180 Drake Street Morley WA 6062

JOHN FORREST Secondary College T: 9473 4000 F: 9272 6504

E: johnforrest.sc@education.wa.edu.au
INDEPENDENT PUBLIC SCHOOL www.johnforrest.wa.edu.au

Dear Parents, Guardians and Students,

Welcome back to the 2024 academic year. This note details our aims and expectations in the
Mathematics classroom and for homework for the coming year. All staff in the Mathematics
Department are keen to develop the best possible relationship between themselves, students and
parents in order to achieve the best possible results this year. Please contact us if you have any
concerns and we will endeavour to address the issue as best we can.

The policies below are general learning area policies and may be varied slightly by your child’s
teacher as the need arises. If a substantial change is to be effected by any teacher, you will be
notified.

Attendance
A major key to success in Mathematics is regular attendance. Most of the content is sequential
and frequent absences severely hamper progress, confidence and understanding. Students who
miss lessons due to illness, family or college commitments (eg camps, excursions) are expected to
catch up on the work missed as quickly as possible. Every effort will be made in class to help
students who have been absent for legitimate reasons but this is not always possible. Assistance
outside of class time is always available by negotiation with the teacher.

Equipment
Students are expected to bring all necessary equipment to each lesson. This includes:
 A file/notebook. There must be provision for the safe storage of worksheets.
 Writing pens, pencils, a ruler, and eraser.
 An appropriate calculator. This is an essential tool in all classes.
 Any textbook that has been placed on the booklist (Years 11 and 12 only). Please note that
students use textbooks in the classroom in Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 but cannot take the books
home; homework is given on a worksheet, from the textbook via an ebook or online. Access
to the textbook is provided through a code which will be given to students early in the year
enabling the textbook to be loaded to a student’s BYOD device or home computer.
 A fully charged digital device (Years 7 – 12) (except for those students who have elected not
to take part in the BYOD program).
 Student Diary for recording homework and to use as an out of class leave pass. This is
compulsory for Years 7 – 12. Only senior school students may use an electronic diary
instead of the book form of the diary.
When students do not bring these required materials to class, it is detrimental to their progress and
disruptive to the learning environment.

Textbooks and ebooks

Year 11 and 12 students studying ATAR Mathematics subjects have been asked to purchase
textbooks on their booklist. Each student studies two units of Mathematics during the year and in
ATAR courses, there is a textbook for each unit, one for Semester 1 and another for Semester 2.
Year 11 and 12 students studying Mathematics Essential will have access to a textbook in class .
Year 7, 8, 9 and 10 students will use a combination of textbook, worksheets and online exercises
both in class and at home. The textbooks are not generally available to be taken home but can be
borrowed after negotiation with the teacher.

Department of Education Specialist Programs

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Homework
As a general rule, consolidation homework exercises will be given after most lessons. It is
expected that students will set aside the following times for Maths homework and study each week:
Year 7, 8, 9 15 – 20 minutes 4 times a week
Year 10 30 minutes 4 times a week
Year 11, 12 30 - 40 minutes 5 times a week
It would be most unusual for students not to have homework. If parents are concerned about the
apparent lack of homework, please contact your child’s teacher directly by email or phone or send
a note in the Student Diary to which the teacher can reply. Homework will also frequently be
placed on SEQTA together with solutions to correct their work.

Mathspace
Mathspace is an on-line computer package available to students at school and at home every day
of the year if internet access is available. Each student has their own username and password
which carries over from year to year. The package is immensely useful for skills practice, course
revision and general mathematics development. We encourage all students to log on as often as
possible to improve their skills whilst having fun at the same time. It is an activity that students can
do if they claim to have no homework! Log on at www.mathspace.co

Assessments
Students in each year are provided a term program via SEQTA containing information on the
expected timing of formal assessments. They are expected to attend on the scheduled date which
will be confirmed prior to the assessment. Completion of the assessment at a later date may
be arranged at teacher discretion if the absence is supported by:
- a medical certificate in the case of serious illness;
- by a phone call or email to your child’ teacher on the morning of the assessment in the
case of illness where it is not possible or practical to obtain a medical certificate; or
- by a phone call or email to your child’s teacher prior to the assessment in the case of
an important family commitment.
If there is any doubt about whether a student should attend school to complete an assessment,
please call your child’s teacher on 9473 4024. Please note that assessments are frequently
held in the last week of each term as an assessment of the latest block of content.

Portfolios
Generally students will complete at least two major assessments in lower school each term.
Portfolios containing these assessments together with samples of class work will be retained at
school. Senior school students need to keep all assessments in their portfolio and be able to
produce them on demand if required by the School’s Curriculum and Standards Authority for
consensus moderation or grade justification purposes.

Student Diary

Use of the Student Diary by students in Years 7 – 10 will be closely monitored by all staff in order
to help students develop a regular daily routine, meet their daily responsibilities and commitments,
and to develop improved work habits. We firmly believe that effective use of the Student Diary will
enable our students to achieve greater academic success in Years 7 – 10 and to better prepare
them for the academic demands of Years 11 and 12. We encourage all parents to monitor their
child’s use of the Student Diary and we welcome regular communication between staff and parents
via the diary or by email.
Students in Years 11 and 12 have the option of using an electronic planner in preference to the
book form. It is important in our view that each student uses the form of diary which will help to
maximise their organisation and performance.
We appreciate your support in these matters as we are endeavouring for your child to achieve the
best possible results in Mathematics and feel that attention to these organisational issues goes a
long way towards developing a positive attitude and a good work ethic.

Yours sincerely

Robert Bayliss
HoLA Mathematics
Email: robert.bayliss@education.wa.edu.au
Ph: 9473 4024

February 2024