PRINCIPAL’S QUARTERLY UPDATE ISSUE 1, MARCH 2016

WELCOME TO THE PRINCIPAL’S QUARTERLY UPDATE

Welcome to a new communication initiative for parents, carers and the

community for 2016. I thought I would take the opportunity of sharing

with you six significant initiatives that are in operation, or gradually being

rolled out, at Macquarie College this year. While some may be familiar

in part, I thought to share so all may gain a feel for the progressive and

innovative educational environment at the College.

1. eSMART – Creating A Safe and

Supportive Community

Junior School Students taking a stand during the 2016

National Day of Action against bullying

Firstly, Macquarie College is highly committed to

creating a safe and supportive educational

community. In so doing, it is building emotional

and social resilience among students. Importantly,

the College is seeking to empower students to

eliminate bullying behaviours, and to be authors of

their own positive culture.

One of the hallmarks of this goal in 2015, was that

Macquarie College gained registration as an

e-Smart School and is one of only a few in the

Hunter Region to have implemented this program

to date.

This educational initiative is ongoing and is

specifically designed to guide students and parents

in the responsible use of the full spectrum of

technology, including social media.

Another very important component within the

overall strategy to develop and maintain a positive

and supportive culture within the College, is the

roll-out of the Safe and Supportive Community

initiative in 2016. The Safe and Supportive

Community initiative comprises the following

elements:

● The official launch by guest speaker, Robyn

Moore, who entertained students and parents

alike with her presentations on resilience,

authorship, and mindfulness on Wednesday 9

March;

● Kindergarten to Year 3 focus on the positive and

negative dynamics of friendships, how to be

safe and respectful online and using storytelling

to increase awareness of responsibility for self

and others;

● A community of inquiry within Year 4-12

classrooms which focuses on the process of

creating a safe and supportive College campus,

reinforcement of the current College anti-

bullying policies and incident reporting

procedures;

Towards a progressive

and innovative

educational

environment at

Macquarie College

● Specially themed Junior School Chapel and

Senior School Chapel events;

● A College-wide demonstration of solidarity for

student wellbeing and taking a stand to

eliminate bullying by taking part in a function

on the College Oval Friday 18th March.

● Participation in Harmony Day activities, and

celebrating the diversity within the College

which has almost 50 nationalities represented

among first generation-families within our

community.

2. INVICTUS – Fostering Social,

Emotional and Mental Wellbeing

A second significant initiative of the College is the

INVICTUS Wellbeing Program. Inspired by

Professor Martin Seligman’s PERMA wellbeing

Model, the INVICTUS Wellbeing Program was

developed by Mr Josh Brown and is now in its

third year.

INVICTUS provides Year 9 students at Macquarie

College with a highly-structured program of self-

discovery, skill-mastery and service. This College

program is quite unique and a very significant

initiative at this time of adolescent personal

development.

The program is delivered via activity-based

learning which runs parallel to the Year 9

curriculum. A wide range of Macquarie College

staff support the initiative and are actively

involved as volunteer mentors who serve the

Student community by guiding their learning

journey.

A wide range of personal and cultural development

themes are explored through the delivery of four

certified Modules (one per Term):

JOURNEY: Risk and consequence, navigation

and teamwork

NETWORK: Positive emotion, celebrating others

and selflessness

MASTER: Skill acquisition, project

documentation and group presentations

SERVE: Giving and receiving service, concepts

of helping others and conservation.

Each Module features a significant “Memory

Event”. These memory events mark the students’

journey through the Module, culminating in a

‘handover’ event in the final Serve Module hosted

by Year 9 for the benefit of the Year 8 cohort, next

to embark on their own INVICTUS journey.

Supported by Lake Macquarie City Council, the

INVICTUS Program is a marquee program

developed and implemented by experienced

Macquarie College staff members who are

passionately committed to the wellbeing and

growth of our students. Interestingly, other HRIS

Schools have approached MC for the licence to use

this program in their schools as well.

3. HABITS OF MIND – Fostering Higher

Order Thinking Skills

The third significant initiative to be rolled out is

the ‘Habits of Mind’. This is extremely

important to enhancing the learning experience

of students and higher order thinking in

particular.

The Habits of Mind framework develops

thinking strategies for children, promoting

deeper thinking by the child in assessing their

surroundings, identifying problems, and

interacting harmoniously with others.

Importantly, the mindset that is developed by

students through ‘Habits of Mind’, will equip

them in their whole learning journey, which

features trial and error, and a continual focus on

setting, planning and achieving goals throughout

their lives.

Junior School staff are consciously developing

new dispositions and class experiences which

reflect the 16 Habits of Mind strategies, to ensure

students embrace and adopt these strategies.

