One of the benefits of the blog format is our capacity to track visits to the blog. Last week, 39 visits were made to our inagural blog.
Check out this school. 15 students who travel to three countries each year and negotiate their curriculum.
http://thinkglobalschool.org/
The staff opinion survey has been proving tricky to access. We really appreciate your efforts and patience. Please take the time to complete it. The information you provide us with is very valuable.
Jenny has been having conversations with groups of students, randomly selected to gain a clearer understanding about what is important to them in the learning. She met with a group this week and asked them about their preferred mobile device to learn with and a range of questions around learning and engagement.
In preparation for next weeks early start PL, the Domain Leaders met on Thursday after school to look at new curriculum structures for 2012; following the consultation that occurred with all Domain Leaders individually last week.
Screamfest rehearsals continued on Monday afternoon, with the team looking more and more like the finished product every week.
On Tuesday our 7B group visited the St Thomas Community Retirment Village and did some cross age learning. See the photo below.
The year 12 students all did a practice GAT on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. They took it very seriously and we believe they will be better placed to perform well following these practice sessions. Thanks to all staff who organised it and marked the practice GATS.
North Melbourne Football Club ran an AFL clinic for our year 7 students on Wednesday during period 4. I am sure that some footy skills were learnt, but am equally sure that sessions like this allow for the development of learning attributes that extend beyond the content of normal classrooms. Skills for the 21st century learner such as co-operation, team work, communication, managing self etc are key elements that we need to ensure get opportunities within our busy curriculum.
Primary visits continued and we had hundreds of grade 5 students very excited to experience the rich diversity of Forest Hill College classes.
45 students from across the College represented the school at the Division Cross Country Trials on Thursday.
Year 9 students continued their work at Strathdon on Thursday afternoon. Jenny experienced first hand the delight they all share as they talk to each other and work towards making their presentations in three weeks time.
Empower Girls and Strength continued again this week, and our vaccinations happened on Wednesday.
A free dance workshop was run during lunchtime on Tuesday and Breakfast club continues to be a success running out of the canteen 2 mornings a week.
We celebrated some big 0 birthdays on Friday, many happy returns to all of those staff.
On Friday we had a Maths incursion for our year 7 students
Matt Tiscia began work as our new TSSP this Thursday.He will be working 2 days a week until his hours get increased hopefully very soon.
We have now completed our bully polls across the College and look forward to the results and associated programs to reduce further any inappropriate peer relationships.Brainstorm Productions presentation to years 7,8 & 9 this week are key elements of proactive wellbeing programs, initiated through our Wellbeing structures, that should play a big part in educating our students about the impact of bullying and harrassment.
The Year 7 & 8 Maths Quiz, this Friday in the Theatre was a wonderful opportunity for students to apply their learning in a different forum, challenging their maths skills in a fun environment.
Our Domain Leaders all met and continued the development of our documented curriculum and planning for the course selection process and course selection handbooks and evening in Term 3.
Applications for the PSD Leader and the Curriculum Implementation Acting LT were received and interviews began to appoint successful candidates to the positions. Announcements will be made soon.
Panels for the positions vacant at the College were constructed and began preparing for the shortlisting phase. Thanks to those who have volunteered their time for this vital role.
The successful builder for the Admin Refurb was chosen and we have allready met with him. We have made some modifications to the scope of works to reduce the cost slightly and look forward to it commencing on June 14. Some of the modifications have been in the areas of storage and joinery. We have worked very hard to maintain the integrity of the design. There will be no movements required to begin the work outside of relocating the year 7 classrooms across to the new space and finding a new location for a staff eating area as the kitchen in the staff lounge will be demolished. Briefing will need to find a new home. Some small pain for the long term gain.
We are getting to close to be able to move into the new classroom space with 7 Interactive whitebaords being installed this week. Next week we will see the relocation of the boards that are currently in the staff lounge, and H Block rooms.
The soccer field and aths track will begin construction after the Queen's Birthday weekend also, all going well with the weather.
This week we had the fortune to spend a day with Yong Zhao. He is an engaging speaker. The PL link is to a presentation linked to his recent book "Catching Up or Leading the Way". The research he has immersed us all in focusses on the link between globalisation and technology in education and WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN THE CLASSROOM. Yong Zhao challenges us to look at the key learning attributes that students need to be competent and confident contributors to the 21st century environment they will be employed in. This is interesting as we looked at this as a key feature of the learnings we had from the study trip to New Zealand.
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