Semester One Reports

The Year 11 and Year 12 Semester One Reports have been uploaded to SEQTA along with the Year 7 – 12 Music Reports. The Year 7 -10 Semester Reports are scheduled to be released next Wednesday, 8 July. The delay in these reports reflects the impact that COVID-19 has had on the ability of teachers to teach and formally assess students. By providing teachers additional time to finalise their teaching and assessment, the College can provide students across the majority of their subjects both valid grades and accurate learning behaviours. In a small number of subjects, however, the College has been unable to provide a valid grade due to the practical nature of these courses and the impact that remote learning had on their completion. In these situations, learning behaviours will be provided but not a Semester One grade. A letter identifying those subjects where a grade is not being awarded will be sent at the time the Year 7-10 reports are released.

Parent-Student-Teacher Interviews

The Semester One Report provides students and parents an opportunity to reflect upon student progress and to consider what adjustments can be made to improve performance. The report also indicates whether teachers would like to meet with families at the Parent/Student/Teacher Interviews next term. These interviews are scheduled to take place on Tuesday 28 July between 12.00pm and 7.00pm.

These interviews will remain as face-to-face interviews but will take place in an increased number of locations at the school to allow for appropriate social distancing. Families also will be asked to follow hygiene protocols upon arrival at the interviews.

The day of Parent-Student-Teacher Interviews is listed as a Home Study Day so students do not attend school but should accompany their parents for interviews in their full College Winter Uniform. Parent-Student-Teacher Interviews provide parents with an important opportunity to discuss student progress in more detail with subject teachers. In those cases where a teacher has requested an interview on the Report, it is important that every effort is made to meet with the subject teachers so that positive actions can be put in place to improve student progress. Bookings for the Parent-Student-Teacher Interviews will open on Wednesday, 8 July (the same day that Year 7-10 Semester One Reports are released). An email will be sent to all families to inform them how to make bookings through Edval interviews. Bookings close at 9.00am on Monday 27 July. It is important that parents access Edval Interviews as subject teachers, pastoral leaders and Deputy Principals often request additional parent interviews after reviewing the finalised reports.

On the day of the interviews, each teacher will have 36 interview slots available for parents. However, a standard classroom teacher teaches over 100 students across all of their classes – for some teachers that number is closer to 150. It is for this reason that we have restricted interviews to one slot per teacher per student. If you are unable to secure a timeslot during this round of Parent-Student-Teacher interviews, you may contact the relevant teacher(s) directly via email at the start of Term Three to arrange a conversation on another date.

For any parent for whom English is not their original language, the College supports the decision to invite a friend or family member to the interviews to provide interpreting assistance.

If you have any difficulties accessing Edval Interviews, please contact the College in the second week of the school holidays. Please note that the College Administration is closed during the first week of the holidays.

Student Contacting Parents Whilst at School

Every day, circumstances arrive whereby a student may need to make contact with their parent. This could be due to feeling ill, having left something essential at home or because they need to confirm after school arrangements. Whilst we encourage students to be prepared and organised for their day ahead, we accept that at times this is necessary. In these circumstances, students are required to come to Student Services to make parent contact as students should not be texting, calling or emailing parents directly.

It is also important to remember that students are not allowed to be using their mobile phones between their arrival to school and the end of the school day as they should be safely secured in their locker. Parents are asked to remind their children of this expectation and not to engage with their children in conversations during school time. This is especially important if their child is ill, upset or feeling uncomfortable at school as the school has services at the ready to support those students.

Personal Presentation: Some Holiday Reminders

With the holidays commencing, students are sometimes excited to make changes to their personal look by making changes to their hair style, hair colour or even they take the opportunity to get additional piercings. It is important to remember that the College uniform and personal presentation expectations will apply from Day One of the new school term. Students arriving at school with hair, make-up, nails or piercings that do not conform to our College expectations will be identified and possibly asked to return home until these issues are fixed. The simple message is that, students shouldn’t make any change to their personal presentation over the holidays that cannot be undone by the start of the new school term. Information regarding the College’s uniform and personal presentation expectations can be found in the Student Diary and it should be noted that the College remains the final arbiter on all matters relating to uniform and personal presentation.

Mr P Hawke

(Deputy Principal - Years 7,9,11)

Important Dates Term 3

A Family Calendar will be uploaded into SEQTA during the holidays.

