Cranbourne Campus News

Year 10 Road Smart Excursion

On Monday, the Year 10 students ventured to Sandown Racecourse for a day focussing on becoming learner drivers.  The highlight of the day was an off road driving experience.

Groups of three students were assigned to a car and an instructor and each had about 20 minutes behind the wheel.  The students reported back on how good this experience was for them and a number spoke of the positive reinforcement from their peers in having a go at driving even when they felt very anxious about doing so.  The safe and supportive environment was important for a number of students who had not yet had that driving experience.  For those students who already had their learner’s permit, they were able to log some driving time as they strive to get their 120 hours before attempting to gain their probationary licence.

While waiting for their turn to drive, students undertook various lessons provided by St. Peter’s College teachers on car safety features, good decision making, reaction times and assessing risk.  This is all part of our efforts to keep our young people safe on the road.

Kolbe Amazing Race

Congratulations to all the students who participated in the Kolbe Amazing Cultural Race. There was a great buzz as Houses prepared to receive their instructions to race around the yard to learn more about the cultures within our school community.  Each team was led by a Kolbe House Forum Leader and the excitement was infectious. Marian House won the shield, which will be presented at our next College assembly.

Houses were placed based on order of completion, accuracy of placement of cards with their locations and whether they had a full team.

Congratulations Marian House and Kolbe captains, Kayla, Aveen and Shantelle on great organisation of a great race.

House Chess Competition

This week saw the completion of the semi-finals of the House Chess Competition in preparation for next week’s Grand Final.

The top four houses played one another with the following results:

Augustine defeated Romero (6-2) and Marian drew with Avila (4-all). Given that Marian finished ahead of Avila at the end of the normal rounds, they will play Augustine in the Grand Final next Wednesday.

McGuigan SHIELD

After their victory in the Kolbe Amazing Race this week, Marian jumped Avila to move into second place once again.  They only narrowed the gap on Augustine house by 25 points after Augustine’s strong showing in the Amazing Race.  With Augustine’s strong position in the Inter-house Chess Competition, it is difficult to see how they will be overtaken now, with only 5 weeks of the competition to run and a lead of just over 200 points.  However, Marian is throwing everything at them at this stage. 

It is amazing to see that less than 60 points separates the four houses placed 4th to 7th.  This should be a closely fought tussle until the end of term. 

Acara Test Time Trial

In preparation for NAPLAN testing, the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) randomly select schools and then students in that school to do what is effectively a trial run of the test.  The purpose of this is to ensure that future NAPLAN tests are a reasonable length and level of difficulty.  This week, a select number of Year 7 and 9 students undertook these tests.  They are not graded on these and the feedback is only for ACARA.

The purpose in mentioning this is because while NAPLAN compares students’ academic level in literacy and numeracy across the country, there is nothing that compares other important indicators of student achievement and success.  I am talking about important human qualities such as emotional intelligence and good behaviour – being a well-rounded human being.  That is why it was good to get feedback from the assessor who runs these tests throughout the state. 

On Tuesday, the assessor spoke to our participating Year 7 students to say that they were the best group of students that he has assessed out of all of his previous trials.

He then spoke to our Year 7-10 Curriculum Leader, Ms Jade Smith, and had nothing but praise for St. Peter's College, and commended our students and our IT department for their level of dedication, preparation and engagement with the trials. 

While the staff would like to take some of the credit for shaping young hearts and minds, we know that this work begins in the home and so it is important for parents to hear how good your teenagers are.

You will not find this information reported on the My Schools website after the NAPLAN data comes out, but I personally think this is more important data.

Parental Engagement

With parent-teacher interviews approaching in 3 weeks time, I am prompted to reflect on the importance of parental engagement in their child’s education.  I know that we have renewed our efforts this year to involve parents at the College such as getting an interesting and relevant presenter at the House Welcome Evening and having the learning discussions with Year 7 parents and Learning Advisors.  I have also made it a point to invite parents to all our Campus Assemblies and Liturgies.  We changed the format of our Futures Expo and had the recent subject selection interviews to hopefully make it possible for as many parents as possible to come along.  We are keen for your feedback if there is something else we can do to give you the opportunity to be involved with your child’s schooling.

While research supports the idea that parental engagement may positively impact student academic outcomes, the experts distinguish between involving parents in schooling and engaging parents in learning.  It is this engagement of parents in learning that actually has the greatest positive impact. Parents involved in school activities will be important to build community and has social benefits, but engagement of parents in learning at home is what is important to having a positive effect on the child’s learning outcomes.  

These learning outcomes include:

• higher grades and test scores,
• enrolment in accelerated studies,
• higher successful completion of classes,
• higher retention (completion rates), and
• a greater chance of commencing post secondary education.

Apart from educational achievement, parental engagement is also linked with other positive student development, such as:

• more regular school attendance,
• better social skills,
• improved behaviour,
• better adaptation to school,
• increased social capital,
• a greater sense of personal competence and efficacy for learning,
• greater engagement in school work, and
• a stronger belief in the importance of education.

One study also showed that there are considerable economic benefits for a child whose parents are engaged in their education.  The important point to remember is that the research supports the claim that parents’ attitudes, behaviour's, and actions with regard to your child’s education have a significant impact on student learning.

In next week’s newsletter I will focus on three ideas for effective parental engagement that the research all agrees upon.  It is important to use the evidence of what works rather than waste time and energy upon ideas that will not help your child to grow in their learning.

Source: Emerson, L., Fear. J., Fox, S., and Sanders, E. (2012). Parental engagement in learning and schooling: Lessons from research. A report by the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY) for the Family-School and Community Partnerships Bureau: Canberra.

David Hansen

Deputy Principal - Head of Cranbourne Campus