It is with sadness that I present to you my final Annual Speech Night Report as Principal of Ruyton and it is with gratitude for the opportunity to be Principal of this wonderful School that I say my farewells.
All of the girls can be proud of their achievements and I congratulate and commend them on their commitment and hard work through the year. While not all students can achieve an award, all the girls can feel pride in achieving their personal best. I thank all the writers of the reports which provide the summary of the girls' activities for 2010.
Being primarily an academic school we aspire to provide opportunities for girls to acquire the skills for learning and attitudes to learning which will support their chosen career, future studies and ambitions.
Through their academic accomplishments, the students who completed year 12 in 2009 maintained the very high standards achieved by Ruyton girls in recent years. It is worthwhile noting that over the last 5 years over 58% of girls have received ENTER/ATAR scores of above 90 and in 2009 this number reached 68% of the student cohort. Consistently, over a third of our students studying VCE subjects receive study scores above 40 – a generally accepted measure of outstanding achievement.
The class of 2010 has worked hard and they have all participated enthusiastically and achieved their best in both their academic programme and the many co-curricular activities with which they have been involved.
The Year of Excellence includes details of our top students through the Senior School. Once again the results of various competitions in which the students have participated have demonstrated consistently high achievements by Ruyton girls. We continue to provide data to meet Commonwealth and State accountability requirements for the My School web site. Explanations of the data included in this web site are provided on request.
An initiative this year to recognise academic excellence and extraordinary commitment to high achievement is the presentation of the first Master Scholar Awards. To achieve this award a girl must achieve academic excellence throughout her secondary years, including receiving work honours in Years 11 and 12, and have studied within the accelerated VCE programme at Year 10.
There is a lot which can be said about the co-curricular programmes this year and they will be enthusiastically presented to you this evening by the student leaders. It is through their participation in co-curricular activities that girls develop their many talents, build relationships, learn leadership skills and develop passions which will define their personal achievements.
Particular highlights of 2010 were the Music Tour to Canada and America and the Chinese language tour. Thirty three excited students and staff participated in the Music Tour. They visited New York, Boston, Montreal and Los Angeles, and performed in New York and at Dana Hall, the Montrose School and The Study. Nine girls accompanied Mrs McAuliffe to China and Taiwan visiting our sister schools, Yuxin in Beijing and Sheng Kung Catholic Girls School in Tainan.
At the end of this year all parents, staff and students had the opportunity to participate in a full School Review. Results of this review are collated by Independent Schools Victoria and benchmarked against other independent schools. The full report will be available to the Board of Directors in 2011 for analysis and used as baseline data for the formulation of the areas for ongoing development at Ruyton.
While discussing future directions, I note that, although the implementation of the Australian Curriculum has been delayed, our Curriculum Deans under the guidance of Director of Learning, Mrs Furey and Director of Studies, Ms Casey, have been monitoring closely the new directions in English, Mathematics, History and Science. Where implications have been obvious for our curriculum, initial action has been made to prepare Ruyton for adoption of appropriate sections of the Australian Curriculum in 2011. Ruyton has committed to implementing the Australian Curriculum over the next few years. At the same time we are determined to maintain the quality and uniqueness of many of our academic programmes. Thus, Curriculum Deans are identifying key components of our existing curriculum.
In all departments teachers enrich their programmes through partnership with external organisations and this will continue to be a feature of Ruyton’s learning programme. Girls can continue to look forward to visiting centres such as the Gene Technology Access Centre in Parkville, the Marine Studies Centre in Queenscliff and during their study of neuroregeneration at the O’Brian Institute.
Girls studying Chinese will benefit from our links with the Asia Literacy Foundation. In 2010, the Junior School embarked on the Australian Government’s Leading 21st Century Schools: Engage with Asia Programme and has now officially been recognised as a member of this group. The School was given a grant to integrate studies of Asia throughout all units of work in Integrated Studies and Science.
Ruyton has long recognised the importance and benefits of learning a language other than English to enable students to take their place in an increasingly international labour market. That girls are able to communicate linguistically and culturally in Chinese or French contexts is the aspiration for our students.
In Humanities, the skills, concepts, and knowledge of the disciplines of Commerce, Geography and History, give students a wide variety of experiences both inside and outside the classroom. In these varied experiences, an understanding of global responsibilities is developed so that girls will become effective global citizens.
As signatories to the United Nations Global Compact we continue to raise awareness of the principles of the Compact and incorporate into our curriculum and operations the actions required to comply with these principles.
