From the Assistant Principal 

Senior School

I have just arrived back from visiting our Year 11 and 12 students on their Monash University and Careers Expo excursion.  We were so lucky to be able to take these two year levels to Monash University’s Caufield campus where students experienced university life by hearing about all of the courses on offer at Monash campuses in Victoria.  They heard from current students who were studying a variety of courses, asking questions as to how university is different from learning at school, campus opportunities such as clubs, and how Monash promotes global learning experiences, including exchanges and short study-abroad trips.

This term there is a lot of time for our Senior School students to invest in researching their future pathways.  All of our Year 10, 11 and 12 students have now had their Term 2 My Learning Growth sessions where they accessed their individual templates to reflect on their Term 1 attendance, learning behaviour and CAT/SAC data before setting engagement and academic goals.  We know that goal setting promotes motivation and accountability, and students were supported in designing SMART goals that will support their success this term.

When we review our individual data, we start to think about the opportunities we want to provide ourselves for the future.  Today’s excursion enabled our students to begin to ask questions about their pre-requisites for tertiary study, as well as investigating which type of institution might suit best beyond school.

Our Year 10 families were invited to an IB Information Evening last week to begin to understand how this program differs from our VCE program.  We heard from Anna and Eagan, current students in our first IB cohort.  Thank you to Peter Ryan (Leading Teaching Curriculum 10-12) for facilitating this session. We have had lots of questions already from students who are interested.  It is great to see the Year 10s utilising their Auburn Learning Quality (ALQ) of communication as they begin to inform themselves in preparation for course counselling next term.

Our Year 10 students also heard from Project Rockit last week, an incursion in line with their Education for Life (E4L) curriculum.  They were encouraged to reflect on how they can act on diversity, prejudice, discrimination and unconscious bias in their day-to-day lives.  Our students at Auburn have the potential to create real change as young adults and this can stem from their actions as part of their Year 10 and our Senior School communities.

Finally, congratulations to 10B who won our attendance competition.  This Tutor Group had the highest approved attendance for Term 1. Attendance is approved when there is documentation for any student absence (i.e. medical certificate) and so we applaud 10B for being so diligent throughout the term.  Their combined average attendance was 94%, the highest of any Year 10, 11 or 12 Tutor Group. They celebrated this week with a pizza lunch and I look forward to seeing if they can take out the Term 2 competition which is well underway!

Our Year 11 and 12 students have their final sport days in the next couple of weeks and we started strong with our Soccer Team winning this week, no doubt with lots of motivation from coach Mr Brochet.  I look forward to hearing about more positive contributions in our extra-curricular space before we move into a busy assessment and examination period.  This includes our House Cross Country in Week 4 where our Senior School students will be integral role models for their house communities, expressing house spirit and pride!

Overall, a fantastic start to Term 2 for the Senior School. Well done to you all and keep it up over the next seven weeks!