Andrew Chisholm

Assistant Principal

Welcome to Term 1 2019. The new year seems to be have started at a particularly busy pace. Our new students in years 10 and 11 have found their feet, made new friends and participated in an array of events which characterise JMSS in Term 1.

The Swimming Sports were once again most successful with many new JMSS records being set and the Senior Sport Round Robin saw JMSS sending teams in Cricket, Baseball, Volleyball, Table Tennis and Tennis. I accompanied the two enthusiastic baseball teams to Waverley Baseball Club where some close and entertaining games were played. The two teams representing JMSS are pictured below.

The Year 10 Camp was once again a great success and I am writing this from the Year 12 Camp at Somers where the second largest Year 12 group at JMSS have been getting to know their teachers, learning about key aspects of the year as well as listening to some inspiring speakers.  These included Luke Atkins, an athlete who has represented Australia in two different sports, and Abdi Aden, a refugee from war-torn Somalia.

Having access to the beautiful Somers Beach allows for a range of beach activities as well as paddleboarding, surfing and swimming with dolphins.

Our staff have also been particularly busy developing new courses, integrating positive education and literacy strategies into the curriculum as well as building new assessment tasks for the year ahead.

ASSESSMENT CHANGES IN 2019

Many in the JMSS community will be aware that we have been steadily moving towards a Continuous Feedback model rather than a traditional reporting model. This year all subjects in all year levels will use a system called Canvas that is used in many secondary schools and universities across the world. Most feedback to students about their performance in assessment tasks in each subject they study will be via Canvas. Currently staff are undergoing intensive training to learn the system and the next newsletter will have a further update about the feedback cycle and how parents can access the system.  Feedback about student progress will also be available at the first parent teacher student conferences of 2019 on Thursday April 4th. This year the conferences will occur between 12.30pm and 8.00pm and booking for these will be via Compass. Details about the booking process will be released soon.

Andrew Chisholm

Assistant Principal

(Curriculum, Pedagogy and Operations)