Leader of Learning and Teaching

I am pleased to report that our staff engaged in a highly successful professional learning day on April 24th, Day 1 of this Term.

Staff participated in 6 workshops in small groups via rotations, all led internally by teams of some of our most innovative and passionate teachers. For the first half of the day, staff participated in three Vocabulary workshops aimed at improving their direct and explicit instruction in teaching vocabulary. Research and proven models from Frayer, Marzano and Dale were just some of the theories and strategies that staff learnt about and then practically applied.

In the afternoon session staff followed the same process, engaging in three workshops on Critical Thinking, considering again a range of research and tried and tested models including Bloom’s Taxonomy and Open Ended Questioning.

Feedback from staff has been overwhelmingly positive with teachers excited about being able to put these very tangible and successful strategies into practice.

In addition, following this Professional Learning Day, staff have been using their fortnightly professional learning time to create both vocabulary and critical activities and strategies, and embedding them into their teaching program, along with creating a tangible resource that can be used in the classroom and also shared with other team members. Already over 100 high quality teaching resources have been created and implemented in our classrooms. Speaking to students, it has been pleasing to hear them mention the Frayer and Marzano models and how it has helped them understand new vocabulary terms. Well done staff and students and a particular thank you to the presenters on the day from both the Literacy and Gr8 Thinking Team who joined me in creating and facilitating sessions: Mrs Segrave, Mr Lyon, Mrs Morris, Mrs Parle, Miss Carlile, Miss Jensen, Miss Kobold and Mr Marshall.

Finally, a reminder to Year 12 Parents and Students that Parent Teacher Student Conferences take place this coming Wednesday via Zoom, 3:45 - 6pm. This is the final scheduled Parent/Teacher/Student evening before Year 12 sit their Trials and HSC, and as such I urge parents and students to both make themselves available and make a booking. These productive learning conversations have proven to be highly effective in supporting and guiding students moving forward.

Staff are also currently completing reports on Year 11 Students. These will be available for parents and students on Compass on Friday the 2nd of June. Year 11 Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences will then take place on Monday the 19th of June in Week 9. Further information on these upcoming dates will be sent via Compass.

Enjoy the final days of Autumn!

Yours in learning,

Damien Herb

Leader of Learning and Teaching