At almost half of this term completed, I hope all students are settling into the new year, new classes, new teachers and a renewed sense of achievement. As parents and carers of our students, we would like to continue working in partnership with you throughout the remainder of this year to ensure that our students succeed. We acknowledge that a strong academic foundation and well-developed character strengths are necessary for success. These are interconnected, and one cannot be compromised for the other. These strengths are acquired through mindful practice.

Our Academic and Wellbeing stance for 2023 is for all our students to Be Their Best and this means demonstrating Grit. Parents and students may have heard of Grit mentioned several times this year in recent years in the context of raising students to go on to fulfil and maximise their potential.  Grit, as popularised by Angela Duckworth in her work, “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance”, is, in effect, the ability to put forth continued effort despite seemingly insurmountable challenges. What drives success is not genius, she suggests, but that combination of passion and long-term perseverance.

Grit is our passion and perseverance towards reaching a long-term goal. Like most valuable skills, this will take practice and dedication. The College will commit to our students achieving Grit by explicitly teaching Social Emotional Learning Skills. In order to achieve Grit, we are challenging our students to commit and produce work consistent with a high standard, reflected by their ability and never below their expected standard.

Homework will be assigned most days and for all subjects unless otherwise stated. Homework and homestudy is extremely important as it allows you to be involved in your child’s learning and reinforces the lessons from the day. Homework and homestudy also assist in developing a learning routine at home and emphasise the development of work and study habits that will assist students throughout their years at the College.

Information sessions started this year with the VCE/VM/VPC Information session on Year 7 Information Evening. It was heartening to witness the strong turnout for these sessions, and we hope to continue to run further sessions focused on building our capabilities to support our students.

Below are the links to the VCE and VM/VPC session recordings. Thank You to Caroline Nolan (VCE Coordinator) and Belinda Dwyer (Applied Learning Leader) for leadership in this area.