From The Principal - Andrew Healey

It is already week 4 of the term and so much seems to be happening around us. Being an Olympic aficionado (the enthusiastic part of the definition only) has meant the weekend is catching up for all the events missed throughout the week. Femke Bol to me is an outstanding athlete. And speaking of athletes on the world stage, we had two students represent Australia recently. Jorja Horsfall and Jess Babich donned the green and gold to represent Australia in the World Underwater Hockey Championships. That in itself to represent one’s country is mind blowing.

Recently I have shared with the PCs quite a lot of data showing how we are progressing in relation to senior school. The data includes an ATAR analysis of the semester 1 examination results. In addition, the predicted ATAR was released last week (given to the PCs) and has been pushed out to the students as well. For the Year 12s doing a full ATAR program I have met with all, other than Jorja and Jess, to keep their goals in place. With only a few assessments left they will not make monumental changes to their predicted ATAR. As teachers, we have just as much responsibility to reduce stress coming into the examination period for our students as we must challenge them to do well. The never-ending fine line of push vs crash. Past results show that our teachers do both areas of responsibility very well.

Last little bit is about AI use in the classroom. There is a great article from UWA that looks at the use of ChatGPT and its impact on the validity of an assessment. It is interesting reading and challenges the concept of cheating to some degree. Here is the link if interested.

https://www.uwa.edu.au/news/article/2024/uniview/winter/chatgpt-the-new-disruptor

Have a wonderful week.

Cheers