Another fast finish to the term with incursions, excursions, NAPLAN, student academic reports and the RoSE Assembly.

In this newsletter, I’m reporting on:

• Executive Leadership Conference
• RoSE Assembly
• Academic reports & parent teacher interviews
• Executive & staff professional learning
• What's happening in Term 3

Executive Leadership Conference

On Wednesday 1 June, the GRC HBC Executive team spent a half-day at our Executive Leadership Conference. The focus of the conference was team building and collaborative practice, aligning to our School Improvement Plan Strategic Direction 2, Every teacher counts. Key to driving change in our school is the strengthening of professional relationships among all staff, including the Executive team. The Executive Conference enabled greater interaction between Executive members in a fun yet challenging environment. The executive were divided into two teams where they navigated through The Rocks and Circular Quay completing physical, creative and intellectual challenges.

In Semester 2, the conference will continue to build upon relationships strengthened during Semester 1. We will continue to source opportunities for authentic connection and collaboration, whilst building our capacity as effective school leaders.

RoSE (Recognition of student excellence) Assembly (20 May)

This term we recognised student excellence at our biannual RoSE Assembly. Over 100 students received more than 169 awards which is an outstanding achievement by our boys. Well done to all award recipients. A big thank you also to Mrs Cazouris for her seamless organisation, to our student leaders for their assistance with seating and presentations on the day, and the school ensemble, including Mr Wilmshurst, for the musical items they performed.

Academic reports & parent teacher interviews

Year 7-10 reports will be issued to parents and carers this week. This semester we have re-introduced the A-E grade for subject outcomes. An explanation of this A-E scale will be included at the front of each report. We have also included the commitment to learning, a subject comment which indicates areas of improvement, and a year advisor comment. Further information regarding the progress of your son in each course can be discussed at Parent Teacher interviews. These have been rescheduled to Term 3 Week 2, Tuesday 26 July from 3.30pm-6.30pm. 

Staff professional learning in Term 2

During Term 2, our staff have been engaged in weekly professional learning with a focus on numeracy. Using the collaborative inquiry model, staff have been guided through two numeracy trials focusing on statistics and probability and fractions and proportional reasoning. These areas of focus have been identified through our NAPLAN data and are key elements to improving our overall numeracy results as indicated in our School Improvement Plan.

Staff have developed new skills in the teaching & learning of numeracy and have provided our Year 7 and 8 students with a variety of activities linked to their current curriculum content. It has been wonderful to see staff so engaged and motivated to make the learning relevant to our students. The boys have also demonstrated their understanding of these skills with many students providing samples of work that show their engagement and improvement.

Next term

Staff Development Day Term 3 will be held as a college with all four campuses attending the day at Oatley Senior Campus. The focus of the day will be using data to improve practice. We will be joined by our keynote speaker, Dr Selena Fisk a data expert, presenter and author, as we endeavour to improve our data literacy.

We are excited to engage the services of Dr Trish Weekes, a literacy specialist who helps teachers to learn about how to scaffold student reading and writing in their subjects. We will be working with Trish across terms 3 and 4 and into 2023. The professional learning we will be working on with Trish will support our Strategic Direction 1 – Every word counts, as well as establishing and improving our community and academic partnerships, Strategic Direction 2 – Every partner counts.

Year 8 into 9 subject selections will take place in Term 3. Students in Year 8 and their parents will attend a subject information evening where the courses offered will be discussed, as well as information relating to Stage 5, the RoSA and HSC Minimum Standards. More information will be provided early next term.

We hope students and their families have an enjoyable and restful break.

Rachelle Pirie | Deputy Principal Teaching and Learning