Senior School Report

by Director of the Senior School, Mr Hamish McCrum

It has been good to have the school back and functioning for the past two weeks with all Year Levels onsite. All students have plenty of assessments over this time, particularly Year 12s.  Just one more week to tough it out before they will enjoy a well-earned break.  Year 12s will need to do some work over the holidays as some of the Semester One SACs have been pushed into the first few weeks of Term 3.  However, it is important that Year 12s allow themselves a break.  It may be worth helping them with a study timetable for the break so that they can relax properly in their designated break times as well as getting the required work done.  In the second week of the September holidays (Tuesday to Thursday) practice exams will be held for Unit 3/4 subjects.  Please consider this in your holiday planning.  Students are advised that VCE and VCAL results will be available from 7am December 30.   ATARS will still be the major determinant for most university courses and will also be available from December 30.  The last VCAA Unit 3/4 exam will be December 1.

Very sadly this week a 15 year-old boy was stabbed and died in Deer Park.  As a result not only is his family now left to deal with unimaginable grief, but the lives of the six perpetrators and their families are also changed forever.  No doubt many people will be asking “if only….” type questions, throwing up all sorts of scenarios that would have prevented this.  The lesser of the perpetrators will forever regret that they lacked the courage to disassociate from the others behaving badly, or that they lacked the courage to intervene to stop things before they escalated out of control.  Any one of the perpetrators might have changed the whole course of the afternoon had they spoken up.  They could have saved their friends and the victim.  And so it is at a lesser level for all of our young men.  They generally know right from wrong, and each have a duty to properly form their conscience.  They also need to be guided by their conscience.  By speaking up against the behaviour of a group they belong to when that group is behaving badly will save people from poor choices and will shape future behaviour.  This is difficult, it takes courage and it is leadership.  And it starts with all the small things.  For any individual or group to feel good about themselves over the long term, they need to do good things.

Wishing all of you a safe holiday (after one more week).  Look after your social-distancing and hygiene, COVID-19 is not yet beaten.