Later Years 

Year 12 VCE Update

Even though we are in lockdown the academic year still marches on.  There is effectively only 6 weeks of class time left before our year 12 students have a one week study vacation followed by exams.  We understand that it has been an unstable year for our year 12 students but we are confident that our teachers are now experienced at supporting students through remote learning.

GAT

The GAT has been rescheduled and will now be on Thursday September 9 from 10.00am-1.15pm.  We are currently working on reviewing our COVID plan to ensure it can meet whatever are the restrictions.

SACs and SATs

From Monday August 30 SACs and SATs that can only be undertaken at school will be able to run at school.  This will include performance based subjects and Art/design subjects.  We will be providing further information about how this will be organised next week.

All other SACs will be undertaken online until we are advised otherwise.  To ensure we can authenticate student work in a remote environment there will be alterations to the timetable to accomodate subjects with multiple classes being able to run the SAC for all students at the same time.  These alterations will mean SACs for these subjects will be  run at 3.05pm in lieu of the timetabled class on the day.  Where students who are essential workers have shifts that day the teachers will negotiate a different time.

Exams

VCAA has announced there is no change to the planned exam dates for Unit 3/4 exams this year.  Performance exams and written exams will followed the advertised schedule.  

Consideration of Disadvantage

To recognise the extreme situation that our year 12 students have had to face this year the VCAA will be implementing a consideration of disadvantage system this year. Teachers will be required to submit data to VCAA based around what they believe students would have achieved without the lockdowns and associated difficulties.  Students will be required to provide a statement about the impact of the lockdowns on their own situation.  All this data will be cross referenced with student achievement data when developing study scores.  We will provide further information shortly as to how students will provide their statements but students should start thinking about their individual circumstances now.  Issues related to the following are a useful guide:

ICT support: internet connection, printers, stable devices etc

Family hardship:  loss of work for parents, providers

Essential worker:  having to take on additional shifts in an essential service or additional shifts to support the family

• Physical health:  illness of you or a family member especially anything COVD related
• Bereavement:  Loss of a family member or close friend and any implications of COVID that mad that difficult situation even harder.
• Mental Health:  Impact of COVID lockdowns on your mental health
• Storm damage:  Loss of study time due to extended power outages as a result of the massive storm we had.
• Care Giving:  Having to care for younger siblings or adults as a result of being at home during lockdown.
• Lack of suitable study space at home.

There may be other categories of disadvantage that relate to individuals but these are the main ones.

Revision Lecture Series

The VCE students in the Knox Network of Secondary schools are all invited to participate in a free series of revision lectures in the first week of the holidays.  The schools pool their resources to provide students with access to presenters who are all exam assessors or curriculum writers in their subject area.  This opportunity saves our students hundreds of dollars and brings the expertise right to their door.

All sessions this year are online and students will receive a package of print and revision materials for each session.  Bookings are essential.  The program is attached and students can book through Teams.

Catherine Ford

Assistant Principal

Later Years