Head of Secondary Message, Week 7, Term 2 2025

It was great to catch up with so many secondary families at Tuesday night’s parent-student-teacher conferences for Years 11 and 12. This is a key checkpoint for our senior students as they receive feedback on their performance and progress in their HSC and IBDP courses. Face-to-face events like this also provide an important opportunity for our parent community to connect and share experiences of supporting a young person through the ups and downs of senior studies. 

Next Tuesday, Year 10 families will come together in the auditorium for an information night on senior subject selections. The event starts at 6pm and students are most welcome to attend with their parents. We will cover key features and differences of both the HSC and IB programmes and offer parents the opportunity to ask questions about which is the best senior pathway for their child. 

Reports for Years 7 to 10 will be released in the final week of term. These offer both a semester grade, based on performance in summative assessments throughout semester 1, and an effort grade. They also include personalised comments from each subject teacher about student strengths and areas for growth. Reports capture how a student is performing across the curriculum at a point in time, relative to their peers, and provide strategies and advice for improvement. 

As part of our commitment to supporting Year 12 students achieve their personal best, the cohort attended a study skills seminar this week titled: Maximising Your Results, led by Dr Prue Salter, a leading expert in this field. The session offered a wealth of actionable strategies designed to empower students with the tools they need to stay organised, focused and thoroughly prepared for the challenges of Year 12 and final exams. 

In particular, Dr Salter outlined detailed advice on planning study time in the lead-up to exams, including strategies for balancing workloads and staying on top of revision schedules. With a four week summer break for AISHK coming up (NSW schools only have a two or three week break each July), Dr Salter focused on effective holiday study, ensuring students make the most of their time outside of term. I’m delighted to share that Dr Salter will be returning to AISHK next April, to work with all Secondary year levels. In the meantime, students have access to her outstanding study skills website: www.studyskillshandbook.com.au 

Well done to all students who participated so enthusiastically in today’s Secondary swimming carnival, the first at AISHK since 2018. A big thank you to Mr Van Gaalen and his PDHPE team for their slick organisation of the event and we look forward to bringing back a carnival for all secondary students next year at an external, 50 metre pool. 

Week 9 is Chinese Week across the school – a joyous celebration of Chinese history, language and culture. There will be many memorable events in Secondary in the coming weeks, including a special Chinese assembly on Wednesday 18 June featuring all year levels. On the final day of term, all students are encouraged to wear Chinese costume (or dress in red) with more details about the week’s schedule to come. 

Finally, it’s Hong Kong Father’s Day this Sunday, so I’d like to wish all AISHK dads a fabulous and fun day with lots of quality family time. May the day be special for all, and remember, it’s only three months until Australian Father’s Day in September! 

13 June 2026