Recently a team of leaders and teachers visited 7 schools to consider best practise in academic excellence and enrichment for gifted and able students. These visits have sparked planning and future strategic thinking for PBC Academic Excellence program review. Of note was the affirmation that our trial of Integrated Learning in Years 7 and 8, which encourages a student centred approach and problem based learning, was a common approach across the schools we visited.

Teachers last week completed their second round of Clarity Case Management Meetings after school which is an evidence based approach promoted in Lyn Sharratt’s book ‘Clarity’. The focus of this work is for teachers in small groups with the support of a ‘knowledgeable other’ to bring a student’s writing sample that they would like to discuss in terms of strategies to improve writing. Teachers then suggest strategies and the teacher commits to trialling the strategy for the three weeks leading up to the review meeting. This approach also allows teachers to have a different and well supported collaborative approach to responding to data on student learning.

A portion of the Junior Secondary student leaders have been conducting focus group interviews gathering information from a range of students across Years 7-9, sampling various achievement levels, for suggestions on how teachers could improve feedback to students. The leaders will work with PJS to compile the findings in a report that they will share with teachers to inform professional development and hopefully future practise.

The JS Optima has created an ‘OPTIMA Credits Menu’ which will promote students receiving OPTIMA slips and postcards. An incentive system will see students get 10 credits for each slip/postcard which they can then ‘spend’ on a credits menu with rewards from a tuckshop voucher or movie voucher right up to an end of year excursion day worth 250 credits.  

Change of Role

In Week 5 this year, Donna Condon stepped into the Jnr Sec Dean of Students role. Andrew Jordan is now Head of Year 8.

Donna has had many conversations (and set goals) with students across Years 7-9 about their attendance, grades, effort and behaviour in class. The Interim report you received at the end of Term 1 probably (depending on the subject) only reflected one piece of assessment, however the End of Semester Report shows a pattern of learning achievement, effort and behaviour.

Students know that early next term, after their Sem 1 report cards, I will meet with many again to celebrate success and improvement. For some students, we may need to reset goals for Term 3 and hopefully work on changing some poor habits that may be developing.

Semester 1 Reports

Please respect our Holiday dates as removing students from class can make assessment difficult and stressful for them. Even though we only have a week of Semester 1 remaining, assessment may be due right up to the end of the term. Junior Secondary students are also moving on to their next units of work which will be assessed in the first half of next term. For this reason, please ensure that your child attends school up until the final day, so that they can meet all of their commitments and be up to date with their learning when they return to school on Monday, 12 July 2021.

Your child’s school report will be emailed home on Friday, 25 June 2021.  Please check that we have your email address recorded. Please contact A Block Administration should you have concerns, on 5525 9333.

Stress vs Being Busy

Some students find this a particularly challenging time of the year.

A useful way to phrase discussion with your young person about this is that they will be busy, but they should not be stressed. A busy student

• has many demands on their time.
• is completing the allocated home work each night,
• is undertaking their own study and review of topics,
• is working on assignments.

A busy student

• has their assessment due dates written up and placed in a space that the whole family can see.
• knows what is due, and when. They set about tasks in ‘baby steps’, doing a little at a time and in a logical way.
• asks their teachers for assistance early when they do not understand.

The stressed student doesn’t do homework or hasn’t written it down. They don’t study until the night before the test, or may not even know there is a test coming up! The stressed student looks at a large task and puts off starting work on it. They don’t let the teacher know that they are struggling with concepts.

Special Programs

I am really looking forward to the variety of programs currently being organised for the Year 7 - 9 cohorts. A parkour, acrobatics performance addressing bullying is planned for Year 7. Some Year 8 and 9 students are exploring the possibility of going to University when they leave school. LIVIN has a great program, exploring the importance of Mental Health and Wellbeing with the Year 8 group.