Principal Team Update

Dear Box Hill High School Community,

Welcome to our Special Edition newsletter which is focused on our experience of Remote Learning.

The last four months have certainly been a rollercoaster ride with the developments relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated changes to all of our lives.

For all of us in schools, the massive change to remote learning has been a steep learning curve - for staff, students as well as parents and carers. We have all had to be agile and flexible in our approach to working, teaching and learning; we have had to adopt innovative and creative solutions to some of the challenges we have faced and are still facing, and we have also had to muster greater levels of empathy, understanding and support for each other through the many changes.

I am incredibly proud of everyone in our school community.

Our staff have been absolutely wonderful. They have planned curriculum, prepared resources, made adaptations to cater for the changes in learning environment for students, created a whole range of multi-modal resources and generally been on duty for long hours supporting students in whatever way they can.

Our education support staff have been equally amazing - ensuring that all school business and support for staff and students continues to occur. They have followed up on student attendance, improved facilities, provided IT support, continued on with our many admin duties and provided individual support and care for students who are most vulnerable.

I have been inspired by the efforts of all staff, teaching and education support, and their commitment, creativity and collegiality has impressed me. I am truly thankful for all that they have done and continue to do, to ensure that the high standards we have set at Box Hill High School are maintained through this term.

I am also proud of all our students. This has been a huge change and students have had to organise themselves, their schedules and their work based on teacher instructions each week. They have had to navigate Microsoft Teams, ensure that they showed up to virtual interactive sessions and recorded their attendance for the day. They also had to be more self-aware and reflect on their self-regulation strategies, their growth mindset and monitor their resilience and coping strategies.

Students have also been incredibly supportive of each other, answering questions from their peers and sharing their learning online. Their respect for each other and this new way of learning has been very pleasing to see. It has also been great to see the level of engagement with all of the weekly wellbeing and engagement challenges - having fun and staying positive is what we all need right now to help us get through these unusually demanding times.

I want to also pay special tribute to all Year 12 students - your courage and stoicism in the face of this challenge has been truly remarkable. I have personally been very impressed by your continued hard work and determination this term. We will definitely ensure that there are fun events to look forward to celebrate your final year of schooling and to give you the send-off you deserve.

Well done to all students for stepping up and demonstrating the values of our school under these challenging circumstances.

I am also thankful to and proud of all our parents and carers - this has been a very demanding (and stressful) time for you as you navigate the world of remote learning often with more than one student in the household. Your calm approach and encouragement of students has been very much appreciated.  We have also been pleased to receive your positive feedback as well as some constructive suggestions for improvement. We could not do this without your support. Thanks for partnering with us as we navigate these uncharted waters.

Virtual Open Day 

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, schools are unable to run Open events. So to provide an opportunity for prospective students and their families to find out about our school, hear from some of our students and staff and have a look around our campus, we've been working on a Virtual Open Day which consists of a video, booklet and photo gallery.

Special thanks to Ms Emily Wilkinson's brother Tom, who volunteered his time and equipment, to film, edit and produce our Virtual Open Day video. Thanks also to the students who made themselves available to speak on camera.

Our Virtual Open Day will be found on our school home page soon!

Information about GAPP Testing and general Enrolment, can be found below.

Celebrating Excellence - VCE 2019

It is no secret that our VCE results 2019 were outstanding and we are very proud of all students - their hard work paid off, and every student was able to achieve their own personal best and are off to high quality pathways in a range of prestigious institutions.

We are also very pleased to announce that two students have been awarded the Premier's Top All Rounder VCE High Achiever Award for achieving study scores of 46 or higher out of 50 in at least five VCE subjects. There are only 28 recipients of this award this year in the state.   

Our heartiest congratulations to Michael Zhao and Bernhard Andersson for this excellent achievement - it is a testament to the commitment, and dedication you have applied over the many years of your schooling. We are very proud of you both.

In addition, we also have four students who have received the Premier’s VCE Award in a single subject. Only 276 Study Awards are being presented to students in this category- so we are also very proud of the achievements of all the following students.

