Vision for Teaching and Learning at St Mary MacKillop College - a statement that drives the development of a high performance learning culture at SMMC

At St Mary MacKillop College we have high expectations of our students as we equip them with the knowledge, skills and dispositions for lifelong learning. We pursue excellence through a teaching and learning environment that is inclusive, engaging and encourages growth. We value collaboration, innovation and building strong relationships.

Welcome back to Term 3! I hope everyone in our community had a relaxing and enjoyable holiday break. I trust the break provided an opportunity to spend quality time with family and friends, and to do activities that are not always possible to do during the busy term time.

It has been wonderful to see all of our students back at school, refreshed after the two week holiday break. Term 3 has started with an excursion for our Year 8 classes to Boort to visit the Yung Balug Artefacts Museum. This excursion was a great opportunity for our Year 8s to develop their understanding of Aboriginal history and the local environment. This week we also had students participate in the SSV Cross Country Championships in Melbourne, and rehearsals for this year’s musical production of Legally Blonde. The cast has been busy rehearsing for quite some time now, and I am sure this year’s production will be as amazing as it always is.

The start of a new term and semester provides an opportunity to reflect on our achievements throughout the first half of the year and to set goals moving forward. One way to do this is for parents and caregivers to review your child’s report with them and have a constructive conversation. Celebrate your child’s achievements from Semester 1, and then identify areas of improvement and set future learning goals. During TA interviews throughout the semester, students will have an opportunity to discuss the progress they are making toward achieving their goals.

On Wednesday 14 August, we have interviews for Year 11 and 12 students. Information on these interviews has been included in this newsletter.

I wish our students all the best for their studies in Semester 2.

2024 NAPLAN

Shortly an Individual Student Report (ISR) for each student who participated in NAPLAN in 2024 and Year 9 NAPLAN certificates of achievement for eligible students will be sent to families.

To assist parents and carers in understanding NAPLAN reporting, an information brochure for parents and carers is now available for download from the VCAA website. This brochure is available in multiple languages.

Home Study

It is timely at the start of a new semester to remind students of the expectations regarding home study. At St Mary MacKillop College we believe in developing and maintaining effective work habits from Year 7. Students from Years 7 to 12 will be given home study to complete.

We believe that home study provides the opportunity for students to be responsible for their learning. Home study complements and reinforces classroom learning; it fosters life-long learning, self-discipline, concentration, and effective study habits and routines. Home study should require a reasonable commitment, but it should not be too onerous. Students should plan their home study to take into account their family, sporting and work commitments. Students should remember that home study does not only involve completing work from that day’s lesson but also an opportunity for revision. In Years 7 -9, a home study may include regular English and Mathematics homework tasks, revising for assessment tasks, reading of newspapers, watching the news, physical skills training or assignments and project completion. Home study also includes the completion of formal reflection activities such as mind maps and a summary of the day’s learning. In Years 10 – 12 home study is determined more by the specific subject requirements. When students have not been assigned home study for a particular subject, they should still be revising and going over the content that has been presented to them during class. The time and frequency of home study are different for each year level. As a guide, the following table outlines the suggested length of time for home study from Year 7 to 12.

Year 7	an average of 2 hours of home study educational learning per week
Year 8	an average of 2.5 hours of home study educational learning per week
Year 9	an average of 3 hours of home study educational learning per week
Year 10	Monday – Thursday night, students should be completing a minimum of 45 minutes of home study.
Unit 1 & 2 VCE, VET & VCAL	a minimum of two hours home study, per week, for each subject that they study.
Unit 3 & 4 VCE	a minimum of three hours home study, per week, for each subject that they study.

A reminder that parents are advised to regularly log in to the Parent Access Module (PAM) and read the feedback provided on your child’s progress. Please be aware that at the start of the new semester there will not be much information uploaded within the first few weeks as teachers are currently in the process of organising and uploading content. Our staff use a variety of digital technologies to support the delivery of the curriculum. Students may be asked to access work or upload assessments to Google Classroom the Learning Areas on SIMON. You may like to ask your child to show you the work they are doing on these learning platforms.

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