VCE News

The year began smoothly and a huge congratulations to all VCE students who have approached Term 1 with positivity and with great energy. It has been great to see students focusing and engaging well with their teachers and with their peers and bringing genuine enthusiasm to their learning.

Reaching the end of the first school term provides time for a brief reflection and the chance to look forward to the rest of the year. It was fantastic to see so many VCE students taking part in the swimming carnival earlier in the year, but the recent athletics carnival is where VCE students really showed up - both on and off the track. Some great outfits and some great fun! It’s also fantastic to see so many VCE students making the most of the breakout spaces in the VCE centre. It is important that we try our best to keep these spaces clean and that when using these spaces, we need to be conscious of the noise levels given the classrooms that are situated nearby, as well as the staff offices. 

We are fast approaching a part of the year that traditionally can be quite busy for VCE students, particularly when it comes to assessments. Please remember to reach out for help when you need it - from your teachers, from your peers, from your coordinators and from your families. There are a range of supports available to VCE students. In the coming weeks, teachers will work to identify students who they have concerns about their ability to achieve an ‘S’ in their subject and who may need some extra support or who may need to complete some additional learning tasks. This is not an indication that a student has failed a subject - it is an indication that teachers are concerned about progress or completion of work and have outlined methods to address their concerns and get back on track.

Some important things to remember:

VCE Coordinators

Attendance 

At University High School, we believe that school attendance is important for young people to succeed in education and to ensure they do not fall behind both socially and developmentally. The VCE Sub-School will work with VCE students to help them maintain high standards of school attendance because we know that young people who regularly attend school and complete Year 12 or an equivalent qualification have better health outcomes, better employment outcomes and higher incomes across their lives.

Importantly, attendance in class is essential as it allows teachers to authenticate learning progress and to teach, assess and provide feedback to ensure learning growth for all students. In accordance with the VCAA attendance rules, University High School requires all students to maintain a minimum attendance of 90% for each Unit in which they are enrolled in order to achieve an ‘S’ result for each outcome of the Unit.

Managing attendance: In the first instance, it is the student’s responsibility to monitor their attendance and to ensure that attendance for each subject remains above 90%. Where a student is absent from class, it is a requirement to have these absences ‘Parent Approved’ by their family via Compass Parent Portal or ‘School Approved’ by the VCE Sub-School in the case of an approved school event.

All absences must be accounted for to ensure that students remain in a safe and supportive environment at all times during the school day. ‘Unapproved absences’ will be addressed by a student’s VCE Coordinator to ensure that all students are supported in maintaining a minimum attendance rate of 90%. When a student’s attendance in any given Unit drops below 90%, they will be required to attend an Attendance Improvement Meeting with their VCE Coordinator where they will be supported to develop strategies to improve their attendance or to remove any barriers impinging their ability to attend classes. If after this meeting, attendance does not improve, families will be required to attend a meeting to assist in devising an Attendance Improvement Plan with the student and their VCE Coordinator to continue to develop supportive strategies aimed at improving attendance.

Formative Assessment Tasks

Formative Assessment Tasks occur regularly in the classroom and allow teachers to understand where students are at with their learning and allow teachers to provide appropriate supports. Formative Assessment Tasks take place in a range of ways - worksheets, oral presentations, creation of a poster, teacher/student interview, kahoot/quizizz, Google Classroom question. Much like attendance, Formative Assessment Tasks are essential as they allow teachers to authenticate learning progress and to teach, assess and provide feedback to ensure learning growth for all students.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Josh Madden - Head of VCE Sub-school

josh.madden@education.vic.gov.au