DEPUTY PRINCIPAL REPORT

Building Your Child’s Organisational Capacity

It was wonderful to see school life move towards some normality in the last week. The bustle, laughter and hubbub of young people moving around the college was a soothing balm to us teachers, and it appeared the students were as excited as we were. 

Some extremely useful information crossed my desk this week from Elevate Education. You may remember all students completed study sessions earlier in the year and Elevate have been quick to provide us with additional support during this period of hybrid online and face-to-face teaching. Importantly, the tips provided are just as useful at any time, so I encourage parents to engage with their child’s planning processes to ensure they build this important lifelong skill. 

Elevate are running another session for parents and caregivers on Thursday, 28 May 2020. The event is titled Independent Learning and Smart Study. The event is free and you can Sign-Up here.

In short, their key tips to developing a study routine are these:

1. Fun stuff first-the routine should include the more fun elements of the week, such as training or watching that favourite television program. Life is about balance and so is a study routine

2. Study in the gaps-where you have free blocks, lock in some times where you can do school

work. Some days you may not need to use the whole block but at least you have it there if you need it.

3. Guide, not a rule-the study plan is not a rule book. You do not have to stick to this 100% of the time! Instead, think of it as a guide to your weekly routine. Taking this approach allows students to ‘fall off the horse’ and feel comfortable about trying again. Too often study plans fail and the assumption is that ‘they just don’t work for me’. They can, you just need to persevere and accept that life sometimes happens and it can get in the way of our plans

4. Focus on tasks-rather than set an amount of time to complete the work you have to do,

focus on the task itself. Not only will this keep you focused but it will motivate you to get it done!

HSC change of dates

NESA updated the HSC information for the 2020 examinations on Friday of last week. The examinations have been moved back one week and are to commence on Tuesday, 20 October 2020.

Specific HSC timetable information can be found here.

Students can access their personalised HSC timetable at students online. 

All advice on the HSC and coronavirus can be found here.

Have a great fortnight. As always, if you wish to talk about your child’s learning their classroom teacher and Head of Department are your go to people. 

Please contact me at Anthony.Heffer@trac.nsw.edu.au if you would like to discuss learning and innovation at TRAC. 

Anthony Heffer | Deputy Principal - Teaching, Learning and Innovation