The Score

Principal's Report           

Welcome to Term 3

Welcome to term three. I trust that you enjoyed some time with your children at home during the break or had an opportunity to go away. Students have returned refreshed and ready to learn. Term three is an important term as we not only continue to extend our students knowledge and skills, we are also preparing our senior students for their final assessments for the year and planning programs for 2024. 

 

NAPLAN 

Naplan results have started to be released with the data for students to be sent out to parents/guardians next week. Once again our results are a stand out when comparing our   results  to similar schools and compared to our network.  I was very proud on behalf of our community to to receive congratulatory messages from senior department leaders on Wednesday and whilst a full analysis of all data is still taking place and the comparison to all schools in the state is yet to be received, I am able to share three key successes already published : 

  1. Numeracy - 74% of Scoresby Secondary College's Year 9 students were recorded as strong or exceeding proficiency levels
  2. Reading - 81% of Scoresby Secondary College's Year 9  students were recorded as strong or exceeding proficiency levels.
  3. Writing - 0% of Scoresby Secondary Colleges Year 9 students were identified as not developing and requiring additional support.

We can continue to confidently say, your children have the best opportunity to experience learning growth at Scoresby Secondary College. 

 

Our strategic focus on use of a strong evidence based instructional model, student learning growth, teacher teams for English and mathematics and staff commitment to  collectively working on whole school literacy and numeracy improvement are some of the reasons for these results.  

 

International Students

 We have many International students joining our community for short term placements throughout Term 3 up to six weeks.  International short stay visits provide many benefits for students, particularly in developing student’s intercultural understanding within the school community, global awareness, and opportunities for making new overseas friendships.  We are currently seeking expressions of interest for home stay hosts for long term International students. Please contact Mr Mark Corrie,Assistant Principal overseeing our International Program for further information. 

Course Information Evenings 

On Tuesday 18 July the first of our 2024 Course Information Evenings was held for next year’s Year 11 and 12 students, parents, and guardians. An overview of the Victorian Senior Secondary Reform changes that commenced this year, 2024 course offerings and opportunities available for students to help them achieve their academic and career goals were provided. Next week, the students will meet with Ms Michelle De Boer (Head of Senior School) and Mrs Tanya Malloy (Careers Leader) to discuss their subject choices prior to submitting their final choices.  Thank you to everyone who attended, Ms Deboer who organised and led the evening and staff in attendance.

Next Tuesday 25 July at 6pm the Course Information Evenings for 2024 Year 9 and 10 students will be held. 

 

Amplify - Empowering our students through voice, agency and leadership

We are very proud of the recognition of our work leading student voice and student agency within and beyond the College this term.  So what does this mean?  We believe our students have a right to be heard beyond the role of student leadership programs. When students are provided the opportunity to have an opportunity to participate in the decisions made, there is greater ownership of the outcomes and increased engagement and learning.

 

The vibrant program that existed prior to lockdown was impacted by not having students on site, however, thanks to the leadership of Ms Kathleen Shirer, students are now reengaged in student leadership programs, classroom projects and having real opportunities to influence the decision makers. 

 

Here are some recent examples:

On Wednesday this week our student leaders participated in the Teach the Teacher Program conducted by Vic SRC.  The program which was successful in building student voice and agency prior to lockdown was impacted by two years of lockdown and therefore we felt now was a good time to reinvigorate the program and build the student leaders capacity to have their own voices and that of their fellow students heard. The Teach the Teacher program will support the students to drive a change at school by leading collaborative conversations with teachers, school leadership and staff.

 

Scoresby Secondary College was selected as one of two Victorian schools to engage with members from Crime Stoppers Victoria and Victorian Police to inform a new youth focused Crime Stoppers campaign.  Scoresby Secondary College was recommended to participate by Detective Superintendent Anthony Glenane from the State Intelligence Division who witnessed our students leading a very successful Police Youth Symposium a few years ago. 

 

Twenty students attended Police Headquarters in Docklands to play a vital role in representing youth in the development of a campaign. During the day students worked with the Crime Stoppers Marketing and Communications Team to develop a creative content strategy suitable for a four-week-long crime prevention campaign. Students generated ideas on the artwork and messaging that will inform the camp final campaign which is due to be launched in September.  

 

The Crime Community Engagement Team also worked with the students to seek student ideas for the development of an educational program to provide students and teachers with supported and informed material to have conversations around knife crime (with a view of deterring young adults from engaging in the behaviours and knowing what to do about reporting knife related incidents). Stella Smith CEO of Crime Stoppers complimented our students on their thinking, ideas, creativity and how well they engaged throughout the day.

 

Next week we look forward to our Year 8 Symposium at which students will be presenting a campaign won how we can ensure that Knox is safe community which thrives. The prompt that students were tasked to respond to in English was ‘How can we ensure that our people and our environment are safe, supported and have every opportunity to thrive?’

 

Mrs Gail Major

Principal