A wonderful beginning to 2024!

I have been very pleased that the school year has begun in a positive and calm manner, and the sunny blue skies have added to this great start. 

I warmly welcome all our new families to the Box Hill High School community and hope that our new students have connected well with their peers and their teachers. 

Our theme for Term 1 has been “building a strong foundation” and I strongly believe that students learn best when they feel safe and supported in the classroom and have positive relationships with their teachers and classmates. An important preparation for a successful school year involved students and teachers establishing clear protocols and routines from the start of the year. 

Term 1has been a very short term and it has been busy with a number of school events including parent information nights, the Year 12 Retreat, the Year 7 Orientation camp, Interschool Sport competitions, School Swimming Carnival, School Photos, International Women’s Day breakfast, Pi Day, Sustainability Week, Cultural Diversity Week and Harmony Day, the Year 7 Instrumental Music Night, election of new School Council, and the 2024 School Production (UrineTown) rehearsals. Thank you to all our wonderful staff who have worked so hard (on top of providing a quality education) to organise and lead these school experiences! 

International Women's Day 2024

Here are some of the ways we can tell the year has started positively: 

• Feedback from class observations by the principal team, teacher mentors and learning specialists who visit classes on learning walks 
• Student attendance data  
• Student feedback  
• Positive staff meetings and teacher collaboration 
• Higher number of “green” Compass Chronicle posts, and less “red” posts 
• Teacher comments and feedback about their students in Sub School teacher meetings 
• Level of participation – eg. year 12 camp, year 7 camp, interschool sport, instrumental music lessons, swimming sports (especially the dress up parade) 
• High level of interest in student leadership positions – across all year levels 
• Completion rate of holiday homework in senior classes 
• Less rubbish and graffiti around the school! 

Student leaders for 2024 

It is with great pleasure that I congratulate our new student leaders for 2024 that include the Year 12 Prefect Team (13 elected students), the Year 11 Leaders (10 elected students), our Year 10 Peer Support Leaders, and all our Year 7-9 Class Captains. 

A special mention goes to our new School Captain Sabrina L and the School Vice Captains Tiyahni D-A and Ambrose S. I look forward to working with them this year as student school leaders. 

Upcoming school events in Term 2 

I am excited to promote the school production UrineTown that will be running from Wednesday 1 May to Saturday 4 May. I warmly invite all our families to come along and support our talented students and hard-working production staff, Leah Gargano (Director), Thomas White (Music Director), Berni Sweeney (Tech and stage), Tyler Kendall (Producer), Kylie Pearson (Costumes), Amanda Ghanem (Choreography) – our school productions are consistently high-quality performances and of course entertaining! 

Please also note that Student Parent Teacher conferences will be held online on Wednesday 17 April in week one and students will not be attending classes on that day.

The School will also be running an Open Afternoon for prospective families on Monday 22 April in week 2 and students who are not involved in support or tours will be dismissed at lunchtime (students can stay at school if they are supporting the school with this event).

The House Athletics Carnival will be on Thursday 9 May at Hagenauer Reserve, and all students are expected to attend (and in House colours). 

Supporting our students

At Box Hill High School, we provide a tiered system of support for students to ensure that there is equity and that those students who experience obstacles to learning and engagement are provided with additional support to learn alongside their peers. 

There are a number of ways that we resource supports for all students (Tier 1) such as the strong Sub School and Wellbeing teams who have been provided time to meet with students and follow-up including making parent contact; a strong engagement program for each year level (parents can access the Student Wellbeing and Engagement at BHHS Guide in School Documentation on Compass); the introduction of our new weekly homegroup session, and many opportunities for extra-curricular activities at each year level.  

Students may require additional Tier 2 and Tier 3 support in school for a range of reasons – such as having a diagnosed disability, literacy or numeracy needs, learning English as a second language, very advanced literacy and numeracy skills (academically gifted), poor mental health, backgrounds with family violence or living out of home. These students are supported at Box Hill High School in range of ways including mentors, Individual Education Plans (IEPs), Student Support Group (SSG) meetings, Breakfast Club, literacy and numeracy support classes from Year 7 to Year 10, tutoring, financial assistance, Homegroup Club after school in the library, classroom support staff and counselling.  

This year, the school has increased our resourcing for student support by creating an EAL student support coordinator position, employing two multicultural education aides, employing another part-time educational psychologist, and ensuring our senior pathways (careers and the VCE Vocational Major) have the staff and resources to run a high-quality support program for all students. Time allowances for year level coordinators and Sub School leaders were also increased. 

Connecting with families more regularly 

As part of our school goal to communicate and connect more with our families, we will be trialling shorter and more regular newsletters each term (moving to three editions a term). This will allow families to see what we are doing in the term and provide regular updates and school news. 

A morning tea with the principal team and relevant school leaders will be happening in Term 2 to enable parents to come along and hear about the role of student wellbeing and support, and about our teaching and learning improvement goals in literacy and numeracy. This will be an opportunity to find out more about our practices and to ask questions. 

More information will be posted on Compass newsfeed next term for interested parents. 

by Mrs Kellie Ind

Principal