Principal's Report

Learning Walks

During week 3 of term teams of teachers and leaders conducted learning walks aimed at learning more about what is happening in classrooms and to gather feedback on the implementation of some of our improvement strategies. In total 33 classes were visited across all year levels and faculties. The information garnered is currently being used by the Leadership Team to reflect, adjust and inform our future decisions and actions. Some key learnings from these walks include: 

• An overwhelming majority of students were able to articulate what they were learning in class and what their next steps to progress their learning were and many able to identify a specific learning goal and explain how they would know they were successful. This was affirmation that our focus on rubrics and implementation of a new lesson framework, designed to help students know and understand their learning progress in each subject, is producing the outcomes we had anticipated. 
• It was interesting to note, that whilst students reported, in their forums in Term 1, that they valued the detail provided by teachers through the implementation of daily and weekly lesson plans, evidence of their engagement with them was limited. 
• In all classroom visits there was a mix of observable elements from our lesson framework, it was encouraging to see an increase in the range and frequency of collaborative activities to support students in their learning. 
• The overwhelming type of assessment taking place were formative in nature which has been an area of further improvement in recent years.   

Professional Learning Communities

Brentwood hosts the North Eastern Region Professional Learning Day for Government Secondary Schools across the region. 

Last Tuesday Brentwood hosted a full day of workshops and presentations delivered by our teachers and staff from the Department to a large audience of teachers and principals from more than twenty different schools across our region to learn more about and observe how our staff work collaboratively to identify and address identified ‘problems of practice’ through Professional Learning Communities. As a PLC Link School for the Department, Brentwood has had the opportunity to host and visit other schools to support them in developing their frameworks, structures and practices to support PLCs as a vehicle to build practice and improve student outcomes. This day was an opportunity to showcase and share our work with colleagues across the sector and was well received by those in attendance.

Attitude to School Survey   

Over the last week all students have been providing feedback on their experiences at school via the Department of Education and Training’s Attitude to School Survey in their Aspire classes. This survey is conducted annually across all government schools. At Brentwood we value student voice as a powerful means to improve student engagement, wellbeing and quality instruction. The data from this survey, the PIVOT survey run by each classroom teacher last term and the student forums that allow us to unpack this data support us to gain an understanding of our students’ perceptions and experiences and is used to plan programs and activities to improve your child’s schooling experience.  

Semester Changeover 

Please note that Semester One ends on Friday 9th June with a new timetable for Semester Two commencing the following Tuesday 13th June. Semester One reports will be available on Compass at 3pm on Friday 23rd June. 

The week of the King’s Birthday signals the end of Unit 3 for Year 12 students who will not have scheduled classes this week but engage with Masterclasses, Practice exams and the General Achievement Test in readiness for the end of the year exams. The GAT will be held on Thursday the 15th June and now has two tests with a lengthy break between the two. This test is incredibly important and is used by VCAA to determine final scores. We urge parents of students undertaking the GAT to ensure they arrive promptly for each test. 

Subject Selections 

The subject selection process for 2024 is about to start and will run for the next few weeks. Students will be asked to enter their selections via the Edval platform, they are encouraged to use their Morrisby report, job outlook quiz, conversations with teachers, subject guide and their career action plans to help inform their decisions. Students will receive their login links later this week which will enable them to enter their preferences on Edval. To further support your child in this process we encourage you in your conversations at home to guide your child to consider their interests, motivations, abilities, career aspirations, the syllabus requirements each subject particularly the learning activities and assessments used, the benefits of subject combinations and their commitments outside of school. Students seeking additional support are also encouraged to contact or visit the Pathways team in the new Senior Learning Centre.  

Sonja Ardley

Associate Principal