Senior School Update

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

It is hard to believe Semester 2 has started! Semester 1 certainly was busy. 

Settling into classes, having assemblies, sports carnivals, excursions and assessments has kept everyone on their toes. Year 10 students also participated in a week of work experience.  Overall, the students have settled back in well and have been engaging in all aspects of school life.

It has been a busy last few weeks for the Senior School as the semester came to a close, with the Year 12 students completing a large number of assessment tasks to round out their Unit 3 studies. The Year 10 and 11 students have completed their end of semester exams over the last two weeks, providing them with the opportunity to get a feel for exams and how they differ from classroom assessment. This hopefully will let them be better prepared come the end of year exams that they will face in Year 12.

Students studying a unit 3/4 subject have the GAT (General Achievement Test) tomorrow (Thursday 15 June). A letter has been emailed home about this. 

A reminder that Year 10 and 11 examination marks (these will be included on semester reports) are not pass or fail. Students who have met all course requirements (most of our students) were only completing their first exams to experience the demands of revision, studying and to demonstrate their knowledge of a full semester of content in a timed situation. 

Our Year 11 and 12 Vocational Major students have enjoyed getting out into the community, working in teams to plan activities and organising excursions.

Students will be receiving their reports at the end of term and I would encourage them to look through them and reflect on how they have started the year, including where they have gone well and where they need to continue to improve in Semester 2. They should use these reports as a guide to set themselves some goals for the second semester.

The Year 12 end of year examination timetable has been released on the VCAA website and I would again urge students studying a Year 12 subject to check this so that they can begin to plan out their study routines in preparation for the exams. 

As we move into the second half of the year we also start to plan for next year. Students have been given information about subject selection for 2024. 2023 Year 11 students need to complete a preselection form before Friday 16 June and 2023 Year 9 and 10 students need to complete a preselection form before Monday 19 June, which is then followed up with course confirmation interviews in Week 2 and Week 3 of Term 3. The interviews will be done via Google Meet with 2023 Year 11 into 2024 Year 12 students happening on Tuesday 18 July and 2023 Year 10 into 2024 11 students happening on Friday 21 July. 2023 Year 10 SEAL students will have interviews on Wednesday 19 July. For Middle School 2023 Year 9 SEAL students will have interviews on Wednesday 26 July and 2023. Year 9 into 2024 Year 10 students will have their interviews on Thursday 27 July. 

We look forward to a positive Semester 2 and remain committed to supporting and working with our senior students through the rest of the year.

Susan Cochrane

Director of Senior School