STUDENT DIARIES

This year we have reintroduced a BSC student diary to help students develop important organisational and time management skills. The diary was a book listed item for every student from Year 7 to 12 and was provided to all students during a PEP session early in Term 1.

Students have also been shown strategies for utilising their new diary effectively in class; these include:

• Listing all their subjects for the week on a Sunday evening or Monday morning.
• Recording any homework (including when no homework is set) at the end of each lesson
• Recording events such as sports training, student committee meetings, theme days, etc.
• Checking their diary at the end of each day to ensure they bring home all required materials to support homework and study tasks.
• Checking their diary at home each morning to ensure they bring the correct equipment, wear the correct uniform, and prepare for the events and activities they are involved in that day.

These are all very simple and quick-to-action behaviours that, when done consistently, form great habits that contribute significantly to becoming a well-organised learner. They also encourage students to take more responsibility for their time management and individual learning needs. These are all skills that relate directly to self-management within our Process Reporting system and are of great importance in all aspects of life beyond secondary school.

We will be completing school-wide diary checks to monitor the BSC student diaries' implementation each term in 2021. For Term 1, this was completed on Friday 5th of March during Period 3 in all classes.

Below is some of the data gathered from that check:

 As you can see, the average percentage of students with diaries in class decreases as we move up in the school from Year 7 to 12. However, it is encouraging that students bringing their diaries to class are predominately utilising them effectively. The main takeaway from this first check is that we need to increase the number of senior students who bring their diary to class and utilise them effectively.

In the absence of diaries in previous years, we fully acknowledge that some students have had to develop their own organisational strategies and may find the transition across to the BSC student diary a bit of an adjustment. However, we will continue to model its effective use and promote the associated benefits so that a greater proportion of our students value this supportive organisational tool in future.

As parents, you can play an important role in supporting your child/ren to develop strong organisational and time management skills. We encourage you to:

• have a conversation with your child about their use of the BSC student diary currently.
• check the diary regularly at home and guide your child about how they might improve their use of it.
• promote each of the behaviours related to effective diary use outlined above with your child each day.

This will help ensure that they come and go between home and school prepared with what they need and avoid missing out on an exciting opportunity, important deadline or fun event!

Yours sincerely,

Mr Nathan Hutchins

Leading Teacher of Curriculum, Assessment & Reporting