From the Acting Assistant Principal
Senior School

Ella Price

Learning Behaviours

Learning Behaviour reports are published occur each term as a way to report on student engagement to our students and their families, promoting metacognition, reflection and student autonomy in learning.

You can now download your child’s Learning Behaviour report for Term 1 on Compass via the ‘Reports’ tab. Teachers have made these judgements based on the Learning Behaviour rubric, included on the second page of the report. Note that this has been updated in 2023 with amended criteria.

We encourage students to reflect on their report prior to this week’s Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences, supporting them to identify areas of strength and growth.

In the Senior School learning behaviour data is used to determine students’ suitability for promotion to the VCE/IB/VM (for current Year 10s) or acceleration into the VCE (for current Year 9s). Where a student has low or inconsistent Learning Behaviours strategies should be put in place to support the student to improve their Learning Behaviour throughout the year.

As a Senior School, the learning behaviour we have to collectively work towards is ‘Completes Required Work’.

Rubric criteria we may be struggling with:

Goals we can set to strengthen these:

I submit work late.
I have incomplete assessments or Not Attempted/Partially Completed Snapshot tasks.
The work I submit is not completed to a standard I can be proud of.
I don’t act on Homework Centre referrals if I fall behind.

I will plan out my week and prioritise homework that is due the next day.
I will finish all of my CATs/SACs.
I will submit my CATs/SACs on time.
I will review the CAT/SAC calendar weekly to check that I know what tasks are due.
I will ask for help when I struggle to complete my homework so that I can try and complete it all.
I will complete and submit all Snapshot Tasks by the due date.
I will submit work as soon as it is complete and seek extension tasks to strengthen my understanding.

We look forward to supporting our students to reflect on their Learning Behaviours to enable them to set individualised goals to support their growth across the year.

Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences

Today we began our Parent-Student-Teacher conferences. This is the first opportunity for our families to meet with teachers via WebEx to reflect on their child’s Term 1 progress. We held over 2,000 conferences with our teachers, thank you to those of you who attended. We value the opportunity to strengthen our partnerships with our families to support student growth.

If you weren’t able to attend today, we encourage families to book for our second session next Wednesday 29th March (2:30pm – 4:30pm). On this day students will be dismissed at 1:15pm to allow them to make their way home to join their conferences. Conference bookings can be found on the Community Tab on your Compass homepage. We look forward to meeting with you to discuss your child’s progress.

Our Senior School community

Congratulations to Cayden Lange and Ruby Robertson who were elected to our School Council for the next two years. It was great to see so many students voting for their representatives and I know that Cayden and Ruby are excited for this new opportunity to reflect your voice on School Council.

Our Pivot Student Feedback surveys on Teaching and Learning have closed and students have begun discussing their classroom data with their teachers this week. Through these collaborative conversations, students are able to see the areas of strength and areas for growth in their classes. A discussion about what we can keep doing, start doing and perhaps stop doing across the next term increases transparency and trust between our student-teacher relationships.

Thank you to all of the students who completed their Pivot surveys, Madame Delhostal for leading this student voice program and all of our teachers who are in the processing of reviewing their Term 1 data.

Next week students will have the opportunity in our Teach the Teacher program. I encourage students to take part in this student-led professional learning session as well as focus group opportunities.

Careers education in the Senior School

Careers education supports our students to make informed choices throughout their school.

Our Year 12 students have started their Careers sessions with Ms Boardman in their study periods. We started these smaller group sessions last year as a way to enhance student contact with Ms Boardman’s expertise as they navigate their options and plan their pathways in preparation for their graduation later this year.

By the end of Term 1, all Year 10 and 11 students will have had protected time in Education for Life (E4L) or their Study Period to work on their Career Action Plan. This will be sent home to families later in this year and contains four sections:

About Me
My Subjects
My Strengths
My Future

Students work on their Career Action Plans throughout the year, supporting them to refine their plans for the future as they explore career ideas, identify study and training options and think about actions to achieve their goals.

Year 11 and 12 students will attend a Monash University presentation and campus tour, following by a visit to the Careers Expo at Caulfield Racecourse on Thursday 4th of May. Year 11 and 12 students will have the opportunity to learn about Monash University study options and pathways, campus life, student experiences, and get a small taste of university life for themselves. At the Careers Expo, students can speak directly with student advisors and ambassadors from universities (Victoria and interstate), TAFEs and RTOs, explore careers in the ADF, Police and Ambulance services, chat with key industry representatives, learn more about apprenticeships, traineeships and cadetships, explore employment and gap year options and gain study advice through subject specific seminars.