From the Principal Team

Welcome to the last edition of The Arrow for Term 1. What a busy and eventful term it has been! On behalf of the Principal Team I’d like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank our wonderful teaching staff and Education Support staff, every one of whom do a fantastic job each day to support our students to have the best possible experience at school.

Teach the Teacher

Last night we held our first Teach the Teacher session for 2024. This program has been in place at AHS for a number of years now and is very much a part of the culture of the school. All students are asked to complete the Pivot survey three times each year, in which they provide detailed feedback to each of their teachers in each of their subjects. Teachers then reflect on this data to inform their professional development planning for the year, and a team of students are trained to analyse the data to identify patterns and areas for collective improvement. Our Teach the Teacher team of student volunteers selected this teacher makes changes in response to student feedback as their focus for this particular session. 

The students did an amazing job leading teachers through the cycle one data and supporting them to unpack and understand what it means in relation to different year levels, Learning Areas and classes. They then facilitated rigorous discussions in table groups with staff, where they brainstormed what is currently working well and what they might consider adding to their classroom practice. The session was really well received by teachers and there was an excited hum in the room as the conversations took place. 

Student leadership, voice and agency are highly valued  at AHS and we are grateful to our students for their willingness to participate in the survey process and the subsequent action planning. Thank you to Pauline Delhostal, one of our Leading Teachers, for working with students and empowering them to take the lead on this important work and to teachers for their engagement in this process. The DET Student Attitudes to School survey and Parent/ Caregiver Opinion Survey are also important data sets that help inform our improvement cycle. We encourage parents and guardians to complete this survey when it is distributed later in the year, and to reach out to a Principal Team member any time with suggestions.  

Student - Parent - Teacher Conferences

Whilst parents are most welcome to reach out to teachers at any point in the school year, we  hold our Student - Parent - Teacher Conference in Terms 1 and 3 each year to further support the home/ school partnership. We know that when parents take an active interest and role in their child’s education, student outcomes are improved. We always encourage students to be present and to actively participate in these discussions as part of our strong belief in the importance of student agency and taking responsibility for their own learning. The timing of the conferences coordinates with distribution of the Learning Behaviour Reports, which we consider to be equally important as academic reports. These reports provide an overview of your child’s learning dispositions in each subject area and can form the basis for some really constructive conversations around the dinner table. There will no doubt be much to commend and celebrate, as well as a few specific areas to highlight for improvement. To better understand your child’s report and foster meaningful conversations at home, please refer to the Learning Behaviour Rubric, which clearly outlines what the expectations are and what these look like in practice. Samantha Francis, another of our Leading Teachers, has done a wonderful job reviewing and refining this rubric to ensure that it is meaningful and accessible to students and parents alike. In addition to the LB reports, parents are encouraged to review the Common Assessment Task and School Assessed Task feedback provided by teachers through our continuous reporting cycle. These can be accessed under Learning Tasks via the Compass Parent Portal.

NAPLAN

Year 7 and 9 students have sat NAPLAN testing over the past week or so. They are to be commended on the mature and respectful manner in which they approached the test. NAPLAN provides useful data about the strengths and areas for improvement in reading, writing, language conventions and numeracy at the whole school, year level and individual level. At AHS, we encourage students to simply do their best on the day, and to view the test as a ‘moment in time’. ACARA sends the hardcopy NAPLAN results to the school later in the year and these will then be distributed to students to bring home. 

International Baccalaureate Conference 

Ross and Peter Ryan, Leading Teacher for 10-12 Curriculum, are presently in South Korea representing AHS at an international IB conference. This is our second year offering the IB Diploma Program, and this year our very first cohort will graduate with their Diploma. Peter and Ross are excited to be sharing and engaging with our IB colleagues abroad, and look forward to coming back with new ideas to further develop and grow our own program here at AHS. 

Happy holidays

On behalf of the Principal Team, best wishes to all our staff and families for a safe and enjoyable holiday break. A happy Easter and Ramadan to those who observe and celebrate. Bon voyage to our 20 very excited France Study Tour travellers, who will be having an amazing experience delving into French language, culture, history and art over the holidays and will no doubt have some wonderful stories to share upon their return. 

Also during the holidays, we’ll be busily tidying up the finishing touches on our new senior school building, ready for classes on day 1 of Term 2! Furniture is starting to arrive, landscaping is getting underway, and everything is looking really great. I also hope to have some news to share very soon about the long-awaited opening of the bathrooms in the main building. We’ll host a tour opportunity for families keen to see all our lovely new facilities as soon as we can manage in term 2. Stay tuned.

Finally, you’ll see the flyer for our Information Expo for prospective families in this newsletter. Please encourage any friends or family members interested in joining our school community in Year 7 next year to book their spot at the Expo on April 18th via our website or Facebook page.