Staff Professional Learning – Ron Ritchhart visiting Tintern
In the first edition of Aspectus this year, we detailed the enhancement of our Tintern staff focus on developing a Culture of Thinking. This was achieved through staff engagement via two Zoom meetings with Ron Ritchhart (Harvard’s Project Zero) in our Professional Learning sessions in January, before students returned. Further to this wonderful opportunity, Tintern Grammar has secured an in-person visit from Ron, where he again will engage with our staff at Professional Learning sessions in early June and further challenge our teachers to embrace the task of re-writing the old narrative of students working for grades to a more contemporary story which links the value of thinking and collaborative learning in schools to empower students to ask questions and create links between their school experiences to their futures and the real world. Staff have found Ron’s sessions over the past few years to be both stimulating and thought-provoking, and the new practices being applied in our classrooms also are permeating our staff meeting culture, as we fully immerse ourselves in these provocations.
End-of-semester reporting
Parents are reminded that semester reports will be published to families online via our Tintern Grammar Portal. As we are fully transitioning to a new format for Secondary reports this semester, our Secondary School reports will go live on a slightly later date than previously advertised: Monday 26 June. Instructions for accessing these reports will be emailed to families in the last week of Term 2.
Secondary Program and Subject Selection for 2024
As part of Tintern Grammar’s commitment to ensuring students make informed choices, we are holding two information sessions relating to the options available for our Year 10 and 11 students of 2024.
The first of these sessions, our Guiding your Future event, is scheduled for Tuesday 6 June. This event, designed for current Year 9 and 10 students, will explore how senior subject selection is best informed by an understanding of the senior qualifications on offer at the school and the potential career pathways available to students. Information has been sent to Years 9 and 10 families regarding this event next week, with an EdSmart form requesting your expression of interest in the event and including a live link to join the online meeting next Tuesday evening. Please contact Deb Cannizzaro (dcannizzaro@tintern.vic.edu.au) if you would like that form re-sent to you.
As a follow up to this evening, a Subject Showcase Evening will be held in Term 3 on Tuesday 18 July 2023. Prior to this second evening, all individual VCE and VET subjects on offer next year will be outlined on Portal tiles and subject teachers will be available on 18 July to answer specific subject-related questions based on explorations students have made into the subject options for 2024. At this evening, Year 9 (2024) students and families are invited to attend a special information session on the possibility of taking a VCE subject in Year 10.
As in previous years, the subject selection process will occur online in late July. Students will be given instructions on how to follow this process during Pastoral sessions at school and details of electives and subjects available for selection will be published on the Portal towards the end of this term.
The information sessions mentioned above will assist students to select the most suitable pathway and subject choices for 2024. Individual teachers and our Careers Counsellors also will be available to assist in this process throughout the timeline outlined.
Alison Bezaire | Director of Studies
