Acting Principal's Semester 1 Update

How We're Progressing Towards Our 2026 School Improvement Goals

Heading into the Term 2 School Holidays

As we approach the Term 2 school holidays, it is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the many achievements, successes, and improvements that have taken place across Box Hill High School this semester.

Throughout the term, our dedicated staff have continued to focus on key initiatives that support student learning, wellbeing, and inclusion. We are proud of the progress being made and grateful for the ongoing partnership between students, staff, and families.

Supporting Student Learning

Building strong writing skills across all subjects

Developing effective writing skills remains a priority across the school. Teachers in all learning areas have continued to support students in strengthening their sentence-level writing skills. This important work will continue in Term 3 and will be further supported through professional learning for staff on our upcoming Curriculum Day.

Extending learning in Mathematics

Our Mathematics team has been developing engaging and challenging learning opportunities that strengthen students' problem-solving skills. Additional extension resources have also been created to provide further challenge and enrichment for students who are ready to take their learning to the next level.

Responsive teaching to support every learner

Teachers have continued to focus on regularly checking students' understanding throughout lessons. These practices help teachers identify misconceptions early, provide timely feedback, and adjust learning activities to better meet students' individual needs.

Developing positive learner behaviours

A key focus has been supporting students to develop the habits and behaviours that help them succeed both at school and beyond. This includes building self-regulation, fostering a growth mindset, and encouraging active participation in learning. By helping students reflect on their progress, persevere through challenges, and take ownership of their learning, we are supporting them to become confident and independent learners.

Together, these initiatives reflect our commitment to ensuring every student is supported, challenged, and given opportunities to thrive.

Staff Working Groups Driving School Improvement

Many staff members have generously volunteered their time to be part of working groups focused on important areas of school improvement.

AI Working Group

As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, our AI Working Group is exploring how these tools can support learning while keeping high-quality teaching and learning at the centre of decision-making.

The group's guiding question is:

"How do we keep pedagogically-centred decisions at the heart of learning, regardless of which tools exist?"

The team has identified four key focus areas:

• Developing student support materials, including additional practice questions, sample datasets, and opportunities for students to evaluate AI-generated responses.

• Supporting differentiation by adapting learning materials to provide appropriate challenge and support for all learners.

• Identifying learning tasks where AI can assist with non-assessed elements, allowing students to focus on demonstrating key skills and knowledge.

• Streamlining routine tasks while ensuring professional judgement, teacher expertise, and trust remain central to education.

Anti-Racism Working Group

The Anti-Racism Working Group has continued to support the implementation of the school's Anti-Racism Strategy. During Harmony Week (Term 1), we launched our strategy with student leaders through a presentation by a guest speaker from the Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY), helping to build awareness and understanding of racism and its impacts.

A student working group of approximately 20 students was formed this term to develop a video promoting the school's commitment to reducing and eliminating racism within our community. 

We have met regularly with students throughout Term 2 to support this project, which remains on track for launch in Term 3.

Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group

The Marrung Team have been putting in place steps in actioning BHHS Reconciliation Action Plan. We met this term with interested students to build our student representation in the team alongside staff members. One event they helped with was our Reconciliation Week activities and generated ideas for NAIDOC celebration in Term 3. 

Our Marrung Lead attended a DET Inner East forum with all school leads to discuss the new Marrung focus for education, based on the recent Victorian Treaty.

We have also worked with Curriculum Team to closely map and monitor the teaching of First Nations Perspectives across our curriculum. From this work we have set the priorities that in Term 3 we will work with Domain teams to audit the opportunities they had listed in Term 1 to improve the impact of this work and then in Term 4 provide Domain time to embed deeper units of understanding for First Nations Perspectives.

Year 9 IMPACT Program Development Team

We are excited to be introducing a new Year 9 subject in 2027: the IMPACT Program.

This innovative program will help students develop the skills and capabilities needed to flourish throughout their senior years and beyond, including:

• Critical thinking

• Creativity

• Communication

• Collaboration

• Citizenship

• Character development

Students will also strengthen important self-management and learning skills that support success in the VCE years. The working group is currently developing the curriculum and preparing for the introduction of this exciting new subject.

Connecting with Families in Term 2

Term 2 has provided many opportunities for families to engage with school life and connect with our community.

We were delighted to see strong participation in events including:

• The Cybersafety Evening

• GAPP Parent Information Evening

• Year 7 Night at the Museum

• Parent-Teacher Conferences

• Winter Concerts

These events help strengthen the partnership between home and school and provide valuable opportunities to celebrate learning together.

Parent Morning Tea

More than 40 parents and carers attended our Year 7–9 Parent Morning Tea and Information Session in Week 7.

The session provided an opportunity to connect with families and explore some of the key issues facing young people today. Parents and carers were able to ask questions and share ideas about supporting adolescents through these important years.

Topics included:

• Educating the whole teenager and our school improvement goals

• Understanding self-regulation and why it matters

• Supporting junior students to develop the skills needed for success at school and in life

• Helping students learn effectively in an age of generative AI

• Practical ways families can reinforce these skills at home

Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to such thoughtful and engaging discussions.

As we conclude Semester 1, we would like to thank our students, families, and staff for their ongoing support, enthusiasm, and commitment to our school community. 

We wish everyone a safe, restful, and enjoyable holiday break and look forward to another exciting semester of learning and growth in Term 3.