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Saint Ignatius College Geelong
Saint Ignatius College Geelong
Saint Ignatius College Geelong
Article by Mrs Annette Chidzey
The term has commenced well for all our students and teachers and we are very glad to be able to start together delivering classes face to face. That being said, there is some very important information in this newsletter that relates to release of Semester 1 results; preparation for and selection of 2021 subjects as well as arrangements for parent/student/teacher conferences that will all be conducted under the COVID-19 restrictions that remain in place for the foreseeable future.
At the start of 2020, Saint Ignatius College moved to the whole school implementation of the Canvas Learning Management System. As a result of the introduction of this interactive learning system from Years 7 to 12, teachers were able to provide targeted feedback to students to help them achieve improved learning outcomes in their chosen subject areas. The provision of these results with feedback has meant that parents and guardians have been able to observe that feedback and track student progress across the semester.
With the onset of remote and flexible learning at the start of Term 2, the use of Canvas to deliver curriculum content via announcements enabled us to ensure learning continuity despite the difficulties of not being able to teach students face to face.
Given these changes, semester reporting has changed as well and these changes were indicated at the beginning of the year at all parent information evenings. Instead of summative reports, students will receive an individual Statement of Results for set assessment tasks as well as judgements in relation to learning skills and attributes as well as indications of Victorian curriculum progression points or in the case of senior students, satisfactory or non- satisfactory completion of VCE Units or achievement of competencies in VCAL strands.
For your information, Statements of Results will be accessible via the parent portal for students in Years 7, 8 and 9 on Friday July 17th and for students in Years 10, 11 and 12 on Friday July 24th. In both instances, the Statement of Results will be accessible from 4pm on each day.
Details as to how Statements of Results can be accessed will be emailed to all parents on Friday July 17th via the Deputy Principal’s office. Parents and guardians who have any difficulty accessing these results, will be advised in this notification how to receive technical assistance should that be required.
With the onset of remote and flexible learning coupled with restricted access to the school site, we have not as yet been able to conduct formal parent/student/teacher conferences. As it is unlikely that this situation will change in the current circumstances in Victoria, we have planned to stage these conferences in two stages.
Years 11 and 12 Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences
Years 11 and 12 parent/student/teacher conferences will be conducted via Zoom on Wednesday July 29th from 4.00pm to 8.30pm. Fifteen-minute time slots will be set aside for each conference and the teacher conducting the conference will contact the parent or guardian via the student’s school email address and laptop.
Bookings for these conferences will open via the parent portal on Xuno at 9am on Thursday July 23rd and close at 4pm on Tuesday July 28th to enable subject teachers to adequately prepare for these conferences.
The period from 6pm to 7pm will be unavailable for bookings to provide a dinner break for teachers conducting these conferences.
If a parent or guardian is unable to secure a booking on that evening or has technical difficulties conducting the conference, he or she will be able to email that particular subject teacher to request a phone or Zoom conference at another time that is mutually suitable for the teacher and the parent or guardian.
Years 7 to 10 Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences
The second stage of conferences will occur on Thursday September 17th from 4pm to 8.30pm and then Friday September 18th from 9am to 12 noon. Friday September 18th will be a student free day except for Year 12 VCE English students sitting an October test English exam from 9am to 12-15pm.
Depending on the state of play with COVID-19 management across the state, these conferences may be face-to-face or by Zoom.
While we would like to have been able to conduct parent/student/teacher conferences face to face earlier than has been possible this year, I respectfully remind all parents and guardians that they can contact a subject or homeroom teacher at any time via email or the student planner to request a conversation with regard to student performance or progress.
I would also refer parents and guardians to the comments made by Principal, Mr. Michael Exton, in his section of the newsletter that provided advice as to how to ensure that you monitor feedback and progress that your son or daughter can share with you via the Canvas LMS.
Despite the challenging circumstances that we find ourselves in at present, it is time now to turn our attention to subject information and selection procedures for 2021. We are not able to conduct our subject information procedures as has been the case in previous years due to the current restrictions in place under the guidelines of the Department of Education and the Catholic Education Melbourne.
For this year the following arrangements will be in place for our students and their families.
On Friday July 17th, subject information booklets for students in Years 8 to 11 will be published in a common Canvas course called ‘2021 Subject Selection Pathways.’ All students currently in these levels will be able to access any of these booklets and their associated elective or subject preference forms course, thereby enabling them to see courses that are being offered across the College from Years 9 to 12 in 2021.
Once these booklets are uploaded, students, parents and guardians will be able to start reading through the electives, units or subjects available at each level next year and begin important family discussions as to what might be best for their son or daughter.
