Leadership Centre
Curriculum
We now find ourselves starting Week 6 of the term but there is light at the end of the tunnel as the Senior School will return to school on Tuesday 9th June. We know that students are excited about going back to school and reconnecting with their peers and teachers. In the meantime the Leadership Centre has many exciting and engaging learning opportunities planned. These tasks will continue to be uploaded to Google Class room and Seesaw.
The Zoom check-ins and class meetings are continuing to be a highlight for students as it allows them to speak with their teacher and connect with their peers. A valuable element of the Zoom platform is the breakout rooms which teachers have been using in their meetings. This enables students to be allocated a space where they can talk with a smaller group of students. Teachers place a high importance on allowing for this online connection through the breakout room feature which is still conducted within safe and secure boundaries. After a period of time the breakout rooms are closed and students are returned to the main chat area.
In Writing, students have continued working on persuasive pieces and investigating techniques to help persuade the reader. The writing technique of ‘Show, don’t tell’ has been explored further this week and applied in students’ introductions and conclusions. Last Thursday, students completed their Big Write persuasive piece which looked at Remote Learning versus Learning at School. This is a topic which all students can relate to enabling them to strengthen arguments by providing reasons and evidence. Last Friday’s session saw students reading back over and self-assessing their work with the aid of a checklist. Teachers will be commenting on these pieces this week on Seesaw. This week, we look forward to introducing and investigating formal debates which will carry through to Week 7 where formal debates will be conducted on Zoom! The breakout rooms will be a great way for teams to brainstorm and form arguments together.
In Maths, students bought a house! It was a little more involved than that though. Students chose which star task they wanted to complete which corresponded with a given budget. The different steps of the task required thought and planning into the buying of a suitable house as well as furniture and appliances to make it livable. Students were given a range of subtraction strategies (via videos) to use and were challenged to try different ways to show their working out. The Maths Warm-ups have also allowed for students to choose which star task they complete according to their ability level.
The Wellbeing tasks have seen students thinking about their feelings, self-regulating how they feel and adopting appropriate coping strategies as well as being kind to oneself. The weekly reflection also focuses on character strengths, gratitude, building positive connections and having a growth mindset. Wellbeing is an area that we place a high importance on, particularly in the current climate. Some of these topics make for great discussion prompts during Zoom meetings. What are three things that you are grateful for today? We also discussed that by saying the phrase “I get to…” instead of “I have to…” you are thinking in a more positive way which helps us to be grateful for what we do have.
We also welcome Mr.Jon Harvey to the Leadership Centre. Jon is on a five week placement from Curtin University and will be working with Mr.Shaw and the 5/6SB students.
Have a lovely week!
The Leadership Centre Team
Mr Andrew Shaw, Miss Ros Walker, Miss Megan Campbell, Mr Hamish Burrill, Mrs Cassie Brisbane, Mrs Louise Naismith, Mrs Lisa Jones and Mr.Jon Harvey.
Student Voice
Juliet 5/6SB: "I really like the breakout rooms because I was able to talk to my friends that I don't get to see at the moment. The maths task was really engaging because we were able to solve a real world problem about budgeting."
Armaan 5/6SB: "The maths task was really engaging because it taught us to spend money wisely."
Kaiesha: 5/6SB: "The best thing about this week was being able to communicate with my friends and have lots of fun activities to do. I really liked the breakout rooms because you got to talk about lots of things and I got to hang out with the girls."
Lavinia 5/6SB: "I really like the break out groups because we got to talk about different things together
The maths task was really engaging because we got to buy houses and appliances also we did renovations."
Reminders
- Next Monday 25th May is a Curriculum Day for the whole school (Pupil Free Day). There will be no online learning on this day.
- Don't forget to submit your onsite attendance forms for week 7 & 8 by 3:00PM Thursday
- Students in Years 3-6 will return to school on Tuesday 9th June. More information will be given before this date.
- Please ensure that you are up to date with your Beechworth Camp payments. Payments can be made on QKR or over the phone.
Pupil of the Week
5/6B: Gavinjeet S -
For challenging himself to think outside the box with his Real Estate Portfolio piece and use his creativity to explore new forms of mathematical thinking. Your curiosity about how you could use as much of your allocated budget was very impressive.
5/6C: Alana B -
For using a range of literary devices in your persuasive writing piece. You were able to use exaggeration and evidence to enhance your writing. Thank you for also sharing your piece for your peers to use as inspiration! Keep it up Alana
5/6SB: Imogen S -
For writing an engaging persuasive piece about how learning from school is better than from home. Imogen, you wrote an engaging introduction and conclusion by showing and not telling and included a range of high modality verbs within your strong arguments. Well done on a great effort!
5/6W: Josiah N -
For including a wide range of high modality verbs in your 'Remote Learning Vs Home Learning' persuasive piece. Your arguments were well-thought out and were supported by evidence. Keep up the fantastic work, Josiah!