The Score

College Principal's Report           

Welcome to this edition of Score

Winter is here and it has certainly become cold and wet the past few weeks.  It has been a very positive term and all students and staff are now busy as we are in the peaks assessment period for this semester. It is important that students are communicating with their teachers and asking for support where required so they can maximise their achievement.

 

I am pleased to report that our Year 7 enrolments for 2018 are coming in and we are continuing to grow as the community gets behind our great College. I thank our current students and families for the positive messages you are sharing, our communications and publicity team and our staff and College Council who have led our school improvement.

 

Knox Rotary Partnership

Our College is increasingly connecting and engaging with community groups to create opportunities for our students.  This week members from Knox Rotary came to our whole college assembly to formally be welcomed as our new partners. Knox Rotary Club was established in 1980 and has a diverse mix of membership from different ages, backgrounds and cultures. We are thrilled to be able to work collaboratively with our new partners to make a difference for our students and community. There will be many benefits for our students including direct links with business and industry personnel , leadership opportunities and scholarships opportunities to name a few. At the assembly Jason Wilcox the President of Rotary presented certificates and provided a cheque for $2,000 as a donation for student scholarships and our VCAL sustainability project. In presenting the award Jason indicated his members have a strong passion when it comes to young people and believe it is important to invest in them as our future leaders of tomorrow.

We are very privileged to have such a well-respected organisation as our partners and look forward to working with them.  Next week our music students and tribe will be performing at Rotary’s  AGM and I have an opportunity to speak to their members about Scoresby Secondary College with our Captains Frazer Spence and Tash Orfanidis.

 

Framework for Improving Student Outcomes (FISO)

Scoresby Secondary College is working with Scoresby Primary School, Knox Park Primary School and Bayswater Primary School to support and guide the teaching and learning of numeracy and mathematics to improve student outcomes across the network. Today we hosted a meeting of Principals and mathematics coordinators from each of the schools with the Senior Education Improvement Leader from the Department. The group were presented with the latest research on what are the most effective strategies for making an impact on mathematics outcomes. Having heard the evidence based on world expert Marzano, the group then visited our Year 7 maths class being conducted by our teacher teams. 

 

What was evident to the group was that our practice was consistent with the research findings.   Our teachers are focussing on learning and embracing the evidence from their pre and post testing to personalise learning to have a significant impact on student learning confidence.  The feedback at the end of the visit was very positive and I am proud of teachers but equally the way the students were engaged in the tasks and their ability to articulate to our guests what they are learning.

 

The schools have each made a commitment to our FISO group and have established the following guiding principles to drive improvement​​​ for all of our students

  • We are each responsible for numeracy improvement in our schools
  • We will contribute positively to our FISO  by working collaboratively within and beyond our own school to build quality teacher practice
  • We will use data and evidence to make decisions and guide our practice
  • We will share strategies, resources and professional learning to develop whole school approaches to numeracy
  • We will engage and promote our FISO to our communities and celebrate achievements

This FISO group is one of two groups we are actively working in, the other being our literacy group.

 

Report Writing Day

Friday 16 June is our report writing day. Teachers will be completing assessment of student work and writing end of semester reports. Students are not required at school on this day.

 

Uniform – Wear it with Pride

Parents are requested to ensure that their son/daughter leaves for school and arrives home from school each day wearing the correct winter uniform. This includes the College approved jumper and not substitutes under jackets. Students are permitted to wear a plain white T-shirt under their uniform for additional warmth.

 

Girls are reminded that their skirt must be of a modest length and worn with the correct colour tights or socks (navy with the old uniform and black with the new).  All new school pants must be the melange grey as specified on the PSW list that went out earlier in the year. Until the end of this year the lighter grey may be worn by Years 8, 9, 11 and 12 students.  All members of the school community have a responsibility to maintain the Scoresby College culture of always wearing the school uniform correctly. Next year all students are required to be in the new uniform which is available from PSW.

Thank you for your assistance.

 

Peer Observation Week

In May our staff participated in peer observation week. Peer observations are used as a form of teacher reflection and feedback to continue to build quality practice. I thank the staff for their commitment to their professional growth improving our student learning outcomes.

Observation weeks take place in addition to College tours and leaders routinely visiting classrooms. The observations also:

  • support sharing of ideas and expertise among teachers
  • build a community of trust through opening classroom practice to a wider audience
  • encourage openness and sharing of practice with a focus on improving impact on learning

Gail Major

Principal