The HEPS 'Aim High' Newsletter

TLI and High Ability @HEPS

VHAP Masterclass 

As an adjunct to the VHAP program, students take part in a masterclass with other participating students from their local area. Masterclasses consolidate the new knowledge and relationships built through the virtual program, as well enable like minded students to work together, socialise and hopefully build new connections. 

 

Last Friday, our term 1 and 2 VHAP students joined others from Great Ryrie P.S. and Croydon Hills P.S. for our combined VHAP Masterclass. These days are wonderful opportunities for students to collaborate with peers from different schools. Students either participated in the Literacy lessons (facilitated by Mr Mulder) or the Numeracy lessons run by Miss Steer (Great Ryrie). Students in the English sessions deconstructed and analysed a page of a novel and then had to create the pre or post story. The Numeracy sessions provided opportunities for students to collaborate via a 'Mathematical Escape Room' experience and problem solve their way out, as well as tackle open ended problems that had them really thinking  about Maths. 

 

 

What is VHAP?

The Victorian High-Ability Program (VHAP) enables high-ability students in Years 5-8, at all Victorian State Schools, to be challenged and extended in a supportive environment. VHAP consists of ten week online courses in Mathematics and English for both primary and secondary levels. Students engage in synchronous Webex classes with their online teachers. They can also engage with the course material on VSV Online outside of class time. 

 

Each Thursday, we have students from Level 5 and 6 participate in VHAP through the Virtual School and have their online session. All government school students in Years 5 – 8 (inclusive) are eligible to be selected by Student Excellence in the Department of Education to participate in the Victorian High-Ability Program. Each course runs for ten weeks each term with nine synchronous lessons and one asynchronous lesson.

ICAS Assessments

For those who may have missed this information about ICAS, we have included this again for you. 

 

Please note - The last day for parents to register for their child’s ICAS participation via your school’s PPS is the 28th July. 

 

What is ICAS?  

ICAS is an online academic competition that gives students the opportunity to challenge their higher order thinking and problem-solving skills in English and Mathematics. ICAS will be offered to students in Levels 3, 4, 5 and 6 at HEPS. 

  

Every student who participates is celebrated and recognised with a printed certificate in each subject area, and an online results report to track development each year. Top performers are eligible for one of the highly coveted ICAS medals. 

  

To learn more about this year’s exciting ICAS competition, visit:  (icasassessments.com/products-icas/)

    

How to participate in ICAS  

If you wish for your child to participate in ICAS this year, please:  

  1. Read about ICAS subjects and prices here
  2. Read the Privacy Collection Statement below.
  3. Read the terms and conditions here
  4. Go to the Parent Portal to sign up to chosen subject areas here
  5. Enter our school’s access code – VJP382
  6. Enter your child’s details, select the subject areas your child would like to participate in, then proceed to payment.  

 

Please note that the ICAS subject areas shown for selection are at the school’s discretion. After payment is made via the Parent Payment System, you will receive an order confirmation email, please keep this for your records.  

 

The dates offered for the tests are the dates that will be followed. There will not be any follow up dates and/or plans to accommodate catch up tests. Please consider this as you sign up especially if you have travel plans etc. 

  

ICAS results and certificates

All assessments will be conducted online, at school. We will notify you of the date(s) that we will run ICAS assessments, and when your child’s ICAS results are ready. Your child’s ICAS certificates will be delivered to school. Once we have received them, we will present them to your child to bring home. The back of the certificate will show your child’s ICAS results and the login details, “TAP ID and Pin”. - Use these to enter the Results Portal (orti.icasassessments.com/ortiStudent). Privacy collection statement The following information is aprivacy notification about how your child’s data is kept private and secure.

 

ICAS Assessment is owned by Janison Solutions Pty Ltd (We, Us, Our).To deliver assessment products, Janison will require your child’s School to obtain your consent to provide Janison with certain personal information of students. Janison will collect, store, use, disclose and otherwise deal with such personal information in accordance with its privacy policy (below). We are aware of our responsibility to protect personal information related to children and students from being disclosed when we deliver an ICAS Assessments product. Unless you, as the child’s legal guardian consents, we will not:

  • collect any personal information or data of children other than the information we need for the successful completion of an assessment, test, or exam. 
  • transfer any personal information we obtain from a child in the delivery of assessments and tests to any jurisdiction outside of Australia. 
  • share any personal information relating to children with any third parties (except for those third parties necessary for us to carry out our Services or provide our Products e.g., medal engraving). 
  • use any personal information or data relating to children for marketing purposes. 

You can view our full privacy policy at https://www.janison.com/privacy-policy/. 

We may retain personal information and data relevant to a child for their future purposes or for research purposes by Janison for the duration of the school life cycle of the child. However, if you or your child at any time wish to have their personal information or data removed from our systems, they or you may opt out by simply contacting our Privacy Officer at privacy@janison.com or by contacting icasassessments@janison.com.

 

We are excited to be offering ICAS to our students this year and look forward to celebrating their achievements. 

 

Please do not hesitate to contact Mr Mulder, our High Ability Practice Leader, if you have any questions.