Month: February 2022

Four school records broken last week:

Year 12 boys Tom Anderson (Timae)

50m Breaststroke -30.75

50m Butterfly – 27.22

4 X 50m Freestyle relay

 

Year 7 CARANA BOYS – 2.23.62

 

YEAR 11 CARANA BOYS -1.54.95

 

Carana boys now hold 5/6 relay records!!!

Congratulations to all!

Matt Richmond

Head of Learning Area – Health & Physical Education

A message from St Stephen’s School

Dear Parents and Carers,

Please be reminded of the following requirements from the Department of Health:

Face masks are required indoors (except at home) for everyone aged 12 years and older at all times, unless an exception applies.

• We strongly recommend that you wear a face mask outdoors, if you can’t physically distance, have any symptoms, or if you are with people who may be vulnerable to COVID-19.
• Carry a mask when leaving home.

If you have a child in Year 7 and up, please ensure they come to school each morning with a mask. Having a spare mask in their bag is highly recommended. Whilst we have a small reserve of masks for students who have a breakage across the day, it is our expectation that you equip your child with all they need to follow health directions at school.

Regards and thanks,

 

Mr Bennet Andrews

Deputy Head of Secondary (Care)

Ellis Aitchison, Year 11, took part in the Kayaking State Championships 2022

He placed:

Gold for K1 1000, K2 500 and mixed K2 500

Sliver for K1 500 and 200

Congratulations Ellis!

Information Evening: How to Get the Best from Year 12 AND Year 11/12 VET Requirements

Find out how to achieve success this year! 

The school is hosting a combined Information Evening on Tuesday 15 February, for all Year 12 parents, as well as parents of all Year 11 and 12 VET and Certificate Pathway students.

Please note, the ability to hold this event as planned will be subject to any changes in Government advice regarding COVID restrictions. Information covered on the evening will also be presented to students during Education Plus lessons.

The evening will commence with an overview of WACE Graduation and what success looks like for our graduating students.  We will then split into two pathway-focused groups:  Parents of Year 11 and 12 VET/Certificate students (in the Community Room), and parents of Year 12 Direct Entry students (in Cousins Hall). Each group will be presented with targeted information relating to strategies for successful results in their specific pathway. This will include Work Experience information, how to manage workloads, and pathways to tertiary education for VET/Certificate students. Parents of Direct Entry students will hear about important dates, exam literacy, applications to University, and how the ATAR is calculated plus there will be a chance to ask questions.

Presenters will include our Deputy Head of Teaching and Learning, Careers Advisor, VET Coordinator and VET Liaison Officer.

Details: Tuesday 15 February from 6.30-7.30pm, commencing in Cousins Hall.  Please RSVP your attendance here

NB: If there are any changes due to government advisories, a further email will be sent out as well as a notification in the Secondary Newsletter.

As part of our commitment to support student learning, the English Department will be running a before school English Workshop in T3 between 7:20 and 8:00 each Wednesday morning.

This Workshop can be used by students to receive support and guidance on upcoming assessments, to prepare for Semester examinations, to ask questions about course texts, to catch up with missed work if a lesson has been missed through a VET placement… or simply to use the available time to work in a quiet space. These are drop-in sessions which students can use as/when they need to.

All Year 11 and Year 12 students (ATAR English, ATAR Literature and English General) are welcome to attend. Please contact me at the school if you require more information.

 

Mr Howie Jakeway 

Head of Learning Area: English & Languages

STUDY SKILLS TIP FOR FEBRUARY   – TOP PARENT FAQs

Having run over 5000 study skills seminars over the last 20 years, Dr Prue Salter has been asked many questions about study skills. Below are the top 5 questions parents ask.

1. How much learning should students be doing each night?

Different schools will have different expectations, but the general guidelines are that junior students should be doing around 1 hour of self-learning most nights, seniors between 2-3 hours most nights.

1. But what if students say they have no homework?

In Primary school, students are used to just doing the work their teacher specifically tells them to do. Many students do not realise that things should be different in secondary school; there are actually two types of learning students should be doing. The first is compulsory work such as homework, assignments, and preparing for tests. The second type of work is independent learning work. If students have no homework that night, they are expected to undertake some independent learning in secondary school. This could be reviewing what they have learnt that week, making a mind map, reading ahead, researching an area of interest, making study notes or reviewing difficult concepts.

1. Can you listen to music while studying?

The general rule is that if students are undertaking learning that is not difficult, it is OK to listen to music. It makes them feel relaxed, makes them feel like the time is going quicker. However, if they are doing work that requires intense concentration or memorisation, it is best to switch the music off (or else have slower music with no vocals such as classical musical) as otherwise it will take them much longer to absorb and learn the information.

