Learning and Teaching News

Ms Jennifer Smeed and Mrs Roxanne Rosenberg

Term 1 Examinations

Congratulations to all students who have completed their Term 1 exams. For those who were away due to illness, catch-up exams were arranged for Monday. If you still have any outstanding assessment, please get in touch with your subject teachers.

Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews

Parent/Teacher/Student interviews take place on the first day back of Term 2. Boys are encouraged to attend these interviews. They must be in full school uniform.

 

These interviews provide a great opportunity to discuss your son's learning – progress and areas of improvement. An email with instructions on how to book these interviews was sent out to parents on Tuesday 14 March by Deputy Head of College, Mr Charles Brauer.

Accessing Student Results and Task-Specific Feedback

After each assessment task (assignment and exam), students results will be released to Student Café. Boys are encouraged to ensure they are checking student café for their results with task-specific feedback. These results and feedback can also be located on Parent Lounge. Please follow the steps below which highlight how to access your son’s results and feedback. 

 

1. Open Parent Portal and click on “Parent Lounge”

 

2. On the left-hand tab select “Curricular Activities Due” and select “view all activities” on the top right-hand side of page. 

This will take you to a screen that lists your son/s assessment to complete or has been completed.

 

3. Click on a subject to view feedback. 

 

4. Once you click on the subject you will be able to find the following information:

 

a. Task sheet for assessment – this will outline what your son needs to do to complete the task successfully

b. Draft due dates and due dates

c. Criteria sheet

d. Feedback

e. Result

Mood Food Presentation

On 19 April (Term 2), we will be holding a presentation on 'Mood Food' – how food affects Mental Health. As per the email sent out yesterday, this will be open to all our Year 9 and 10 parents. This presentation will provide our parents with information on how to fuel your teenagers with food that is beneficial for their mental health. Experts in the field of mental health and nutrition will be presenting on the night.

Marist Father-Son Reading Night

It is widely known that reading to your child from an early age helps them become and stay interested in reading throughout their life.  Research also shows that children who enjoy reading tend to do better in school and have more employment opportunities as adults.   It is also known that children become interested in reading by watching and copying their parents.

 

The national assessment program shows that boys are three to five times more likely than girls to have a reading or learning disability.  Experts agree that when it comes to engaging boys with books, the key is reading with dads, uncles, and grandfathers.

 

Next term, we will be holding our first Father-Son reading night at MCA. This night is open to all our Year 7 and 8 fathers/grandfathers/uncles/significant males and their sons. More information will be provided in the coming weeks, so please keep an eye on your emails and social media for updates.

Elevate Education Presentation

We're excited to announce that Elevate Education will be hosting a free webinar for our parents on Wednesday 29 March. Elevate Education works with our students, delivering high-impact workshops on study skills, motivation, wellbeing, and exam preparation. By tuning into their webinar series, you will learn how you can help better support your children at home through reinforcing the skills they learn at school:

 

Wednesday, 29 March

How to Help Improve Your Child's Memory

Click here to register for free

 

In this webinar, Elevate will be covering: 

✅ How memory actually works (and how it has nothing to do with brain capacity) 

✅ The most effective environments to assist in memorisation 

✅ 3 techniques you can implement overnight to improve revision

Year 12 English Masterclasses

On Monday afternoon, the senior English and Literature staff held an after-school Year 12 English tutorial. This provided valuable advice on preparing for the submission of one of the more challenging internal assessments. It was wonderful to see so many boys in attendance and keen to maximise this great opportunity. Thank you to our senior English staff – Mr Steve Littleton, Ms Kathryn Badini, Mrs Bonita Gerry, Mr Damian Nelson, Ms Mel Taylor, Mrs Lauren Newman, Mr Adam Knight, Mr Patrick Denkes, Dr Colleen Robertson, and Mrs Andrea Williams.

2023 Calendar

The College calendar provided to each family outlines the scheduled exam blocks across the year for students in Years 7-12. Please ensure you check these Exam Block dates before booking any holidays, as they are an essential and compulsory part of the learning process at the College. Leave is not granted to students during this time.