Principal's Report

Our students are assessed on their Approaches to Learning. These cover key skills and dispositions. The approaches to learning rubric:

• aligns with the College aims
• makes good learning behaviours explicit to students
• focuses on the skills that are sought by 21st Century employers
• details the progression from beginner to more advanced learning behaviours
• provides your child with a guide to what to improve in their approach to learning.

The Approaches to Learning are intended to help students to develop the attributes and attitudes towards growth and learning that will set all of our students up for success as scholars, as future employees, and as citizens. The underlying belief is that students should be encouraged to strive for excellence, autonomy and opportunities to positively influence others in all areas of their lives. The structure of the Approaches to Learning builds on the ideas of growth mindset: that everyone can make improvements to their skills and knowledge if sufficient effort and time are invested, regardless of their current level or their age. This development is easier to attain if the learner knows what they are aiming for. The Approaches to Learning represent the development towards the highest levels of achievement in these domains.

Approaches to Learning

The Self-improvement area encourages students to strive for excellence in their ability to learn and to grow, seeing themselves as the drivers of their own development, and to resist the temptation to accept mediocrity. “There is always more I can do – how can I continue to grow?”

Perseverance captures the ideas of tenacity and grit. Sticking with something when it gets difficult is always a challenge, but perseverance is about staying the course and finding solutions to problems rather than giving up.

Respect is one way of trying to encapsulate the idea of treating others the way you would like to be treated. Showing respect goes beyond just having good manners – it acknowledges the rights of others as being equal to our own. Respect should also be extended to others’ property, beliefs and culture, as well as to the natural environment and its creatures.

Creativity is about striving for originality and the ‘new’. It is not limited to the performing and visual arts – creativity is important in finding new solutions to old problems, new ways of looking at things, and building on and extending the ideas of others.

Collaboration seeks to reinforce the idea that we are better together, and that we are social beings who can encourage and support each other to become our best selves. Collaboration emphasises the idea that community-building has a central place in our lives.