Mr Bohni & Dr Denney  

Acting Assistant Principals

To the JMSS Community,

It's hard to believe that we are half-way through term 3 already and what a busy term it has been! With Andrew Chisholm taking long service leave for the first six weeks of term, we (Melanie Denney and Luke Bohni) have had the opportunity to step into his shoes (and office) and try to keep things running smoothly.

Course counselling

The first few weeks of term saw all of our year 10s and year 11s complete their course counselling interviews. Thank you to everyone who was involved in this process and, especially to all of the students and parents who watched the information nights that were published online and who, no doubt, have been having very constructive conversations about subject selections and future pathways. We would like to remind everyone that the courses decided upon during course counseling interviews can still be refined at the end of year during the course confirmation process and that these interviews are aimed at providing feedback to students about what courses they are eligible for based on current performance. If you or your student were not allowed to choose a subject that was of particular interest, there will hopefully be some agreed-upon targets that you can aim towards achieving before course confirmation later in the year that, if met, would then allow you to access that subject.

New Year 10 Interviews

The last week has seen over 500 year 9 students come through the school and participate in interviews to be part of our 2023 Year 10 cohort. It has been a joy to hear about each of these students' interest in science and we are confident that next year's year 10's will be as enthusiastic and passionate about science as those that have joined us in previous years. It was also nice to see some familiar faces from previous JMSS cohorts come back into the school to assist with the running of these tests. We want to express our thanks to all of the students, staff, alumni and Monash academics who assisted us in this process as we, quite literally, could not have done this without you. In particular, we'd like to give a huge thanks to Martine St Leon who had the mammoth task of organising the whole process and who did such an amazing job of doing so and always with a smile.

Upcoming events

As we enter into the second half of the semester there are some important dates that everyone should be aware of:

• Friday the 19th of August is a Teacher Professional Practice Day so no classes will be running on this day and students are encouraged to use the time to study for upcoming assessments and catch up on any outstanding work.
• Tuesday the 23rd of August is our Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences. As was the case last semester, these interviews will be held online and it will be a student-free day.
• The 7th of September will also be a day of no classes as we are running the GAT on this day. All students doing a Unit 3&4 subject are required to sit the GAT on this day. There will be some GAT briefings coming up soon so please keep an eye out for these where more information about how the GAT will operate in 2022 will be disseminated.

The end of Term 3 is, traditionally, a very busy time of the year with numerous assessment tasks and events taking place. This year will be no exception to this with the added complexities of illnesses and absences. Please be kind and show empathy towards one another during this time and remember that everyone is doing their very best. If you, in particular, find yourself falling behind or struggling, then please talk to your teachers and mentors to see what kind of support they are able to give you.

Luke Bohni & Melanie Denney

Acting Assistant Principals