Principal
I would imagine that this weekend’s AFL and NRL Grand Finals will dominate the Australian office ‘water cooler’ conversations over the coming days. Mind you, in this era of COVID-19, perhaps water coolers are a thing of the past with social distancing and more people are working from home!
In the final week after long, interrupted seasons, coaches will be making the final preparations of the players for the challenge ahead. Of course, once the whistle sounds, it is largely up to the players to perform under pressure and to succeed in the ultimate test and culmination of the season.
I would suggest that there is something in this analogy as the Year 12s undertake their final days of preparation for the commencement of external exams next week. These are the first such exams in over a generation in Queensland. It is obvious that the coach’s role in this analogy is filled by the teachers. Since the completion of the subject content for Unit 4 last term, our teachers have been preparing our Year 12s for these exams. Initially, this preparation focussed on the mock exams that took place in Week 9 and 10 of Term 3. This was followed by the preparation program in the holidays. These first weeks of Term 4 have focussed on final classes and revision, as well as study preparation.
While Year 12 teachers will continue to be available right up until the very last exam (on Tuesday 17 November) largely now the Seniors must undertake the challenge ahead by themselves. For students on the Work and Further Study (WAFS) pathway, and not completing Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) subject assessment, there are projects to be completed and competencies achieved before their year is completed. For the rest of the cohort their final results will now rise, or fall, based on their own capabilities under the pressure of a final exam. The results achieved will be combined with the results of the two earlier internal assessments to calculate final results in December. Our Year 12 men have been well prepared and the school has attempted to provide the best opportunity for them to succeed to the best of their ability.
Stretching the grand final analogy a little further, perhaps the parents are akin to the innumerable support staff that every professional sporting team has these days. These various personnel appear to attend to every physical, and in some cases mental, need of athletes. Over the course of the next few weeks of these external exams, parents will be supporting their sons and attending to the many needs, physical and mental, of Year 12s facing final exams. It is new territory for teachers, parents and students. Importantly, it is an educationally sound change based on research and evidence. It is also one with which we will become accustomed in 2020 as well as over the coming years as this system of senior assessment establishes itself in Queensland.
Further to the Year 12s, they have rightly been the focus of much attention this week as they completed their last day of classes on Tuesday and then enjoyed their Farewell Day on Wednesday. In the past, these days occurred much later in the term so school staff have been under a time pressure that feels quite different to previous times. That said, both days went very well and the Seniors and their parents left the campus on Wednesday in good spirits. The College has developed a sequence of connected events that seek to build ritual into the process of leaving. These events included the Year 12 boarders’ final dinner, House Assemblies, final subject lessons, Chapel service, the gathering with parents in the Rose Garden, the guard of honour through the campus and the final Assembly. These young men were affirmed, they were thanked and they could not help but sense a deep connection with the College. It is a testament to them that despite all the challenges that had been presented to them in their Senior year that, as a cohort, Nudgee Spirit was so clearly evident throughout the farewells.
Please keep these young men, and all Year 12s across the state, in your thoughts and prayers over the coming weeks. The Senior year concludes formally in Week 7 of the term with Valedictory Mass on Thursday 19 November. We wish our Year 12s well as they complete their schooling ‘grand finals’ in the weeks ahead.
Mr Peter Fullagar
Principal