Senior School Report

Term Break Homework and Revision

“Success isn't always about greatness. It's about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come”- Dwayne Johnson

The term break provides the opportunity for important leisure, rest and family time; however, it is also important for senior school students to continue their study habits and a study routine to consolidate their knowledge and skills in preparation for Term 2 and their upcoming assessment tasks. Research has established that homework has a positive effect on learning, particularly at the middle and secondary school levels (Xu, 2010; Zimmerman & Kitsantas, 2005).

Students need to complete their set term break homework tasks and home study/revision. Students must ensure all notes, chapter summaries and other tasks are fully completed and that they revise the topics that were covered during Term One. VCE students should review the key knowledge and key skills of the outcomes studied thus far with a particular focus on the areas they found more challenging and need more work/practice on. The key knowledge and skills for each VCE study have been provided by teachers and are also available from: https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/curriculum/vce/vce-study-designs/Pages/vce-study-designs.aspx

Year 12 and Year 11 students studying a VCE Units 3 & 4 study can also start looking at VCE end of year exam questions. Students can access past exams (and examiner reports) and look through these for questions based on the outcomes that they have already completed. Past exam papers can be accessed from: https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/assessment/vce-assessment/past-examinations/Pages/Index.aspx

College Athletics Day

Congratulations to the Senior School students on their efforts at the Athletics Day held earlier in the month. Many students led a sense of fun and community by dressing up in costumes and house colours. The costumes ranged from a sumo wrestler, fairies to complete Bunnings attire. It was great to see the senior track and field events full of eager participants all aiming to get a winner’s ribbon and, of course, those important house points!

Year 11 Drama Excursion

The Year 11 Drama class went on an educational and entertaining excursion to see ‘Come from Away’ at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne. This tale was about passengers diverted to Newfoundland after the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and highlights the kindness and the power of coming together as a community. While the purpose of seeing this performance was to have stimulus for a written assessment, the whole drama group thought it was extremely enjoyable and it was good to do some of our learning outside of the classroom and in a new environment.

Grace Gardner and Zoe Wickham

Year 12 VCAL students lead the way

The Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) is a senior secondary certificate that provides students with practical work-related experience, as well as literacy and numeracy skills that are important for life and work. Like the VCE, the VCAL is a senior secondary qualification and a pathway to many careers and future education.

The VCAL has three levels- Foundation, Intermediate and Senior. Our Year 12 VCAL students are completing the senior level where much of the learning is autonomous in regard to planning and work activities but conducted under supervision. Knowledge and employability skills development leads to a high level of interpersonal skills, independent action and achievement of tasks that require decision making and leadership.

Our Year 12 VCAL students recently led the Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) learning for our Year 11 VCAL students who are studying Intermediate level VCAL. This involved the Year 12 students researching and becoming experts in OH&S topics and then developing engaging activities for other students to learn about OH&S legislation, processes and procedures. The students developed a range of activities including on-line quizzes, word matching activities, case study analyses and group discussions. The quality of the presentations were outstanding and it was great to see their efforts build their own knowledge and skills and also those of others.

Mr Tony Stirling

Head of Senior School