Out of the Box

A busy and productive Semester 1 

by Ms Kellie Ind, Principal

As Term 2 draws to a close and the second semester subjects and Units 2 and 4 have already begun, it is time for the school leadership group (the Principal Team, the Learning Leaders, Sub-school Leaders, Wellbeing Leader, Disability Inclusion Leader, and the Learning Specialists) to reflect on the progress of our learning and wellbeing goals.

How we are tracking in our 2025 school improvement goals:

Student Engagement

  • Student attendance tracking in our sub schools has been working – our attendance rates are still strong, and we have strategies in place to support students experiencing challenges with attendance. We know that our parents and carers also play a big role in ensuring students know that every day counts so thank-you!

  • Weekly home groups also continue to enhance school communications and connectedness, and we take the feedback from students every term to strengthen these sessions for each year level.

  • There have also been multiple opportunities for students to build connection to the school and to explore their interests and strengths in Term 2 including camps, year level incursions and excursion, interschool sport, school production, athletics carnival, VCE expo, year 7 Night at the Museum Inquiry, year 9 ‘Night in Naarm’  Inquiry, Year 11 Strive Program, Year 8 RAISE mentoring program, I CAN mentoring program, music and vocal nights, Year 9 Morrisby, academic competitions, theme days, Year 7 peer support, and other events that build connection with students such as the Year 12 formal.

Student learning

  • Providing explicit time for students to set goals to improve their learner behaviours of active participation, self-regulation or growth mindset. This will be an increasing focus over the next couple of years.

  • Numeracy improvement – extending high ability students and pretesting to better cater for student ability. Our NAPLAN results in numeracy continue to be very strong with only a small percentage of students requiring additional support.

  • Writing improvement – establishing common strategies to explicitly teach complex sentence writing. Our 2025 NAPLAN data showed a big jump in the number of Year 9 students who have been ranked as exceeding and strong in writing compared to the state. These skills are being taught in every subject except for maths, and will lay a strong foundation for improving their exam results in later years.

Student wellbeing

  • We are continuing to embed a whole school tiered approach to student wellbeing and engagement that encompasses whole year level themes and events for all students to more targeted support for specific student cohorts and then for individual student case-management. Positive relationships and respect have been our ongoing mantra! 

Disability Inclusion

  • 2025 is the implementation year of the Disability Inclusion reform in all government schools in the Inner East, and the team led by Lucy Maxwell has undertaken a lot of work to ensure that all our students requiring adjustments in the classroom and across the school are being supported through student support meetings, Individual Education Plans, classroom support and professional learning for staff.

Please join us in celebrating 95 years of quality education next term!

Term 3 is going to be a term of celebrating our 95th anniversary. 

 

School pride is an important part of building a successful school community. When students, staff and families have pride in their school it gives them a sense of ownership which sets in motion a range of positive behaviours.

 

We need to celebrate the role that Box Hill High School has played in promoting quality public education and our important role in the Box Hill community.

 

Together we have created a great educational and social institution through shared values and high expectations over many years. 

 

There will be a historical expo and art show running in the first week of September and the school community is invited to come and visit the exhibition in the hall on Monday 1 September, Wednesday 3 September and Thursday 4 September.

 

“1930s School Day” –  a special theme day for all students and staff on Thursday 4 September.

 

Jazz Night – parents are invited to come along to enjoy a night of fun and fine music on Thursday 18 September in the school hall. More information later in the newsletter about tickets and silent auction.

Congratulations to some of our students who achieved in and outside school this term!

We are so proud of the amazing academic achievement of Cayden Tan, our 2024 DUX, who has received top honours with a Premier’s VCE Award for his outstanding VCE results in 2024.

 

Cayden received a Premier’s VCE Award for being a Top All-Round VCE High Achiever, and was also awarded the Premier’s VCE Award for Biology, Chemistry and General Mathematics. 

 

An outstanding result by a wonderful (and humble) student!!

 

PASCH Scholarship

Congratulations to Fatima A who has been awarded the PASCH Scholarship to go and study in Germany later in Term 3. We wish her all the best in this exciting opportunity!

Congratulations to Sakura T (Year 9) for securing a role in this year’s Victorian State School Spectacular core performing company in percussion (orchestra), along with the other students listed in the last newsletter.

Our School Belonging Policy

A sense of belonging and school connectedness is fundamental to students having success at school, and ensuring that our school is inclusive, safe and supportive underpins our work in student learning and wellbeing. Through consultation with staff and students, we have developed a school policy that I encourage our families to read over. Feedback is welcome as we endeavour to work towards the goal of making this diverse school a welcoming place for all our families. 

 

The Belonging Policy is available on our school website Policy page.

Staff changes 

We say goodbye to some staff this term who are leaving to pursue different opportunities and careers, and welcome some new staff into the school.

 

Staff leaving:

  • Luke Jenner (Politics and Humanities teacher)

  • Jenny Tran (EAL teacher and tutor)

  • Shelley Thacker (Numeracy Learning Specialist)

  • Jenny Muller (Careers team)

We welcome:

  • Jessica Sims (Junior School Admin Support)

  • Sara Spallas (Careers Admin Support)

  • Nicci Dempsey (Politics and Humanities teacher)

New suspension and expulsion powers for Principals

To Parents/Carers: Update on suspension and expulsion powers  

 

Our school is committed to providing a safe, respectful and inclusive environment for all students and staff. You may be aware of recent changes announced to suspension and expulsion powers that will be available to Victorian principals from day one of Term 3, (Monday 21 July 2025).  

 

We know that students’ behaviour outside of school, particularly online, can sometimes impact the safety of students and staff at school.  

 

In exceptional circumstances, principals of Victorian government schools will be able suspend or expel students for behaviour that occurs outside of school grounds and/or hours including online, if it poses a significant danger to the safety and wellbeing of students or staff.  

 

These powers apply only to serious incidents where there is a clear and close connection to the school and the behaviour of a student outside of school unreasonably impacts the safety and wellbeing of students or staff at school, and their ability to learn or work. Please note:  

  • They do not apply to behaviours unrelated to the school or school community.  

  • They only apply to behaviour which occurs from Monday 21 July 2025 onwards. 

Suspension and expulsion will remain measures of last resort – our primary approach continues to focus on proactive and positive behaviour support, including working with you to teach students the behaviours we expect of them, in school and in life.  

 

Thank you for your continued support as we work in partnership to educate and support our young people.