Welcome to the 95th year of Box Hill High School!

I hope that all our families had a joyous time over the school break and found time to reconnect with family and friends – this is a time of the year where we are reminded about how important our relationships are.

Despite the weather being extremely hot at times in the school day, we are pleased to see students making a productive and positive start to the school year. I heard that there was almost 100% completion rate of holiday homework in most of our Year 12 classes which was good news!

Our new 253 Year 7 students have also been supported with common teacher strategies across all their classes to increase teacher-student relationships and to build their understanding of successful school routines. I encourage our Year 7 families to assist with helping students develop habits of quiet reading and class preparation each night for 20-30 minutes (homework is deliberately reduced in semester one for Year 7s as they acclimatise to high school classes and expectations). Year 7 lockers have also been relocated next to their homerooms.

The year has also started well due to the stability of our teaching staff and leadership teams across the school this year which makes a big difference to the running of the school. One of the changes to staff is the appointment of a new Business Manager, Polina, who will replace Mel this year. We wish Mel the best and thank her for her 2 ½ years at BHHS.

The new triple portables are in use and provide a very pleasant teaching and learning space. We are also planning on enhancing student gardens, seating areas and murals around the school this year to provide more ‘green’ areas for students. Some of the projects will be led by student groups including the VCE Vocational Major students and the Student Representative Committee (SRC).

There are always a high number of student events in Term 1 that makes the term fly by – Year 12 retreat, Year 7 camp, swimming carnival, school production rehearsals, lunchtime clubs carnival, Harmony Week, interschool sport, peer support, subject excursions, year level wellbeing programs (please see the handbook provided to parents from each sub-school in the welcome communications).

I thank parents for their patience with the rollout of the School Savings Bonus to school events, any delays with our new booklist and uniform providers – we have worked hard to address issues and ensure better service so hopefully all is well now.

I welcome feedback from parents, and you are welcome to email myself or relevant sub-school leaders if there is something of concern. Later this term I will also post a short survey to collect your feedback on some aspects of school life for your child.

Thank you to families who have already paid for the 2025 voluntary contributions –especially for curriculum and other curriculum contributions. These funds allow us to continue to provide valuable resources and programs in the school for students. We receive minimal equity funding due to our parent demographic so any contribution you can afford is appreciated!

Our school improvement goals for 2025 include a continued focus on literacy (especially writing skills) and numeracy improvement (especially for high ability Math students); explicit teaching of student goal setting; embedding the science of teaching and learning to enhance focused attention and memory; and ensuring a strong tiered approach to student wellbeing and engagement so all students are well supported for healthy development. Our goals are grounded in our school vision.

This year marks the 95th anniversary of Box Hill High School and we are so proud of the role our school has played in the community and in providing a high-quality public education. There will be some celebratory events in Term 3 to mark this milestone and showcase the school, including an art show, historical expo, jazz night social event, and a “1930s school” theme week for the students. Lots to look forward to!

The Science of Teaching and Learning

Some of the key work for teachers this year is the implementation of Victorian Curriculum 2.0 and the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model (VTML) 2.0. This involves reviewing what we are teaching in Y7-10 and reflecting on how new information is most effectively taught. 

As a previous VCE Psychology teacher, I am passionate about ensuring that we apply the science of memory and learning to teaching to optimise student learning. The revised VTLM (VTLM 2.0) is informed by contemporary evidence about the way students learn and the most effective teaching practices and approaches to achieve strong learning outcomes for students, including priority cohorts. It has explicit teaching at its core. An extract is illustrated below.

This year we started with a professional learning workshop for all teachers on the science of focussed attention facilitated by Dr. Craig Hassed from Monash University, who presented current research about the role of attention in wellbeing, social connection and, of course, learning. Later this term, we will continue to look at how this is applied in our lesson structures so that student attention is maximised throughout the lesson for deeper learning.