Assistant Principals

Teaching and Learning Update

The start to Term 3 has been a productive one for learning and teaching at HPSC.  We had many new students joining the College, including a large group of students from the Noble Park English Language School who commenced their first classes in a mainstream school in Australia with our community.

Behind the scenes, all teachers engaged with their second round of moderation for 2018 in Week 2.  The moderation process is critical to knowing and understanding the impact of teaching on student learning.  As part of this process, teachers meet in teams and analyse a range of data, including CAT data and feedback gathered from students about their experiences in the term and the CAT.  This conversation then guides future improvements to the design of learning experiences for students both in this year and future years.

Alongside this, teachers spent the first couple of weeks this term preparing semester reports for all students.  These can be accessed by all students, parents and carers via Compass.  These reports contain important information for students and parents/carers to view and use.  In particular, it provides families with information that can be discussed in more detail at our upcoming Learning Conferences on Wednesday 29th August. For students, it identifies key achievements to celebrate from Semester 1 and areas to focus on improving for Semester 2.  All students, parents and carers are encouraged to discuss these reports at home and book an appointment with their students’ teachers to get further updates.

Finally, students have been engaging in the 2019 subject selection process.  For students in Years 8 to 11, this has involved consulting subject handbooks, attending subject round robins, visiting stalls and asking questions at our Later Years Expo, attending Course Counselling appointments to discuss their pathways and most importantly, entering their subject selections for 2019 online using our system called Edval.  A very big thank you to all staff who have been involved in this extensive process, from our Student Management team working to ensure students are as informed as possible, Domain Leaders to presenting subjects from their Domain so students could learn more about the details, our Later Years Pathways Leader for coordinating information evenings and Course Counselling, our many course counsellors for working with students and families to support the subject selection process, and our Careers team for being on hand to provide detailed advice about the many hundreds of pathway options for students beyond their time at HPSC.  Finally, to any other staff that have contributed to, or lead this extensive process, I know our students are grateful for the seemingly endless support they are provided at this important time and are looking forward to studying their chosen subjects in 2019.

Eloise Haynes

Assistant Principal