BBPS Life

Learning at BBPS

Along with our explicit daily lessons in literacy and numeracy, as seen in this year’s series of Open Classrooms, teachers have also been focussed on working as a grade cohort to implement targeted teaching in small groups. The opportunity for personalised learning is a huge benefit of our smaller numbers across a grade as it lends itself to utilising the strengths of multiple class teachers to meet varied student needs and to personalise curriculum delivery. This week teachers share the different ways they have extended and supported students through small group instruction over the past two weeks - we encourage you to read P-6 as this gives you a snap shot of the variety of strategies teachers use in a day, across a week, as part of our unit of study.

Prep 

Examples of targeted teaching in Prep:

Extension

*1:1 teacher conference for writing extension – story expansion using a wider descriptive vocabulary; explicit feedback for more complex punctuation and use of connectives for sentence complexity.

*Opportunities for exposure to open ended Mathematics problems to extend and apply concepts for a select group of students, based on academic level. 

Support

*Small group focus – an opportunity to reteach maths concepts and moer time to practice different similar examples using concrete materials.

*Small group instruction by one class teacher, e.g. Liv with a group of ten, focussed on literacy intervention – repetition of phonics and single sound code work; while Naomi works with the majority cohort on this week's focus sounds. 

Prep Incursion - what a great way to get our bodies moving through dance, while also learning about music around the world. Super fun to get to dress in traditional costumes too!

Learning about Poland (Thanks to Maya's mum)

Grade 1 and 2

Examples of targeted teaching in Level 2 (Grade 1 and 2):

Extension 

*Cohort booster groups in Mathematics where one teacher will take an extension group for Maths and work towards the year above curriculum with students working well ahead of expected level. This might happen for a couple of sessions as part of a maths unit. 

*Offering of alternative challenge tasks when working whole class – teachers will direct certain students to these tasks in both English and Mathematics - a task with no single correct answer, requiring reasoning and creativity.

*Alternative Home Learning tasks based on curriculum a year level above.

*Grade 2 Rotary Readers - this semester's readers are children who are expert readers - reading aloud with a volunteer each week gives them a further opportunity to practice fluency and answer comprehension questions using a critical thinking taxonomy.

Support

*Small group guided practice – students who need additional support with a concept will stay on the floor with the teacher while those ready to work independently complete the next task at their desk.

*Literacy intervention multiple times in a week – small group instruction and repetition of concepts with Averil Gramaconi for reading and spelling.

*Reading 1:1 with an Education Support Staff - quick sound code recall and retrieval to help shift understanding from working to long term memory. Thanks to Angela and Cathy, who play a huge role in 1/2!

STEM Workshop - Enrichment@BBPS extends into 1/2 this term through our STEM program - designing and building of our rocket has begun! We loved launching them this week - some even went over our neighbours' fence! 

Grade 2

Grades 3 and 4

Examples of targeted teaching in The Hub:

Extension

*Differentiated Maths groupings for Junior Elementary Maths Mastery – students have the opportunity to work across the cohort, so that extension in curriculum exposure takes place daily for an hour a day. (This happens in Spelling too, which was showcased in Open Classrooms this week).

*Small group reading instruction with the classroom teacher each week (Book Club) offers students the opportunity to read a text at their level, with a focus on deeper comprehension. Our students LOVE Book Club. 

*Enrichment@BBPS has begun again this term in Grades 3-6 – for some of our programs offered this term, students have been selected to participate based on their learning strengths – this program provides us with the opportunity to dig deeper into concepts and use real-world application for greater extension. The Hub is facilitating programs in Science (chemistry focus); Writing (BBPS Gazette); Creativity (higher order thinking strategies); History (project based learning exploring global content).

Support

*Daily literacy intervention in reading and spelling with Miss Wendy, students work fluidly in this group as informed by teacher assessments. 

*Strong use of scaffolds to create exemplar models of learning tasks – you might have seen our teachers use their ‘Ziggy’ (document camera) as an effective teaching practice to create greater support for students. 

*Small group intervention multiple times a week, led by our highly skilled Education Support Staff. Bec and Sim, in particular, lead intervention in phonics, maths fluency and support of our EAL students.

Maths Fluency - quick recall of facts is crucial at this level as students rely on known facts to shift into deeper problem solving and equations with more digits. Solid recall of times tables is priority and our students love the challenge each week to build their confidence in this area. 

Around the school

Grades 5 and 6

Examples of targeted teaching at a senior level:

Extension

*A select group of students are this term participating in the English Victorian High Abilities Program – an external program facilitated online during our structured literacy sessions – students are selected based on whole school data sets.

*Differentiation within whole class lessons – students are offered (and directed) to extension learning opportunities in both English and Mathematics, and directed by the teacher when they can move onto more complex tasks (shifting from guided practice to independent application at a faster rate).

*Metacognitive strategies – Can you solve it a different way? Explain your thinking. Teach a peer your strategy – Grade 6 teachers facilitate weekly extension Maths sessions for selected students, known as ‘Problem Solving Friday’. 

*Individual personalised learning program using Khan Academy to extend understanding of concepts in the curriculum year level above. 

Support

*Daily reviews in both English and Mathematics ensure repetition of concepts for long term retainment. You might have seen one in action to begin our open classroom session this week. 

*Education Support Team intervention – selected small groups work multiple times a week with an ES to complete phonics based instruction (as guided by Averil Gramaconi, as Literacy Intervention teacher) and maths fluency tasks (planned by Shanti, as Whole School Curriculum Leader). Thanks to our ES, El and Eliza, for their work here. 

*Teacher led booster groups – one teacher will take a support group to unpack concepts taught through repetition, scaffolding and use of exemplars and concrete materials, while the other teacher will take the majority cohort and complete the same lesson at a faster pace and include extension prompts to go further in learning application. 

Buddies continues to happen on a (mostly) weekly basis. The continuation of the Better Buddy program from Prep (and Grade 5) into Grade 1 (and Grade 6) is unique to BBPS as we prioritise the role student mentors can play in creating safety, trust and a sense of belonging within a community. 

Our Grade 5 buddies are also busy preparing to work closely with students from St Peter's Kindergarten to support a smooth transition to school. 

Around the school

The Art Show is coming in Term 4 - students are busy preparing a plethora of artworks to showcase.

Tues 14 October will be Grandparents afternoon.

Wed 15 October, an additional afternoon to view the exhibition.

More details to come - watch for call outs for help from Ms Georgia Hellier. 

Athletics Training - Well done to our House Captains for helping support the set up and organisation of weekly training sessions. We cannot wait for next week's carnival!