Building a culture of academic excellence

The college continues to be strongly focused on building a culture of academic excellences, by focusing on building the capacity of our students to undertake, formal assessments under conditions such as examinations, School Assessed Course work (SAC's) at years 11 and 12 and highly structured Common Assessment Task (CATS) at year 10. Our exception team of teachers have been focused on develop engaging and effective School based assessment tasks, that meet the requirements of Victorian Curriculum & Assessment Authority (VCAA).

Edgars Creek Secondary College, recently held the GAT (General Ability Test) for the firs time at our campus. The GAT is used to ensure that students in Year 12 in Victoria are meet the minimum literacy and numeracy standards and it is also part of quality assurances processes.

The college has recently announced the full range of VCE Courses and subjects for 2024 Academic Year, the new Course & Subject Guide provides prospective senior students with a wide range of choices and course pathways. The Handbook is easily accessed via the college website: https://sites.google.com/education.vic.gov.au/edgars-creek-subject-selection/home.

We are committed to enhancing the engagement and capacity of our students to make informed choices regarding their future aspirations and goals. We recently held the Year 10 into Year 11 Information Night where we had over 180 students and parents in attendance, and this event was followed by a very successful Year 10 into Year 11 Course Counselling day where we had over 190 our students attend a 15 minute conference to discuss their career aspirations during , post school courses and how best to choose the most appropriate subjects and pathways for 2024 to reach your aspirations.

The year 11 cohort is also very focused on exploring and reviewing individual Career and Course Pathway options, with over 120 our year 11 students attending the Melbourne Careers Expo at the Melbourne Convention Centre, with the opportunity to speak with employers, industry representatives, Universities and TAFE's prior to making final subject choices for year 12, 2024.

Partnership between Students, Parents and the School

Establishing a strong and effective partnership between students, families and staff is essential to supporting the ongoing success of our students. The recent information nights, the course counselling and frequent meetings with families during the Student Led Conferences and individual Student Support meetings are all evidence of the school's commitment to building and enhancing these relationship. I wish to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank our community for collaboratively working in partnership with us and our young people towards realising each of our students unique individual goals and aspirations.

Promotions Policy

I wish to draw all students, parents and carers attention to Edgars Creek Secondary College Promotions Policy; that outlines the multiple opportunities for students to achieve success in their Senior School experience and provides personalised pathway planning to support students achieving their goals in and beyond school.

In order to set students up for success and support their decision making through Senior School and beyond, the following framework guides how students proceed through their senior years.

Year 10 into Year 11

Promotion into a senior certificate program such as VCE or VCE Vocational Major (VM) at Edgars Creek Secondary, year 10 students must:

For Year 11 VCE entry

Attain satisfactory completion of at least 8 over semester 1 & 2.

Attain satisfactory completion of English or EAL

For Year 11 VCE Vocational Major entry

Attain satisfactory completion of at least 6 subjects over semester 1 & 2.

If English or EAL is not successfully completed, additional testing will be required to determine the students readiness to proceed to a Senior Pathway Program

Achieve attendance level of 80% or above.

*Individual circumstances are taken into account upon making a final decision regarding a student’s access to a year 11 VCE program.

Year 11 into Year 12 Requirements

In order to gain entry from year 11 into year 12, students must achieve the following:

A minimum of 8 satisfactorily completed units at the unit 1 and 2 level or above, unless

The student undertakes 6 subjects in year 12 as part of an individual pathway plan

A minimum of 6 units completed if a confirmed 6 subject pathway plan in place for year 12

At least 1 unit of English or EAL

A VCE attendance rate of 90% for the academic year

*Individual circumstances are taken into account upon making a final decision regarding a student’s access to a year 12 program.

Calling for Scholarship Nominations

The Senior School is proud of our association with the Australian Defence Forces (ADF) and we are calling for year 10 & 12 students to nominate for the following Defence Force Scholarships.

Long Tan Youth Leadership & Team Work
Future Innovators Award

The selection criteria includes: Leadership, Team work, Problem Solving, resourcefulness, Communication and community engagement.

Nominations will open soon for all year 10 & 12 students.

Semester One Reports now available

We have recently released the Semester One, 2023 student reports and individual examination results, I encourage all families to use these Semester One reports as an opportunity to sit down and review and celebrate the successes, and to have open discuss regarding how a student can lift their learning growth for the remainder of the academic year.

