Over the last few weeks, all Year 10 and 11 students and their families, as well as a range of Senior School staff, have been involved in course counselling and making selections for learning programs for 2023. Truthfully, it doesn’t seem that long ago that the 2022 College year began, with Year 9-11 students learning online for the first fortnight!
Across the many course counselling discussions I had, students tended to fall into two categories: those who have clear ideas about their future pathways, and those who do not. Given that our young people will work in jobs that don’t exist yet and given that they may change careers a number of times over their working lives, it is no surprise that these decisions give pause for thought. What was almost exclusively true, though, was the sense of partnership between families and the College in the forward planning, with the student in the centre of the discussion. This is a key strategic focus for Concordia College for the foreseeable future: how can we further empower students to own their learning, plot their pathways and grab hold of the range of opportunities available to them to achieve their goals?
The introduction of the Futures Coordinator role in 2022 is one way we are seeking to upskill our students and community with the information needed to make decisions about their future. Mr Oppelaar meets regularly with individual students from Years 10-12 to explore career and future study possibilities and has facilitated a range of expert guest speakers this year from a variety of industries, including nursing, paramedicine, physiotherapy, speech pathology, medicine, architecture, graphic design, software development, animation and media, along with presentations about each of the universities, TAFE, the SATAC application process, how to develop a resume and how to prepare for an interview. Concordia students also have the chance to engage in a week of Work Experience and participate in mock interviews to build their work-ready skills.
Learning and achievement pathways in SACE are more flexible than ever, with students being able to gain access to preferred tertiary courses in myriad ways: through the ATAR, university entrance tests, and based on individual subject and Year 11 results. As a learning community, we must continue to look for ways to develop learners who are resilient and self-directed, and offer our students flexibility and choice.
On the topic of the future, at the time of writing, our Class of 2022 have just six weeks left before their final assessments are submitted and their final examinations begin. Some interesting statistics that may surprise you include:
- 50% of Year 12 subjects taught at Concordia have no examination
- six (out of 137) Year 12 students have no examinations
- nine Year 12 students have five examinations
- 94 Year 12 students have at least one e-examination
- 28 Year 12 students have only one examination
It has been a challenging year for the Class of 2022, with a range of adjustments required due to the pandemic. I applaud the efforts of our Year 12 students, and their teachers, to work their way through the year, and see the opportunities ahead of them, rather than those things that might have been lost. We pray that their final weeks at the College will be productive and fulfilling, and that they will end their time as Concordia College students in the knowledge that they are loved by God, and with excitement and anticipation about what lies ahead.
Daniel Wood
Senior School Leader
