Learning and Teaching News

Recently there has been a lot of learning happening beyond the school grounds.

The Year Five/Six students participated in a memorable camp at Lady Northcote YMCA Camp in Rowsley. They overcame any fear of heights by tackling the giant swing and the flying fox. Many caught yabbies and most stayed dry while canoeing!

They will head to the Werribee Open Range Zoo in a few weeks to further their knowledge about animals and how their habitats influence their survival. Students will develop their learning through a STEM design process conducted by Zoos Victoria.

The Year Three/Four classes had Wild Action Zoo visit them last week. A selection of live wildlife inhabited their classroom for an educational workshop that enabled students to get up close and personal with a variety of wildlife. This extended their knowledge in their current Inquiry unit and served as a springboard for their individual research projects.

They are off to Anglesea Recreation Camp in a couple of weeks.

Year One/Two students will visit Scienceworks soon to experience a planetarium show called Tycho Goes To The Moon. This will support their learning about night and day, space travel, the phases of the Moon and features of the lunar surface and the Sun, as they travel with Tycho the dog.

Earlier in the term, they built model billy carts during a workshop with Craft Power as they investigated force and motion.

Prep classes have been talking, drawing and writing about their recent excursion to Animal Land Children's Farm. Using this experience to reinforce learning about farm and wild animals and where our food comes from, this first excursion of their school life was a wonderful experience that connected real world learning with school learning.

One of the benefits of educational excursions is the boost provided to concepts learned in the classroom. These can be more deeply understood by participating in an excursion or incursion which provide students with an enhanced learning experience. Learning can be brought to life quickly and easily and deeper connections made.

If you haven't already, have a conversation with your child about their learning from camp, an excursion or an incursion. What do you notice about their explanation of their learning?

Semester One Reports and Three Way Learning Conversations

Reporting on Student Progress and Achievement

Communicating student progress and growth, as well as challenges, is an important part of the education process.

Here at St Martins we provide a formal and consistent process through which to do this.

Written reports are provided twice a year; at the end of Semester One and again at the end of Semester Two.

To support the Semester One written reports, compulsory learning conversations take place.

These are three way learning conversations and involve a 15 minute focused discussion between the student, their teacher and their parent/carer.

Three-way conferences are designed to achieve the following goals:

to help students demonstrate evidence of their learning
articulate how to move their learning forward
to teach students the process of reflection and self-evaluation
to facilitate the development of students' organisational and oral communication skills and to increase their self-confidence
to encourage students, parents, and teachers to engage in open and honest dialogue
to encourage students to accept personal responsibility for their learning
to increase parent understanding of their child’s learning through improving attendance at and satisfaction with the reporting process.

Three way learning conversations place the most important person at the centre - the student. Teachers work with students before the conversations to support them in leading the conversation.

Some examples of the questions prompts used during the conversation include:

As a learner, what are you most proud of and why?
What do you still need help with next semester to move your learning forward?
How can we make that into a goal for next semester?
(Prep) What has been the best thing at school?
What can you make, say, do or write now that you couldn't before starting Prep?

Save the date for a three way learning conversation - Thursday 27th June between 3:30pm and 7:30pm and Friday 28th June between 8:30am and 1pm.

If you participate in a Program Support Group (PSG) Meeting, a meeting day and time will be booked by Chiara, Learning Diversity leader.

For the first 15 minutes of this meeting, your child will be invited to lead the conversation. The second 15 minutes will be the PSG. You are not required to make an additional meeting time (but you are welcome to if you would like) as your child's class teacher will be part of the PSG.

Bookings will be made via School Interviews and will open at 4pm on Tuesday June 11th using the link or QR code below.

https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code/c35c9

Bookings will CLOSE at 12pm on Thursday June 27th.

Elise Coghlan

Co-Deputy Principal | Literacy & Numeracy Leader | Visible Learning Leader

Denise Kelly

Co-Deputy Principal | Learning & Teaching Leader