Deputy Principal - Teaching and Learning 

I welcome all students and their families to Term 3. 

We welcome the opportunity for VCE and VCAL students to be at the College for their classes. Despite the current circumstances, the focus of the College remains on high quality learning programs for our students.  We are also still future focused, with the ongoing development of the Junior STEM building.  The team working on the finer details of the building continue to meet regularly. This term, all teachers will have the opportunity to engage in the development of the learning programs that will be introduced for Year 7 and 8 students in 2022. 

Remote Learning for Years 7-10

After our brief time with all students on campus, we are returning to remote learning for Year 7 to 10 students. For the remote learning in Term 3, there have been some alterations made to the methods we will use for remote learning.  This time, we do have a mixed approach to the learning program with senior students at the College for face-to-face teaching, and remaining year levels being learning remotely.

During the period of remote learning, we regularly surveyed parents, students and staff about our learning program.  Based on the feedback we received during Term 2, we have made the following alterations to how remote learning is delivered:

• Teachers have been instructed to reduce the amount of set work based on the length of class time.  This instruction is in line with the feedback of too much work being set for students to complete and submit.  For each period, teachers have been asked to provide 30 minutes of work.
• Double periods will be altered given that this is the time that students will be involved in TEAMS classes.  Less work will be set for these lessons, with the second period of a double being provided for students to manage their workload.  They will be able to seek assistance, continue their work and focus on their organisation of learning across all their subjects.
• As was the case in Term 2, the cameras during TEAMS classes can be switched on at the teacher’s direction. 
• The period lengths will remain at 45 minutes – this is due to both remote and face-to-face classes occurring and the need to match the set times in the two different settings.
• We will continue to deliver learning material through SEQTA, our learning management system. Students will be able to access all their learning material and engage in a variety of learning activities. TEAMS lessons will also be scheduled into the learning program.
• Teachers can be contacted via email and SEQTA Direct Messages if students have any questions. Students do have to be aware though that a response may take time, given that teachers still have all their teaching commitments across Years 7 to 12.
• Parents are also invited to contact teachers through SEQTA Direct Messages.  Teachers will seek to reply as soon as possible, however, the teaching component of the day for teachers is 8.50am to 3.15pm.  Teachers will continue to meet as a whole staff and within their Learning Teams.  As such, teachers will not be able to respond to emails or Direct Messages until the following day. 

We will seek further feedback from students and families during this time to ensure that the learning needs of students are met.