Our principles for focus in 2010 were Principle 8 – Businesses undertake to promote greater environmental responsibility and Principle 1 – Businesses should support and respect protection of internationally proclaimed human rights.
As part of our Sustainability programme we subscribe to the ResourceSmart Schools (RSS) 5 Star Certification system. Our first star was achieved for completion of the core Module. This year Ruyton has completed the RSS Energy Module and certification of completion, our second ‘star’, will be received shortly. As part of the Energy Module activities, the whole staff attended a professional learning session with Mr Eric Bottomley, CERES Co-ordinator of Sustainable Schools and Communities. An outcome of this activity was the setting of future goals and a re-commitment to behaviour change within the school operations. Ruyton has been offered a funded place to complete the Waste Module of the RSS programme in 2011 and in preparation, this year a Waste Audit was conducted.
Ruyton is a community where all members work together to provide students with integrated and positive experiences and structure which promote and protect their health. Health Education at Ruyton allows students to develop knowledge and skills necessary to look after their own health and the health of others. It aims to promote attitudes and behaviours which contribute to personal and community wellbeing. Our Health Education programme and Year Level pastoral programmes form an integrated structure which cover a broad range of programmes designed to build knowledge and attitudes which strengthen resilience, assurance, personal management and positive risk taking as opposed to negative risk taking. I strongly recommend that parents read the Health Education Report which sets out details of the integration of personal development programmes across the curriculum.
This year we welcomed Mrs Glenis Gumley as the new Deputy Principal and Head of Senior School. Mrs Gumley has quickly embraced the Ruyton philosophy, while at the same time ensuring the wellbeing of the Senior School girls. From her breadth of experience she has already initiated improvements in the leadership programme and the Year 7 transition programme.
Over the years I have also felt grateful that the girls have been so caring of each other when a friend is sad, ill or just a ‘bit down’. The extent to which ‘care’ is embedded in the culture of Ruyton was powerfully demonstrated during this term: we saw how the whole community was involved in monitoring and supporting each other during a very sad time.
Throughout this report you will see demonstrated the dedication of the teaching staff to providing innovative and inspiring learning opportunities. Most school improvement comes from focussing on what happens in the individual classrooms. We know the crucial role which teachers play in the results achieved by individual students and the cumulative effect which this has, when all teachers focus on improving quality. I thank the academic staff for creating exciting learning experiences and I thank all staff – teaching, administration, grounds and all support staff - for their work throughout 2010. Academic staff rely on their assistants and on the administration, grounds and maintenance staff who ensure that the environment is safe, convenient and conducive to learning. I know you will endorse my thanks for their hard work throughout this year. I extend additional thanks to the Primary School teachers this year for patiently enduring the disruption to the environment caused by the construction of the new Junior School building. The addition of this building will provide classrooms of top quality for the girls and also the exciting addition to the facilities of the Centre for Creativity. This new Centre will enable the future Junior School curriculum to incorporate activities which develop girls’ creative approach to problem solving.
I would like to highlight the commitment of our staff to maintaining a high quality teaching programme. It is because of the important role that teachers play in effective learning for students that we place considerable emphasis on teacher professional development, on teachers being learners and on the biennial review of teachers’ work.
Life-long learning is a phrase widely used in education today, and is epitomised by the culture of Professional Learning at Ruyton. Great value is placed on the learning of both staff and students, with the belief that, as staff continue to further their knowledge and skills, they will be able to provide optimal learning environments in which our students can achieve their potential.
An ongoing professional learning priority is the need for staff to maintain and develop a range of ICT skills, and to utilise ICT applications to enhance student learning outcomes. Staff participants have undertaken a research project into the use of Nings, a Web 2.0 application, as a learning tool, and the impact of their use on student learning. This year the Ruyton Research Award was funded by the Invergowrie Foundation and in recognition was renamed the Invergowrie Exemplary Teacher Programme.
This year as I leave Ruyton I thank all the staff for the support they have given me over the last ten years. I have been fortunate to have such talented and inspiring teachers to lead the learning programme at Ruyton and such co-operative and hardworking staff members to support those teachers. Such support has made leading Ruyton enjoyable and rewarding.
The day to day running of the School and the implementation of School plans is the responsibility of the Executive staff and I sincerely appreciate the support they have given me during this year and over the last ten years. The Executive members throughout the last ten years have ensured that the goals of Ruyton in student learning, growing and connecting have been met in all areas so that a Ruyton girl has educational opportunities which inspire and challenge her to reach her potential.