From the Assistant Principal 

Junior School

Time and Space nights

We were delighted to welcome around 60 Year 7 students and their mums or mother-figures to our very first Time and Space event last week. The event was a unique and very special opportunity for mums and kids to connect, share and talk. The evening was supported by 20 generous AHS students across Year 9-12, who volunteered their time to facilitate and assist on the night. Thanks also to Yr12 mum, Alicia S, for agreeing to be one of our panellists along with Fred G and Sophie N. We are looking forward to the 2nd event in the series with Year 8 and 9 students and their dads or father-figures on August 21st. So far we have more than 70 families registered! It's not too late to book, clickhere. 

Buildings and grounds update

Construction continues to progress well on the senior building and is apparently still on track to be ready to open for Term 2, 2024. The Science Club were once again welcomed to a site tour this month, where Travis from Carelli explained the current stage of works, the different processes occurring on site and the different trades and their respective skill-sets and qualifications.

This week, Wowowa architects met with myself, Science Learning Area Leader Mr Hanlon and senior Chemistry teacher Dr Phillipson, to review proposed chemical storage facilities in the new lab, and ways to maximise the utility of the preparation room and classroom areas. The design is looking fantastic. We have also participated in a furniture workshop to discuss requirements for classroom furniture, informal furnishings, joinery and lockers.

A workshop with a local indigenous artist, AHS students and staff and Wowowa representatives will be taking place later this term to develop a design representing Bunjil to be featured in the new reception area.

We were advised this week that repair work to the V rooms will commence next week, and we are looking forward to these rooms coming back online next term.

The builder for our bathroom upgrade project has now been appointed and the project kick-off meeting is coming up in the next couple of weeks. We remain hopeful that demolition will commence before the end of term 3. Once again, thanks to those AHS families who have been able to donate to our Building Fund. We have been able to ensure that the bathrooms on all 3 floors are upgraded due to the availability of this additional funding. I have recently submitted a grant application to have the gym bathrooms upgraded as well and expect to find out by the end of the year. Fingers crossed!

NAPLAN 2023

This week, Leading Teacher 7-9 Cassie Mahoney, NAPLAN Assistant Oliver Lamb and myself attended a seminar on the changes to NAPLAN that have been implemented this year. The session was very informative and we were pleased to see many improvements that will enable schools to use this data to support student learning outcomes even more effectively. The changes will enable a more detailed analysis of what our students are already able to do and what they need to learn next.

Our school data was once again very strong and we took the opportunity to discuss the current practices that are positively impacting literacy and numeracy skill development. We also spent time at the session reflecting for further improvement.

NAPLAN is a useful data-set in identifying and monitoring the progress of our students at a cohort level, but also at an individual level. Our teachers use this information alongside other data-sets such as PAT Numeracy and Literacy and ongoing teacher judgements to monitor student progress. Next steps will include sharing the changes to NAPLAN and our 2023 data with teachers so that further targeted supports can be put into place in classes.