Senior School Report

by Director of the Senior School, Mr Hamish McCrum

It has been fabulous to have all our students back onsite.  They have certainly appeared to delight in each other’s company and learn face-to-face rather than online.  Many students have done their best to keep their learning and development going in what have been very difficult circumstances.  Some students have struggled to keep on top of the learning activities while working independently and remotely for a variety of reasons.  At Years 11 and 12 this will mean that some still have some previously issued work to do to gain their formal “Satisfactory”.  Some learning activities at Years 10, 11 and 12 will have been completed thoroughly by some students and not attempted by others.  In many cases it will not be feasible or realistic to expect students to go back and complete all that work in addition to what is being issued now.  The opportunity for the learning and growth from those tasks has passed.  Those who have done it will have progressed from where they were, those who did not will not have progressed as much as they would have had they done the work.  For all of us, the best we can do is to do our best from today, yesterday is gone.

Our Year 10s will have an activity afternoon in each of the next two weeks.  They are looking forward to playing some team sports / other social activities after a winter denied these opportunities.

Our Year 12s are finishing off the last of their internal assessments and preparing for external exams.  The work they do from this point until their last exam can have a massive impact on their end result. Across the state many students will become tired and give-up.  Choosing to keep on trying to improve always results in improved scores at this time of the year.  There is no substitute for doing practice exams questions, and redoing them after looking at solutions/gaining some feedback.  It is in the re-doing poorly done questions that students make the biggest improvements.  Reading over notes and highlighting is OK in the early stages of exam preparation, but not as effective as actually writing answers to practice questions.

The last day of classes for our Year 12s is October 29 and this will include an outside liturgy and leave-taking ceremony.  The day will run from 7:30am until 4pm, and will include some normal classes. We will mark this significant point in their journey as best we can under the circumstances.  We will then see them all back the following day for an English Seminar.

Year 10 and 11 students will not have an exam block free of classes as in past years, but will do assessments in class time in their last week.  In some instances these assessments will still be exams.  Year 10s will finish on Friday December 4, and Year 12 – 2021 Head Start week will finish on that day as well.  Year 11 assessments will finish on November 27.  Those Year 11s not returning will not be expected to attend the Head Start week.

I am expecting an announcement this weekend regarding the easing of restrictions in time for us and the Melbournians to enjoy the AFL Grand Final with friends and family.

Take care and kind regards,

Mr Hamish McCrum
Director of the Senior School