Andrew Chisholm

Assistant Principal

Dear Parents and Students,

The first five weeks at the start of Term 2 have certainly been dynamic and have allowed our students to participate in a wide range of activities and events. Last week saw probably the highest attendance ever recorded at a science exhibition evening with our year 10 students giving passionate coverages of aspects of the elective science subjects they are currently studying. Many prospective students and parents attended this evening, and it was lovely to get many messages complementing our students and their scientific explanations. Last week also saw a highly successfuland competitive athletics carnival. Special thanks to Sarah Adolph and her team for organising a great day with excellent weather.

Regional Exchange

Our 3-week regional exchange #1 finished last week and I would like to thank those in the JMSS community who home-stayed these students from 8 regional locations around Victoria and the JMSS students who mentored them. Access to quality education, especially in Maths and Science, has been really difficult for many in the bush due to the teacher shortages and other events eg. floods and it was interesting listening to these students talk about their experiences and the gratitude they had for those who enabled the opportunity to be at JMSS.

The second regional exchange starts on July 22nd for 3 weeks and we would really love other members of the JMSS community to homestay a student. More information about the second regional exchange can be found later in this newsletter.

Exams and the GAT

In 2024 JMSS is again running a traditional midyear exam period. Exams for Year 10’s and 11’s and Year 12 SACs start the day after the Kings Birthday public holiday on Tuesday June 11th and finish on Monday 17th June. The preliminary exam timetable is about to be released and all students will have briefings related to exam rules and protocols and also the opportunity to attend revision sessions prior to the exams starting. It is an art to effectively study for examsand often poor performance is not caused by lack of knowledge but by preparation and revision issues.

The GAT is sat by all students completing a VCE Unit 3 and 4 subject and this year is held on Tuesday June 18th. The GAT is a very important assessment as it is the only assessment that is completed by all students completing a VCEUnit 3 and 4 study across the state. This assessment is used as the basis for scaling and is also used to calculate Derived Exam Scores (DES) in Year 12 if for some reason a student has an issue eg. illness in the exam period. All past GATs are on the VCAA website with examiners reports.

Student Achievements

Congratulations to the following students:

•  Seojin Hwang who won the Open Girls Individual Medley at the State Schools Swimming Championships
•  Leonard Apale and Kai Cheung who were selected to be part of the Superband after their performances at the recent Generations in Jazz Competition held at Mt Gambier
•  The team of Joel Tan, Paul Shen, Jonathan Chen & Jill Xu who won the Victorian section of the InternationalMathematical Modelling competition and have now reached the National Final.

Finally, best wishes to the team representing JMSS at the Singapore International Maths Competition who fly out on the weekend.

Andrew Chisholm

Assistant Principal