Andrew Chisholm

Assistant Principal

Dear Parents and Students, 

With only a week to go in Term 1 it does seem that the Term has passed very quickly. All of our new students seem to have settled in well and are meeting the challenges thrown in front of them head on. As we reach the end of term teachers have been conducting many assessments to get an indication about how students are progressing in each of their subjects. Feedback to students and parents on their learning progress in each of these assessments can be accessed via Canvas.

Parent Teacher Student Conference

The first Parent Teacher Student Conference is this Thursday April 4th. Appointments can be made with each teacher via Compass.

These conferences are a great opportunity for parents and students to sit with teachers to discuss learning progress in each subject to this point of the year. The key aspect of these conferences that needs follow up is to put into action any suggestions made as how to improve performance in terms of work habits and the application of key knowledge and skills. This may involve follow up work over the holidays and the creation of revision folders particularly at year 11 and 12 levels. This type of activity is great preparation for second term which has many assessments in all year levels scheduled in mid-term and anexam periodin week 9 of Term 2.

Reef and Rainforest Trip 2019 Information Night

Our sixth expedition to the Great Barrier Reef, Daintree Rainforest, James Cook University Cairns and the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland is only a term away. 

There is a compulsory information night for all students at their parents on Wednesday 3rd April at 6.30 pm at JMSS. This information night will cover aspects of the itinerary, items to bring and any other preparation required. Mrs Vandenberg has sent an email with all details about this info night to all parents of students who are going on this year’s trip.

Monash University is also offering waterwise swimming courses for students who may want to improve their swimming prior to the trip. If this of interest to you please RSVP to me as soon as possible.

Students have already completed a form to indicate their swimming ability, and this will also be taken into account when allocating places in this program.

Disruption to Trains

The next month will be challenging for students coming on the Pakenham Cranbourne Lines, Sandringham and Frankston lines as PTV runs an autumn construction blitz. Please assist your students to navigate through the chaos to get them to school on time during this period.

Holocaust Museum

Last week I accompanied the entire Year 10 cohort to the Holocaust Museum and Classic Cinemas to learn about the historical context of “Night” the text studied in year 10 English. Students heard from 2 Holocaust survivors about their experiences before, during and after the second world war. Irma Hanner was one of these survivors, and she presented her story of survival, growing up in Dresden Germany in the 1930’s, being separated from her family and working in camp factories in Czechoslovakia. She is pictured with some of our students in front of a JMSS reflections page related to the visit.

Eucalypt Tour of the Brisbane Ranges

Two of our students in Year 12 Extended Investigation, Garry Ford and Sacha Shang recently participated in a fieldtrip to the Brisbane Ranges organised by Eucalypt Australia and the Royal Society of Victoria. The trip designed to allow participants to learn the principles of identifying Eucalypts of which there are more than 800 species was led by the 86 year old, legendary botanist and botanic artist Leon Costermans.

Both Sascha’s and Garry’s projects in Year 12 involve an aspect of plant evolution that will certainly benefit from the expertise learnt on this trip.

Term 2

The start of term 2 will be a busy time for many students. Students come back on the Tuesday of week 1 and Anzac Day is the Thursday. JMSS athletics sports is scheduled for the second week back  and there are many camps such as Generations in Jazz, and Dynamic Earth early on in the term as well as welcoming our rural exchange students who are with us for 3 weeks and our exchange students from MWITs in Thailand  for a week.<