Deputy Principal Report, Term 4 Week 4

Week 4, Term 4 2024

Term 4 Overview
The end of the year is fast approaching with Term 4 being the shortest term. But as always, Term 4 is very busy with lots of celebrations, events and activities happening across the school. On Friday of Week 2, we farewelled our Year 12 students, which included the Year 12 breakfast and the farewell assembly. Students have now finished their final tasks and are preparing for their end of year exams. The Year 12 Graduation Ceremony will take place on Friday 22 November (Week 6) at the Adelaide Town Hall where we will celebrate the class of 2024 as well as acknowledging individual achievements through our Service, Leadership and Academic Awards. All Year 11 students will finish the academic year at the end of Week 6. Year 10 students finish at the end of Week 7. All other year levels finish school on Friday 13 December (Week 9).

Course Counselling for 2024
The 2024 Course Counselling Process is now complete, and the new timetable is in development for 2025. Once the timetable is ready and our staffing is confirmed, students will be able to access their 2025 Semester 1 timetable via email. This will occur towards the end of this term. An email will be sent to families once the timetables are complete.

Curriculum Update
This year we have continued our whole school curriculum review following the release of the Version 9 Australian Curriculum. Learning Area Teams have met once a semester to review their current curriculum, update their curriculum mapping, improve their task design and moderate samples of student work. This is improving curriculum coherence and continually improving the tasks that students complete to show what they know, understand and do. This has also been embedded into SEQTA through our new SEQTA minimum requirements, where teachers must share the Learning Goals, Learning Process, Learning Task and Resources on SEQTA so that we have consistency across the school.

In 2025, the Chief Executive of the Department would like all public schools to begin transitioning to the South Australian version of the Australian Curriculum, with full implementation by 2027. Due to this commitment, we will continue to support curriculum review days throughout 2025 to ensure students are receiving their curriculum entitlement with the new curriculum. This will be more challenging to schedule in 2025 due to the additional 60-minutes of Non Instruction Time (NIT) all teachers are entitled to from the beginning of next year. We hope to be able to release each Learning Area team once a semester and provide more Learning Area meetings to help the teams transition to the new look curriculum.

Assessment Committee Update
Throughout 2024, the Assessment Committee have been developing a new process for our students to develop and evidence their capabilities that are transferable across learning areas and into their lives. The committee have already developed a Capability Dashboard that will be accessible to students from the beginning of Term 4, focusing on the seven general capabilities from the Version 9 Australian Curriculum. At the beginning of Term 4, two classes will trial the process and provide feedback to the committee. The committees aim this year is to establish the process for all students from Year 7-12 to be ready for the start of 2025. This process will also be incorporated into our annual Acquaintance Evening, where students will share their goals with their House Group teacher and family at the beginning of Term 1 with their intentions and aspirations for the rest of the year.

Reporting Committee Update
The Reporting Committee have already implemented the new continuous reporting model within SEQTA this year, which has been a significant piece of work for the school. The committee is now developing a feedback model to inform what, how and when students receive feedback from their teachers as a part of the teaching and learning cycle. The committee is also investigating the possible use of Brisk AI, which would provide students with clear, consistent and highly effective feedback on written work. Brisk AI has recently been approved by the Department for Education for educational use, therefore the committee will explore the platform and how it could support our students and staff. There will be five staff members who trial the platform in Term 4 and share their feedback with the committee.

I would like to acknowledge the leadership of both the Assessment and Reporting Committees, which have students, teaching staff, SSO staff and parent representatives. Their contributions and collaboration has been incredible.

Continuity of Learning Partnerships for our partner primary schools
As we continue to collaborate with our partner primary schools, we hope to foster stronger relationships and programs with the students and staff, that will support a smoother transition to high school for their students once they become Year 6 students. Recently, I met with the Scott Foale, the Principal of Woodville Gardens Primary School to look at opportunities to grow our partnership. I have also met with Vicky Bitzios, Principal at Allenby Gardens PS to have a similar discussion. We have now identified our areas of focus from term to term, which will be established from the beginning of 2025. They include:

– WGS: Music, Languages, Visual Arts
– AGPS: Music, the Arts (performing arts)

I will meet with the Kilkenny PS Principal throughout Term 4 to establish a similar program for 2025.

Term 4 Assessment Windows
This year, the assessment window for Year 7, 8 and 9 students will close at the end of Week 8 to allow more time for students to complete their Term 4 learning. This means the Term 4 assessment window will close on Friday 6 December (Week 8). In Week 9, there will be a different learning program for each year level. This will be released to students and families in the coming weeks.

There are lots of other exciting events, performances and activities left to look forward to this term including:

– The Student v Staff Soccer and Basketball competition (Week 5)
– HPE Week (Week 5)
– Airport Art Exhibition Launch (Week 5)
– Year 12 Graduation Ceremony (Week 6)
– Year 12 Orientation for 2025 (Week 6)
– Year 11 Exams (Week 6)
– Year 10 Exams (Week 7)
– Middle Years Graduation Ceremony (Week 7)
– Year 6-7 Transition Days (Week 8)

Homework Centres
A reminder that the list of the Homework Centres and their opening times is below:

If you have any questions about the report and would like to speak with me about any else, please send me an email: luke.smith563@schools.sa.edu.au

Luke Smith
Deputy Principal
Term 4, 2024