Year 10

Year 10 Leadership Team

Year 10 Formal

Our Year 10s have an exciting term ahead of them with the Year 10 Formal quickly approaching on Friday August 25th. A student led formal planning committee have been working hard on planning the music, awards and decorations for the night to ensure that this is a night that our Year 10s will never forget. We look forward to watching the year 10s as they build wonderful memories with their cohort. The college has just extended the deadline for consent and payment until Sunday 30th July, no further extension will be possible.

Examinations

As a college we would like to congratulate all the year 10 students who completed their school exams at the end of term 4. Students are commended for their efforts to prepare and study for the exams, wearing the correct full school uniform and their effort during their exams. Well done to all.

Year 10 into Year 11 Information Night on July

The Information Night was highly successful with a very high level of attendance by families and students.

The Information night included following information:

Overview Senior School leadership
Senior School expectations
Course & Career Pathways & subject selections
VCE & VCE (Vocational Major) VM explained

Year 10 into year 11 Course Counselling Day

The course counselling day was held on the first Thursday back of Term 3. It was wonderful to see so many students and families present on the day discussing their child’s future and working with the college to set them up for future success. The uptake of student enrolling in VET courses was a big positive for the day and we as a school are very excited to continue working with our learners towards achieving their dream careers.

Year 10 Health Day

The year 10 Health Day was to be held on Wednesday August 2nd however we have regretfully need to pause the event to insufficient presenters. We will continue to plan for Love Bites is a Respectful Relationships Education Program for young people aged 15-17 years. Love Bites aims to provide young people with a safe environment to examine, discuss and explore respectful relationships. All Love Bites programming takes a strength-based approach and views young people as active participants who are able to make choices for themselves and their relationships when supported with information and opportunities to skill development.

Year 11

Leading Teacher and Coordinator report

Year 11’s welcome back to an exciting and busy term 3. Term 3 marks the start of unit 2, and the start of the second half of year 11. During this time, it is essential that students make a positive start to their academic studies. This can be achieved by setting up good study and organisational habits at school and home.

This may include:

- Ensuring all devices and books are organised and ready to go.

- Students have all their textbooks and English texts that they need for unit 2

- Students set up a study and homework schedule at home

- Students set up a dedicated study space that is quiet and away from distractions

- Students and parents review their most recent reports and have a conversation about setting realistic goals for term 3.

Unit 1 Exams

In the final two weeks of school the year 11 students completed their unit 1 exams. Overall, the year 11s demonstrated excellent behaviour and application towards their exams. It was great to see students progressing their skills and academic knowledge at the end of unit 1. Building exam skills and strategies is a vital part of VCE and senior school as the year 11 students progress towards their final exams.

Attendance

A quick reminder that it is a school and Department requirement that students attend a minimum of 90% of classes. This is to ensure that your child stays up to date with set course work and that it can be authenticated by their Teacher. If your child is absent from school for any reason please note the reason on Compass. This assists the school in supporting your child to ensure that they do not fall behind in their work. If you are unsure of how to log into Compass please call the school for assistance.

SAC re-sits

If a student receives a non satisfactory grade for a SAC they will be required to complete a SAC re-sit after school. This will occur on either a Wednesday from 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm or on a Thursday from 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm. If your child needs to complete a SAC re-sit during unit 2, you will be notified via email.

Year 11 Careers Expo @ Melbourne Convention Centre

In particular some of the very popular stalls/exhibits of the 150 available were:

- Latrobe university

- Deakin university

- Melbourne Polytechnic

- Kangan Institute

- The Australian Defence Force

- Victoria Police

- Masters Builders Australia

- Endota Wellness College

Afterwards, the students then participated in a wellbeing and recreation activity. The students then selected one activity from the following options: bowling, arcade/ laser tag, mini golf and movies. All students had a great time connecting with their friends, and other peers during these sessions.

Overall, the year 11’s demonstrated the college values to an extremely high standard. Well done on a great day year 11!

Year 12

Year 12 leadership team

Up Coming VTAC Information Night

As Year 12 students start to enter their course preferences through VTAC, this evening will provide important information for students and their parents/guardians about how to apply for University and TAFE courses in 2024.

The evening will be held on Wednesday 26th July, 2023

Time: 6:00pm – 7:00 pm in the Theatre.

