORM on Monday 12 October. Year 12 Vocational Pathway students are required to return on Thursday 15 October at 8:45am and will be dismissed at 11:10am after the assembly rehearsal.

Please check summer uniforms in advance, to ensure any items needing to be replaced are done so before school commences.

Uniform Shop holiday opening times are published at the end of the newsletter.

The Term 4 Family Calendar will be uploaded onto SEQTA at the end of Term 3.

Ms S Rainford

(Deputy Principal 7,8,11)

Student Feedback Drives Improvement

This semester St Norbert College has engaged in a trial of the Pivot Professional Learning platform in which students are surveyed by their teachers to provide input into what the student believes are the best parts of their classroom experience and to identify some areas that could be improved. The first survey cycle was recently completed with 25 teachers making use of the Pivot tool which resulted in a total of 2558 responses be across a wide number of classes. The results of these surveys have now been finalised with the students identifying the following areas of strength across their different classes:

This teacher is knowledgeable about the topics in this subject
This teacher is clear about the behaviour they expect from us
This teacher treats me with respect

Of course, it is important for us to also recognise areas of growth where we can take steps to improve the educational experience of our students. Three areas that the data indicated are that we need to look more closely at are:

This teacher helps me build my vocabulary
This class keeps my attention
This teacher pushes me to set challenging learning goals

This data reflects the experiences of all students and teachers involved in the process and has been deliberately de-identified. Teachers involved in the trial found the feedback generated by the survey to be both affirming and informative about areas they could target in their lessons. The second survey cycle will take place over Week 3 and Week 4 of Term Four.

Mr P Hawke

(Deputy Principal - Years 7,9,11)

Mathematics

Workshop for Term 4