Principals Report

Term 4 has started very well with a range of exciting events and opportunities for students to engage with our co-curricular activities and programs. During CREATE Week, we experienced a number of very exciting events, including the spectacular End-of-Year Strawbale Concert, the very successful Arts and Design Graduate Exhibition, as well as the wonderful screening of Media films. All of these events showcased our students’ creativity, persistence, and commitment to learning. I am very appreciative of the support given to these students by their teachers and education support staff, in particular Ms Emma McCulloch, Head of Performing Arts, and Ms Sheraz Salama, Head of Visual Arts. 

The fastest female school student in Victoria is Ruby Ozougwu, Year 10 student at THS - Ruby recently won the 100 metre race at the State Athletics competition at Lakeside Stadium, Albert Park. Meanwhile, the 4x100m Boys Relay team also won a gold medal at the event - congratulations to Archie, Christian, Wale and Jarrad - and the 4x100m Girls Relay team won a silver medal, thanks to the efforts of Daniella, Tansy, Vieda and Ruby. Well done to all these students for representing THS so impressively, and thank you to teachers and ES team for supporting them!

Our Senior School students have engaged with the external VCE exams very well already, with many of the exams already completed. The VCE English exam is the first major exam, and the one taken by the largest cohort of students. This year, most THS students wrote about the film ‘High Ground’, as well as writing a creative response to the prompt ‘Time to Play’ and an analysis of a persuasive text. The students I spoke to after the exam - including my own Year 12 English students - felt positively about the exam, as well as feeling relieved that they had successfully completed this three-hour exam. 

Next week, a group of THS students will be travelling to Bologna for the Italian exchange. These students will stay with host families and study at our sister school, the Liceo Malpighi, for five weeks. Having spoken to other students who have participated in this exchange in the past, I’m aware that this is an extraordinary opportunity to become immersed in Italian culture, to develop greater fluency in the Italian language, and to make deep connections with students and their families in Bologna. I’m deeply appreciative of the efforts of Mr Paul Mameghan and Mr Max Tosi in organising and running this exchange - grazie mille!

Over the course of this year, THS teachers have been engaged in ongoing professional learning in relation to explicit teaching. This is a model of teaching that according to the research evidence has the greatest positive impact on student learning. As a part of that focus, we are learning about the use of success criteria in the classroom this term. This means that teachers share with students how they know that they have been successful in achieving the learning intention in a particular lesson. For students, this will give them greater insights into what they are meant to learn in class, and how to know if they have been successful. This is an ongoing focus of our work this year and beyond - making sure that teachers and students are clear about what we are learning and what success looks like in class. I feel very enthusiastic and passionate about this professional learning for all of us who work at THS, as I can see how this work will have a direct impact on student learning. 

Lars 

Principal