Principal's Address

Dear Parents, Carers and Chevalier Community,

I trust wherever you are in the Highlands and beyond, you have had the chance to enjoy the recent wonderful late Autumn weather before the rain arrived this morning.

National Reconciliation Week

This week we mark National Reconciliation Week (NRW), during which we promote a just, equitable and reconciled Australia. The National Reconciliation Week theme for 2024, Now More Than Ever, is a reminder to all of us that no matter what, the fight for justice and the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will — and must — continue. To read more about what has taken place at the College this week to mark NRW, please see the Faith Formation and Mission section of this edition of Chev News.

Chevalier Board Strategy Day

Last Saturday, members of the Chevalier Board met for a Strategy Day. Chaired by an external facilitator, and with the College’s Mission as an MSC school regularly referenced throughout the day, there was in depth discussion and reflection about the Board’s vision for the College in the context of the evolving educational landscape. The day is the beginning point of work to be done by the Board over the next few months which will see a five-year strategy for the College that will guide its work and decision-making as our future facing initiatives continue to evolve over time.

To begin the day, the Board heard from Professor Sandra Milligan from the University of Melbourne. Professor Milligan presented emerging trends in education with specific references to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Economic Forum (WEF) and various Australian Tertiary Education groups. As part of that, Professor Milligan mentioned the work she leads which is about “matching not ranking” student capabilities to post school pathways, including logical matching to university courses.  

The ATAR* – Is it fit for purpose?

Australia is the only country in the world who ranks our students at the end of their schooling. As such, Australia is the only country where students graduate from high school using a number which offers little or no information about who they are and what they can do.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, universities had been looking at more than the ATAR when considering admissions to their courses. Since the pandemic, universities have increasingly bypassed the ATAR by offering a record number of early offers. The place of the ATAR can be seen below, a graphic provided by Learning Creates Australia via its 2023 report, Learning Beyond Limits.

Professor Sandra Milligan, Enterprise Professor & Director ARC, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, strongly advocates that in Australia we should be able to put in place a system that enables every student to know their capabilities and how they can apply them so they know what they can do. Currently, Australia wide, we don’t have that system; we have an examination and an ATAR system.

Of course, state and territory educational jurisdictions offer more than ATAR, a ranking reflected by one mark on one day. As a part of education in New South Wales, each Year 12 student receives a certificate upon completion of secondary school. The Higher School Certificate (HSC) comprises a compilation of marks and ‘bands’, reflecting the standard achieved within each course. At Chevalier, we take the time to complement the HSC by offering awards, prizes and opportunities throughout each student’s six years of schooling, which reflect the personal and holistic uniqueness of each individual student.

However, we need to go further, much further.

The Learning Creates Australia 2022 report Framing Success For All, identifies changes required for senior secondary certificates across all state and territories to support new definitions of success that learners need, and post school employers and tertiary groups are calling for. As a way forward, we could take seriously the ‘Shergold Review’ - Looking to the Future - The Review of Senior Secondary Pathways published 23 July 2020. The Review made twenty recommendations to the Australian Government to facilitate important changes to the design and management of secondary school pathways. Most notably, Recommendation 4 called for the creation of learner profiles in Australia by stating:

“Students should leave school with a Learner Profile that incorporates not only their ATAR score (where relevant) together with their individual subject results, but that also captures the broader range of evidenced capabilities necessary for employment and active citizenship that they have acquired in senior secondary schooling.” 

Looking to the Future Shergold et al., 2020, p. 20.

In a LinkedIn post from 9 months ago, Jan Owens reminded us that #WeAreMore than an ATAR when she wrote, “Our current education systems do not tell or show an adequate story of all that young people know and can do by the end of schooling. It hinders their choices, their futures & in turn, their contribution and, therefore, our society.”

Around the same time, St Gregory's College Principal Matthew Brennan announced that almost 40% of their Year 12 students were offered early entry, and there were more offers to come. Chevalier has similar levels of early offers, year on year on year.  Matthew then asked, "If tertiary institutions aren’t requiring it, is the ATAR still relevant?” This question prompted a rather robust discussion among other educational leaders.

