College Principal's Report           

End of Term 3

Welcome to the end of Term 3 edition of our newsletter

The last month has been extremely busy as the countdown for the last weeks of learning for our Year 12 students, end of term assessments for students in Years 7-11, interschool sport, RU Ok day, City Experience, Night of the Notables and excursions have taken place. At the same time, there has been the development of budgets, subject allocations, workforce plans and the commencement of our timetable for 2019.

Assembly this Week

On Monday this week, we conducted our end of term assembly.  The assembly started with Caitlyn Tilley from Year 9 singing a beautiful rendition of Hallelujah backed by Erwin Diesta in Year 11 on keyboard. The music performance was followed by the presentation of the award winners for our recent Year 8 Symposium by our local MPs Kim Wells and Nick Wakeling.  The winners Aimee Bugeja, Amaya Phillips and Carla Orfanidis developed a well -researched and well-designed prototype to prevent waste in the City of Knox. 

Both Kim Wells and Nick Wakeling attended the symposium, heard all of the year 8 presentations earlier this term, and had an opportunity to vote along with parents and other members of the community present. Following the presentation Kim Wells announced a commitment for Scoresby Secondary College of $5 million dollars.

In the Classroom

Each day I try to get around to as many classes as I can. I enjoy witnessing the student engagement and learning that is occurring.  I routinely ask students what they are learning and how they know if they are learning.  These two questions are directly linked to the use of learning intentions and success criteria by all teachers.

Why do we use these in every class?

Learning Intentions describe to the students what they need to know, understand and be able to do. The Success Criteria are used as a reference at the start and end of the lesson to determine how well the students understood and applied their learning to form the basis for feedback and further development.

Their use is evident in what students say when asked what the purpose of their use is in class.

‘You know what you are meant to get out of each lesson so if you don’t know you can ask for extra help’                

Amaya - Year 8

‘It sets a goal so we don’t just sit there not knowing what to do’                 

 Erwin Year 11

‘To see what I am going to start with and what I need to achieve’  

Gareth Year 8

‘We know what we are going to learn and where we are heading from the start making the lesson more relevant and engaging’. 

Year 12

University of Melbourne International Project

University of Melbourne is undertaking a study to develop the knowledge of how characteristics and practices of school leadership contribute to school success and the influence contextual factors may have on performance. The study is part of a large international project,

I am proud that the growth in our student numbers and academic achievement continues. This is a result of the hard work carried out by Scoresby staff and students together with the support of parents and members of the community to improve student outcomes.  It is this work that has raised our profile and led to our college being included in this study. It is hoped that the data will be used by practitioners and policy makers to inform the school improvement agenda and result in more opportunities for our students.

The university staff are on site this week visiting classes and interviewing key groups of our staff, students and parents. We look forward to seeing the final report.

Summer Uniform

The culture of always wearing the winter school uniform has been evident during Terms 2 and 3. In particular, the wearing of the uniform in public correctly. Towards the end of the term some of the girls skirts became shorter as the girls grew taller, please remember that hems must be adjusted to ensure the length remains of a modest length of just above the knees.  Please check dresses for length as students who return with them too short will be required to let the hem down. 

Well done to students, parents and staff for embedding the culture of always wearing the uniform correctly.

As from the start of Term 4, there will be a changeover to summer uniform. All students must return with the correct uniform after the break with hats for Junior School and the black bags. There is to be no mixing of summer and winter uniforms. Therefore, the socks in Term 4 with the dress are to be white school socks (not ankle socks) and grey socks for all students who wear shorts.  Shorts must be the correct style as specified in the uniform policy.  It is also a timely reminder about our policy regarding hair colours and piercings. The policy is available on the College website.

Mrs. Gail Major

Principal