Learning & Teaching
Semester 2 Assessment Schedule
The Semester 2 Assessment Schedule is now available for students and parents to access on Compass. This schedule lists when each common assessment task will take place for each subject, at each year level, by week.
To access the schedule, go to Compass and select 'School Documentation' under the people ico, then select the 'For Parent' tab and the 'Assessment Schedule' tab.
Once you open the spreadsheet you need to select the correct year level using the 'tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet' and use the 'scroll function on the bottom right' to locate each subject.
In most situations, we stick to the dates published in the timeline, however in some situations or extenuating circumstances, adjustments may be required. In these instances the students will be notified in advance.
Semester 1 Academic Awards Evening for Year 7-11
NEW Date - Monday Aug 7th
Invitations to Awards recipients have now been sent to parents of students who will be receiving one or more award. This year, we are recognising achievement in three categories:
-- Academic Excellence
-- Learning Growth (students in Year 8 to 10)
-- NAPLAN Achievement (students in Year 7 & 9)
Afternoon Tea - 5pm to 5:30pm (Orchard)
Prior to the Awards ceremony, all Awards recipients and their families are invited to enjoy an afternoon tea of light refreshments with our leadership team.
Afternoon tea will be followed by two Awards presentations in the College Theatre:
Year 7 & 8 Awards Presentation: 5:30-6:10pm
Year 9 to 12 Awards Presentation: 6:15-7:00 pm
Visits from Other Schools
Like every school in the state, Wantirna College is part of much larger education system that cannot operate or thrive in isolations. State schools like ours are always keen to reach out, visit, collaborate, and learn from each other schools to improve education for all our students. We regularly host teachers and leaders from other schools who are curious about our learning and teaching program, approaches to assessment and other high-quality programs we run at the school, such as our Inclusion program. Here is a sample of some recent and planned school visits:
Wellington College
Last Wednesday, nineteen members of the Wellington College leadership team visited Wantirna College to engage in learning walks as well as a presentation and Q&A session with some of the leadership team. They noticed our learning routines (highly visible posters illustrating the expectations of students) and they also commented on how open our staff and students are to leaders visiting the classrooms - like it’s a normal part of our practice. Thank you to the teachers and students who hosted our visitors - it's a very authentic way for others to learn about the culture of a school and observe learning and teaching in action.
Alkira College
Kevin Murphy will be hosting a presentation and Q&A session about our journey with Developmental Assessment over the last few years. Our work with Developmental Rubrics, our approach to providing feedback to students through rubrics in an ongoing way, and the development of a platform like Maestro to reflect student learning growth, are all unique aspects of the College. While we still have much to improve and work on in the implementation of Developmental Assessment, its pleasing to know that we are on the right track and that other schools can learn from our successes and challenges.
Disability Inclusion Presentation
Our outstanding Inclusion program is continuing to expand and improve under Kylie Rackham's excellent leadership. The state disability inclusion reforms have completely changed the way schools are funded for students with disabilities. The new processes are technical, time consuming and difficult to navigate, however, the Inclusion Team have had good success in our funding applications. Any new resources are used to support students in the classroom, as well as in intervention programs for literacy & numeracy, executive function and social emotional development. We have recently hired two Allied Health professionals to support our students with counselling, small group work, and life skills development.
Kylie and the team often receive requests from other schools for advice and site visits to learn more about our processes and the learning programs we offer. In fact, next Friday, Kylie and the team are hosting a visit with leaders from eight other secondary schools and Departmental staff who are keen to learn more about what we do here at the college.
Natalie Manser
Assistant Principal
mar@wantirnacollege.vic.gov.au