From the Principal

Extra-curricular experiences play a key role in enhancing our students' learning and development, and we are excited to have a range of extra-curricular activities happening across all our year groups as we hit the half way mark in Term 2.

Our Year 10s are currently on Work Experience. The students (often assisted by their families) have organised placements that are related to the areas of employment that they are considering for future careers or a fantastic opportunity to have valuable experiences to add to resume for casual employment. One of my roles is to sign off each of the forms before students go on placement and I was delighted to see such an extensive range of placements being taken up. I would also like to thank the local businesses that take on our students and give them the time to develop a range of skills.

Our Year 9s are heading into the CBD as part of their City School Program. They have been improving their own agency in developing their research tasks and I am sure they are looking forward to their time in the city.

Next Week our Year 8s are heading off to camp in Kurth Kiln regional park, near Gembrook. Students will participate in a range of activities designed to develop their teamwork and resilience, experiences designed to be both challenging and rewarding. I will be joining them for the experience as well, and am up for the challenge of eating my own camp cooking! I have been checking the Parks Victoria website and am excited to see the wildlife of the area during our time outdoors.

Our Year 7 and 9 students have completed their NAPLAN testing, although there are a few catch-ups to be completed later this week. I hope that our students enjoyed the experience and developed a better understanding of the testing process. Thanks to our families for ensuring that our students were there with devices ready and earphones to listen to tasks that required them.

As we move towards the end of the Semester, our senior students will have assessment tasks coming up. Our Year 11s will be sitting End of Unit Exams that are again building their resilience for completing longer assessments in their next year.

All of our students will soon start to participate in our Course Selection process for 2023. It may seem a little early to be thinking about next year, but we want students to take their time and make well-informed choices for their next year of study. Our Year 10 students may return from Work Experience with a renewed enthusiasm for a particular career path and we can then assist them in reaching this goal. Our Course Expo will take place on the afternoon and evening of Wednesday 8 June. Students will have a shortened day and will be dismissed at lunch so that teachers and families can attend the Expo. More information will be published about the Course Expo closer to the date.

We have a few more pupil free dates to share with our families to assist with planning this Term.

Wednesday 1 June : Staff Professional Practice Day
Friday 17 June : Assessment and Reporting.

The Professional Practice Day is the day that staff members have been given each Term for the past few years to undertake work of their choice; curriculum planning, assessment and reporting or professional learning. This year, the Department has requested that schools take a common day for all staff to assist with replacement teacher coverage. The Assessment and Reporting day is held at the end of Term 2 and allows our teachers to have time to complete assessments, collate results and provide feedback on Compass and Teams. Semester reports will published in the final week of Term for review by our students and families over the holiday break.

I look forward to reporting back on our experiences on Year 8 Camp and I hope that your children make the most of their upcoming opportunities.

Chris Jones

Principal