The topics covered on the evening will be:

Using VTAC to research courses
Registering for course applications through VTAC
Applying for courses
Applying for the Special Equity and Access Scheme (SEAS)
Applying for scholarships
Applying for early entry
August Open Days at Universities & TAFE
Preparing for Year 12 VCAA Exams

Year 12 Excursions

Going on an excursion in Year 12 is usually a chance to prepare for an upcoming SAC or as part of a SAC. So far this year, our Year 12 students

have had several subject specific excursions, and there are several more to come. If students do not attend an excursion, they are missing out on a valuable opportunity to prepare for a scored assessment.

Excursions this year have included:

Yakult Factory - Business Management

Road to Zero (Melbourne Museum) - Health and Human Development

Luna Park - Physics

Monash Organic Spectroscopy Symposium - Chemistry

County Court (Incursion) - Legal Studies

Gene Technology Access Center - Biology

Memory and Learning Practical Demonstrations (Incursion) - Psychology

General Achievement Test (GAT)

For the first time at Edgars Creek Secondary College, our students sat the GAT. The GAT is used to ensure that Victorian students in Year 12 meet the minimum literacy and numeracy standards. It also plays three other roles that relate to quality assurance of assessments.

1. School-Based Assessments & Scaling

The GAT plays an important role of moderating the different assessment marks across different schools in Victoria. It makes sure that marking from school to school is consistent and makes sure that internal assessment marks are comparable.

2. External Assessment Moderation

The GAT is also important for moderation of external assessment results. If there is a large difference between external assessment marks and the marks predicted by the GAT and internal assessments, the external marks are then reviewed by the chief assessor.

3. Derived Examination Scores (DES)

If you are affected by illness, accident or trauma and miss an external assessment, your ATAR score may be, with approval from VCAA, be calculated from your GAT scores. The GAT is used for this in addition to any other marks that are available such as from internal assessments, predicted external assessment scores, and indicative scores provided by the school.

Homegroup

Attendance to Year 12 Homegroup (HG) is essential. During HG, students are informed of any changes to their Assessment Schedules, provided important information regarding VCAA and their results and other school announcements. HG starts at 8:50am and we regularly have year level assemblies if something urgent needs to be discussed with the year level. When students do not attend they are missing a vital part of their day.

During Term 2, we had 2 HG competitions. One was based on attendance and 12D won by having the highest average attendance across all of their subjects. The students in 12D were treated to a pizza lunch. The other competition was a literacy based one, where students took inspiration from our wall of puns to create their own. 12A won the Fun with Puns competition and Reym was named our Pun King with these crackers..."I had a crazy dream last night! I was swimming in an ocean of orange soda. Turns out it was just a Fanta sea." and "Organic Chemistry is so hard it could Boronation."

Unit 3 Award Winners

At the end of Term 2, we congratulated those students who had demonstrate excellence and our College value of Embrace Learning. Congratulations to all of our students who worked their way through Unit 3!

Excellence Award Winners

Biology -Layne Dellevergini

Business Management - Sandra Saiju

Chemistry - Gurleen Sidhu

English - Shreya Dass

Food Studies - Mia Trajkov

General Mathematics - James Dimech

Health and Human Development - Gurleen Sidhu

Legal Studies - Petrezcia Parian

Mathematical Methods - Mary Pham

Physical Education - Koen Buckoreelall

Physics - Atar Singh

Psychology - Shreya Dass

Embrace Learning Award Winners

Biology - Shreya Dass

Business Management - Gwain Gwain

Chemistry - Layne Dellevergini

English - Sarah Sulaiman

Food Studies - Jorgia Stojanovski

General Mathematics - Koen Buckoreelall

Health and Human Development - Krishi Devendran

Legal Studies - Muhammad Qureshi

Mathematical Methods - Reym Url Kanindot

Physical Education - Petrezcia Parian

Physics - Reym Url Kanindot

Psychology - Nayanika Lenu

Year 12 VM Unit 4 Community Project

Term 3 is a busy term for the Yr 12 VM students as they plan and implement their community project which is supporting the local Whittlesea Community in providing food for those in need. Last week, students made Napolitana Pasta, this week it is Fried Rice and then they will make Minestrone soup and Macarony and Cheese over the coming weeks. Along with the cooking, students are asking staff to bring in cans of food that can be given out to the community via the Whittlesea Food Collective. To help our immediate community the VM students have created a weekly roster to prepare breakfast at our breakfast club each Tuesday morning.

Community Messages