They are:

• Jordan Blanch - Media
• Benjamin Fok - Specialist Mathematics
• Ervin Salim - Physics
• Shinya (Sean) Hirase - Japanese Second Language (undertaken at the Melbourne International School for Japanese)

As a result of the pandemic, the DET has postponed the official presentation ceremony until further notice.

Returning to School

On Tuesday 12th May,  Premier Daniel Andrews  announced a staged return to school for all students in Victoria as follows:

Monday 25th May - Curriculum Day (students are not required at school)

Tuesday 26th May - Year 11 and 12 students return to school

Tuesday 9th June - Year 7-10 students return to school

There will be no assemblies, camps or excursions for the remainder of Term 2.

We will continue to plan for the best possible remote learning program for all students until such time that they can return to classes.

I will keep you informed as we continue our planning toward a seamless transition back to school for all students and staff. Please keep an eye on Compass for further updates.

Our Community is Strong

I am grateful for the courage and resilience that everyone has demonstrated in recent months. I know that the Box Hill community is caring, kind and supportive of each other, so I am confident that we will rise above the current challenges and continue to flourish after this is all over. It is a difficult and uncertain time and now more than ever before we need to stay strong, calm and hopeful.

Maya Angelou, poet and author says that “Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Invite one to stay.”

Until we meet again, please take good care of yourselves and your families.

- Ms Losh Pillay, Principal

Assessment and Reporting

VCE

As you may be aware, the Victorian Government has announced adjustments to the delivery of the VCE due to schools moving to remote learning and teaching for term 2.

• The GAT (general achievement test) will moved from June to November.
• End of year exams will be postponed until December.
• SACs (school-based assessment tasks) will be reduced where possible to relieve pressure on students.

We now have received amended Unit 4 study designs for all subjects in which some content has been removed from the course and some SACs either have been removed or the amount of work required has been reduced. The adjustment in content and assessment ensures genuine relief for students while maintaining the integrity of the individual study design and the VCE certificate. The broad aims and intentions of the studies are still achieved and can be assessed fairly and accurately, while recognising that to be fair to this year’s students, some reduction in workload is required.

Teachers are working through the changes and will in due course inform students of new timelines, course content and changes to SACs. We are also waiting for the new Unit 3 & 4 exam schedule to be released sometime in mid to late May.

There have been no changes made to VCE Units 1 & 2 studies and there are very few changes to Unit 3.

Our Senior Team have prepared a video update, which can be found in our Senior Team Update later in this newsletter.

Assessment Years 7 to 11 during Term 2

In recognition that teachers have adopted revised teaching and learning plans for Term 2 and that assessment can be more challenging in a learning from home environment, there has been a reduction in the frequency, breadth and amount of assessments. However, student learning progress is still being tracked by teachers and students are receiving feedback from their teachers on their learning.

We have also cancelled the Year 10 and 11 mid-year exams to reduce pressure on students and allow extra time for the coverage of the semester one Year 10 and 11 courses. 

Reporting

There will be a report to parents at the end of semester one but it will be take a different form to our planned end of semester report. We are currently working on the adjusted format and will communicate to parents when we have finalised the details.

- Ms Theresa Iacopino, Assistant Principal

GAPP Testing

GAPP Testing has been postponed due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. 

Current booking holders have received an email. All current bookings will be kept in place and we will re-open bookings when a date is confirmed. We anticipate this will be towards end of Term 2 or beginning of Term 3.

Register here to be notified by email as soon as we have more information

For general enrolment information, please see our Enrolment page.

Enrolment

Later in Term 2, parents of students in Grade 6 will receive the relevant documentation regarding transition to Year 7 from their primary school. The Year 7 Placement Forms are issued by the Department of Education and Training and must be returned to the student’s primary school by the specified date.

It is the Transition Coordinator’s role at a primary school to assist parents with the application process for enrolment at a government secondary school. The primary school will inform parents of their application outcome during Term 3.

For general enrolment information, please see our Enrolment page.

- Ms Kellie Ind, Assistant Principal