From that point, a series of sessions will be offered to students and parents to assist them in making individual selections for 2021. For students and parents in Years 9 and 10 this year, a pre-recorded presentation will be made available in Week 3 of the term to offer specific information related to that level. Furthermore, for these levels and all other levels as well there will be specific guidance provided at school or via Zoom to assist with selections dependent on what is possible at that point in time.
Please note that for all students currently in Years 8, 9, 10 or 11, they must complete and submit their selections by Wednesday August 18th. This is so the College can determine what subjects are viable to offer in 2021 based on student preferences, staffing capacity and timetabling constraints. To help them do this, students in these year levels will receive a hard copy of the relevant form at that level to record their selections and these forms will then be collected by homeroom teachers at morning homeroom on August 18th.
When the subject information booklets are available on Canvas, an email will be forwarded to students and parents in Years 8 to 11 to explain how to access this course and the booklets contained within it.
We look forward to working together to guide your sons and daughters on their learning pathways through the College in the coming years.
This year it will be very important that all students doing a Unit 3/4 VCE subject or subjects complete a formal GAT practice to be fully aware of how this general achievement test will be used to assist with correlations to subject study scores and final ATAR results. As there have been extended periods of remote and flexible learning in Semester 1, with students undertaking SACs in differing circumstances, the GAT is likely to assume additional significance as VCAA seek to ensure equity of results across all students and courses.
We will therefore be conducting a practice for all students required to sit the actual VCAA GAT on Wednesday September 9th. This practice will be held on Tuesday August 11th from 9am to 12-15pm with normal Period 5 and 6 classes to follow in the afternoon. We are currently seeking an external assessor/s to grade the written communication tasks while multiple choice answers will be provided to students after the practice, to help them determine how the GAT mark is derived and to better understand its overall importance.
A letter detailing arrangements for this practice GAT, the formal GAT, Year 12 VCE October practice exams as well as end of year VCAA exams will be forwarded to parents in the next few weeks but this advance notice is to request that key GAT dates be placed on the family calendar so that all students are present for both tests.
In. concluding, I thank you all for your ongoing support to ensure our students are as well prepared as possible for a range of key events this term and trust that you and your families continue to remain safe and healthy.
Mrs Annette Chidzey Deputy Principal [ Learning and Teaching]
Feature
Events
Our News // 16 July 2020
Article by Mrs Annette Chidzey
The term has commenced well for all our students and teachers and we are very glad to be able to start together delivering classes face to face. That being said, there is some very important information in this newsletter that relates to release of Semester 1 results; preparation for and selection of 2021 subjects as well as arrangements for parent/student/teacher conferences that will all be conducted under the COVID-19 restrictions that remain in place for the foreseeable future.
At the start of 2020, Saint Ignatius College moved to the whole school implementation of the Canvas Learning Management System. As a result of the introduction of this interactive learning system from Years 7 to 12, teachers were able to provide targeted feedback to students to help them achieve improved learning outcomes in their chosen subject areas. The provision of these results with feedback has meant that parents and guardians have been able to observe that feedback and track student progress across the semester.
With the onset of remote and flexible learning at the start of Term 2, the use of Canvas to deliver curriculum content via announcements enabled us to ensure learning continuity despite the difficulties of not being able to teach students face to face.
Given these changes, semester reporting has changed as well and these changes were indicated at the beginning of the year at all parent information evenings. Instead of summative reports, students will receive an individual Statement of Results for set assessment tasks as well as judgements in relation to learning skills and attributes as well as indications of Victorian curriculum progression points or in the case of senior students, satisfactory or non- satisfactory completion of VCE Units or achievement of competencies in VCAL strands.
For your information, Statements of Results will be accessible via the parent portal for students in Years 7, 8 and 9 on Friday July 17th and for students in Years 10, 11 and 12 on Friday July 24th. In both instances, the Statement of Results will be accessible from 4pm on each day.
Details as to how Statements of Results can be accessed will be emailed to all parents on Friday July 17th via the Deputy Principal’s office. Parents and guardians who have any difficulty accessing these results, will be advised in this notification how to receive technical assistance should that be required.
With the onset of remote and flexible learning coupled with restricted access to the school site, we have not as yet been able to conduct formal parent/student/teacher conferences. As it is unlikely that this situation will change in the current circumstances in Victoria, we have planned to stage these conferences in two stages.
Years 11 and 12 Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences
Years 11 and 12 parent/student/teacher conferences will be conducted via Zoom on Wednesday July 29th from 4.00pm to 8.30pm. Fifteen-minute time slots will be set aside for each conference and the teacher conducting the conference will contact the parent or guardian via the student’s school email address and laptop.
