Assistant Principals' Reports

Assessment and Reporting 

Congratulations to our year 9-12 students for the way they conducted themselves during end of year exams. Exams were conducted at Maffra Memorial Hall to replicate the VCE exam experience and this year we added further to that experience by using official VCE examiners to supervise the exams. Feedback from the examiners was that our students were impeccable. 

Semester 2 reports have been completed and were made available to students and families on Monday 14th December. Feedback was provided on Common Assessment Tasks (CATs) along with teacher judgements against the Victorian Curriculum standards for years 7-10 students. Year 11 and 12 students received feedback about SACs for VCE and competencies for VCAL. 

Curriculum

Students completed their 2020 learning programs on Friday 4th December and commenced the Headstart program on Monday 7th December. They commenced their 2021 learning program by experiencing new subjects, new classmates and new teachers (where possible). As the name suggests, the purpose of this program was for students (especially our senior students) to get a headstart on 2021 before enjoying a much deserved Christmas break. 

Update on Year 12 Classes for 2021

As a school, Maffra Secondary College values community feedback and the input of families into the educational programs we run.  In the interests of transparency and providing as much information as possible to students and their families, I wanted to provide an update on our 2021 Year 12 VCE program, the subject offerings available, and the decision-making processes that have surrounded these outcomes.

As a comparatively small school with a substantial and successful VCAL program that is growing each year, at times we are required to think creatively to be able to provide a broad range of VCE subject offerings to our students when the numbers are relatively small.

In 2021, we have a total of 46 Year 12 VCE students. The DET funding we receive for these students covers a maximum of 12 classes in total.  This would significantly reduce student choice and would result in students being forced to select from only two subjects, for each timetabled class. Class sizes in this case would be close to the maximum size, at 23 students per class. 

Our individualised Careers Counselling process has identified that our students have a diverse range of interests, academic goals, and tertiary prerequisite subjects.  We are very proud of our students’ goals and for this reason, we are highly motivated to seek creative ways to provide the subject offerings to cater to our students to support their educational needs.

In previous years, one of the ways we have achieved breadth of subject offerings is by running combined unit 1/2 and 3/4 VCE subjects in the same classroom, and this will be the case for a number of our classes in 2021.  This decision has only been made for subjects where combined numbers are still comparatively small.  It is important to note that the average year 12 class size for 2021 is 14, which is significantly lower than the maximum class size of 25.  Small class sizes result in an increased amount of individualised learning support from our VCE teachers.  Our teachers are highly dedicated and often support students outside of scheduled class time.

We are extremely proud of our educational outcomes, both vocational and academic, and we hope to work with our parent community to continue to grow as a school.  We believe our VCE program caters for our student needs and we are excited to work with our upcoming school leaders for 2021.

We value the support that our families provide our students, so please feel free to contact Marie Clark (2021 Senior Years Leader / Careers Practitioner) or myself to discuss how we can best support your child to achieve their goals.

I wish all our students and families a relaxing and enjoyable summer break and look forward to working with you in 2021.

Nathan Wallace 

Assistant Principal 

Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting.

PRESENTATIION DAY - VIRTUAL

Due to the ongoing COVID restrictions, 

our College Presentation Ceremony looked very different this year.  The event was held on-site over two consecutive days.  

This event was an opportunity to celebrate and recognise the individual achievements of our students.  The following awards were presented:

• Subject Awards - Academic Excellence
• Encouragement Awards
• Year Level Scholarships

Unfortunately due to the number of students receiving awards we are unable to have parents at our ceremony.  Each of the sessions has been recorded and can be accessed via our College Website so that you can also watch, enjoy and celebrate our students' success.  We have also placed a list of all awards winners on our Website.  

As our Principal - Jen Roep has already stated we will be inviting our Year 12 students to our first assembly where we will celebrate their achievements.   

On behalf of the College we would like to congratulate all of our award winners and wish everyone a relaxing and safe holiday.  Kind Regards,

Cheryl Evans

Assistant Principal                            Awards Day Coordinator