Dear parents, carers, students and staff

Let’s talk about AI. A topic that seems to be the focus of a great deal of social and mainstream media attention, and certainly one that plays on the minds of educators, students and families. I want to share some preliminary thoughts and actions with you all regarding AI and University High. These span the use of AI in classrooms by students and teachers; staff and parent communication using AI systems; and the future place of AI in our school.

Firstly, it should go without saying that using AI to cheat in assessments at our school is not tolerated. Incidences of this behaviour have increased in recent years at University High, just as they have in other schools and in universities. Sometimes this behaviour is easy to detect, but there are times (and types) of assessment where this is becoming more difficult by the day. The Department of Education is devoting resources to providing guidance to schools on managing cheating using these technologies, and it is great to see that a ban on certain smart devices like watches and glasses will come into effect in 2027. I note that there is no discussion about banning smart phones, laptops and tablets – a position I support as these are quite essential to modern day existence and their use can be more easily monitored than some of the more “stealthy” technology currently available to students and families. Anecdotal feedback from staff is that it is relatively easy to prevent cheating on in-class assessments, and that it is usually tasks set for completion at home that appear to be most impacted by the use of AI in their completion.

At our recent curriculum day, I presented to staff about our own uses of AI. I chose to focus on staff-to-staff communication, staff-to-family communication, and the use of AI to develop curriculum materials. On this last point, it is clear that AI has a lot to offer. Apart from using AI to detect possible cheating in student work, one obvious area of potential benefit to teachers is the development of quality classroom activities and materials. I emphasise the word quality here because I felt it was necessary to remind staff that while I had already seen some excellent examples of AI-prepared teaching resources, I was also aware of some that do not meet the expected standard. Vetting the results of AI-produced resources will be crucial for all teachers as they use these technologies more in coming years.

I also spoke to staff about their use of AI to communicate with each other and with families. Having received some AI-generated emails form staff myself, it is easy to make a joke about inadvertently leaving a chat prompt in a message - and I understand the allure of using AI-assisted email. I felt it was important, however, to remind staff that all communications need to be vetted carefully if they have been generated artificially. They should be read for tone, and edited for clarity and length. They should never be sent until it is clear that they provide the most effective way of conveying a message or request. I reinforced this point when it comes to communicating with families. The school’s use of Compass will soon be enhanced through direct access to teacher email addresses from the Compass app. This will allow students, parents and carers to communicate more efficiently with teachers, and help connect our staff and families. It may also result in more email communication, and hopefully this will be a good thing.

On this last point, I would like to make a few observations and recommendations to our families. Just as the use of AI to assist with writing emails may appeal to some staff, it is also understandable that these tools have great appeal for students and families. In the case of families where English is not spoken at home, the interest is obvious. I would note, however, that particularly in 2026, our school has seen an uptick in very long communications from families. Multi-page complaints regarding relatively simple issues have become more prevalent. The use of an AI chat bot to reformulate swathes of Department webpages into complaints to the school has become more common. This makes the work of responding to these issues more difficult, and I feel I must say that on occasion these parental communications have left staff feeling bullied. I think the same advice I have provided to staff applies to our families, and so I make the following request: when using AI to help write an email to staff, please check it for tone, clarity and length. It is much better to keep communications to a single issue where possible, and to describe concerns in simple language without resorting to quoting or embedding entire Departmental frameworks into your messages. In my experience, simple requests for clarification or assistance are the best way to get the attention of our teachers. Please remember that they all teach between 100 and 200 students, and multi-page emails from only a small percentage of families would soon become over-whelming for staff who spend most of their time teaching in classrooms. I am confident your brevity will be appreciated by our staff.

Finally, some brief words about the future of this issue at University High. The school is formulating a staff working group to consider practices that will support authentic, un-assisted demonstrations of student learning – while at the same time ensuring that students are prepared for working futures that will no doubt incorporate a range of AI enhancements. This working group will also provide more advice around AI-generated communications, and will solicit your responses as part of this work in a future survey of families.

We live in exciting technological times. I look forward to working with our school community to ensure that University High makes its best efforts to incorporate valuable, high-quality AI-supported learning and communications into its future work with our students and families.

New Progress Reports

The school has undertaken a review of the progress reporting used in recent years and has developed a new model for use at Years 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12 in 2026. The first report in this format will be provided to families in Week 8 of this term. It includes attendance, along with measures of academic progress and engagement. Organisational and “Respectful Relationships” capabilities are also included. Finally, teacher recommendations regarding Parent/Teacher conferences are included for the first time, providing families with the opportunity to book interviews on this basis. Year 9 will continue to refine the continuous reporting model that was introduced last year and proved popular with students and parents.

New semester reports are currently being developed for Year 7 students for Semester 1, this new format will also be rolled-out to other year levels for the Semester 2 reporting cycle.

Lateness to class and school

The school’s approach to managing compliance with rules relating to the use of technology in classrooms has been a great success, with staff reporting much more focussed classrooms with fewer distractions. While it is still early days, I am confident that with a consistent application of the new processes, a permanent and positive change to our classroom culture will result.

The next challenge for the school is the management of lateness to class and school. Lateness to class is a problem for some students and will be the focus of teacher and year level coordinator attention over the remainder of Term 1. There is little excuse for students to be late to periods 2 to 6 given that they have generally already arrived at school before these periods begin. Coordinators will be notifying students when they have been late more than once in the week, and detentions will be used to encourage students to be on time.

Lateness to school in the morning can be very frustrating for teachers and on-time students, as these instances are often by more than just a few minutes. As a VCE teacher, I found it frustrating to have seven students late by between 3 and 23 minutes in one of my recent classes! The school has been under a strict local enrolment policy for many years now, and so it is fair to assume that the vast majority of our students live within the University High School enrolment zone. This should lead to relatively short commutes and little excuse for being late to school. While the occasional unanticipated public transport or traffic delay can catch anyone off-guard, I would ask that families and students plan to arrive at school with enough time to ensure a missed tram does not lead to being late to school. I would recommend that all students plan to be at school by 8.25 am. This will usually provide for enough of a safety buffer and ensure students have visited their lockers with plenty of time to prepare for the first class of the day. Similar processes for the management of this lateness will be a priority for coordinators in the coming weeks.

VCE Study Hall

The VCE study hall has opened with great success. Students are attending faithfully and working very productively. New air conditioning, carpeting and furniture were installed over the summer, and a second round of improvements will be undertaken in the Term 1 break. This resource has already proven invaluable for coordinating more than 350 Year 12 student enrolments, supporting students with SAC preparation, and setting an academically aspirational tone for students this year.

School review findings and preliminary Strategic Plan development

In mid-December last year the school undertook its 4-yearly School Review. The findings of this review have informed the development of the draft 2026 – 2029 Strategic Plan goals which are currently being expanded into a series of yearly action plans. A draft of the 2026 Annual Implementation Plan will be available for community consultation in late Term 1 or early Term 2.

9C3 - DNA Barcoding