News For Parents

Message from Assistant Principal | Senior School

It is pleasing to see that most of our Senior School students have commenced the year with positivity and enthusiasm, even with the “circuit breaker lockdown” thrown into the mix! Whilst I oversee the operations of the Senior Sub-School, I also oversee a number of other areas within the College. In this newsletter edition, I would like to provide some information on several initiatives that focus specifically upon improving student learning and teacher practice.

Learning Support – Tutor Learning Initiative (TLI)

The 2020 school year was an extraordinary and challenging one for every school community.  Many Victorian students spent much of Terms 2 and 3 learning remotely, and Victorian schools and their communities made an exceptional effort to provide continuity of teaching and learning to our students during this time. 

We know that the remote learning experience was different for every student. While some students thrived, some students may not have engaged as fully with remote learning. For most of our students, regular high-quality teaching in 2021 will be enough to help them progress to the expected level of learning. However, there will be some students who will benefit from additional intensive learning support in 2021. 

In response to this, the Victorian Government is investing $250 million in the Tutor Learning Initiative to enable schools across Victoria to engage around 4,100 teachers as tutors in 2021 to support students who need extra assistance with their learning. Schools will determine how this initiative is best implemented for their students and will ensure that students will get this support in a way that minimises disruptions to other learning or school activities. By engaging additional teachers to support children with intensive learning, classroom teachers will have greater capacity to ensure that all other students’ achievement, engagement and wellbeing needs are met, so that all students receive the support they need in 2021. 

Over the past few weeks, the TLI staff have met with a number of students across all year levels to develop “Individual Education Plans” (IEP) as a means of further supporting their learning in 2021. These Education plans will be used to support students learning journey via identifying goals and strategies which are made available to subject teachers as a means of providing further instructional support. Through reviewing a range of learning data, around twenty percent of students from each year level have been identified to receive targeted support by way of the Tutor Learning Initiative. Specifically, the focus is on students who experienced low learning growth across all ability levels in 2020 as indicated via the progress learning data.

If your child is identified for Tutor Learning Initiative, you will receive a letter from the college detailing the learning support being provided.

The TLI staff at WHSC include:

Nery Soto- Numeracy Learning Specialist
Felicity Graham-Prowse- Literacy Learning Specialist
CiCi Tan- Numeracy Tutor
Judith Riddoch- Numeracy Tutor
Ulkem Karakas –Literacy Tutor

The Tutor Learning Initiative (TLI) is distinct from the Middle Years Numeracy Support (MYLNS) which provides intensive literacy and numeracy teaching support to year 8 and 10 secondary students to help ensure they have the literacy and numeracy skills they need for future work or study.

As with the TLI, if your child is identified for the MYLNS program, you will receive a letter from the college explaining this further.

MYLNS Staff at WHSC include:

Nery Soto- Numeracy Learning Specialist
Felicity Graham-Prowse- Literacy Learning Specialist
Max Ellis – Numeracy Direct Support Teacher
Sarah Subity- Literacy Direct Support Teacher

If you have any questions regarding these programs, staff contact details will be provided in the letters that will be sent to relevant families.

Professional Learning Communities

This year, as was the case in 2020, staff are continuing to work in Professional Learning Communities, where groups of teachers work collaboratively at the school level to improve student outcomes. PLC’s are based on the simple idea that students learn more when their teachers work together. Implementing PLC’s is a proven way for schools to increase student learning by creating a culture that is: 

Focused on continuous improvement by linking the learning needs of students with the professional learning and practice of teachers.
Committed to professionalism.
Fueled by collaborative expertise.

In 2021, we have 15 PLC teams where staff have been grouped according to their teaching domain. During 2021, staff will undertake 2 inquiry cycles where they will work on improving an area of teaching practice to further support student learning and outcomes. PLC teams meet each week to review student data, discuss and share teaching strategies, and to provide feedback to each other based upon observational class room visits.

Ms. Judy Anderson | Assistant Principal

VCE Results | Class of 2020

We are proud of all of our Year 12 students in 2020. Transitioning between on-site and remote learning, whilst remaining motivated and committed to their studies, was a challenge for all of our students. Our Year 12 students were able to work through 2020 with a positive attitude using great determination and resilience; we are proud of their outstanding achievements and their ability to work through the toughest year in living memory.

We also congratulate our Year 12 Parents/Carers, Year 12 teachers and staff more broadly, on achieving outstanding VCE results in what was a very challenging year for everyone.

