Director of Pedagogy and Innovation

Winter Music Recital

Congratulations to Mr Godbold and the Performing Arts team for organising such an entertaining evening on Monday 3 June. I am always thoroughly entertained when I attend our music concerts, and I congratulate all the students who participated. You should all be very proud of the progress you have made this year in your music studies.

Senior Subject Selection Expo

Please note the Senior Subject Selection Expo for students in Years 10 and 11 will be held on Tuesday 23 July. Further information will be communicated to parents and students shortly.

Speeches from the Endeavour Awards Assembly

During our Endeavour Awards Assembly on Wednesday 15 May, Ava Vlahos and Kiriaki-Kiara Katiforis shared a reflection on their first term in Year 7 and VCE.

My First Term in Year 7 by Ava Vlahos

For those who don't know me my name is Ava.

I am in Year 7 at PCW and today I am here to say a few things about my first term at PCW.

Coming into high school I didn't know what to expect. My sister had told me a few things here and there about PCW, but other than that I was completely unprepared to what high school would be like. As I went deeper into the first term I found that there were many more things to look forward to, not just having a locker or getting to change classrooms each lesson, but how close the school community is to one another and having someone to go to if you’re confused about room numbers or just plain lost. There was a big difference between primary school and high school homework, but eventually I sort of got the hang of it. I'm still working on it. Overall so far my time at PCW has been amazing and I can't wait for what the rest of my time at PCW has to bring.

My First Term in VCE by Kiriaki-Kiara Katiforis

This past term has been the first time many students from Year 11 and a few from Year 10 experienced VCE.

Although it was expected, transitioning into VCE still felt rather sudden and I think we all felt a little nervous as we realised we reached a point in our lives where we would start making decisions that would affect our futures.We were suddenly thrown into a world of needing to complete sacs nearly every week and constantly stressing about the looming exams. VCE has proven to be quite difficult. Our work load has definitely increased and our subjects have gotten harder and more demanding. For a few of us, we also found ourselves having classes at a completely different school and for almost all of us our classes now have boys in them.

However, we also found that through VCE, for the first time we were allowed to choose subjects that we wanted to do and study about, and we were now able to pursue our interests and no longer do classes that we disliked or didn’t have any interest for.

Although we may have found VCE difficult it has also helped in creating better and more productive work habits, and it has also helped in finding study methods and tricks that help finish homework quicker and understand it better. Personally, I have had to learn how to manage my time more efficiently in order to get all the work done, and I am now able to do subjects that interest me and learn about things that I know will be beneficial in my future studies.

This past term in doing VCE, I have found that as a year level we have all become much more supportive of each other and in helping each other with all the homework.Now although VCE might be difficult and stressful, I know that we will all manage to make it through it.

2019 EduTECH

EduTECH, an international congress and expo for teachers, was recently held in Sydney. It was a privilege to be able to attend the first day of the congress and listen to a range of speakers. A highlight for me was listening to the keynote address delivered by Sir Ken Robinson, the ‘world’s elite thinker on creativity and innovation’.

I went to an interesting session on the pedagogy of play, focusing on the role that play has in learning. I have fond memories from my childhood of building my own creations using Lego bricks. At that time I didn’t think of the benefits playing with Lego had on improving my fine motor skills and learning how to share and take turns with my brother. The Lego Foundation have produced a very interesting report titled ‘Lego Play Well Report 2018’. This report helps us understand the importance of play for children. Some interesting data is presented from the results of the surveys that were conducted to prepare the report. In particular, I found quite interesting the responses from parents recognising how play can help children develop a number of skills.

Please find the report below

Nathan Lane

Director of Pedagogy and Innovation