Principal's Update

by Ms Kellie Ind, Principal

Exceptional NAPLAN Year 9 results

We want to share our excellent school 2026 NAPLAN results with our school community. We know that we always have many incoming Year 7s who are very proficient in Literacy and Numeracy and this year continues to reflect that high ability.

Year 7 Reading results showed that 88% of our students are in the Strong- Exceeding level (compared to 83% in similar schools and 66% in the state), and 88% of our Year 7 students also achieved in Strong-Exceeding in Numeracy (compared to 85% in similar schools).

As a result of our focus on improving Numeracy and Literacy outcomes with key improvement strategies and instructional practices in the Math and English classrooms, we are very pleased to see 82% of our Year 9 students achieved at the Strong-Exceeding level (compared to 79% in similar schools), 82% achieved Strong-Exceeding results in Writing (compared to 78% in similar schools) and that 89% of our Year 9 students achieved in the Strong-Exceeding levels in Numeracy (compared to 82% of similar schools and 62% in the state) with a significant increase from 30% to 44% of our Year 9 students achieving results in the Exceeding level!

It is also worth noting that there was only a very small percentage of students in the ‘Needs Additional Support’ and ‘Developing’ proficiency level too.

AToSS and School Belonging

Students with a strong sense of school belonging achieve better outcomes in learning and wellbeing. Strengthening this connectedness to school is a key improvement priority in our School Strategic Plan.

As a result of many improvement strategies and targeted initiatives (such as the Student Leadership Program and introduction of weekly homegroup sessions with Year 7-12) we have seen an increase in the key school improvement measure of School Connectedness with consistent improvement over the last 3 years (62% in 2026 compared to 59% in 2025).

Other related measures such as Teacher Concern and Bullying have also been more positive.

Parent Survey

The Parent/Carer/Guardian Opinion Survey will be conducted this Term and we warmly invite all our families to provide their feedback to the school.

Please see Compass for more information on accessing the survey once it opens after Monday 17 August.

AI in Education

Like the broader community, schools are grappling with the fast-changing world of generative AI and its impact on information, work and education. I believe that as educators we need to be informed and prepared to support students with this significant cultural and technological change.

We have run sessions with all our teaching staff on the use and misuse of generative AI in schools and provided learning modules to staff to allow them to investigate the application to education.

A working group of staff have volunteered their time to consider the practical and ethical aspects. A school policy and process have been developed this year, and we are keen to invite parents and carers along to a Community Forum on the 2nd of September onsite. Further details can be found in this Newsletter and a link to book is here: TryBooking

Congratulations to some of our wonderful students!

We have some truly impressive students and student leaders at Box Hill High School who demonstrate our school values and who are wonderful role models for others.

Over this fortnight, the 2026 School Talent Show (run by the Prefect Team) has been a very popular student event over multiple lunchtimes and we have been entertained by many of our talented students in music and dance (a selection of images from the Heats are included below).

It is always inspiring to see these student performers demonstrate courage as well as talent as they perform in front of peers and staff.

The audience has been very supportive and encouraging – showing great respect to all acts.

I was very proud to attend the 2025 VCE Premier’s Award Ceremony earlier this term with Head of Senior Sub School Nic Barca to see Jayden C receive a Premier’s Award for ICT (VET).

Special mention also this term goes to Fatima A (Year 11) who has been awarded the 2026 Whitehorse Council Young Citizen of the Year for her community leadership – congratulations Fatima!

This year there were four students who were selected to be part of the Monash Scholars Program - well done to Trinity, Diya, Tarragon and Abby and well-deserved!

Congratulations also to Priscilla and Ozan in Year 7 for achieving in the top 1% in the state in the 2026 Australian Geography competitions – amazing! There were another 11 students in Year 7 and 8 who were awarded High Distinctions as well.

We are proud of Coen’s (Y7) talent in IT after being selected by ACMI and RMIT Young Creators Lab as one of 8 students in Victoria to join and present her game in November. Great initiative!

We wish Sophie Y, Edward S and Summie C all the best for the upcoming 2026 State School Spectacular for their performance in the orchestra on Saturday 29 August (televised in December).

A big congratulations also goes to our superb B Grade Debaters who finished equal second in our district Debaters Association of Victorian 2026 competition - well above all other public schools in the competition. Excellent work Fatima A, Sharanya G, Tehreem H, and Sara W!! They also achieved a huge win for their final debate. Thank-you to Ms. Sarah Weyenberg for your coordination of debating all year.

We love to hear about student's achievements – parents and carers please contact your child’s coordinator if you wish to share this with the school too.

Upcoming School Review (2022-2026)

In Term 4 this year we will be undertaking our four-year review.

A Pre Review Self Evaluation (PRSE) Report is being completed ahead of the School Review Day. This involves a self-evaluation of:

Performance measures (such as VCE, Year 9 NAPLAN, Attitudes to School Survey data and Parent Opinion Survey data)
Curriculum and Student Learning Minimum Standards
Compliance with Policy Requirements (such as having a Mobile Phone Policy and teaching the Holocaust and Consent Education)
Implementation of the Department’s initiatives such as the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model (VTLM 2.0) (Victorian teaching and learning information for parents and carers | vic.gov.au)

There has been a lot of work over the last four years to improve student learning and wellbeing outcomes, and as a result of many key improvement strategies we have met most of our targets in these goals. We will share more information with our community next term, and outline the new School Strategic Plan (SSP) for the next four years.