Term 3 commences on Tuesday 21 July for all students.

Pupil Free Days

Parent-Student-Teacher Interviews - Tuesday 28 July, 12:00pm - 7:00pm
Professional Development Day - Friday 21 August
Staff Catholic Day - Monday 24 August

Last Day of Term 3: Year 12, Wednesday 24 September, Years 7-11, 25 September

Year 8 Electives

Students who wish to make changes to Semester 2 electives need to obtain a form fro Student Services. Changes only be made if there is sufficient room in classes and it fits the Timetable Grid.

Year 8 students need to study at least ONE Elective during the year from the following:

Media Art, Visual Art
Drama, Dance, Music
App Development, Robotics
Food Science Technology, Textiles, Woodwork, Metalwork

Japanese, Italian, Living Language, English as Second Language and Specialised Basketball are YEAR LONG.

The deadline for changes will be at the end of Week 2 in Term 3, Friday 31 July.

Year 10 Information

The past few weeks have been a very important time for all Year 10 students. Not only are they finishing off final assessments for the semester, but over the previous weeks the Year 10 students have been participating in presentations run by the different Heads of Learning Area to inform them about the Year 11 subjects on offer in 2021 and about the future pathways available to them.

The Year 10 cohort will soon be asked to make a series of critical decisions that will help shape their future study and career choices. Success in making good decisions depends largely upon the students (along with their parents/guardians) being fully informed about processes and subject choices that are so critical to their future pathway.

Additionally, a Parent/Student Subject Selection Information Session will take place for all Year 10 parents and students on Wednesday, 22 July via Microsoft Teams commencing at 6.00pm. A decision was made earlier in the term to run the session remotely and not in the O'Reilly Centre as it has in the past (to comply with Covid restrictions at the time).

This Information Session will provide an outline of the Secondary Graduation requirements for students, the various pathways students can choose in Year 11 and Year 12 as well as an explanation of the process of selecting subjects for Year 11, 2021 and the counselling process involved.

The Semester One reports for all Year 10 students will be uploaded by 10 July 2020 (end of first week of holidays).

There is an expectation that all students and a parent/guardian join the Parent Information Session to engage in the subject selection process. Students will be asked to JOIN the Year 10 Subject Selection Team Meeting at the start of next term.

The next part of this process will be Course Counselling Interviews on Tuesday 11 August. Your child has been allocated a mentor (a Head of Learning or Head of House or Deputy Principal/Dean of Studies) who will meet with you and your son/daughter for a 20 minute interview to complete selections for 2021. Year 10 students should have will received a Direqt Message from their mentor introducing themselves.

This is an exciting time in the lives of all Year 10 students and well-informed decisions made at this time will certainly ease the transition of your sons and daughters into their post school life in the years to come.

Please mark these important dates into your calendar.

Week 1 holidays: Semester 1 reports uploaded
Wednesday 22 July: Year 10 Parent-Student Information Session, 6:00pm
Tuesday 11 August: Year 10 Course Counselling Interviews, 3:30 – 7:00pm

Information is now available on the Subject Selection Portal on SEQTA. Please take some time to check out the Head of Learning presentations and the Minimum Entry Requirements for 2021 subjects. The School Curriculum and Standards Handbook offers advice to parents and students and has been uploaded onto SEQTA Documents.

Year 11 & 12 WACE Checker

The School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority) has developed a WACE Checker to allow students to use to check on their progress towards achieving the WACE. In 2020, there are two versions of the WACE Checker in use. One version relates to meeting the WACE requirement in 2020. The other version is set for the WACE requirements for 2021 and beyond. Both versions of the WACE Checker can be found on the front page of the Authority website at https://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/ opens in new window.

The WACE Checker is a tool which students can use to check their progress towards meeting the requirement of the WACE. It is designed to determine whether a student has met (or is expected to meet) each of the requirements for the WACE. To use the WACE Checker, students will need to enter their expected or actual achievements in Year 11 and in Year 12.

Year 12 ATAR Exam Timetables are also accessible via the link below:

https://senior-secondary.scsa.wa.edu.au/assessment/examinations/examination-timetables

Ms S Rainford

(Deputy Principal - Years 8,10,12)

ST NORBERT NEWS

Week 2.10 - Issue 6 · 03 Jul 2020

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