From the Principal

Focus on the Classroom

Our work begins and ends with our vision. 

Our staff are focused on improving student outcomes: in their learning, as individuals and achieving their personal best. 

Over the past three years staff have engaged in professional learning and planning to develop an agreed common practice that forms the basis for our Instructional Model for Teaching & Learning at Cheltenham. This has included: the development of an agreed curriculum design process, the implementation of google classrooms, the use of common assessments throughout the college and the use of Learning Tasks within Compass. These agreed practices have ensured the college is able to transition from end of semester reporting to the continuous reporting of student progress throughout the semester. This is a significant milestone for students, parents, carers and staff. 

As a college, we have a continued focus of improving student outcomes and our own practice as educators. That is why this term, students will see teachers implement the use of Learning Intentions and Success Criteria to support student learning. These will be written on the white boards at the front of each classroom, each lesson, allowing students and teachers to refer to them as required.

What do they mean?

Learning Intentions are descriptions of what learners should know, understand and be able to do by the end of a learning period or unit. Learning intentions are the basis for tracking student progress, providing feedback and assessing achievement. 

Success criteria are the measures used to determine whether, and how well, learners have met the learning intentions.

The evidence for using Learning Intentions & Success Criteria 

Feedback relies on clearly defined goals (learning intentions and success criteria) and on learning tasks or activities to track a student’s progress towards those goals. The information gathered through these activities provides the basis for feedback to a student. 

There are two well-referenced models that explain the underlying principles of feedback: Hattie and Timperley (Hattie & Timperley, 2007) and Black and Wiliam (Black and Wiliam, 1998, 2010 and 2009 and Wiliam, 2010). 

Both models agree that the purpose of feedback is to achieve changes in student learning so that student understanding and performance meet the identified learning goals. At the heart of both models are three similar core elements that educators need to address within the feedback process.

Comparison of Models 

Both models agree that good feedback processes produce two key outcomes: 

• Teachers use and adapt effective teaching strategies to help students make progress in areas identified as needing attention.
• Students change what they do to address the learning goals more effectively, by referencing and referring to the learning intentions and success criteria throughout a lesson.

Black and Wiliam (2009) define five key strategies for formative assessment or feedback: 

1. clarifying, understanding and sharing the learning intentions and criteria for success with students
2. engineering classroom activities that elicit evidence of learning
3. providing feedback that moves students forward
4. activating students as instructional resources for one another
5. activating students as the owners of their own learning by providing a road map for where they are headed with their learning

Benefits for Students and Teachers at Cheltenham of using Learning Intentions and Success Criteria within the classroom?

• Ensure all students know what they are going to learn and where they are heading.
• Provide guidance to teachers on what their chosen teaching and learning activities are seeking to achieve.
• Provide the basis for feedback and reduce discrepancies between current student understanding and intended learning.
• Assist students and teachers in tracking and assessing student progress.
• Help teachers to understand the impact of their teaching and learning activities, and when they may need to adapt or change these.
• Help students understand what improved performance looks like.

Professional Learning Communities

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are an approach to school improvement where groups of teachers work collaboratively to improve student outcomes. The idea is clear and straightforward: students learn more when their teachers work together. 

Cheltenham Secondary College began its PLC journey in 2019 with intensive training provided to a core group of staff. While 2020 was to be the launch of the program, remote learning put our plans on hold. Now, in 2021 we have relaunched our PLCs so teachers can use their professional learning community time to plan approaches for differentiated learning.

Cheltenham Secondary College is focused on creating a culture of continuous improvement by linking the needs of our students with the professional learning and practice of our teachers.

Helen Page

Assistant Principal