Senior School News

VCE News

Term Three has certainly presented both students and staff with some challenges so far!  I just wanted to convey how proud I was of the courage and resilience of both our Year 11 and 12 cohorts!  It has been absolutely inspiring to see our amazing McClelland students looking out for one another in what has been a very difficult period!  We all cannot wait for our return to school and face to face classes to acknowledge all of your hard work and progress!

Unit 3 / 4 Practice Exams

The school will hold practice exams for all students completing a Unit 3 / 4 subject during the second week of the upcoming school holidays.  These sessions are compulsory, and provide students a brilliant opportunity to practice for the VCAA exams in November.  A link to the schedule can be found here.  Students are asked to please contact their year level leader if they have any clashes, or if they have three exams in the one day, so that we can re-schedule them.

VCAA End of Year Exams

VCAA have also published the timetable for the end of year Unit 3 / 4 exams which can be found at this link.  It is very important that Year 12 students are aware of the dates of their exams and that they begin putting in place a revision schedule to prepare for them.  Needless to say, these exams cannot be re-scheduled, as they are held at the same time for all students studying that subject state-wide. 

General Achievement Test (GAT)

As I am sure you are all aware, the General Achievement Test (GAT) has been rescheduled for the third time.  VCAA has not yet assigned an alternative date for the test, but as soon as this decision is made, we will communicate this to students and parents.  A reminder that the GAT must be completed to all students currently completing a Unit 3 / 4 subject.

VTAC Applications

During Week 3 of this term, delegates from Monash University met with the Year 12 cohort and presented to students about how to apply for university and TAFE.  This year, the process is slightly more complicated due to students being required to obtain their own USI as a part of the application process.  There are also specific dates that need to be adhered to in terms of payment and for SEAS applications to be submitted.  Our Careers Advisor Jackie Woods will be reaching out to all Year 12 students over the coming weeks to offer her assistance in how to apply.  I would encourage all Year 12 students to contact Jackie themselves to begin the process beforehand.

Course Counselling

Monday 19th July saw all current Year 11 students experience their final course counselling sessions at McClelland, as they made their fateful decisions regarding what subjects to study in their final year at the college in 2022.  It was inspirational to speak to so many students and their families about what they want to do over the coming years and how they intend on changing the world.  Class sizes are currently being determined at the moment, so students should find out about their course over the coming weeks.  While we do our best to accommodate the first preferences of all students, there may be some subjects not running due to lack of numbers, and students may be asked to change their preferences if this is the case.

Celebration Day and Valedictory

Thank you to all of the Year 12 VCE and VCAL students that attended a meeting on Thursday 3rd August to begin planning for two of the bigger events on the Senior School Calendar.  Some fantastic ideas were canvassed that we will endeavour to put in place over the coming months!  While we would love for the parents of our Year 12 parents to be able to attend the Valedictory Dinner, it is looking more and more likely that we may not be able to host you onsite due to restrictions.  However, we will ensure that we live stream the event to make sure that you do not miss out on a very memorable milestone!  More details regarding both events will be released over the coming weeks once we have a better idea about what Term Four looks like.

SRC Project

Well done to the school’s SRC team who hosted a fantastic Q&A sessions with teachers on Monday 16th August.  It was inspiring to see this very motivated group of students working diligently to improve the working relationships between both students and staff.  Most impressive were the senior SRC members taking the junior members under their wing and providing them with opportunities to improve their own leadership potential.  Bravo!

McClelland House Olympics

Congratulations to all of the students that have participated in the McClelland House Olympics over the last few weeks of lockdown!  It has been amazing to see how  many talented students we are lucky to work with every day!  A special thanks to each of our House and School Captains that have spearheaded this initiative and participated in the events themselves, as well as to so many staff who have set the bar high with their own entries!  Thank you also to Ms Harry who has put in a mountain of work behind the scenes in getting the event up and running!