Teaching and Learning Hub

Dear Parents and Carers,

As the end of Term One draws near, we can already look back at the exciting achievements our learning community has already achieved! Our Year 7 students have settled into secondary school life quickly this year; it is fantastic to see them walking around the school with confidence and to hear them talking about their classes and their learning experiences with such excitement. It is at this time of the term where many of our Year 7 to 10 students are about to begin their first Common Assessment Task (CAT) for each of their subjects, and most of our Year 11 and 12 students have completed the first School Assessed Coursework task (SAC) for each of their subjects. We wish all students all the best in completing these assessment tasks and we encourage all of our parents and careers to speak with your child/children about these tasks and to check Compass or email your child’s teachers for more information.

This term there have been a number of engaging learning events organised for our students, including Years 10, 11, and, 12 English and EAL students having the opportunity to watch a performance of one of their texts and participate in a workshop discussion with Eagle’s Nest Theatre Company, and our Year 12 Physics class taking a visit to Lunar Park to explore physics in action! There are more excursions and incursions coming up, so please keep an eye out for these via Compass.

On Wednesday, we held our first Student Led Conferences for the year with a fantastic number of parents and careers participating in the day and taking the opportunity to meet with teachers to discuss how their child is going so far this year as well as what parents and careers can do at home to support student learning. We did have some technical glitches with Teams during the late evening timeslots. If you were unable to get in contact with your any of your child’s teachers during this time, please send them an email via Compass to organise another time for a chat that suits you both. Moreover, our first Learning Habits Reports for the year have been published; we encourage you to have a look at this report for your child and have a discussion with them about their results.

Finally, we recently held our first Education Sub-Committee meeting for the year. It was fantastic to meet new members and to welcome back members from last year! These meetings allow us to get invaluable perspectives on student learning from our parents and careers. We would love for some more parents or careers to join us on this committee and share their voice in student learning. If you are interested in joining us, please call the front office on 8795 9400. 

During the recent meeting, two key points of discussion were the College’s Pedagogical (learning) Model and our homework policy. There was a fantastic discussion about the benefits of homework as well as the need for the College to provide more information to parents and carers about homework and studying and how long HPSC students should be spending each night completing homework and study. Please contact your child’s teacher for more information about homework for a specific subject, or please contact Mel Larcombe or Paul Broecker for more information about our homework (and study) policy.

Yours Sincerely,

Paul Broecker (Assistant Principal for Teaching and Learning) and Mel Larcombe (Leading Teacher for Curriculum & Pedagogy and Assessment & Reporting)

Homework and Study at HPSC:

Homework supports student learning and wellbeing by: 

• providing opportunities for students to review, revise and reinforce newly acquired skills
• providing opportunities for students to apply new knowledge
• providing opportunities for students to prepare for future lessons
• encouraging students to enrich or extend knowledge individually, collectively and imaginatively
• fostering good lifelong learning and study habits
• supporting learning partnerships with parents/carers.
• HPSC’s full Homework Policy is available on the College website.

Recommended Hours of Homework each day: