Faculty News

Enhancement - Term 4

The speed with which the year comes to a close always leaves one heady and bemused. It feels like it was yesterday that I had the pleasure of introducing Mazenod's Year 7 (2022) cohort to the Enhancement program at the College, back in the halcyon days of Term 1. In short order, they picked up the opportunity with both hands and ran with it all the way to the finishing line, in their respective subject areas. As we look back across Enhancement English, History, Mathematics, STEM, Music, and RE for 2022, we are gratified to see a group of young learners achieving excellent results in manifold formative and summative assessments. Some of these students will head over into Enhancement acceleration pathways in Senior School for the next leg of their journey. Others will experience trepidation until their progress into next year's program is confirmed. The Enhancement team at Mazenod will shortly be engaging in that exact process; making decisions about participation that are doubtlessly difficult, but important for the students' collective learning outcomes. 

 

I would also be remiss in not mentioning that the theme of constant change continues to challenge the program, as recently developed courses evolve and become concrete institutions (in particular, Enhancement English and STEM in the Junior School) in their own right. New and returning teachers will be making their own contributions as of 2023, with the recent departure of Mr Noel McGarry being capably covered by Dr Matt Fyfield this term and the return of Mr James Tranter to look forward to next term. We also anticipate new opportunities that students will be afforded to show off their skills and talents in the coming year. We will carefully consider how to put together a Mazenod Enhancement team capable of challenging for honours at the Da Vinci Decathlon next year, which is a cross-curricular competition testing many different cognitive abilities. There will also be changes as to how we encourage our Junior English students to participate in the Shared Stories anthology and to thereby continue developing their creative writing skillset.

 

 

 

 

 

Mr Mladen Spasic

Gifted & Enhancement Coordinator