2023 | ISSUE 2 | SJC Newsletter

In the 1990’s St Joseph’s entered into a formal relationship with Sacred Heart whereby timetables were aligned to allow students to study a subject at the other school. There have been many benefits over time including enabling subjects to run when there are very small classes and opportunities for our senior students to experience a more diverse learning environment. This year we have about 180 Sacred Heart students studying a subject at St Joseph’s and about 120 St Joseph’s students studying at Sacred Heart.

For the last 18 months senior staff from the two Colleges have been working together on the ‘TIME’ project. The goal of the project is to explore contemporary models of learning design that foster student autonomy and better prepare our students for life beyond the school gates.

As part of this project both schools have consulted staff and external experts, and undertaken surveys of their student body to explore:

• modes of delivery for learning,
• how the school day might be rearranged to best suit learner engagement
• greater flexibility in times of learning
• effective times for wellbeing programs

The data gathered from both schools was consistent, with students indicating:

• late morning to early afternoon as their optimal learning time, indicating they prefer sustained periods of learning during this time
• they absorb theoretical concepts in lessons of around 45 – 60 minutes, whereas they have a preference of around 90 mins for the opportunity to apply practical concepts
• overwhelming support of both Colleges for building flexibility into typical school structures
• an openness to opportunities for wellbeing to be incorporated into the school day.
• the importance of school leaders being responsive to the needs of both genders

We expect to implement changes to our daily and weekly schedules from the start of 2024. I look forward to providing more specific detail later this semester.

St Joseph’s proudly maintains an open entry policy whereby we do not selectively enrol students on the basis of their academic or sporting achievement. As a result, it is important that we continue to offer a variety of pathways at the senior end of the school. Most students will continue at the College until year 12 and complete their VCE with either a Vocational Major, an ATAR (scored VCE) or an unscored VCE. Some will leave school before the end of year 12 and these students are more than twice as likely to move straight into an apprenticeship or employment than other students in the region.

Recently there has been much public discussion about the merits of ATAR as the primary mechanism for determining places in tertiary courses. Many institutions are increasingly using information other than just the ATAR score to determine course admission. This is not a new phenomenon, as schools, teachers and principals have been writing ‘references’, and students have been preparing resumés to support applications to some courses for decades.

The College has entered into a partnership with The University of Melbourne called ‘New Metrics for Success’ which is advocating for a more formal mechanism for schools to report the competencies and achievements of students through broader learning profiles. In time such a report may replace the ATAR but there is no doubt that any replacement will still include some measure of academic achievement.

While the ATAR remains the primary delineating factor for admission to most tertiary courses it is important that our VCE students in the scored pathway focus on maximising their academic achievement. It is the easiest, (but not the only) way to achieve your short-term study and career goals.

The College continues to plan for the redevelopment of our Arts precinct which we plan to commence in second semester this year and I look forward to providing families with further detail of this exciting development in coming months. A number of smaller projects have recently been completed maintaining and enhancing our excellent facilities. These include:

• the rejuvenation of A Block with new carpet, paint and operable walls
• additional shade sails in the yard and the replacement of some pre-existing sails
• rebuilding the kitchen garden area and a new Outdoor Education storage facility at Westcourt

Other works scheduled for this year include:

• a reworking of the toilet facilities at Westcourt
• development of a Westcourt weights gym adjacent the gymnasium.
• upgrade and expansion of the cricket practice nets on Carey Oval.

During the last two weeks there have been many welcome and information evenings held at the College to provide the opportunity for parents to meet their sons’ teachers. I would like to thank everybody who joined us at these evenings. We know that successful education requires the collaboration and cooperation of school and home and having parents and teachers know each other is a good start.

The College inter-house athletics was postponed from last Friday due to forecast extreme heat and was conducted on Monday. It was terrific to see students, led proudly by year 12 students, entering enthusiastically into the events. Congratulations to Foley house on their victory.

God Bless

Tony Paatsch

Principal