Senior School

Year 10

The year 10's have had a great start to term 2. After an exhausting 11 week term, we have been very impressed with our students' resilience and their ability to stay focused after their longest stint of "on-site" learning since Covid-19 begun.

Sana Kohdadadi (10B) - Successfully applied for Work experience with Victoria Police @ Sunshine Prosecutions

In week 2, Sana completed a work experience with the Victoria Police. As part of this process Sana had to complete a rigorous induction program. In this program experienced and learnt about how fingerprints are taken and recorded, as well as how Victoria Police conduct various checks. During the week Sana worked closely with a Senior Constable in the Sunshine Prosecutions division. She was able to observe and learn about the court and prosecutions process during the week. Sana is interested in becoming a Police officer in the future, and this was a great experience to see the day to day work of someone at Victoria Police. On behalf of Sana, Senior School and Edgars Creek would like to thank Victoria Police for the opportunity and the time taken to mentor Sana during the week.

As further and unique work experiences become available Senior School and the Careers and Pathways Teacher, Liam Ward will inform students via home group and the Year 10 Google noticeboard.

Year 11

Darren Pereira - Study and motivational speaker

On 19th of May, the VCE students participated in a motivational speaker session focusing on study skills run by Darren Pereira. Through the combination of relatable stories, jokes and music from a real DJ! Darren taught the VCE students about how to get the best out of their studies with exams fast approaching. Darren also shared tips and tricks that are backed by Science that the VCE students can use to increase their motivation.

Well done to the Year 11 VCE students, who displayed all the school values during the session. It was also pleasing to hear about all the positive tips that the students took with them from the session.

Year 11 Progress Reports

In Term 2, the College will introduce an additional Progress Report format specifically for Year 11 students who are undertaking a course in VCE or VCAL and those year 10 students who are undertaking a single VCE subject.

The new Senior School Progress Report format for VCE and VCAL is being introduced to enable the reports to be strongly aligned to VCAA requirements and introduces terminology such as Learning Outcomes. This ensures we are meeting our obligations to inform students and parents of the student’s current progress across all outcomes. Teachers will be able to specifically report against a student’s progress towards achieving a Satisfactory (S) for the Learning Outcome or options to flag the student maybe at risk of receiving a Non-Satisfactory Result of (N) against one or more learning outcomes in a Unit.

The Term 2 Year 11 Progress Reports are based on the college’s New Year 11 Table of Student Performance Indicators, (Term 2, 2022) which is displayed below.

The Table is designed to ensure staff can make consistent professional judgements regarding student behaviour, learning growth and the progress towards achieving the applicable Victorian Curriculum Standard. The new Year 11 Reports are designed to provide parents with a snapshot of their child’s progress against 5 report items, these items are alignment to the school’s values, expectations, and routines such as the First 5 & Last 5. The reports will include class attendance and we have added a key to the Table of Indicators to provide Students & parents’ with a guide to the attendance expectations for year 11.

Reporting items

The headings for the report elements are as follows:

Tracking towards achieving (S) result for the Unit
Embrace learning
Organises class work
Complete homework and independent study
Follows expected classroom routines

Upcoming Events in Term 2:

Week 5: Pat Cronin foundation 'one punch' education session

Monday 23rd of May, the Year 10 cohort will participate in an educational session about the dangers of the 'coward punch' and physical violence. The presentation will be run by Ben O'Toole, and experienced educator and board member form the foundation.

Term 2 - Important Upcoming Dates

Whittlesea Career Expo

Year 10 & 11 students will have the opportunity to attend the upcoming Careers Expo which will be held on 9th June. This is an important opportunity for our student to engage with Universities, TAFE, Registered training providers (RTO's) industry & community organisations and employers. Further information will be released closer to the event.

Parents, Carers and students are encourage to attend the event together between 5.00 -7:30 pm to explore career and pathway options.

Year 10 & 11 Exams

The year 10 & 11 exams are an important part of the academic programs, as we prepare the students to undertake the VCAA exams at the end of year 12, in 2023. The Senior School team conducts the year 10 & 11 exams to replicate the exam format and exam conditions as part of our program to prepare the students with each round of exam becoming more similar to the ones the student will face at the end of year 12.

The year 11 exams will in held in the week beginning June 6 and will be run over 4 days from (7th June to 10th June), in the seventh week of term 2, which is also the final week of the VCE unit 1 subjects. The year 11 student then start the Unit 2 subjects on the week beginning the 14th June.

Year 10 student will undertake exams in the final week of term 2, with the exam being held in the week beginning the 20th June on the Thursday 23rd June - Friday 24th June with year 10 student sitting exam in all core subject areas..

Year 11 into year 12 Information Night

The college will be holding an important Information Night for all of our year 11 students regarding VCE & introduction of the new Vocational Major within the VCE to replace the existing VCAL program.

The Victorian Government has announced a new integrated senior secondary certificate that will bring together the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) and the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) to give students greater choice and flexibility to pursue their strengths and interests and develop the skills and capabilities needed to succeed in further education, work and life and our college is prepare for these changes that we wish to update you on.

The move to a single certificate will commence in 2023 with stage 1.

Stage 1: 2023

The first stage is the introduction of a new Vocational Major within the VCE commencing in 2023. This is a two-year vocational and applied learning program that will replace Senior and Intermediate VCAL and offer a program that enables successful transitions into apprenticeships, traineeships, further education and training, or directly into employment.

As part of preparing our year 11 students and parents for the changes we will hold an Information Evening on Wednesday 15 June and we will also be offering year 11 students and parents the opportunity to attend the school on Thursday 23 June to attend one on one student & parent meeting regarding course pathways for year 12, 2023 and to discuss how these changes may impact on student programs.

The college will also outline the opportunity for students to consider School-based apprenticeships and traineeships (SBATs) which allow senior high school students to commence an apprenticeship or traineeship while at school. School-based apprentices undertake the first stage of their apprenticeship training before the end of the VCE/VCAL year.

Other Important Senior School Dates

May 24, bookings for the Student Led Conferences will open
May 25, Year 11 Progress Reports will be published
June 1, Student Led Conferences
Mid July 2023 subject choices open for 2023 VCE year 12
August 26, Year 11 Formal (postponed from 2021)
October 21, Year 10 Formal

Community events/reminders