Senior School News
From the Head of Senior School, Mr Tristan Bevan
Welcome to the Oxley Senior School to all our new families and welcome back to those who have been with us for a while. I have spoken with three cohorts of parents at Information Sessions this week and my key message has been to explain how the words in our College Strategy relate in day-to-day life at Oxley.
Our focus on care for the whole child lends itself to development of character. Through opportunities in Sport, Performing Arts, Spoken Word and Outdoor Education, our students have the opportunity to build, amongst others, resilience, discipline, teamwork and self-reflection. Mentor Group provides a forum for collaboration between year groups and the chance to develop leadership in a familiar environment. In future newsletters, Ms Genevieve Whiteley, Director of Students, will dig deeper into the wellbeing of our students and what they can do to make community vibrant, inclusive & respectful in future newsletters.
Ms McGuinness, our Director of Curriculum (7-12), has unpacked some aspects of our Enlightened Academic Rigour. I spoke with the students at the start of year assembly about living our values of show courage, be kind & seek wisdom. The fact that these are verbs invites us to action them in our College life. This may include showing courage to try a new sport or volunteer to ask or answer a question in class, or being kind at break and recess by inviting new students into your group. Each student should aim to seek wisdom and to work towards their personal bests.
This graph represents how our Year 12, 2024 students went last year with 73% achieving at or above the benchmark of their Year 10 performance. Whilst this is an improvement on recent years, we are hopeful that the introduction of Learning to Learn and Study Skills in Years 7-10, restructured assessment, the continuation of Study Club four nights per week for Years 11-12 and Academic Coaches, will enable this to get closer to the 2018 levels of 94%.
You can find highlights of the Year 12, 2024 cohort’s HSC results, and other academic achievements in the Academic Highlights Report, accessed by the link below. Yesterday we held our Academic Excellence Assembly to celebrate those who attained an ATAR of 90+ or who were nominated for the HSC Showcases: ArtExpress, Encore, OnStage or SHAPE. We welcomed back Mya Bertolini who received the highest ATAR in the Year 12, 2020 cohort – when our current Year 12 students were in Year 7. Mya shared some lessons that she learned through her journey at Oxley and beyond. Hearing from recent Alumni is an inspiration to students in their journey. That journey now has fewer than three terms until the HSC for our current Year 12.
Our students have taken to the firmer mobile phone policy very well. Whilst early days, I have witnessed more students taking the opportunity for exercise at recess and lunch and building better connections with each other. There are a few teething problems with locks on student lockers but this provides a safe place for students to store their phone whilst they are in class.
Mr Bedingfield mentioned the new sound system installed in the PCC. After years of glitches this is particularly exciting as it will encourage students to show courage and perform in front of the Senior School in Assembly. There is so much to look forward to this year and our staff are ready to work with you and your children to help them to develop into young people who are Challenge Ready!