Another great year in Maths at Box Hill High School

Box Hill High School is a school with great mathematics teaching and our students have continued to excel this year.  In NAPLAN, the level of students in the school achieving in the highest Exceeding band was far higher than that in the state.

At Box Hill High School we get a very high number of students joining us in Year 7 who are already working at a very high level in mathematics.  Our Year 9 results show that these students continue to learn and be challenged by our mathematics curriculum, resulting in more students in the Exceeding band than most similar schools.

Year 9 Numeracy 

% of students in Exceeding band            

BHHS compared to statistically similar schools

A particular focus for us this year has been introducing more open-ended, challenging tasks into mathematics lessons.  Teachers have been undertaking professional learning on a lesson framework designed by Monash University mathematics education academic Peter Sullivan and embedding this into their teaching.  These tasks are designed to both develop student agency and prepare students for tackling uncertainty.  At the same time, they help to develop in our students the dispositions and ways of working of mathematicians.  By ensuring that our lessons contain demanding problem-solving and reasoning components, we ensure that our large number of higher-achieving students are being challenged.

This year, we also ran a variety of extra-curricular programs to support our students in mathematics.  To extend our students, we have run several mathematics competitions, a range of VHAP programs and a Year 8 mathematics extension program. We provide pathway options to support students who need additional support to catch up in mathematics.  This includes the Numeracy for Learning electives in Years 8 and 9 as well as providing a range of senior mathematics pathway options.  

Congratulations to Max X. of Year 10 who was awarded a Distinction in the Australian Intermediate Mathematical Olympiad earlier this term.  This is a highly-challenging competition that is designed to identify talented students for the Australian Mathematics Trust’s high-performance programs and as a result of this exceptional achievement Max has been invited to participate in next year’s Australian Mathematical Olympiad.

Next year, our numeracy improvement plan aims to continue to engage and challenge students through high-quality mathematics teaching. The main drivers to achieve this will be to:

• continue the work begun this year on embedding rich mathematical tasks into lessons,
• using the four mathematical proficiencies as a lens to develop our teachers understanding of high-quality mathematics teaching, with a particular focus on supporting the development of our early career teachers,
• developing teacher’s skills at using data and assessment to understand their students’ current learning needs, and
• preparing to implement the Victorian Curriculum 2.0 Mathematics in 2025.

Facilities improvements in 2023

This year has seen continued improvements to the facilities at BHHS.  The first stage of the toilet renovation project was completed in Term 3 and the second stage has now begun works.  Additionally, works will begin over the coming holiday break on creating a unisex toilet cubicle in the gym building.

A major upgrade of our school gym was completed at the start of Term 4.  Mr. Lethborg put a lot of thought into the design of this space so that students get an authentic gym experience as part of the senior physical education program.

Ms. Brewer has been leading a team of students on a mural project this term. Students have designed a customised version of the school crest that is surrounded by indigenous plants.  The team is currently underway painting the mural onto the concrete bandstand in the quad, and they should be finished by the time you are reading this newsletter.

The SRC garden team have been working on a project to build an indigenous yarning circle design for the small garden area in the south-west corner of the school.  Through this process so far, they have engaged with indigenous advisory officers from the education department and Whitehorse Council and have met with Whitehorse Council’s sports fields coordinator to problem-solve site access issues for the landscaping materials required for the garden.

The Year 12 study centre will be improved over the January break through the creation of a dedicated silent study area.  This will provide our hardworking senior students with a purpose-built space for the focused study that is an essential component of excelling in the VCE.

We have continued to maintain our buildings this year, with over $70,000 spent on flooring refurbishment around the school and over $56,000 on painting works, including a repainting of the school’s main façade that will occur over the January break. 

In 2024, the school will commission a master plan for the school’s site, which will analyse how the space available to the school can be best utilised to meet the educational needs school community, both now and into the future.  While this master plan is being developed, school facilities improvements in 2024 will focus on indoor and outdoor furniture that provides enhanced amenity to students as well as renovations of the school administration wing to cater for the staff needed to support the increasing size of the school.

By Greg Breese

Assistant Principal