The HEPS 'Aim High' Newsletter

Student and Community Learning and Wellbeing

Aspiring Student Leader Conference 

On Tuesday the 4th of June, 23 of our student leaders worked at Heathmont College on their leadership skills. Students worked collaboratively on two key questions. 

 

  1. What is leadership?  
  2. What makes a good leader? 

Students learned public speaking skills and problem-solving strategies. They revisited their personal character strengths and SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.)  Students also had fun meeting students from several other schools and interacting with the Heathmont College well-being dog. 

 

Victorian High Ability Masterclass 

At HEPS students take part in the Victorian High Ability Program (VHAP) in Literacy and Maths. Many of our Level 5 and 6 students participate in this alongside students from across the state. This semester students have been learning about humour in Writing and cipher codes in Maths. 

 

On Wednesday the 5th of June we held our first VHAP Masterclass with Ringwood North Primary. Our students worked with Ringwood North students and their teachers together on collaborative tasks. The Masterclasses provide an opportunity for high-ability students to delve more deeply into the concepts discussed in their VHAP classes, as well as explore new ideas with their like-ability peers. After some team-building icebreakers, students worked together on a detailed piece of writing and worked on being clear and concise in their message using strategies to further engage the reader. Our Maths masterclass worked together to create and solve 4 types of ciphers: graph, ceaser, transposition, and vignette ciphers. 

 

Can you crack this simple graph cipher that our students worked on as a masterclass warm-up activity? 

Twice Exceptionality Parent seminar

Date: Thursday 13/06/2024 7.30-9.00pm

 

Parents of a twice-exceptional child, who possesses both high intellectual abilities and a learning difference or disability, often have specific concerns and questions about how to best support their child’s unique needs. If you are a parent or educator wanting to learn more about how to support your child/student, please join us for an informative discussion session. The session will include how to advocate for your child, how to balance strengths and challenges, and support their social-emotional well-being and more.

Try Booking Link:https://www.trybooking.com/CPQCP

Gifted Parents support resource 

Support resource for Parents from the Victorian Association of the Gifted and Talented Association. 

 

https://vagtc.org.au/resources/support-for-parents/

ICAS Assessments 

What is ICAS?  

ICAS is an online academic competition that gives students the opportunity to challenge their higher order thinking and problem-solving skills in English, Mathematics, and Digital Technologies. ICAS will be offered to students in Levels 3,4,5 and 6 at HEPS. 

  

Every student who participates is celebrated and recognised with a printed certificate in each subject area, and online results report to track development each year. Top performers are eligible for one of the highly coveted ICAS medals. 

  

To learn more about this year’s exciting ICAS competition, visit: (icasassessments.com/products-icas/)

  

How to participate in ICAS  

If you wish for your child to participate in ICAS this year, please:  

  1. Read about ICAS subjects and prices here  
  2. Read the Privacy Collection Statement below.
  3. Read the terms and conditions here
  4. Go to the Parent Portal to sign up to chosen subject areas here (shop.icasassessments.com/pages/pps)  
  5. Enter our school’s access code - VJP382
  6. Enter your child’s details, select the subject areas your child would like to participate in, then proceed to payment.  

After payment is made via the Parent Payment System, you will receive an order confirmation email, please keep this for your records.  

The last date to pay for 2024 ICAS is July 25th, 2024. 

  

ICAS results and certificates

All assessments will be conducted online, at school. We will notify you of the date(s) that we will run ICAS assessments, and when your child’s ICAS results are ready. Your child’s ICAS certificates will be delivered to school. Once we have received them, we will present them to your child to bring home. The back of the certificate will show your child’s ICAS results and the login details, “TAP ID and Pin”. - Use these to enter the Results Portal orti.icasassessments.com/ortiStudent. Privacy collection statement  The following information is aprivacy notification about how your child’s data is kept private and secure.ICAS Assessment is owned by Janison Solutions Pty Ltd (We, Us, Our).To deliver assessment products, Janison will require your child’s School to obtain your consent to provide Janison with certain personal information of students. Janison will collect, store, use, disclose and otherwise deal with such personal information in accordance with its privacy policy (below). We are aware of our responsibility to protect personal information related to children and students from being disclosed when we deliver an ICAS Assessments product. Unless you, as the child’s legal guardian consents, we will not:

  • collect any personal information or data of children other than the information we need for the successful completion of an assessment, test, or exam. 
  • transfer any personal information we obtain from a child in the delivery of assessments and tests to any jurisdiction outside of Australia. 
  • share any personal information relating to children with any third parties (except for those third parties necessary for us to carry out our Services or provide our Products e.g., medal engraving). 
  • use any personal information or data relating to children for marketing purposes. 

You can view our full privacy policy at https://www.janison.com/privacy-policy/.

We may retain personal information and data relevant to a child for their future purposes or for research purposes by Janison for the duration of the school life cycle of the child. However, if you or your child at any time wish to have their personal information or data removed from our systems, they or you may opt out by simply contacting our Privacy Officer at privacy@janison.com or by contacting icasassessments@janison.com.

 

We are excited to be offering ICAS to our students this year and look forward to celebrating their achievements. Please do not hesitate to contact Mrs. Holmes our High Ability Practice Leader if you have any questions.  

  

Kind regards,

 

Kim Holmes 

High Ability Practice Leader