Learning 

and Teaching

This week, staff at St Mary’s School Rushworth began leveraging our Step Lab platform to engage in collaborative rehearsal sessions focused on strengthening consistent classroom routines across the school.

Our focus has been on refining classroom entry routines to support students in successfully transitioning their thinking from one setting to another. The goal is to create a calm, purposeful start to learning, reinforcing the expectation that students arrive ready to learn, rather than simply showing up to class. As part of this professional learning process, each teacher rehearsed their classroom entry routine and role-played a scenario in front of colleagues. While this type of practice can at times feel confronted, it was embraced incredibly well by staff and reflects the strong culture of trust, collaboration, and continuous improvement we value as a team. These rehearsal opportunities are an important part of our commitment to refining practice, reducing variability across classrooms, and ensuring all students experience consistent, high-quality learning environments every day.

Learning Together

Angela Fiske-Kealy

Week 3 & Week 4 – Term 2: ‘We take Care of Belongings’ 

In Week 3 and into Week 4, our Expectation Spotlight is “We take care of belongings” as part of our Care for Environment focus. 

Throughout the school day, students will be encouraged to look after their own belongings, school equipment and shared learning spaces. This includes using items carefully, returning things to the correct place, keeping classrooms tidy and showing respect for books, technology and learning materials. 

At St Mary’s, we want students to take pride in their learning environment and understand that caring for belongings helps create a calm, safe and welcoming space for everyone. Families can support this focus at home by encouraging children to take responsibility for their own items and help care for shared spaces. 

As part of our Knowledge Society routines, we are continuing to strengthen consistency in classroom practice and student engagement through two key focus areas this term. The implementation of these routines has been going very well across the school, with students responding positively to the explicit teaching and delivery of expectations. It has been wonderful to see students becoming increasingly confident, engaged and active participants during lessons and daily reviews. 

Our first focus is on answering and asking questions during daily reviews and lessons. Students are encouraged to actively think, respond, listen carefully to others and ask questions to clarify and extend their understanding. 

Our second focus is the use of mini whiteboards during lessons and daily reviews. Students are explicitly taught routines around recording, sharing and refining their thinking. This supports active participation, immediate feedback and responsive teaching across the classroom.