College Planning
Emerald Secondary College continues to thrive as a learning community. All our students are involved in their learning, their friendships, their whole school engagement and all the extracurricular programs that the College has to offer.
Students from Year 8 upwards will be entering their subject selections over the next couple of weeks that will assist with college planning for 2024! Where has the year gone?? Information nights have assisted students, together with their parents to make viable pathway decisions in their secondary schooling. Thus, the hard work of the team in Careers cannot be taken for granted, as well as the ongoing support of all our teaching staff and education support staff team.
In the light of the importance of this planning, if your son/daughter is NOT returning to ESC next year, please notify the College office as soon as possible – 5968 5388
Year 12 – The Pointy End of the Year is Nigh
The Year 12 cohort are busy! busy! busy! The final weeks of a secondary education are nigh, and this time is so, so important in setting up study notes, working out what’s best for each individual student as a study routine and completing old VCAA exam papers. The best way forward here is that there should be a three-step method in exam prep:
- Attempt an old paper, untimed, open book.
Check answers for accuracy and clarity with the VCAA examiners’ report at the same time.
Focus on the language that the examiners use to give you information about their expectations – exams are no longer just a regurgitation of information, rather, the focus is more on analysis, synthesis, high end vocabulary and depth of answers….focus specifically on this shift in expectations.
- Complete the same exam, closed book and untimed – this one goes to the teacher for a quick turnaround and feedback.
- Complete the same exam paper under timed conditions, closed book, as per the same conditions that will be stipulated in November – submit for raw score feedback.
This is not Barut’s ground-breaking study tip – this method has data and educational merit to support success in exams. Thousands of highly successful VCE students were surveyed and the two main defining factors to success was the above exam prep and teacher relationship/feedback. Please share this information with your son/daughter.
Attitudes to School Survey – Parent Opinion Survey
In the ensuing weeks, we will be seeking feedback from our ESC families, about how we are travelling as a college.
If you receive an email from DET, or from me, asking you to participate, we respectfully request that you spend about 20 minutes of your time completing the survey.
Parent participants are randomly selected by the administering contractor, via Cases21, and may involve some double ups – we only require one survey response per family please.
Thank you in anticipation.
The Building Grant Upgrade
After a successful AMP1 (Asset Management Plan) completion, we now move to AMP2, and this is where it really starts to get serious.
Next week, we will be hosting a walkaround with a VSBA (Victorian Schools Building Authority) representative and three shortlisted architecture/design companies. From here, each company will present to a panel, a series of drawings that captures the vision and feedback from our AMP1.
This is all part of the tendering process, and we look forward to what these creative minds have in store for our upgrade.
Keeping in Touch
The College always welcomes parents to communicate with year level leaders and teaching staff to best support the students in their learning.
Please be mindful that the College is working in a climate of positive psychology, school-wide positive behaviours, and respectful relationships. As such, we expect all interactions to be professional, respectful and solution/action focussed.
Professional Practice Day
Please don’t forget that there will be a whole school PPD on Friday, 1st of September.
Students are not required at school on this day, EXCEPT that all Year 12 VCE classes and Year 12 VCEVM classes will be running and timetabled as normal – students in Year 11 who are studying a Year 12 VCE subject must also attend their Year 12 class. The Year 11 students that are studying a Year 12, once their class has ended, may stay back at school and complete some private study, or they may go home.
The rationale behind this decision is to mitigate further disruptions for all our students, as CRTs are still quite problematic and we’re working towards stabilising our workforce.
Details on the canteen’s availability on that day will follow shortly.
James Barut – College Principal
