‘Learning as a quest rather than a destination’
Senior School
MR TOM MCCORMICK , DEPUTY PRINCIPAL/HEAD OF SENIOR SCHOOL
2021 - my first year at Fairholme as Head of Senior School – has been a wonderful year. It was clear from day one that this is a vibrant, flourishing and supportive school community, one that offers an exemplary educational environment bound by a culture of strong academic scholarship and pastoral care. I have enjoyed working with each Senior School student to meet their goals and find success. A key focus of this year in the Senior School has been to continue to create capable individuals, effective collaborators, life-long learners and global citizens. Students in the Senior School have enjoyed a year of learning experiences throughout and while it would be very difficult to document all events and activities, I have added a few highlights below. ACADEMIC CULTURE It was pleasing to be acknowledged as the top academic school in the region by the 2021 Better Education profile. This was recognition of the strong learning culture that pervades the College, the strong partnership with staff, students and parents and the diverse range of subjects and pathways that our girls can pursue. It is pleasing to see that the Better Education profile recognised that these results are not to be viewed in isolation of one year’s academic results, but over a number of years. We know that a strong academic culture with
strong external results like ours does not happen overnight. ACADEMIC TRACKING In Semester 2 we also placed great emphasis on refining our use of learning data to evaluate student progress. We invested in a Learning Analytics platform (called Insights) which will help our early intervention and tracking of students, and this will continue in 2022 and beyond. BEYOND THE HOLME Our Pathway and Careers program was once again a significant part of 2021, with a record number of students receiving early offers to their universities of choice. In total, 41% of our Year 12s applied and received an early offer at several key universities, thus alleviating some of the stress associated with sitting the external exams, waiting for the results and then waiting for the offer. Early offers do not mean that Year 12 school leavers are locked into that one pathway – but it is an excellent option and certainly decreases the uncertainty of study options for 2022. 2021 also saw an increase in the number of Headstart courses undertaken. Head Start courses are University-level academic extension programs for high-achieving Year 10, 11 or 12 students. There are a number of advantages of undertaking a Headstart course while at
school. These include gaining QCE points, gaining credits towards future university courses, further development of academic skills and getting a taste of what academic life at university is like. Thirty-five of our Senior School students this year completed a Head Start course in a wide range of subject disciplines from Human Anatomy & Physiology, and Psychology, to Engineering and Law. Furthermore, we have looked at ways to support students in their quests to study at some of the top universities around the world. As part of this process we applied and were successful in becoming registered to be an SAT and ACT testing centre. RECONCILIATION ACTION PLAN 2021 also saw a focus on ways to enhance the culture of Fairholme College through a solid foundation of reconciliation. This involved the formation of a RAP working group made up of students and teachers who meet each term to look at ways in which we can collaborate, accelerate and drive reconciliation efforts. We have worked hard on draft one of our Reconcilliation Action Plan which will be published in Term 1 2022. POLITICS, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND PHILOSOPHY CLUB In Term 2 we launched PIP Club. This is a club open to students across Years 10-12 and aimed
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