The Newlands Times

SRC - "Teach the Teacher"

Students Teaching Teachers!

On Wednesday night, the Student Representative Council (SRC) ran the staff professional learning session after school as part of VicSRC's "Teach the Teacher" program.

 

BACKGROUND INFO

 

The SRC consists of a student representative (screened and randomly selected) from each double class from 1-6 plus the four Year 6 School Leaders. 

Last term, VicSRC asked the SRC to imagine the perfect school. Students then took the realistic ideas to their classes in survey form. These included:

  • more trees and plants
  • keep doing more to make Newlands litter-free
  • keep working on the state of the toilets and student behaviour in the toilets to make them feel more comfortable and cleaner
  • make a space in the school dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learning
  • more student choice and projects, and to bring back Inquiry or more hands-on projects for the 5/6s
  • have more time to play with friends to clear our heads and get ready for learning
  • open the gym at recess
  • more incursions, excursions, and fundraisers

The SRC analysed the survey results and acknowledged that there are already initiatives and efforts to act on some of those issues, so they decided to focus on the following two:

  1. make a space in the school dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learning, because:
    1. all students at NPS were really engaged with this focus in their classrooms last term, but are concerned that when it's not the focus of cultural week, that we're not learning enough 
    2. what happened in the past was unacceptable, so we need to keep learning and showing respect
  2. bring back Inquiry or more hands-on projects for the 5/6s because the older students really want to have more ways to express themselves creatively, have more student choice, and have even more fun whilst learning.

 

WEDNESDAY'S STUDENT-LED "TEACH THE TEACHER" SESSION

 

The SRC ran a workshop with staff after school to brainstorm ways that we could make these two goals happen. There was a lot of enthusiasm from staff on ways to create a space in the school dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learning. The session was really energetic, collaborative, and positive. Students were very confident leading the session, giving teachers instructions, and running the whole show (I stayed silent and left it all up to them).

 

Meanwhile, the breakout room for the 5/6s had a more serious tone but was a valuable opportunity for teachers and leadership to hear students speaking very openly and honestly and take on board their feedback and ideas.

 

From here, we'll have a big session in two week's time with VicSRC to analyse the session and ideas that came out of it, and plan our next steps.

We have such wonderful students and teachers at this school. The students are so capable and the teachers care deeply about the learning experience of their students. It's an enormous pleasure and privilege for me to work alongside students and staff alike.

 

 

Nerida

Community Inquiry specialist teacher & Student Empowerment