A Message from the Principal
Welcome to the final edition of the newsletter for Term 1 2023 which again highlights the extensive opportunities provided by Mount Gravatt State High School. In my message I wish to share with you how you can an engage in our 2023 to 2026 Strategic Plan Consultation, the work of our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) at our recent SLT Planning Day, the progress of our school Debating Teams and our response to the 2022 Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority's Year 12 Subject Reports.
2023 to 2026 Strategic Plan Consultation
As you would be aware, the school is in the final stages of developing the 2023 to 2026 Strategic Plan. At this stage, a draft plan has been written ready for school community consultation. In the preparation work to get to this stage, there has already been a significant amount of community consultation (parents, students and staff). This work has included school staff, student and parent working parties examining our achievements, Department of Education Policy and Strategic documents and educational research and making recommendations as to where our future directions might be. This was followed by a consultation with school staff, parents and students on these recommendations. Then in October 2022, the school participated in a comprehensive School Review conducted by the Department of Education which sought input form staff, students, school leaders, parents, our industry partners and the broader community. This review made many similar recommendations to the school process suggesting to me that we had got the earlier school-based work right. Using all of this input, a draft Strategic Plan was developed and is now ready for community consultation. This consultation will take the form of a survey which will be sent to the community next week on Wednesday March 22. We will be asking four questions:
- What are the positive aspects of the plan? (In your opinion, what we have got right)
- What are the negative aspects of the plan? (In your opinion, what we have not got necessarily right)
- What do you find interesting about the plan? (In your opinion, what is pleasantly unexpected that does not need changing)
- What changes would you want to see made to the plan? (detail the changes you want to see made)
We welcome all responses, complete or incomplete, as this will guide us in this final stage of producing the next Strategic Plan that reflects the future needs of our school community. The survey will close on March 29, make sure you have your say.
Senior Leadership Team (SLT) Planning Day
Every term our Senior Leadership Team, Heads of Department, Deputy Principals, Principal and Guidance Officer meet for a day. The purpose of these meetings varies throughout the year with Term One being focused on reviewing our progress on implementing the AIP Explicit Improvement Agenda (EIA) and the Annual Implementation Plan, revising our plans if required, sharing and strengthening leadership practices and reinforcing our directions and priorities. Specifically, the 2023 Term One SLT Planning Day focused on:
- Celebrating the progress made on the 2023 EIA, the AIP and Term One Priorities
- Enacting the Mount Gravatt High Curriculum Road Map
- Culture of Reflection: Revision and Planning
- Mount Gravatt High Curriculum Planning Process Term 2 Consolidation Focus
- Coaching Skill Development
- English and Humanities Faculty Reports
These days are an important part of the work that we do at Mount Gravatt High to ensure that all our efforts are focused on students and their learning needs, both academic and well-being. There is not a topic covered in these meetings that does not have a direct or indirect relationship with or influence on students.
I thank our Heads of Department contribution to this day, especially Michelle Prescott, Kyle Jones, Fran Potts, Gina Ellis and Simon Tucker who all prepared and presented presentations to the SLT of an exceptional standard, as well as facilitating SLT discussions and decision making.
School Debating
The debating season has started with a bang, and it tremendous to witness the level of student interest and the support provided by our teachers. We have student teams that include students from Years 7 to 12 with our Year 11 team experiencing some early success winning their second debate. Correspondingly, we also have a very large group of dedicated coaches and I thank Simon Dunning, Keara Forde, Pauline Park, Renee Richards, Ana White and Michelle Prescott for their work with this. They are doing some great work in supporting our students' participation in such a worthy extension co-curricular opportunity. These very able coaches are being led by Mitch Marianoff who is co-ordinating our Debating Program with extensive preparation and planning. We have also become a Queensland Debating Union venue hosting a few debates already this season. This collaboration brings with it support for our coaches and training for our students which will help us to go some way in matching some of the resources poured into this activity by our non-state school counterparts. I wish our coaches and debating students every success for the remainder of the season.
2022 QCAA Subject Reports
Since the introduction of the new Queensland Certificate of Education and the new system of Senior Assessment, early in the school year the QCAA produces a comprehensive set of data on the performance of students at each school across the state from the previous year. This data provides details on a range of performance matters which include comparisons of performance based on internal verses external assessment, performance within each assessment criteria, comparison of the performance of males and females, etc. All of this data is compared to the performance of the state which incidentally, in almost all of our subjects, is above the performance of the state. We take the information provided by the QCAA seriously and use it to guide the ongoing implementation of both our senior and junior curriculum. This work includes a presentation of this data and facilitation of its analysis by the SLT presented by Sandra Wilson, our Senior Schooling Head of Department. This is then followed by faculty specific presentations and analysis which leads to adjustments being made to the delivery of curriculum programs. Again, this is a student focused activity that is about quality assuring the teaching and learning program of the school and ensuring that our work is informed by the latest data and research. I am proud of this work in our school as it represents very high levels of professionalism by our staff and was commended in our 2022 School Review.
As this will be our last newsletter before we break for the Easter vacation, I want to thank you for your support throughout Term One. We have had a great start to the 2023 school year and this would not have been possible without this support.
Finally, in conclusion please continue to contact the school if you have any concerns regarding your student's education as together, we can produce the best outcomes for your student
Ross Robertson
Principal