Deputy Principal News
Last Friday, after a successful evening at the Art Show, our entire staff came together for the final, whole-school closure day of the year. The focus of the day was professional learning through data analysis from our most recent assessment period. These sessions are invaluable for reflecting on the year’s teaching and learning, celebrating student growth, and planning for student success in 2025.
A central part of the day involved analysing the assessment data collected across the past few weeks. This served two purposes: first, to identify trends in the results and use these insights to reflect on the effectiveness of teaching practices, and second, to examine individual student growth and overall progress throughout 2024. At St Joseph’s, we are fortunate to have sophisticated technology that tracks and monitors student growth, providing feedback to support our teaching team. With these tools, we can dive deeply into the results, and we can spend the majority of the day analysing and evaluating data trends.
In addition to Friday's analysis, each staff member participated in individual data conversations with the teaching and learning team over the past two weeks. These personalised discussions not only supported staff in analysing data and preparing for Semester Two reporting, but also prompted reflection on the students who demonstrated the most growth in 2024. Staff were encouraged to identify the strategies and efforts that contributed to this success. Using technology, we compiled their qualitative responses into four key factors that staff attributed to student growth. Based on the teacher feedback, the key factors contributing to the students' academic growth can be summarised in four dot points:
- Building relationships and understanding individual needs: Teachers emphasised knowing students as learners and individuals, fostering strong connections, and supporting personal growth.
- Developing a positive mindset and confidence: Encouraging students to shift their mindset, build resilience, and approach challenges with confidence.
- Targeted strategies and engagement: Providing personalised support, small group work, accountability measures, and exposure to engaging content such as novels, math problems, or structured programs.
- Opportunities for extension and consistency: Offering consistent learning environments, opportunities for academic extension, and repeated exposure to key concepts to solidify understanding and enhance performance
It is incredibly reassuring to see how these factors align with the professional learning focus at St Joseph’s—ensuring our students are in the best possible position to learn and thrive. It’s great to witness how, the research-based practices we work hard to implement, are embraced by our exceptional educational staff. This commitment is demonstrated not only by our classroom teachers, but also by our dedicated Learning Support Officers.
I feel privileged to work alongside such a talented, knowledgeable and committed team of educators who know their students so well. Each day, they open their classrooms and share their student data with us as leaders, all with the goal of continually improving teaching and learning across every subject area in our school. We also deeply appreciate our Learning Support Officers, who play a vital role in supporting the learning strategies and approaches that make St Joseph’s such a special place.
Congratulations to all our staff and our incredible students on a fantastic year of teaching and learning. We look forward to seeing even greater growth and success in 2025.
Tom Hartney
Deputy Principal and Teaching and Learning Leader