Principal's report

VCE Exams

The last of the written VCE exams concluded earlier this week. I congratulate all SPC students who completed these important external assessments over the last few weeks. For those in Year 11 who completed a 3-4 study in 2024, I hope that your efforts will produce a solid result as you prepare to take on Year 12 in 2025. For our Year 12 students, congratulations on completing all your written exams and therefore, reaching the milestone of completing your secondary schooling. 

It has been encouraging to hear from the students as they completed the exams, that they were generally happy and pleased with them.

As you will be aware from the significant media coverage, there have been issues related to the production of some of the 2024 VCE examinations. Earlier this week, schools across the State received correspondence from the VCAA about these issues and I share some of this with the College community, particularly our VCE students, parents and teachers: 

I’m writing to share information from the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority’s Interim Chief Executive Officer, following the errors with this year’s VCE exams:

The VCAA Executive unreservedly apologises for the impact these errors have had on students, families, school staff and the broader community. The VCAA acknowledges how hard students worked over many months to prepare for this time, and the additional disruption and impact these errors have had on you and your families.  

The following is the process we will now follow to ensure each student is marked fairly.

When the marking of each examination is complete, the VCAA will use statistical analyses and additional student data to identify whether there is evidence that any student has gained an unfair advantage over other students. This is called the Anomalous Grade Process

Following this process, if questions are identified as providing any student with an unfair advantage, appropriate adjustments to student marks will be made. This includes invalidating questions and awarding all students full marks for that question, if necessary.

Please be assured that if students have accessed the published material on the sample examination covers, this will not be considered a breach of the rules. 

The VCAA has published information including Q&As on their website, see: www.vcaa.vic.edu.au

If you have any questions or require additional support, please reach out to the College’s VCE Coordinator or Head of Senior School.

It is disappointing that this has impacted on the end of the year for our senior students. I trust that the VCAA will take every step to rectify the issues and ensure that no students are impacted by them, as they indicate in their correspondence above.

Valedictory Dinner

Congratulations to the Year 12 class of 2024 for completing their secondary schooling! It was a joy to be able to be with these young men, their parents, and many staff at the Valedictory Dinner on Thursday evening. It was a very happy occasion and I hope that all who were there enjoyed it. 

In my brief address at the dinner, I commented:To the Class of 2024, thank you for enriching this community with your energy, talents, generosity, humour and spirit.

As you step forward into the world, remember: it is your Character that will define you, your Compassion that will elevate you, and your commitment to Community that will sustain you.

Go forward with confidence, courage, and faith. Remember that wherever life takes you, you will always be part of the St Patrick’s College family.

The Lion King Jnr

I am very much looking forward to next week’s production of ‘Lion King Jnr’. An incredible amount of time and effort has gone into the rehearsals over the last few months for this production, and I am sure as a result of this, and the talent amongst the cast and crew, that it will be a great success. I have called into a few rehearsals and have been very impressed with what I have seen. If you haven’t already booked to see the show, I encourage you to do so. It is wonderful to see the performing arts thriving at the College!