There is no doubt that universities still require the ATAR; however, the number of courses for which it is relevant is in decline. Chevalier College owes it to our students to continue to offer opportunities, which allow for those students who wish to pursue an ATAR course of study to do so. However, Chevalier, as it has done for decades, will continue to acknowledge each student’s uniqueness beyond ATAR. This is reflected in our mantra... HSC and skills, ATAR and capabilities.

Jan Owen continually reminds us that students are “more than a statistic, a point in time mark or 'rank’.” As co-chair for Learning Creates Australia, Jan regularly agitates and lobbies state and federal governments to deliver a better, more contemporary and real-world education for all students. The work of groups such as Learning Creates Australia, and the Melbourne Assessment Group led by Sandra Milligan, as well as international research led by Valerie Hannon, informs the future of education. It also informs what is emerging at Chevalier College in 2024 with: 

• Early commencement of HSC with Vocational Education & Training (VET) courses for Year 9 students and passion projects as a central focus of Preliminary HSC Design and Technology for students in Year 10. 
• Provision of a dedicated wellbeing curriculum for Year 7-10 students. 
• Introduction of ‘SIM’ (Strengths, Interests and Motivations) - a timetabled course created by the team at myDesign Education which enables students to better articulate who they are, what they can do, and more deeply understand their purpose.
• Commencement of a flexible approach to timetable which ‘banks’ whole school events such as pupil-free days, carnivals and celebration days, and year-based activities such as excursions and retreats on one day, a Monday. For the days when we do not have these events/activities, we have Flipped Learning Mondays which sees students:
  • consolidate learning from the previous week
  • prepare learning for the week ahead (flipped learning), and/or 
  • arrange time for teacher-facilitated Canvas learning so we can maximise the crucial elements of face-to-face teaching each Tuesday to Friday. 

In 2024, we are, as Jan Owen would say, “giving the oxygen to new scenarios" by introducing “initiatives of local significance” at Chevalier. Like any school which strives to reimagine learning by adopting more contemporary approaches, we are also moving away from an old grammar of schooling; Chevalier College does so because our students deserve it.

Changes required for a new, ‘fit for purpose’ education will come not from government, but from leaders such as Jan, Sandra and Valerie and their respective organisations working with innovative schools such as ours who collectively reveal new ways of learning. Such a reality will ensure each child becomes a young adult who can clearly and confidently express what they know, and what they can do beyond one number on one day, again reflecting our mantra... HSC and skills, ATAR and capabilities.

Acknowledgment of Chris Merlino

To finish, this month we bid farewell and acknowledge the extraordinary contribution of Chris Merlino as Board Chair, Board Member, Sub-committee extraordinaire of Chevalier College.  Since 2014, Chris has served on every sub-committee, and in 2017 he joined the Board and has served as its Chair for the last three years.

Those fortunate enough to have met Chris will agree that his love for the College is immediately apparent, both as a past parent and also as someone giving back to the College.

Chris exemplified the essence of our MSC values, ensuring every decision and action has been carried out with compassion and kindness. He embodied the duties and functions of the Chairperson, whilst  always mindful of the broader mission and vision of Chevalier College:

• Firstly, using the mantra from his days as a pilot, “Simplify, Standardise, Utilise”, Chris's ability to navigate complex procedural processes with clarity and fairness ensured that our Board was productive and focused on the issues that truly mattered. 
• Secondly, Chris recognized the value of diverse perspectives and actively sought input from all stakeholders, ensuring that our policies and processes reflected our “spirit of family”.
• And thirdly, Chris's unwavering focus on managing the business of the company, and responsibly exercising both the duties and delegations of the Board, has been foundational to the development of the Company’s success.

On behalf of Principals past and present, on behalf of Chevalier Board Members past and present, on behalf of the MSC community, we extend a heartfelt “thank you” to Chris, for everything he has done for Chev. His constant work as a sub-committee member, his generosity as a board member and his dedication as Board Chair will leave an indelible mark on the Board, the College and the wider Chevalier Community, and we are extremely grateful. 

May the road ahead be filled with continued success, joy, and fulfilment. We wish Chris all the very best in his future endeavours.

Greg Miller

Principal