Athletics Carnival
It was very exciting to have held our very first College Athletics carnival at Meadowglen Athletics Stadium last month. Our students participated in a really positive manner across the day and contributed well to the positive atmosphere. Congratulations and thanks to Mr Brandon Isaac who organized the event with significant support from James Devlin, Nikita Richardson and the PE/Health team.
The event also saw the first use of our school houses in a whole school competition. Congratulations to Gurnmil House for being the inaugural winners.
Year 10 Exams
Our Year 10 exams ran last week in the majority of year 10 subjects. We were very pleased with how seriously the students took the sitting of the exams and exam procedures. These types of exams are great preparation for VCE exams – when students proactively reflect on their levels of effort and revision in the lead up to the exams compared to their performance. Thanks to Ms Nicholas and the Senior School Team of Ms. Dulger, Ms. Connor and Mr. Mulligan for the efforts in organization.
We have worked hard as a teaching team to make the exams the right balance of academic challenge and support. A key aim of the exams is to give students of firsthand experience in what is required to revise, retain and consolidate their learning over a long period of time. Too often in schools, key learning is completed in class and students move on to the next topic without putting into place any steps to retain and consolidate that knowledge in the long term. When knowledge and skills are not practiced after the initial teaching period they often fall into disuse – making it harder to recall them later on when they are needed to be used in real life settings.
Some students may find their exam results disappointing. Others may find that their CAT scores are better than their exams scores. In most cases this does not mean the student hasn’t learnt the content and skills – they just have let the content and skills fall into disuse by not practicing, revising, revisiting, and consolidating the information prior to sitting the exam. The key learning for these students is to look at their approach to preparing for exams and increase their time spent revising and reviewing content and making a formal revision plan. I would encourage year 10 students to create a semester 2 exam revision plan now, ahead of the end of year exams. Setting aside time at regular intervals across the second half of the year to review prior learning and revise key topics.
Work Experience
Our Senior School and Careers team have done an amazing job in getting our first cohort of students out for work experience this week. Our students have been able to gain placements at a wide variety of employers in a huge range of industries. Thanks to Ms. Hunter, Ms. Connor, Ms. Dulger and Mr. Mulligan for supporting the cohort.
By Colin Burke