Academic Life

Academic Life

As we approach the midpoint of Term 3, there is a great deal happening in the academic journeys of our students. Stage 6 boys are heading into important periods of examination where they will be asked to demonstrate what they now know, understand and can do as a result of the learning they have undertaken. Year 12 will sit Trial Examinations, beginning next Monday and scheduled over the course of two weeks, and Year 11 will follow them in the next two weeks. These students will receive their Semester 2 Reports at the end of term, and, for them, the coming term break represents another significant period of consolidation and revision as they ready themselves to step into either their final credential examinations, or their final year of learning. This year, all examinations for these students will take place in the refurbished Bishop Chambers House Examination Centre, and we wish every boy well as he embraces this challenge.

For our younger students, it is the horizon of new beginnings, rather than final steps, that are in view. All students in Years 7 – 10 are making some subject selections over the next week or so as they take up the opportunity to shape some aspects of their own programme of study. As students proceed through the curriculum for Stages 4 and 5, they are offered autonomy over some parts of their learning landscape. The recent Course Information Evenings for Years 9 and 11 2023 were wonderful testimony to the readiness of our boys to step in and make these choices responsibly. There was a genuine enthusiasm for the range of possibilities before them and I very much enjoyed speaking with them as they began to weigh and evaluate the best pathways for them.

Trinity offers wide choice to students as part of our commitment to student-centred learning. When learners are able to practice agency by selecting the courses in which they are most interested, and which will offer them most challenge, they are well placed to achieve academic growth. Particularly in Stage 5, the School has worked to shape a curriculum that allows students to learn in different environments, in different patterns of intensity and duration, with extensive choice. The academic programme at the Field Studies Centre and the term-long 25-hour inquiry courses offered in Year 9, the electives pursued during Years 9 and 10, as well as the continuing mandatory core subjects, are fertile soil for students to hone the academic skills and dispositions they will need to thrive when they take up their own final credential journey. Our desire is to see every boy accelerate his capacity for deliberate academic engagement, his skills for deep learning and his disposition to embrace challenge – as well as mastering the knowledge and understanding required by set curriculum outcomes. Subject selections are made via our online platform; information for parent access is found on the parent portal and instructions are sent to parents by email. Please note the due date for your son’s selections to be submitted. I wish every family great conversation and joy as they support their sons to make the choices that will allow them to become the best learner they can be!

As always, the Curriculum Office warmly invites you to contact us if we can be of any assistance or support at all as you navigate examinations and subject selections.

Deborah Williams | Academic Dean

Share this post