From the Principal

Sharing My Classroom Visits

Each day I walk into all classrooms.  In some of the rooms I am involved in their Guided Rotations. In others I am there to support students who may need a little extra support at that point in time.

Today I watched Kindergarten complete their daily Maths warm up and the work they were doing was amazing. They were discovering how many days smarter they are as they worked on the number of the day.   They read the number 127 and showed the place value for the number and discussed the number before and the number after. The children were so proud of their learning.  Ms McDonald then asked the children to share what the word 'data' means and after I told them that was too hard for Kinder, they could tell me it was collecting information!  Great learning Kindergarten!

In Stage 3 the students were learning about division in Mathematics.  I watched them discuss their success criteria and decide if they were confident with their goal completion and they were able to provide evidence of their success. This is a wonderful skill for students to ensure they are confident with their next steps in their learning.

This morning I had the pleasure of conducting the choir for the Eisteddfod with the help of Ms Sonego and I was blown away at their effort and their beautiful voices (not to mention their memory!).

In Guided Reading groups in Stage 2 this morning I was very proud of the group I worked with, who showed their understanding of visual literacy that ensured their comprehension of the extract they were reading was both literal and inferential.  The discussions the students had about their work, which was of a Year 5 level text, was impressive.

Division is the unit being studied in all Stages currently in Mathematics.  Year  2 were learning about the division symbol and its use with Miss Beach. Those students working with Educational Assistants were challenging themselves independently.  It was amazing to hear the children encouraging and helping each other in their learning.  The use of mathematical language in their conversations was excellent.  They finished their lesson by checking in on their division goals to determine how they are progressing.

Year 1 had three groups led by teachers in Maths for explicit learning about division. As I stopped at the independent groups they were calmly working through their activities. They were excited to explain to me what they were learning and how they were going with their understanding and they were able to articulate how they knew their answer was correct. The use of hands on equipment gave these groups the support they required to be successful in this concept.

Wonderful learning opportunities at St Joseph's!