Secondary School News

The preparations for the school production, Treasure Island, continue to run smoothly and tickets are selling fast. Everyone is very excited about the performances that will take place on the 22nd and 23rd of July. Look on 'Whole School News' page for more information.

Information Evenings and sessions will take place during term 3 so please keep checking emails and notifications on our website.

Thursday, 29th July: VCE VCAL & VET Information Night (Collingwood Town Hall) 5pm-8pm

Judith Clelland

Assistant Principal

Secondary Education

Facts about sleep for parents and school staff

Sleep is very important for good health. There is an informative article on the WELLBEING PAGE about sleep - advising about what helps and how to tell if your young person is getting enough sleep or not.

Senior Secondary Certificate Reform

Victoria is transforming the delivery of senior secondary education with the introduction of a single senior secondary certificate that will offer greater access to quality vocational and applied learning pathways for all students. The senior secondary education reforms aim to provide access to education and training that is relevant, engaging and that delivers in-demand skills for the future world of work, ensuring that students can access education that leads to employment.

Next year students will still be able to enrol in either the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) or the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE). The following year, in 2023, VCAL students will be enrolled in the new VCE Vocational Specialisation or the new foundation pathways certificate which will be introduced to replace Foundation VCAL.

The VCE Vocational Specialisation will be recognised internationally, be valued by employers and will build on the strengths of VCAL including providing:

flexible timetables that allow students to study at school, TAFE and work
opportunities to experience real-life workplaces
subjects that will build students skills and prepare them for life after school
greater access to high quality VET learning, either in school, a neighbouring school or a local TAFE

The new certificates are part of a suite of 38 reforms recommended in the Review into Vocational and Applied Learning Pathways in Senior Secondary Schooling (the Firth Review) to lift the quality and perception of vocational education and help more students access high-quality applied learning programs.

Course selection in 2022

We are supporting all students in their course selections for 2022 and are providing the following advice and information to students considering a VCAL pathway.

If students are studying VCAL in 2022 they will transfer into the VCE Vocational Specialisation with credit for completed VCAL subjects in 2023. In 2023, students will continue to study Senior VCAL subjects in the new certificate as part of the implementation process. At the end of 2023, these students will be awarded the VCE Vocational Specialisation if they meet the requirements.

Students who are studying Foundation VCAL over multiple years, including in 2022, will transfer into a new foundation pathways certificate in 2023 with credit for completed subjects. These students will study the new foundation subjects and graduate with the foundation pathways certificate.

This approach provides assurance and clarity to current Year 10 students some of whom will be among the first cohort to receive a VCE Vocational Specialisation certificate in 2023.

The following diagram sets out the senior secondary pathways for students commencing the VCE or VCAL in 2022.

* Note: Students can also move between certificates

If you would like to talk further about these changes please contact Judith Clelland: judithc@collingwood.vic.edu.au .

To learn more about Victoria’s senior secondary certificate reform, you can email the Senior Secondary Reform team.

Tessellation Workshop

On 18 May, the all day "Tessellation Workshop" was conducted at Collingwood College with the VCAL students.

The process involved the students developing a Geometric Tessellation, inspired by Eric Broug. The class was studying Islamic Art and Syrian Food.

The aims and focus of this workshop was to further enhance the students'

* Personal Development Skills. Working in a collaborative setting.

* Further develop their Numeracy and Literacy Skills. Each student was to calculate how many glass pieces were required for each colour etc. For the Literacy, students were asked to write a full page Self Evaluation reflecting on the whole task, using appropriate terminology and personal opinion.

Each student executed their design concept using glass squares, tools, techniques and mixed media to complete a food tray. This food tray is to form part of their" Hospitality" subject and used to photograph their "Food Styling" exercises. Students will keep this tray which forms apart of their Visual Folio of evidence.

I would like to thank you David, Dianne and the staff of Zart Art, for all the sponsorship and support to conduct this very successful program at Collingwood Collage.

Thanks

Olga Lambrianidis

Visual Arts Teacher

Girls in S.T.E.A.M

Last Friday, we participated in a day of STEAM activities. Firstly, we listened to some guest speakers, they were all women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths related careers. We really enjoyed the talks from Priyani who works as a water engineer at ARUP and Gem who works as a meteorologist at BOM (Bureau Of Meteorology), they were very inspiring. Next up, we participated in an engineering challenge. This involved us designing and building a floating house that could hold 37 marbles! During the last activity of the day, we explored the physics involved in bouncy balls, investigating momentum, gravity and mass.

In conclusion, we had lots of fun getting an insight into different STEAM careers.

Yenni, Jean, Abbey and Teo

Year 9