Principal's Message

Congratulations to the class of 2022

Throughout 2022, our Year 12 students have consistently demonstrated our values of respect, responsibility, resilience and endeavour and have proudly modelled positive learning behaviours to our younger students. On Tuesday 18 October during the Year 12 Farewell assembly, students and staff across the school showed our gratitude to the Class of 2022 and wished them the very best for the future. We are more than confident our Year 12 students will achieve success in each of their desired pathways.

Our Year 12 VCE students, joined by over 60% of our Year 11 students who have chosen an accelerated Unit 3 and 4 VCE or VET subject, will be sitting their external VCAA exams over the next four weeks. During this time, it is important that student use their independent study time and seek regular feedback from their teachers. Gaining an understanding of their strengths and becoming aware of specific areas of improvement will give purpose and focus to their study. A significant amount can be learnt during this period and a consistent and focused study routine will give our students the confidence they need to apply knowledge and skills in exam situations. Parents and carers can support students during this stressful and often emotional time by offering a supportive and calm environment for study and encouraging them to take care of their physical and mental well-being. While maintaining a focus on exams is paramount, good sleeping, eating and exercise habits can help alleviate stress and anxiety and help their minds and bodies function optimally.  

2023 Timetable Structure

The timetable structure for both students and staff will change in 2023. 

The school will move to a 5-period day, changing the current period length from 50 minutes to 60 minutes. 

To ensure the timetable can accommodate curriculum time allocations for different subjects, the timetable will need to operate across two weeks. In general, each lesson will be a single period of 60 minutes, with some year 7 and 8 classes potentially having a double period for certain practical classes. 

Why the change?

The timetable change was prompted by the reduction of the face-to-face teaching load as part of the new Victorian Government Schools Agreement (VGSA).  These changes were made across the state to provide teachers more time to plan, assess and report on classes and acknowledge the many hours teachers currently spend outside their normal work hours in planning, assessing and reporting. However, the changes made it difficult to allocate teachers to classes using the current timetable of either 50 minutes (singles) or 100 minutes (doubles) classes and would have an ongoing negative financial impact on the school. It’s important to note that while teachers’ face-to-face time changes in 2023, the total instruction time for students remains unchanged, with the school continuing to be required to provide 25 hours (1500 minutes) of instruction to students per week.

In response to these changes, we conducted a review of our current timetable structure to develop and explore potential solutions.  With staff and students, we explored what would be the optimum learning time to implement our Instructional Model with rigour. Our Instructional Model (GENAR) was first introduced in 2019 and has been foundational to the structure of each lesson, every day.

The following criteria were established through staff consultation and used to evaluate options: 

1. Period length is optimally timed to enable deep learning using the instructional model while maximising student learning, concentration and engagement.
2. The structure provides continuity in learning across the week and ensures students regularly see their subject teachers.
3. The structure maximises the use of human resources in an efficient manner and provides staff allotments and duties that meet the obligations of the VGSA.
4. The daily structure provides ample breaks for students/staff and provides opportunities for extracurricular clubs/activities.
5. The new structure provides opportunities to meet the pastoral needs of students.

I want to thank the student and staff input into this process and particularly the staff working group which met weekly at 8 am to work through staff and student feedback, explore options and provide recommendations.

I am excited about the opportunities the new daily timetable structure will provide staff and students in implementing our instructional model (see next page). 

Best wishes

Craig O’Bree

Principal