Bookings for these conferences will open via the parent portal on Xuno at 9am on Thursday July 23rd and close at 4pm on Tuesday July 28th to enable subject teachers to adequately prepare for these conferences.
The period from 6pm to 7pm will be unavailable for bookings to provide a dinner break for teachers conducting these conferences.
If a parent or guardian is unable to secure a booking on that evening or has technical difficulties conducting the conference, he or she will be able to email that particular subject teacher to request a phone or Zoom conference at another time that is mutually suitable for the teacher and the parent or guardian.
Years 7 to 10 Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences
The second stage of conferences will occur on Thursday September 17th from 4pm to 8.30pm and then Friday September 18th from 9am to 12 noon. Friday September 18th will be a student free day except for Year 12 VCE English students sitting an October test English exam from 9am to 12-15pm.
Depending on the state of play with COVID-19 management across the state, these conferences may be face-to-face or by Zoom.
While we would like to have been able to conduct parent/student/teacher conferences face to face earlier than has been possible this year, I respectfully remind all parents and guardians that they can contact a subject or homeroom teacher at any time via email or the student planner to request a conversation with regard to student performance or progress.
I would also refer parents and guardians to the comments made by Principal, Mr. Michael Exton, in his section of the newsletter that provided advice as to how to ensure that you monitor feedback and progress that your son or daughter can share with you via the Canvas LMS.
Despite the challenging circumstances that we find ourselves in at present, it is time now to turn our attention to subject information and selection procedures for 2021. We are not able to conduct our subject information procedures as has been the case in previous years due to the current restrictions in place under the guidelines of the Department of Education and the Catholic Education Melbourne.
For this year the following arrangements will be in place for our students and their families.
On Friday July 17th, subject information booklets for students in Years 8 to 11 will be published in a common Canvas course called ‘2021 Subject Selection Pathways.’ All students currently in these levels will be able to access any of these booklets and their associated elective or subject preference forms course, thereby enabling them to see courses that are being offered across the College from Years 9 to 12 in 2021.
Once these booklets are uploaded, students, parents and guardians will be able to start reading through the electives, units or subjects available at each level next year and begin important family discussions as to what might be best for their son or daughter.
From that point, a series of sessions will be offered to students and parents to assist them in making individual selections for 2021. For students and parents in Years 9 and 10 this year, a pre-recorded presentation will be made available in Week 3 of the term to offer specific information related to that level. Furthermore, for these levels and all other levels as well there will be specific guidance provided at school or via Zoom to assist with selections dependent on what is possible at that point in time.
Please note that for all students currently in Years 8, 9, 10 or 11, they must complete and submit their selections by Wednesday August 18th. This is so the College can determine what subjects are viable to offer in 2021 based on student preferences, staffing capacity and timetabling constraints. To help them do this, students in these year levels will receive a hard copy of the relevant form at that level to record their selections and these forms will then be collected by homeroom teachers at morning homeroom on August 18th.
When the subject information booklets are available on Canvas, an email will be forwarded to students and parents in Years 8 to 11 to explain how to access this course and the booklets contained within it.
We look forward to working together to guide your sons and daughters on their learning pathways through the College in the coming years.
This year it will be very important that all students doing a Unit 3/4 VCE subject or subjects complete a formal GAT practice to be fully aware of how this general achievement test will be used to assist with correlations to subject study scores and final ATAR results. As there have been extended periods of remote and flexible learning in Semester 1, with students undertaking SACs in differing circumstances, the GAT is likely to assume additional significance as VCAA seek to ensure equity of results across all students and courses.
We will therefore be conducting a practice for all students required to sit the actual VCAA GAT on Wednesday September 9th. This practice will be held on Tuesday August 11th from 9am to 12-15pm with normal Period 5 and 6 classes to follow in the afternoon. We are currently seeking an external assessor/s to grade the written communication tasks while multiple choice answers will be provided to students after the practice, to help them determine how the GAT mark is derived and to better understand its overall importance.
A letter detailing arrangements for this practice GAT, the formal GAT, Year 12 VCE October practice exams as well as end of year VCAA exams will be forwarded to parents in the next few weeks but this advance notice is to request that key GAT dates be placed on the family calendar so that all students are present for both tests.
In. concluding, I thank you all for your ongoing support to ensure our students are as well prepared as possible for a range of key events this term and trust that you and your families continue to remain safe and healthy.
Mrs Annette Chidzey Deputy Principal [ Learning and Teaching]
