Course Information Evening is one of my favourite events. The opportunity to speak with students and families about their goals and aspirations and their commitment to achieve these goals is
inspiring. The night is such an important one to build parent and carer understanding of the year ahead, so they can support their student and we can work in partnership to strive for success. The
next step is subject selection, for Years 9-11 and VTAC applications for Year 12 students. Course Counselling has commenced and I encourage all parents and carers to be engaging with their child in these important conversations.
Planning for 2024 has commenced and student selections will form a key component of our decision making. The other two key elements will be the room availability and the teaching availability.
Decisions will be made in early Term 4 and year levels and students progressively notified. For 2024, we will begin an increase back in our numbers, increasing our Home Groups at Year 7 by at least one and most likely two Home Groups. We hold our 2024 Welcome Evening on Thursday 7 September in the College Theatre for our incoming Year 7s. At this stage, we are close to full at Years 9, 10 and 11 in 2024.
Next Monday is a Pupil Free Day. Teaching staff will be either planning for assessment and reporting 2024 or engaged in professional learning. As a College, we continue to reflect on the
skills and knowledge assessed at all levels and the best ways to provide feedback to students. This can be very complex in a secondary school, with many subjects being assessed and ensuring it is effective assessments for students and for staff and that the timeline is manageable for both.
Parents and carers of Year 7 and Year 9 students will have received NAPLAN results. The testing date was earlier in 2023 and there are new achievement levels. This means that there is no comparison with a student’s progress from their previous NAPLAN or for the school to determine cohort growth. Teachers will be looking at individual question results and aligning NAPLAN to PAT testing to assist them in using these results to support our students’ next levels of learning.
Janet Matthews
College Principal