Embracing Change and Challenge
Term 4 is my favourite time of the academic school year. It is a term of flux, of reflection, and of hope.
Our Year 12 learners have commenced their External Assessment block, where they are afforded a final opportunity to demonstrate what they know and can do across diverse subject areas. For them, this is more than the culmination of two years of disciplined senior study; it is the completion of their schooling lives. Each student is no doubt brimming with a motivation to achieve their personal best and a burgeoning excitement for what is to come.
Our Year 11 learners have not only taken on the baton of school leadership, but so, too, have they commenced their summative Unit 3 studies. They have prepared for the rigour of senior learning by engaging in QCAA Academic Integrity modules and engaging in study workshops with Elevate Education. As we speak, they are commencing preparation for their first Internal Assessments—each day, they are questioning, researching, planning, synthesising, writing, reviewing, testing, and improving.
Our Year 10 learners have chosen their senior pathways. Each student has completed a SET planning interview with their family and either Ms Sarah Johnson, our Careers and Guidance Counsellor, or Mr Dominic Piacun, our Head of Secondary Years. Year 10 students are ready to explore new subjects, to experience new ways of thinking, doing and being.
Our Junior High learners are approaching the end of a foundational year of studies. They are continuing to discover not only who they are as learners and thinkers, but also how to connect and relate with their peers, their teachers, and their community. Year 7, 8 and 9 students are developing global—or more recently termed ‘human’—competencies; they are expanding their ability to think creatively, critically, logically, ethically, and interculturally.
Some people love change, flux, or uncertainty. The thrive as they make sense of new and changing contexts. For others—in fact, for many—change can be hard. Many of us need to take a beat before we can acclimatise to that which is new. We need to pause, ground, and think.
So, to the parents, guardians, and caregivers of young people in the St Peters Springfield community: I encourage you to ‘wrap around’ your young person by helping them to (a) recognise and (b) adjust to the flux in their lives right now. Use Car Conversations or Dinner Discussions to ask some deceptively simple (yet incredibly effective) questions. You’ll be surprised at the conversations that ensue.
- What’s going really well right now?
- What has been hardest for you this week?
- What would you like to be different tomorrow?
And, to the students of St Peters Springfield, remember this: you haven’t come this far only to have come this far. Go well.
Sarah Gunn
Director of Studies and Pedagogy
