Curriculum and Learning

Term 1 Interim Reports for Years 7 to 11

By the end of this week, the Term 1 Interim Reports on students of Years 5 to 11 will be available online to parents/carers via the TASS Parent Lounge.

Each student from Years 5 to 11 will receive a Term 1 Interim Report. The purpose of the Report is to provide parents/carers with early feedback, albeit by no means comprehensive at this stage, on how their sons have commenced their learning in the new scholastic year and how they have settled into school routine.

It is important for parents/carers to note that each subject report is based only on the teacher’s professional judgement and early impression of student learning habits since substantive formal assessment of learning in many courses have not taken place in the time the reports have been compiled.

It is worth noting a few key features of the report include:

Attendance up to and including Friday 15 March.
The homeroom teacher’s Pastoral Profile which describes the student’s general school and homeroom practices associated with grooming and uniform, co-operation, manner, punctuality, responsibility, and initiative. These profile elements are described as Consistently, Usually, Sometimes or Rarely.
The class teacher’s report on the student’s Learning Dispositions associated with classwork, homework, lesson engagement, pride in presentation of own work and acting on teacher feedback. These Learning Dispositions are described as Consistently, Usually, Sometimes or Rarely.
The class teacher’s report on the student’s Personal and Social Habits with respect to punctuality, organisation, manners, conduct, working collaboratively and responsibly. These Personal and Social Habits are also described as Consistently, Usually, Sometimes or Rarely.
An indication on the bottom of the homeroom teacher’s report whether it is required for the Parent or Caregiver to contact the homeroom teacher or the Year Coordinator. Similarly, on the bottom of the course report as it pertains to the class teacher or relevant Head of Faculty.

As always, parents/carers are welcome to contact relevant teachers to discuss student progress.

Michael Cutrupi

Director of Curriculum

The importance of Speech and Language skills

We know that well-developed speech and language skills are perhaps the most reliable indicators of academic success at school. To this end, teachers work hard with students across the curriculum to help them develop their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. All teachers are teachers of literacy, and while we aim to provide a flexible teaching and assessment program that allows all students to demonstrate their individual understanding and skills, allowing for differences in learning abilities, developing students’ language skills remains core to the work we do with all students.

What can parents/carers (and teachers) do to help students strengthen their speech and language abilities?

Pay attention to words. Talk about the power and precision of words and particularly point out new, unfamiliar, and ‘sophisticated’ words to help your child’s vocabulary development.
Discuss words in context to help students understand the importance of levels of formality, style, purpose, and audience.
Use and point out figurative language and language devices such as sarcasm, idioms, and connotation.
Help your son to develop the confidence to converse with people of all ages and backgrounds.
Look for and create opportunities to talk to and with your son about a broad range of age-appropriate topics. Discuss current affairs and social issues and encourage your son to provide evidence for his opinion on these issues. ‘What makes you say that?’ is a good way of continuing a conversation and having your child back up their opinion.
Encourage reading of all kinds! Reading what your son is reading or sharing what you are reading – newspapers, blogs, books – is a great way of helping kids to see the relevance and importance of being a ‘good reader.’
When your child is reading or sharing their reading with you, think about the six reading strategies that ‘good readers’ automatically and often unknowingly use: predicting, making connections, monitoring, questioning, visualising, and summarising.
Encourage and provide writing opportunities - birthday cards, letters to family and friends, shopping lists, thank you letters, journaling, invitations.
For deeper reading, paper has been shown to trump screens. Provide print reading. Have your child print off assessment notifications and study timetables, highlight key words and display these in his workspace.

Who are Speech and Language Therapists and what do they do?

Speech and language therapists work with people across the lifespan who have difficulties with communication.

Students with language difficulties are affected in their talking and understanding and in their reading and writing. They tend to have smaller and less flexible vocabularies, less sophisticated grammar, and difficulties sequencing longer stretches of language. They may have trouble finding the words to express themselves, and with remembering and following instructions. It might be difficult for them to understand and engage in less literal language use, such as sarcasm and implication. Attention deficits often accompany language disorders.

There are many challenges for these students in academic work – the range of new and increasingly abstract vocabulary to learn and use, and the skills required to express their understanding of concepts and of cause and effect.

Speech and language therapists help these students to build their vocabularies and their vocabulary learning strategies, and to develop their sentence grammar, their knowledge of paragraph and text structure and their sequencing of information. They work on strategies for approaching and understanding academic tasks, and for producing written responses. They help students’ understanding of the range of communicative functions we engage in and how language is used to achieve them.

Where to from here?

Children learn at different rates and there are many factors that contribute to a person’s language abilities. Most children do not need support from a Speech and Language Therapist, however, if you are concerned about your son’s speech and language abilities in a particular subject, get in touch with his teacher as a first point of contact and discuss your concerns. If your concerns span subject areas, or you would like to explore extension and support opportunities, we will be happy to chat with you in Diverse Learning about ways we can support your child’s language skills.

Please email the respective learning support teacher (details in the SPC App > Contacts):

Meagan Compton – Stage 3
Karen Spires – Stage 4
Victoria Klados – Stage 5
Maryanne Roberts – Stage 6.

Amanda Metua

Head of Diverse Learning