Dear Parents and Students
At the moment we are building the timetable for the next academic year (October 2017 to December 2018). It has been interesting and challenging to accommodate the changing desires of students. Subjects that didn’t exist in schools several years ago, such as ATAR Marine and Maritime Studies, Cert lll and lV in Business, Psychology etc. have grown in popularity while certain more “traditional” subjects have shrunk. Changes in the workplace are strongly influencing the subject choices that students and their families make.
Many Certificate classes (e.g. Certificate ll in Hospitality; Certificate lll in Design; Certificate ll in Sport and Recreation – Fitness; Cert ll in Outdoor Education) are chosen by both Year 11 and 12 students who enrol in a particular certificate depending on their needs. This mixture of students in Certificate Courses has been common for many years.
As we endeavour to keep other subject pathways open into the future, some very small Year 11 classes which have a significant practical or oral component do lend themselves to merging with small Year 12 classes. In 2018 fewer than 4 students have chosen ATAR French and this will be run in conjunction with the Year 12 class. The same will be true for Drama and Media. Students choosing these three subjects need to understand that they will be working with older students and that they will be required to work at a high and self-disciplined level. I am pleased that there are still bigger numbers of students choosing subjects such as Economics, Modern History and Visual Art.
Our timetable is constructed “from the top down”: we start with Year 11 and 12 simultaneously. Initially student choices give us an indication of how many classes might be possible. We use a very advanced program to satisfy the needs of as many students as possible. Some subjects exist on one grid line only and this complicates things. Subjects such as ATAR English and Mathematics Applications are spread across as many “grid lines” as possible in order to create as many choices for students as we can. Decisions around the viability of classes are based on numbers, the historical number of students who drop particular subjects in favour of a private study in Year 12 as well as whether a subject is a university pre-requisite.
Over this last week of term, almost every prospective Year 11 and 12 student will finalise their subjects for upper school. While Year 11s chose 6 subjects, by the start of next year over 60% of year 12s on an ATAR pathway, will have only 5 subjects and will have a private study as their 6th “subject”. We are in the process of constructing the Year 9 and 10 “electives” gridlines and fitting those into the complicated matrix that makes up a timetable. This timetable will be in place until December 2018. After that timetables will be constructed later in the year and run from February to December each year.
I would like to wish every family a restful time over the extended mid-year break.
Regards
Bruce Titlestad
Head of Secondary School
