Teaching and Learning

Over the last two weeks it has been wonderful to see the purposeful learning experiences that teams have been planning. There is an authentic focus on re-establishing social connections, explicitly teaching students the essential curriculum concepts and in some sections preparing for Covid safe graduations.

Lower Primary have had many exciting events that have stimulated their writing experiences from Book Week dress up day and the whole school footy day. Walking around the Upper Primary classrooms there has been a hive of activities (particularly related to bees) as students engage in writing procedures by making connections to their Remote Learning incursion ‘Farm to Home’.

In the Secondary area, 7/8 students have been undertaking Heating and Melting experiments whilst writing explanations. The 9/10 students have been entertaining audiences by focusing on script writing, I was fortunate enough to observe 9/10E perform their scripts and to say I was engaged in an understatement!

Whilst it wasn’t a typical AFL Grand Final weekend for Melbourne, last Thursday at Concord there was an excitable atmosphere for our footy colours day. It was energising to see the students and staff in their footy colours and it was another opportunity to get to know the students personally.

Some teams are beginning to build their knowledge and skills by exploring facts, opinions, persuasive techniques and participating in debates. It is timely to recall that as children get older it is a time when your child will learn more about the world. Engaging them in discussions improves their speaking skills, and helps them understand the world and their place in it.

Discussing news and current events at home

As your child gets older, they become more aware of news and current events. Discussing news and current events can enrich your child’s understanding of the world. Questions are an effective way to encourage your child to think critically about an event and can help foster empathy. Questions also help your child to develop oral fluency when discussing social issues.

Questions you might ask when discussing a news story or current event include:

What do you think caused the event?
How do you think people will be affected?
Is it fair?
Why do you think people think that/do that?
What do you think will happen next?
How could the problem be fixed?

Some other activities to develop your discussion:

Read several articles together on the same issue to get different opinions. Then discuss the different opinions.
Have a debate on a topic, with you and your child taking different sides of the issue.
Download and listen to podcasts on an issue, and discuss.
Discuss different “What if?” scenarios. This will help develop your child’s problem solving and imagination.

Flora Nixon

Assistant Principal

Teaching and Learning