Please see below for some points relating to our 2020 Year 12 Results:

8.8% of students exceeded an ATAR of 90 (up from 4.3% 2019)
22% of students exceeded an ATAR of 80 (up from 8.7% 2019)
Our Median Study Score was 29 (up from 27 2019)
3.9% of study scores of 40 or over (up from 2.7% 2019)

We recognise and congratulate Annie Quach as our 2020 Dux. Annie achieved an impressive ATAR of 96.60. Well done, Annie!

English & Literacy Update | Term 1

Welcome To Year 7s!

This year has welcomed a new group of students to Wheelers Hill Secondary College, namely our Year 7s. They have adjusted well to the unfamiliarity of secondary education and have risen to the challenges already provided by 2021. Their ability to shift to remote learning in Week 4, with different online platforms from ones they were accustomed to during primary school, demonstrated their adaptability and resilience.

In addition, they have joined the Year 8s in embracing the Independent Reading Program, allowing them to read for twenty minutes a day in a designated period. For the past fortnight, it has been during Period 2. These students have remembered to bring along their chosen books and their reading logs in order to engage in reading during their Period 2 class. As of next week, it will change to Period 3 for the fortnight. I have been delighted to visit many classrooms around the College to observe these two year levels and their teachers enjoying this prioritised reading time. Congratulations to all the Year 7 and 8 students and teachers for making this initiative so successful.

As well as reading, the Year 7 ACE English class have been learning about the ‘Language that Inspires’. Nicholas H composed this ‘inspirational’ poem and we hope you find it inspires in you the same resilience that our Year 7s have shown this year:

The sun rose above the horizon 

And bought light upon the valley 

The day lit up with blooming flowers 

And rolling hills 

The people came out 

And began the harvest festival 

The celebration of life 

And everything living 

The day went on 

And the festival stopped 

Grey clouds rolled above the town 

And the rain tumbled down 

The people ran for shelter 

And the animals galloped away 

The rain brought the water 

The rivers flowed 

And the crops flourished 

The clouds rolled on past the valley 

The people emerged like a blooming flower 

The crops grew high 

And the light shone bright 

In keeping with this idea, all Year 7s have written letters to their primary schools to complete their transition to Wheelers Hill Secondary College. Vismaya R of 7 ACE has focused her letter around inspiring 2022’s Year 7s to embrace the next step in their journeys and all it has to offer:

Dear Year 6,

A new chapter of my life, has indeed been a strange experience, but that is the meaning of life. The fake myth of high school made me see high school in a way that made me think my back would pain everyday with books tightly clasping my back. But it turned out that my bag was never full of books and my head was never filled with homework.

As part of the ACE class, we have made escape rooms for ACE projects, and have classes that indulge me! We got lockers, we went to an awesome camp and started electing Home Group Captains.

When you have the chance think about this program, it is a privilege for many people!

We had camp in Alexandra Adventure Resort, it was the best camp ever! (Partly because that was the first camp I’ve been to :D!). I don’t want to give away too much but my favourite was the Giant Swing, where we were dropped from almost, what 40 meters?

However, you, my reader, must enjoy your last pages in your chapter. Laugh as loud as you can, play all the games your teacher hosts, and participate in varieties of competitions. Let your mind be full of memories enough to last for your life.

Good luck, or I must say lots of luck,

Vismaya R, 7ACE

VCE English

Lastly, I wanted to remind families of students in Year 12 that we are running lunchtime sessions on Thursdays in V01 for English. All Year 12 students are encouraged to attend. The next session is entitled ‘Finalising your Statement of Intention’. After this, the sessions will be focused around Comparative Argument Analysis. If you have any questions, please contact me at the College.

Ms. Felicity Graham-Prowse | Literacy Learning Specialist

Careers Update | Term 1

It has been a very busy start in Careers so far with several Career events being organised, such as:

Year 10 VCE & Careers Expo
Year 9 Morrisby Profiling Day
Year 10 Work Experience preparation
Year 10 incursion on ‘Careers in the field of Engineering’
Finalising student VET arrangements and School Based Apprenticeships
Commencement of one to one year 12 Career Counselling interviews

Please note that students in Years 9-12 will be receiving weekly Careers Newsletters via Team. I strongly encourage every student to actively read these so that they can be kept up to date with current Careers information. These newsletters will also be emailed to parents in these Year levels.

If you have any questions in relation to what is in the newsletters or simply need to ask a question about Careers in general, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Ms. Voula Jakubicki | Careers Coodinator

Parent Seminar | Elevate

Empowering parents to reinforce study skills at home. Our senior presenter shares Elevate's key research, skills, and answers questions so parents can help their children navigate their final years of school.

Elevate Parenting Seminar

When: Tuesday, March 23rd

Time: 6:00pm-7:00pm at Wheelers Hill Secondary College, in the Library

Registration: Click here to register.

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