Principal's News
Welcome
Welcome to our new digital newsletter. The newsletter will be available via Compass or via our new school website. We will also have paper copies available at each campus office
The value of an specialist program for all students at year 9
In 2020 we are reintroducing a specialist term based program for all year 9 students. This program will operate in a cross-curricular framework and draw inspiration from the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians.
The "Melbourne Declaration" as it is commonly called, sets out two specific goals. The year 9 program will focus on the second goal that "all young Australians become successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens". Our year 9 program will provide students with the opportunity to think broadly, dream widely and to develop a sense of there role as citizens of our country,
Many high performing schools run a targeted year 9 program. Sandringham College was a leader in this area running the C/3/9 program and then Horizons. We have been working hard to redevelop our program and have had a team of teachers developing new curriculum to engage and excite students.
As principal, my thoughts go to the possibility of including in our new master-plan, a building or specialist campus to run a year long program for our year 9 students.
A program that:
- reignites their passion for learning
- provides opportunities to develop citizenship through
community engagement
- assists them to identify their strengths and weaknesses as learners
- supports them in their transition from childhood to young adulthood
Ms Amy Porter
College Principal
House talent Quest
On Monday August 12, the College held the Annual House talent quest. Congratulations to the winner - Daniel Trevethick of Year 7 for his lip syncing number.
Well done to all of the students who competed. A huge thanks to Ms Ilya Giannopoulou, Ms Kylie De Niese, Mr Tim Clifton, house leaders and hosts (performing arts captains) Mackenzie Bliss and Gizem Bektas
Anika Kelly/Archie Hughes (original song for guitar and vocal) - Year 7
Charlotte Christie (dance solo) - Year 8
Chaz Abbott-Higgins/Alexa Sanchez (vocal duet) - Year 8
Ebony Bodsworth (vocal solo)- Year 7
Kael D'Alterio (lip sync)- Year 11
Aaron Sculli (piano solo) Year 7
Katya Jaski /Sienna Tessari(vocal duet)- Year 7
New Curriculum 7-9
We have spent 2019 developing and writing new curriculum for the 7-9 program. Working with our learning partner Esther Weschart, teams of teachers have been developing a curriculum that is modern, rigorous and engaging. The curriculum also focuses on tiered assessment allowing for all students to access learning at their level. All year 7 students will receive the new curriculum in 2020 with some year 8 subject areas also introducing a new curriculum. Particularly exciting is the introduction of Digital Technology at Year 7 and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) at Year 8. Other changes include an increase in elective choices for Year 9 students.
Developing good curriculum takes time and this has meant that teachers have been out of class at a higher than usual rate in 2019 resulting in more CRTs. We do not take teachers out of classrooms lightly and only do it because we know that teacher collaboration is the number one factor influencing good teaching practice. The result of effective teaching practice is better learning and wellbeing outcomes for students.
We will have disruption in 2020 as our incredible learning partner Esther has agreed to remain with us. She is committed to our school because she believes that we have the right philosophy about teaching and learning and about working with young people. We will have less disruption as our teachers have demonstrated the capacity to take the learning and to develop their skills to benefit our students. Many teachers are working extra hours outside of school because they want to support our students and they know that this is important. I would like to thank all of the teachers at the 7-9 campus who are working so hard to make a difference. In particular I would like to acknowledge the following teachers for going above and beyond in their work to get this curriculum right: Lynne Laursen (head of numeracy), Christine Coldbeck (head of literacy), Cathy Ferguson (art, design & technology & learning specialist), Ingrid Scharer (Horizons) and our new incredible graduates Aaron Brown (technology) and James Kerr and Julia Vogel (humanities).
Student Leadership Forum
On Friday July 26 we held the inaugural Student Leadership forum at the Bluff Road Campus for all students in leadership positions 7-11. On the day we discussed a new students leadership structure, heard from keynote speaker John Hendry about leading with kindness and courage and gathered student voice around the implementation of the School Wide Positive Behaviours for Learning framework that we will be introducing in 2020.
We are so lucky to have amazing young leaders at our school and on the day they provided us with great insight into how to improve our school and to better include students in decision making. Two of the students involved have written an article that can be found in the College News section of the newsletter.