Principal's Message
Term 2 has finished very productively. In the final weeks of term our Year 11 and 12 students moved into their next units of study (Units 2 and 4). We also ran another successful Galileo camp in the Grampians, as well as Year 7 and 8 Sport days, with the Regional Cross Country competition coming up. 18 June was GAT (General Achievement Test) day. All students taking a Unit 3/4 subject must sit this all-day exam. We had 574 students taking the GAT at UHS this year, quite a logistical feat! Thanks to our experienced VCE team and supervisors, everything ran very smoothly.
Year 10 Work Experience
In line with our Key Improvement Strategy 2c (Improve effective transitions and pathways…for all students), for 2024 we redesigned our Year 10 Work Experience program. This was previously offered at the end of the year. This year, we have moved it to the end of Term 2, so that students have had the opportunity to complete their placement before they undertake their Senior Pathways planning and subject selection. This has been a very positive change, with a majority of the year level finding a placement and an alternative, onsite program focussing on future pathways and Careers Education, including an RMIT STEM workshop, for the remaining students. Students have been out to a huge variety of workplaces including hospitals, research facilities, universities, schools, gyms and fitness studios, dental surgeries, hospitality, legal and accounting firms and organisations, the Australian Defence Forces and more.
Senior Pathways Expo
Another improvement initiative related to this goal has been a review of our course counselling and pathways selection processes. To support this, this year for the first time we ran an expanded Year 10 and 11 subject and pathways expo on June 18. It was fantastic to see the enthusiastic engagement of our Year 9 and 10 students in the Expo, with lots of great conversations about strengths, interests and possible future study. It was also wonderful to be able to invite parents and carers for the first time to this Expo. Thank you to all who came along to share in these conversations with your children.
The next step in the process will be initial course preference selection, supported by time in Connect sessions, and then individual course counselling interviews which parents and carers are again invited to attend. There will be an online family information session about the VCE in 2025 in Week 1.
End of semester reports: time to reflect
End of Semester reports will be published on 28 June and released via Compass. These mid-year reports include Attitude and Effort plus Achievement indicators, as well as your child's progression against the Victorian Curriculum (for Year 7-10 students) and in the VCE or VCE-VM for Year 11s and 12s.
This is a great time to have reflective conversations with your child about their progress, strengths and challenges. Some helpful questions to ask include:
“What do you observe in these reports?”
“Are there any surprises here for you?”
“What efforts did you make that really paid off?”
“Is there anything you feel proud of?”
"Where do you think you've made the biggest progress?"
“What would you like to do differently in the coming months, to change your outcomes in ___?”
"How can we at home support you with this?"
"What might you need to ask or share with your teacher to help you?"
Encourage your child to use their report to set goals. At school, we use S.M.A.R.T goals:
this stands for
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Timely
For example, rather than a broad goal of "I want to get better in French"; encourage your child to focus on specific elements that will help them to achieve this. A SMART goal in this area might be something like "I want to spend an extra 10 minutes each day practising my French verb conjugations so I am confident with the regular present verbs by Week 4 of Term 3."
Have a very safe, relaxing and happy holiday break. We'll look forward to seeing everyone back in Term 3 on July 15.
Ciar Foster
Principal