by Rosina Fotia, Principal

Welcome to winter and a very busy, yet cold time of the year. The last month has continued to be filled with many academic and extracurricular opportunities for students in and around the College.

Learning Focus

Student Learning continues this month with many students undertaking Common Assessment Tasks and completing Outcome Tasks in preparation for mid-year examinations and the reporting period. The independent reading program continues to be an integral part of our Literacy program with teachers now including Writing to Learn and Substantive Talk tasks in each of their classes.

The end of semester will also see the release of semester reports to parents. Student reports are designed to provide students, teachers and parents with a clear and concise picture of a student's level of attainment against the achievement standards, progress along the learning continuum and outline areas for further improvement. Reports will be made available to parents on Friday June 29.

Curriculum Day

The College commitment to Professional Learning continued in late May. Whole staff professional development on Curriculum Design culminated in staff being able to identify the key factors that they need students to Know, Do and Be in their units of work. This work was led by a team of staff members who have undertaken the Bastow Leading Curriculum module.

Examination Period

Year 9, 10 and 11 students have completed their mid-year examination period. This period is also a time where all students undertaking a Year 12 VCE study complete the GAT (General Achievement Test). The GAT is an essential part of the VCE assessment process although the test does not count directly towards VCE scores. GAT results are used to check that VCE external assessments and school based assessments have been accurately and fairly assessed.

Music Concert

The mid-year Music Concert was held on May 30. This event was very well attended and included spectacular performances from all our ensembles including the 8C and 7C bands. In addition to this, the middle school music class performed a few numbers which had the audience tapping its toes. Congratulations to all the performers involved and well done to Mr Ferre and his Instrumental Music staff.

Central Australia Tour

The College currently has over 40 students and five staff undertaking a tour to Central Australia. Students left very early on Friday, 22 June and, by all accounts, the trip is going very well. Weather conditions are perfect and the students are embracing all that this amazing country has to offer. Thank you to Mrs Morley, Mrs Rayner, Mr Lees and Ms Wilkins for their preliminary work and supervision on the camp. The camp will return to school during the first week of the school holidays.

I wish everyone a safe and warm term break and remind students and parents that school resumes on Monday July 16.