Teaching and Learning 

Hello, and thank you to all of the staff, students and families that have welcomed me into the position of Acting Assistant Principal at Karoo Primary School. I am looking forward to working with such passionate and dedicated teachers and learners and meeting the school community.

Just a little bit about myself….

I have been a primary school teacher for over 15 years, working in a number of schools.  At my previous school I worked with teachers and students to develop a passion for literacy and building a love of both, reading and writing through various coaching roles. 

I have recently returned from teaching in the UK for two years and previous to this I had been working in North East Victoria Region (NEVR) in the Outer East as a Leadership Partner.  In this role, I have worked with over 20 schools in building the knowledge and skills of teachers and leaders in Mathematics and Literacy.

I am looking forward to starting this new journey at Karoo Primary School; please feel free to pop in and say hi or email me. 

Peta Phillips

ACTING ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

Powerful Learning at Karoo Primary School

To help parents and carers understand how we, as teachers, go about our planning for learning, I have published our Karoo Instructional Model that illustrates the layers of planning and implementation that takes place in any one lesson. We plan for students to develop key conceptual understandings, knowledge and skills, in any given subject. A ‘Learning Intention’ is identified so that students are clear on the expected learning outcomes of the lesson. The Learning Intention may be the same at a conceptual level for all of the class, but the actual knowledge or skills being developed, may vary according to the individual needs and sequence of learning appropriate for the child.

During our Start Up program, all students have been unpacking our Instructional Model; ask your child about the Karoo Instructional Model!

Opening: The focus of the Opening is to connect students into the lesson, linking prior learning and experiences. This is when the Learning Intentions and Success Criteria are shared.

Mini Lesson: The mini lesson is when we teach a reading strategy that we have planned for our students due to formative assessment. The use of the prefix ‘mini’ is there to remind us to teach explicitly and concisely and then ‘get off the stage’ so the students can get to work. The mini lesson should only be 10 – 15 minutes. Success Criteria are co-constructed with students at the end of the mini lesson.

Work Time: Student reads, writes and/or talk to work with the content and the learning intention. Teacher confers with individuals and small groups to learn more about the students and to provide appropriate guidance.

Catch: A quick whole class catch to model or share a strategy that will help them re-engage in the work.

Work Time: Student reads, writes and/or talk to work with the content and the learning intention. Teacher confers with individuals and small groups to learn more about the students and to provide appropriate guidance.

Debrief: Students participate in both a share time and a synthesis of learning which is directly related to the Learning Intention and Success Criteria.

Giovanni 6M

" I like The Catch because teachers talk about the next steps that you have to do."

Mia 1 / 2 C

"My favourite lesson is Work Time 2 because that's when you get to practice and work with your friends."

Izzy 3G

"I really like Work Time because it is time for us to do work and exercise our brain."