Teaching & Learning

This year, Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) have worked through our Teaching and Learning Model (revised version shown above), starting with ongoing Formative Assessment strategies in Writing for responsive teaching moving onto child-friendly Learning Intentions, co-created Success Criteria and Visible Learning Goals and Writing Instructional Practices in Term 3 within the Explicit Teacher Modelling and Shared Activity part of the lesson. It was lovely to watch teams present their inquiry projects in Term 3 on the Writing Instructional Practices. Thank you for the effort you all put in to lead your own learning.

In Term 4, we continue our lens of Writing, but we now delve deeper into differentiated, responsive teaching using the refined skills acquired throughout the year. Focusing on differentiation and adjustments within the learning environment (considering the student's Jackson Learner Profile, learner readiness and learner interests) as well as the content, product and process of teaching and learning within a lesson will help prepare us for the Disability Inclusion Reform roll-out in Term 1 next year. We have begun making some improvements to the whole school documentation, including ILPs and Termly and Weekly Planning, in readiness for 2024.

The 6 Domains and 31 Activities that make up the Disability Inclusion Profile are shown in the table below. Click on the table below to access the updated Supporting Information Guidance for Schools. This is the comprehensive version of the rubric we explored on our Term 2 Curriculum Day.

Smart Notebook Software and Interactive Whiteboards

We have purchased Smart Notebook as our consistent software package for the interactive whiteboards due to different versions of the Epson compatible projectors across the school. New projectors are being installed in our new rooms in Week 2 of Term 4. We have an additional professional learning workshop this term to familiarise staff with how to use the interactive functionality of your projectors and not just as an AirPlay projector screen. Following this training, we will release a school-wide Jackson Teaching Toolkit as a template with consistent teacher tools including LI and SC backgrounds, paper backgrounds, timers, visuals, schedules, PBIS posters etc. We will also include activities for the 9am-9:20am morning circle session with a calendar, weather, Zones Check-in, Jackson Social etc. In the meantime, below are some training videos and a teacher guide to get started.

Tutor Learning Initiative 2024 (TLI)

The Victorian Government has announced a further $442.2 million investment to extend the Tutor Learning Initiative for the 2024 and 2025 school years. This funding will allow Victorian government schools to continue to provide students with intensive small-group tutoring support. At Jackson this year Sarah has been delivering a hybrid model of TLI supporting students in classrooms, particularly in the establishment and roll-out of the Little Learners Love Literacy (LLLL) Phonics Pilot in years 3/4.

Assessment & Reporting

To reduce teacher workload, we decided to remove the requirement of Summative Assessments in Term 3. Teachers instead have been employing some of the Formative Assessment strategies we launched earlier in the year. It is recommended that P-10 teachers mark student's ILP short term goals (progression statements) as achieved and not-achieved as you go to reduce the admin burden as you begin to write reports. Kelly has developed a Formative Assessment Toolkit with explanations of each strategy (see above).

New ILP revisions will be published in Week 2 of Term 4. These will be available to families through the Xuno Parent Portal. Staff can modify long term (content descriptions) or short term (progression statements) goals in Accelerus before these are published. Parents will also be given an opportunity to discuss their child's progress with you in an optional phone SSG in Week 4. Time has been allocated on Wednesday afternoon for this during normal school hours. Staff can schedule these outside of these times as required.

The assessment deadline is scheduled for the end of Week 8. Teachers may decide to start their assessments prior to this date. Reports will be open from Monday of Week 6 (Melbourne Cup Eve). This is publicised to families as a Pupil Free Day (Assessment & Reporting) in lieu of staff finishing early at the end of each term. Reports drafts are due by Monday of Week 11 with edits completed by Wednesday of this week. Teacher Judgements against the Achievement Levels ("DET Levels") are due at the same time as reports for Leadership to complete our AIP Monitoring and submit these to the Department. There will be a Report Writing professional learning session on 21st November. Kelly and Julie have also developed supporting documentation of how to provide scaffolding, supports and adjustments when delivering summative assessments. If you need any support prior to this day please reach out to Kelly or Gabi.

Career Education Plans (CAP)

All students in Years 7 to 12 are required to participate in planned career education activities, and all students in Years 9 to 12 must have:

an individual annual career action plan linked to Individual Learning Plans
a copy of their career action plan given to their parents or carers, along with their student reports

When creating a career action plan, students reflect on their strengths and interests, identify their options for exploring and pursuing career paths and set goals. We will look at modifying the student comment in the reports for our second students, which will then double up as their Career Action Plan template. This will also help us capture our Students' Voices as part of the Disability Inclusion Profile evidence. This will include the following sections and can be delivered as a class activity.

Strengths/Abilities
Likes/Interests
Goals/Aspirations/Hopes
Skills/Talents (including Employability Skills)
What helps me learn

Disability Inclusion Student Voice Toolkit

At Jackson School, we will use the careers curriculum framework to help develop a local, custom and high quality career development program.

There are six steps in a young person's acquisition of skills for career development. These form the structure of the framework.

Goals at each step are organised into three stages:

Self development: young people understand themselves, build their experiences and achievements and develop their capabilities.
Career exploration: young people locate, investigate and consider opportunities in learning and future work options.
Career management: young people make and adjust career action plans and manage their life choices, changes and transitions.

Although young people complete all six steps each year, the career action plans focus on a different step each year. The six steps are:

I Discover: young people discover their strengths and talents
I Explore: young people explore the world of work and their place in it
I Focus: young people focus on their values and interests
I Plan: young people use decision-making skills to plan their learning and career programs
I Decide: young people decide on their best options and opportunities
I Apply: young people apply their skills and knowledge to their learning and career planning.

I discover and I explore: Year 7/8 students begin their career education journey. They start their Career Action Planning (CAP) focused around their aspirations, likes, interests and strengths. This is recorded in their Individual Learning Plan. In Year 7/8 students complete a Career Exploration (in Term 4) about their potential future pathways.

I focus and I plan: Year 9 students begin their career profiling through Morrisby, an online career discovery tool. See My Career Insights. In Year 10, students also receive an analysis of their Morrisby career assessment through one-on-one career counselling by an externally accredited career practitioner.

I decide and I apply: In Year 11/12, students update their Morrisby career profile and career action plans informed by their work experience, VET trade tasters and school-based apprenticeships and training. Some staff may have also used the My Career Portfolio, which is an optional online tool that helps students create and update career action plans.