Teaching and Learning

Term 1 Curriculum Day - Adaptive and Responsive  Toolbox

On Friday 6th March, the Teaching & Learning Team ran our second curriculum day for the year, extending the work commenced in 2025 regarding implementation of the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model (VTLM 2.0). The curriculum day was focused on providing targeted and context specific professional learning to all teaching staff on strategies to support adaptive and responsive teaching practices within all classes. 

This was delivered through an engaging and interactive presentation by Aimee Underwood, Elise Garro and Luke Duskovic and included the launch of Homestead's Adaptive and Responsive Toolbox (see image to the right). The Toolbox provides staff with ‘grab and go’ strategies that can be used to support responsive teaching practices each and every day, to support all learners at their point of need within each lesson. 

Following the presentation of the new information, teaching staff spent the remainder of the day working in PLC Domains to adapt existing lessons and develop new ones, with a focus on including various strategies from the Toolbox. 

Aimee Underwood

Leading Teacher - Teaching and Learning

Parent / Student / Teacher Conferences

Thank you to all parents, carers and students, who attended our Term 1 PST Conferences. It was great to see so many parents and students attending conferences with our teachers, further developing strong partnerships between home and school in these final years of secondary education. 

To ensure we continue to provide opportunities to our families to meet with our teachers, would love to hear from you, regarding what you like about the current PST Conferences format and what you might like to see more of. 

Please complete this short survey, allowing us to ensure we contunue to offer programs that meet the needs of our community!

Aimée Thorpe

Assistant Principal

Teaching, Learning and Student Outcomes

VCE Lecture Series - English Masterclasses

What are the VCE Lecture Series?

At Homestead we provide opportunities for our Year 12 students to participate in Lectures delivered by experts in their respective subject areas. These will be made available throughout the year as examinations approach. 

To ensure all students have access to the range of Lectures which will be made available across a range of subjects, Homestead is investing a significant amount of money to ensure all sessions are subsidised therefore reducing the financial burden on families. These lectures will differ from subject area to subject area but aim to prepare students for their assessments and examinations. Although we begin the series with VCE English, more information about specific subjects’ lectures will be released via compass throughout the year.

Tell me more about the English Masterclasses!

The Year 12 English Masterclasses are 3 separate workshop-style-lectures that will be run by the company Ticking Mind. 

The 3 Masterclasses will cover the 3 areas of the end of year VCAA examination (Section A, Section B and Section C) and will be presented in weeks that complement the current Areas of  Study in class. The dates are outlined in the flyer attached. Please note that these lectures cater specifically to VCE English (not English Language, Literature or EAL).

Homestead will be subsidising over 50% 

of the cost for the English Masterclass series, allowing students to pay a single fee of $15 to attend all 3 lectures over the course of the year.Payments will close on Thursday 23rd of April and can be made via Compass.

For more information speak to your Year 12 English Teacher or Elise Garro.

Elise Garro

Learning Specialist - Head of English

Pi Day - Monday 16th March

Homestead Senior Secondary College’s inaugural Pi Day celebrations were a fantastic success, with a strong turnout of students enjoying a range of mathematical challenges in the Library.

Students showed great interest in the estimation station, where they were challenged to approximate real-world round measurements such as the number of lollies in a jar, the volume of a basketball, and even the circumference of the Earth.

One of the highlights of the event was the perfect circle challenge, where students would face off in an attempt to draw a circle as accurately as possible by hand, with the best circle staying on.

The Pi recitation competition also drew plenty of attention, with students competing to recall as many digits of π as possible. We had some students go over 60 digits, an incredible effort and commitment to memory.

Overall, the event was a wonderful celebration of mathematics, with students demonstrating curiosity, collaboration, and a genuine enjoyment of problem-solving.

We look forward to building on this again next year!

Luke Duskovic

Learning Specialist - Head of Mathematics

VCE VM Term 1 Training and Certification

Year 11 VCE VM 

Students across both Year 11 V

CE VM classes completed their White Card training over the past few weeks. In doing so, they have become capable of providing essential safety knowledge for the Australian construction industry, focusing on hazard identification, risk control, WHS legal requirements, and emergency procedures.

Year 12 VCE VM 

The Year 12 VCE VM students had the opportunity to undertake learning in Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) and Food Handlers certification. The students focused on legal alcohol service and intoxication management, while Food Handler training helped to ensure safe food preparation, storage and hygiene practices. Both these certifications, boost employability in local cafes and restaurants for our VCE VM students.

These are fantastic additions to the VCE VM certification process that allows our students to have a wide variety of supports in place to further enhance their education and support their future pathways..

Well done to all the Year 11 and 12s VCE VM students!

Zalfa Dondas

VCE VM Domain Leader