1. Is it OK for students to do work with devices or in front of the TV?

Unless students are doing something mindless like sticking things on a poster or colouring in, it is best not to do work in front of any devices such as phones or TV. Instead, students should do their home learning in an environment that is as distraction-free as possible. It works well if students do their learning in distinct blocks of time and remove all distractions during those blocks. Some students find they have the self-discipline to manage technological distractions, others need a helping hand – such as their phone in a different room for the half-hour period where they are focusing on schoolwork.

1. How do I stop my student getting distracted when working on the computer?

Have a discussion with students about doing schoolwork in focused blocks of time so that they can really enjoy their time away from the books (or computer). If students find it challenging to be disciplined, they can also look at self-blocking software such as Self Control (MAC) and Cold Turkey (PC). If students are still struggling, parental management programs such as Family Zone allow families to block particular sites at particular times.

 

Parents and students can learn more about studying efficiently and effectively by working through the units on www.studyskillshandbook.com.au.
Our school’s access details are:
Username: ststephens
Password: 100success

Sarah Cooke

Careers Advisor

Dear Parents 

SEQTA is an amazing tool for schools and we encourage both students and parents to check it regularly.

Please note that SEQTA is a resource to supplement teaching NOT an online substitute for the relationship between a teacher and student. Your child spends 320 minutes a day in personal contact with their teachers – and your child has every opportunity to receive help, ask questions and take ownership of their work. We would encourage parents to grow the independence of their children rather than to expect SEQTA to be the prime source of information.

SEQTA is a great insight for parents – but again, the conversations that are then initiated between parents, teacher and student are of the most value. I would encourage parents and students and ensure that they are aware of the documents attached to each course: course outlines, assessment schedules and other resources are available in SEQTA for reference, saving or printing at any time. I would also encourage parents to ask for help and to keep an eye out for the SEQTA information evenings which are often run at the start of each year.

Teachers will on occasion deviate from their teaching plan because students may require extra time for understanding and consolidation. That is part of good teaching and might disrupt a plan previously put in place. We all know that parents and teachers constantly adapt as the needs of children evolve. Individual teachers will decide the format or formats for the submission of work – sometime these may be in hard copy, sometimes they might be uploaded to SEQTA, emailed or handed in on USB. This will depend on the nature of the task and the format the teacher feels is best. Teachers are striving to meet the expectations below. Some teachers already exceed these and use SEQTA very extensively. The expectations below are our target and while many staff will go beyond these, staff are not expected to.

 

The SEQTA experience for parents

Duncraig and Carramar Secondary

 

Cover Page

The purpose of the cover page is to contain an overview of the course. It should be an easy reference for information about the entire year of work.

It contains a copy (or a link) to the assessment schedule, program and syllabus.

It contains the school Assessment Policy.

For Certificate subjects: The Cover Page includes a paragraph explaining the four compliance requirements, Unit Delivery and Assessment Planner for the whole year, Assessment Tasks (as each is delivered), and RTO Student Handbook.

 

Assessments

• The assessment schedule should be developed at the start of the year. Lower school students are to have the entire semester of assessments visible to parents and students. Year 11 and 12 are to have the entire year’s assessments visible
• Assessment titles should include the weighting and clear labels that are succinct.
• Task sheet/assessment description and marking guide/rubric are to be added at an appropriate time.
• Marks for summative assessments should be made visible, within three weeks of the assessment being finalised.
• If there is more than one class, all marks are to be made visible at the same time.
• Exam marks are to be released at the end of the exam period.
• Formative assessments can be visible with a weighting of zero.
• Assessment feedback will be placed in the Marks Book on a regular basis.

 

(Lesson) Planning

Students, parents/carers and other staff should be able to see what has been planned on a week-by-week basis (as a minimum). Clarity in lesson naming is essential.

 

Lesson Resources

It should be clear where students can access resources and links. Students may be required to enter homework themselves on occasion.

 

Documents Section

This is used to store documents that parents/carers might need to access at any point of the year.

Documents include anything from a Parent Information Night slide show, Curriculum Handbooks, and the Assessment Policy.

 

 

The ICT Support Team

 

If you need any help accessing SEQTA please use our Parent Support Portal:            https://help.ststephens.wa.edu.au/

or our Parent Helpline:                9243 2160

Parent ICT Support is available between 8:30 am – 4:15 pm.

 

Mr Bennet Andrews and Dr Liz Criddle

Secondary Deputies.