Teaching & Learning

It really is amazing how schools work. Throughout each term there are so many extra special days that enhance the educational experience of our students that it is sometimes difficult to fathom that they can all run so smoothly. This week we would like to pay a little bit of attention to the extra specials that we offer to celebrate and reflect on the achievements of our students, staff and the greater school community as a whole.

Secondary Spectacular

On Friday the 23rd of June our Secondary 7-8 team hosted their first ever evening Secondary Spectacular. It was our own version of High School Musical and it was an incredible evening to be part of.

Many of you know that our Secondary 7-8 team annually host a spectacular to support our students to develop some very important skills. Some of the things our students were working on during rehearsal practice were the social competencies, the overall getting along, teamwork, turn taking, waiting and tolerance skills are really tested in situations such as these. There are also the obvious academic links to speaking and listening and of course the performing arts content of dance, drama and music. Personally I find the evening so rewarding as our students are able to showcase their amazing talents and the sense of pride and achievement that they get from the experience is so obvious with the beaming students walking around the school for many weeks after the fact. It is of course an enormous undertaking by our staff who give up multiple hours to ensure that the students are able to really epitomize our school motto “to be the best I can be”. We pass on our many thanks to Helen, Karen and the whole Secondary 7-8 team for allowing our students such great success.

As you may know we always send a thinking tool home after the Spectacular to get some feedback about the event as we ensure that we are reflective in our practices. In the past these feedback sheets have been used to change the time of the event to allow greater audience participation. We have received multiple suggestions and will reflect on these during our preparations for 2018. If you did not get a chance to attend please have a look at the photos to give yourself an idea of the great success of the evening. 

 Secondary 9/10 Night of Celebration

An equally impressive evening was held at the Bundoora Campus in the Discovery Centre on the 2nd of August. During that evening the Secondary 9-10 team hosted a Night of Celebration. The Secondary 9-10 team have had some alterations to their content over the past few years as we strive to adapt our practice to suit the needs of all students and this evening was a great reflection of the change that has already occurred. Each class was able to showcase parts of the curriculum that they had worked on. Whether it was a project that had been developed during their STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, The Arts and Maths) time or a project that has come from their traditional programs, students were able to share and celebrate their successes. Once again our staff do go above and beyond to ensure the success of these evenings and we are very grateful for the time and energy that has been spent by Sam and the rest of the Secondary 9-10 team.

That is all from me today. I do look forward to our next installment where we can break down the learning that is taking place around the school in late August.

Kirrily Lamers

Assistant Principal