Senior School news

After a big start to the year in Term 1, our senior students have well and truly settled into the rhythm of the year. Here is a summary of many of the events and activities that are planned or underway for our seniors this term.  

Year 12 Formal 

There has been much excitement and anticipation amongst the Year 12s in the lead up to the formal, which takes place at the Lincoln of Toorak on Friday 23 May. With over 240 students and partners and 30 staff attending, it’s promising to be a night to remember.  

The formal committee have been working hard to finalise the details for the night, and this week in Home Groups all students are helping to put together the track list of their favourite dance floor anthems. We look forward to seeing the “Glitz and Glamour” theme come to life, and to sharing some photos of the night in our next newsletter.  

Home Group 

Home Group is a central part of our engagement program at Box Hill High School. Through our Home Group program, we are able to teach students a specially developed curriculum around our year level themes. For Year 11, our theme is “Strengths and Purpose,” and this term students are primarily focusing on their career aspirations. 

On 2 May, we attended the VCE and Careers Expo at the Exhibition and Convention Centre, and for the rest of the term, students will be exploring their strengths, interests and personal attributes and how these related to future education and potential career prospects.  

The Year 12 Home Group theme for the year is “Healthy Minds and Bodies.” This term, we focus on healthy bodies, with the three main emphases of sleep, movement and eating. We provide students with up-to-date research on good sleep hygiene and spend time practising mindful eating and moving our bodies by breaking up the day with walks around the oval.  

The GAT 

On 17 June, all Year 12 students and any Year 11 student doing a Unit 3-4 subject will be doing the GAT, or General Achievement Test. The test goes from 9:00am to 3:00pm with a break between the two parts. Please keep a lookout for further communication about the GAT on Compass.  

Year 11 Study Skills programs and exams 

This term, our Year 11s are gearing up to be some of the busiest students in the school. In Home Group in Term 1, students were encouraged to develop strong study routines and were taught about the science of learning and memory. With exams in weeks 8 and 9 of this term, students have been encouraged to start preparing early by doing spaced practice, or revising past material in small chunks relatively often to strengthen the neural pathways in their brain for faster memory retrieval.  

To support our Year 11s this term, we had Elevate Education in on 13 May to run seminars for all students on highly effective exam revision strategies. We are also running our own study skills program, Skills Booster, one to two lunchtimes per week from weeks 3 to 6. Students are able to opt in to sessions like Organisation and Motivation, Active Revision, Effective Use of Command Terms, Stress Management, and EAL Support. These sessions are run by teachers who are experts in these areas, and by one of our school psychologists.   

School Values Awards 

In our start-of-term assemblies from Terms 2 to 4, four students are recognised for exemplifying one of our school values: respect, growth, creativity and resilience. These are awarded based on teacher nominations and in the case of Growth, academic achievement data. This term, the following students received awards: 

Year 11 (L-R): Justin H (Growth), Ryan W (Resilience), Lola C (Creativity) and Jacob D (Respect).  

Header image of this article:

Year 12 School Values Awards (L-R): Keira K (Respect), Allyce Y (Resilience), Vic N (Growth) and Oak E (Creativity). 

Congratulations to all our winners this semester, and well done to the many others who were nominated.