Leader of Curriculum

I would like to welcome all our students and parents back to the Marian Community in 2023. It was pleasing to see year 7 students settling in quickly on Tuesday with the support of Mr Buckland and the year 7 homeroom teachers.

It has been an extremely busy start to the year with a number of our senior students feeling the pressure of the Preliminary and HSC workload. I encourage all students to plan ahead with their assessments and try to keep a healthy balance between recreational activities, part time work and college demands. It is extremely important that they use their class time, study periods and allocated home study time productively to help keep on top of this work load.

Procedures are in place at the college if students are feeling like they are unable to cope with these demands. I urge any student feeling this way to be proactive and talk to either their year coordinator, Mr Herb or myself.

I would also like to stress that the assessment policy is very explicit regarding the submission of tasks. Students need to make prior arrangements with myself if there is any reason why tasks cannot be completed by the due date.

I will be meeting with Year 10, 11 and 12 in the coming weeks to check each of their Conformation of Entries. A Confirmation of Entry is an official document from NESA outlining a students’ personal details, courses of study and nationality status. It is important that our records at the college reflect this. If there is any change of address or family circumstance, it is important that the college is informed and our records are up to date. Students also received information about how to register with NESA. Registering with NESA will enable students to check their details and courses. They can also access their RoSA results, if they leave school, as well as their HSC assessment ranks and final results. I urge all students in year 10, 11 and 12 to follow the instructions given using your NESA student number.

In the past 2 weeks, I have met with a number of year 9 and 11 students to help finalise their elective courses for stage 5 and 6 respectively. It is my hope that all year 9 and year 11 students will be all settled into their classes by the end of week 4. This will then enable classes to settle and concentrate on their courses. TAFE course will commence next week.

Year 7 to 11 assessment calendars are now on the portal for all students to start planning their time to take into account this additional workload. A lot of work has been done behind the scenes to ensure that no student has more than two assessments in any given week. If any student is feeling overwhelmed, they should discuss this with their teacher, year coordinator or myself. 

Year 11 students will receive a copy of the Preliminary Assessment Policy and Schedule for 2023 in the coming weeks. It is now important that they write out their own Assessment Schedule for their courses of study. I will meet with the whole year to make sure this policy is clear and understood by all at the next timetabled year meeting.

Regards

Mr John Seers