Academic Focus: Term 4 and Year 11 Academic Excellence Citations and Engagement Citations

Welcome to the final term of the 2022 academic year, a period that will bring quite different challenges to different Year groups.

We offer our very best wishes to Year 12 who have begun, or will shortly begin, their final examinations: they have worked with commitment for two years and are now in the position of being able to clearly see the chequered flag! Our encouragement to these students is to focus with deliberation and secure a strong finish.

Year 11 are also in a somewhat enviable position: they have had the opportunity to rest over the term break, reset and harness motivation to secure a strong start to their final year. Our encouragement to you, Year 11, is to make sure that you take firm control of this final lap and seek the support you need to do so. A strong start makes for a strong finish.

Our Middle School students must simply put their heads down to complete their assessment repertoires over the next five weeks: the long holiday is coming, but there is much to do beforehand. Make sure you are organised and know the map you must follow: plan the tasks to which you must give your best in the coming weeks and ensure you participate fully in the lessons that will enable you to acquit yourself well.

This leaves Year 10 … and it is upon this group of students I would like to focus. Your position has, perhaps, less clarity. You have chosen your programmes of study for next year and are most likely keen to formally begin; you have had the opportunity to make some quite precise choices about what you will study, and perhaps those choices do not include some of the courses that remain on your timetable for one more term. My encouragement to you, Year 10, is to not make the error of thinking this final term of 2022 does not count, of thinking that you can delay the real commitment and the real work until next year. I encourage you to deliberately step, now, into the consistent academic behaviours that you will need for your own academic success.

What might that look like? Create a clear study plan for managing final examinations and assessment tasks; speak with your teachers to gain their expertise in understanding how to prepare well; make the decision to participate and focus in every lesson and place yourself away from potential distractions; honestly assess your own learning strengths and areas that could be improved. Set a meaningful goal: if your EPA is less than 4.0, improve it and ask your teachers to help keep you accountable to that improvement. My wish for each of you is to achieve a strong Semester 2 Learning Progress Report so that you know you are well placed to step into your credential learning next year.  Is it too late to achieve growth? Not at all! Start today, focus on what needs to be done for the examinations in Week 4, and do it. Take the responsibility to reach out to your teachers or Housemaster if you need help.

Finally, this week, I am delighted to present the names of the Year 11 students who have demonstrated the kind of learning engagement outlined above and achieved an Academic or Engagement Citation for Semester 2. These students received their Learning Progress Reports at the end of last term and will be presented with their citations on Quad Assembly next week. I am pleased to also publish here the names of these awardees in recognition of commitment to studies.

Academic Excellence

The first category of Academic Excellence Citation is based upon a student’s Grade Point Average. HSC candidates with a GPA of 13 or greater on the 15-point grade scale have achieved consistently outstanding academic performance. IB Diploma students with a GPA of 6.4 on the 7-point grade scale have achieved similarly robust results.

The second category of Academic Excellence recognises students who substantially improve their personal GPA, from one Semester to the next.

Engagement Citation

Trinity has defined, and reports on, the behaviours that characterise personal academic success:  self-management, task management, learning focus and persistence. These scores are collated as an Engagement Point Average. Students who score an EPA of 4.8 or greater on the 5-point scale achieve an Engagement Citation.

Students who improve their EPA, generally by 1.0 points or greater, have demonstrated the ability to receive and act upon feedback and take responsibility for the actions that lead to academic success. These students are acknowledged for courage to change their learning behaviours and the way they interact with learning challenges.

Each student is congratulated upon a fine achievement.

Deborah Williams | Academic Dean