Director of Pedagogy & Innovation
Welcome to the 2019 school year. I hope you are all refreshed and energised after the summer holiday break and excited for another year of learning. It was wonderful seeing our students walk through the front gate on their first day back. I warmly welcome our new students and their parents to the PCW community. PCW is a wonderfully enriching environment for your daughter and a place where she will shine. During our first whole school assembly on Friday 1 February we acknowledged our new Year 7 students as they commenced their first year of high school. Our Year 12 students have commenced their final year of secondary education. We know Year 12 is a very busy year and we keep these girls in our prayers and wish our girls across the College all the very best in their studies this year. Please remember we are here to support you all throughout your learning journey.
The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians, published in 2008 by all Australian Education Ministers, outlines two goals:
- Australian schooling promotes equity and excellence
- All young Australians become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, active and informed citizens
Everything we do at PCW supports these goals. The learning and teaching of students at PCW is informed by the latest research into the ways girls learn best. This is particularly highlighted in the work we continue to do towards authorisation to deliver the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Program (MYP). In 2019 our teachers will again be writing and delivering exciting new units of work for the MYP.
Celebrating Academic Achievement
Congratulations to the class of 2018 on your VCE results. We joined together as a College community on Wednesday 13 February to recognise our high achievers from the class of 2018. At this assembly we will also present the Semester 2, 2018 Academic Excellence Awards to students in Years 7 to 11. A list of all the academic achievement winners can be found in this newsletter.
Our highly successful Presentation Endeavour Awards assemblies will again be held in each semester this year and will provide another opportunity to celebrate learning.
Updated Assessment Information
I encourage parents to regularly log onto the portal and read the feedback your daughter receives for her assessment tasks. This feedback is most important in identifying strengths and areas for improvement. Over the next few weeks assessment tasks for Semester 1 will be uploaded to the portal. We will also be uploading the Grade Point Average (GPA) results for Semester 2, 2018 for Years 9 to 11. The GPA information can be found under the results section.
Students in Years 7, 8 and 9 will be assessed against the MYP criteria in 2019. Assessment tasks for students in Years 10 and 11 will be reported using a percentage. Semester exams will again be held this year and we will publish exam results in the semester report.
Staff Professional Learning
Before our students returned to school our staff participated in a professional learning day on differentiation. Differentiation is about taking into account the differences among students in terms of their ability and the rate at which they learn, and then using this knowledge to adapt the curriculum and learning activities so the needs of all students are met. As part of the MYP, we address differentiation within the curriculum and our teachers are embedding differentiation across all units of work.
Years 7 to 9 Homework Club
This will commence from week 7 after Music Festival on Tuesday 12 March from 3.15 to 4.15 in the Library.
Edrolo – Expectations in 2019
Edrolo has been booklisted for some senior subjects in 2019. This is a compulsory resource for students to purchase and it is expected that this resource is purchased if it is booklisted for a particular subject that your daughter is studying.
Mobile Phone Policy
A reminder that students need to keep their phone locked in their locker from the beginning of the school day until the end of the school day.
May God bless you this upcoming year and may this year bring you success and happiness in every area of your life.
Nathan Lane
Director of Pedagogy and Innovation