Throughout Junior School, staff have embraced

the framework because of its positive and

practical application each day in their roles as

educators. The Habits of Mind strategies are now

permeating all aspects of the classroom, from

presenting awards, to classroom language and

will soon filter through to mid-year and year-end

reports.

4. QUEST – A Collaborative Approach to

Teaching and Learning

The fourth significant initiative underway is the

QUEST Program commencing with Year 7 in

2016. The program involves all Year 7 students in

creating, communicating and collaborating. The

whole cohort meet together for the first 100

minutes of each day, and this allows for creative

groupings, large projects and selective lessons for

the students. This program was introduced after

nearly 12 months of planning and research.

During this time, students are undertaking their

Science, Maths and English subjects - covering the

same material as Year 7s have done in previous

years. However, with this QUEST time, teachers

have more opportunities to focus on small groups

and individuals, and to ensure they are being

supported and challenged in their learning.

The Coordinator of Science (Mrs McCord), the

Coordinator of Maths (Ms Cottier), and the

Director of Teaching and Learning (and former

Head of English - Mr Chapman), are teaching the

classes in 2016. Technology now allows teachers

to administer and monitor student progress so that

no student is left behind, and those who need to be

challenged will be. Three teachers are always

available for any questions that may arise. The

Open Learning Centre space allows for large group

work, with breakout areas for silent work and

smaller class instruction.

In the afternoons (three periods a week), there are

QUEST class periods, during which students are

being introduced to project based learning (PBL).

In Term 1, students have designed a theme park.

Students have the freedom to design rides

(learning the physics behind them) or create

restaurants (and learn how to work with

spreadsheets to track costs) or manage teams

(where they learned to create and analyse surveys

and research data). All students are currently

working on creating a video to present their

findings.

Terms 2-4 PBL projects will have students

working on ‘Living on Mars’, ‘The Wilderness’

and ‘Designing a Zoo’. These projects will not

only teach about working and managing a team,

but also how to research, how to publish findings,

but also apply information learned in class to ‘real

world’ problems.

The main goals of QUEST are to:

1. Enhance social wellbeing by allowing for

mixing across the entire cohort, and not just a

roll class;

2. Ensure students are challenged and supported

in the learning of their subjects through

efficient tracking of data;

3. Enable smaller groups and targeted

instructions;

4. Introduce the power of Problem-Based

Learning in order to engage students; and

5. Teach individual learning and management

skills.

Observations to date for this cohort, include:

1. This Year 7 class is approximately a month

ahead of previous classes in their ICT skills.

2. Surveys and feedback from students about their

learning indicate high interest and

understanding of their progress.

While students sometimes have had to be

reminded to stay on task, there have been zero

behavioural issues to date.

5. SEQTA COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

- Engaging in your child’s learning

Earlier this term the College released our SEQTA

Engage parent portal to all parents in Junior and

Senior Schools. This is a major development and

significant step forward in College

communication. Parents can actively engage with

their children along their learning pathway, in

partnership with their teachers. In Junior School,

SEQTA Engage is a window into the programs

being delivered in each classroom, providing

parents centralised access to Calendars, policies

and the teaching and learning experiences of their

child throughout the Term.

While in Senior School, parents can access more

comprehensive features including subject/grade

specific information, assessment schedules and

allocated homework which better meets their

needs to assist in the management of their child’s

work in the home environment.

In Senior School particularly, reporting on student

academic achievement has moved to a continuous

reporting method. In essence, parents now receive

feedback on their child’s academic performance in

formal assessments via the parent portal in a timely

manner (within 2-3 weeks of the assessment).

Parents no longer need to wait for the mid-year

report to be notified of academic achievement.

Many parents have already activated their SEQTA

Engage account through a unique username and

password. If you have not yet activated your

account, or if you have misplaced your username

and password, please phone or email our College

receptionist who will organise a new username and

password for you.

A priority focus for the College in 2016 is to

increase the quality and frequency of our

communication to parents, to better support you

and your child along the learning pathway.

Collaboration and information sharing through

SEQTA Engage is an important tool towards

achieving this goal.

6. CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT - Sport and

Recreation Centre Project

Finally, we are glad to advise that the Sport &

Recreation facility planning is now well underway.

We expect DA approval for the project in coming

months with the expectation that the construction

will commence at year-end with an expected

completion date of stages 1 and 2 by December

2017. As a first step in this project, a new carpark

between the Demountable Buildings and the

Church facility will be constructed during Term 4

this year. We will be sharing more news about this

project over coming months. Some architectural

drawings are attached for your interest.

Dr Bruce R Youlden

Principal

Macquarie College students learn to interpret their world

through the framework of a Christian worldview. In so doing,

they find meaning, purpose and hope.