Learning & Teaching
Welcome to a new year of learning and teaching and I especially want to welcome our new parents to the College. It truly has been a great start to the year and the levels of cognitive engagement in classes are very impressive. How do we know? Our leadership team of 28 staff engage in very regular learning walks. These are short visits to multiple classes to observe learning and teaching in action. Overwhelmingly, the feedback has been of high engagement and Calm and Productive Learning - which is our aim.
Parent Feedback on Student Conferences
We are keen to learn more about the parent and student experiences of our student conferences that are held at the end of Term 1 and Term 3. The conferences are an opportunity to build the partnerships between home and school. They are also an opportunity to discuss student learning, engagement and improvements and we want to ensure they are as effective and meaningful as possible.
PLEASE COMPLETE THIS SHORT SURVEY, if you have not already done, so to help us improve our future conferences: Microsoft Forms
Digital Learning Platforms in 2024
We use a range of Digital Learning Platforms - Edrolo, Education Perfect and Mathspace - at the College to support students to learn at school and home. For classes and year levels using these platforms, student accounts have already been activated and teachers have been setting learning activities and assessments. These platforms are vital to our learning and teaching program.
Payments for these platforms have been made easy this year through the Campion Booklist. If you have yet to purchase your licences through Campion, I would encourage you to do so soon before the accounts are deactivated.
Assessment and Reporting New and Noteworthy in 2024
As you know at the College we are focused on teaching using developmental assessment - that is short, in-class, formative assessment activities that give teachers and students timely and specific feedback on what they can do and what they need to do next. Overwhelmingly, the research evidence shows that this form of assessment is much more impactful on learning than other summative forms.
Teachers also periodically assess students using other common assessment tasks in the form of Learning Checkpoints (checking on learning progress) and other more summative tasks (measuring student performance at a point in time).
In VCE these summative tasks, in the form of SACs and SATs, receive comment feedback and a letter grade on the semester reports.
In 2024, we have decided to introduce Summative Learning Task assessment for VCE in line with the way we assess students in Years 7-10. For each subject in year 7-10, teachers will create one common Summative Assessment Task per semester and the performance or Letter Grade will be reported in the end of semester reports. This feedback will give parents some performance feedback.
Students in Explore and Elevate Classes will also receive feedback on their learning behaviours from the teachers each term, in the Compass Reports. This will give parents and students a good sense of their progress and engagement in these subjects.
Maestro Updates
Maestro is our specially designed developmental assessment and learning platform that allows parents and students to view learning progress within the unit of learning in all subjects, based on their progress on the developmental rubric.
Please note that the 2024 classes and Developmental Rubric are not yet visible on Maestro as we are in the process of improving and expanding our learning continuum to include more detail and also include statements from level 3 to level 10+. We anticipate that the rubrics will be visible by Week 6/7 this term. We appreciate your patience.
The Maestro Student Dashboards will be available from mid next week for parents and students to view and I have attached a PDF to help parents interpret the information in the dashboards.
If you want to know more about Maestro Dashboards or Rubrics please come along to one of our Parent Forums.
For any technical issues or support with Maestro access and use, please email maestro@wantirnacollege.vic.edu.au
Respectful Relationships
We are excited to have Drew Hanger, an experienced teacher and Youth Worker, on secondment from the Jesuit Services every Wednesday this semester. Drew works in many schools, organisations and community groups to create and promote respectful cultures in the community - healthier masculinities and femininities. Drew will upskill staff and students in how to foster and maintain respectful and consensual relationships with friends and partners. Bec Howell, Leader of Respectful Relationships, is leading this work with Drew in the Health & PE team and in other programs and year levels - whereever we can see an opportunity to teach students about the RR curriculum.
Natalie Manser
Assistant Principal
mar@wantirnacollege.vic.gov.au