Andrew Chisholm

Assistant Principal

Dear Parents and Students,

This week has seen much activity as our orientation program for 2020 is in full swing. Our year 10 and 11 students are been able to get a “head start” on their courses for next year by familiarising themselves with study designs, background material and assessment styles. All students will have some tasks to complete over the break in order to better prepare themselves for the 2020 academic year.

Year 12 Results

Students completing Year 12 subjects are able to access their results from Thursday 12th December.

This year there are considerable changes to the processes around change of preference processes and also for the first time, Victorian universities are making early tertiary entry offers. This year students only have 2 days to complete any changes to their VTAC preferences with change of preference closing on Saturday 14th December.

Representatives from all faculties at Monash University will be in attendance at JMSS on the morning of Friday 13th December between 9am and 11am to assist students who may want to change their VTAC preferences. We will also have our careers and pathways staff available if students and parents wish to discuss any aspect of the tertiary selection process.

Antarctica Flight

We still have a couple of places available for this trip that spends a day flying over Antarctica. As someone who did this flight two years ago, it is probably the best way to see the icy continent. Those on the custom engineered plane get to see volcanoes, ice sheets, glaciers and bases and hear from Antarctic base leaders, explorers and researchers. Whilst in the air, researchers are taking gravitational and magnetic field measurements and students get a chance to participate with researchers. JMSS is one of only 2 schools invited to participate in this trip and costs are subsidised for us. If interested please see me asap.

University Extension Results

Last week the Monash University Extension Awards Evening was held at the at the Monash Caulfield campus. This year we had students enrolled in eight different first year university subjects and students were awarded certificates to celebrate successful completion of these very demanding subjects. The top student in each extension subject was also recognised with a special award and remarkably the top students in a number of these subjects were JMSS students. These students will also be recognised at the upcoming presentation night.

Booklists

This year we have a slight change to the providers of texts for our students. Monash Bookshop is still providing the majority of resources in most subjects and we have Box of Books as the centralised provider of E Resources. E resources include Maths texts, Edrolo and those subjects using Education Perfect.

Andrew Chisholm

Assistant Principal