Teaching and Learning

At Sandringham College, we believe that all students can learn. 

Great teaching makes it happen. 

Seating Plans in Every Classroom

You may have noticed that seating plans are now in place across every classroom at Sandringham College. It's a small logistical shift with a big purpose: to maximise the learning of every student. At our Term 2 Curriculum Day, staff learned about the why, what and how of an effective seating plan. They have so many benefits for learning, including to reduce low-level disruption, bullying, and the anxiety that many students feel about where to sit, all while ensuring that every minute is focused on learning. This, along with other whole school routines we have introduced this year (such as our entry routine and our Do Now routine) is helping us to create the conditions for calm, orderly classrooms where teaching and learning are protected, and where our students can therefore thrive. I would like to thank our outstanding, professional teachers and education support staff who have been working hard to learn and enact our new routines. Likewise, our students have adapted beautifully to them. We look forward to introducing more routines like these in the coming years to take our Sandy learning community to even higher academic highs.  

ResearchED Melbourne 2026 

At Sandringham College, we are committed to staying abreast of the latest research and evidence to inform our teaching practice. I was immensely proud to be a part of the 2026 Sandringham College researchED team on August 8th. Nine legendary staff gave up their Saturdays to attend this learning event, held at Haileybury City Campus. There were many highlights, but one consistently mentioned by all who attended was the outstanding keynote from Canadian Professor of Mathematics, and host of the podcast Chalk and Talk, Anna Stokke. She spoke about interrogating the quality of education research and how to do it. Other presenters included: Nathaniel Swain, Bronwyn Ryrie-Jones, Rebecca Birch, Haili Hughes, Stephanie Dehghani, Caiti Wade, Mark Dowley, Matt Hood and so many more.

A huge and heartfelt congrats to our Sandy team: Penny Fernandez, Sinead Allen, Emily Vale, Caitlin Stewart-Field, Laura Suckling, David Hall, Azra Andric, Tracelle Campbell and Mansha Rajasekhar.

I’d also like to acknowledge and thank the presenters at this conference who gift their time to make it affordable. This makes it a truly inclusive professional learning event, with educators from the independent, catholic and public sectors coming together.

Monash University Visit

On Thursday 6th August, Dr Mark Fyfield - a Professor from Monash University, came out to visit our college. Recently appointed in 2025 to support their Sciences of Learning team and with a PhD in cognitive science, he had heard about the work we are doing to implement VTLM 2.0 aligned practice. As we were walking through the S corridor at Bluff Road, he said to me, “Did you prep them (the teachers) that I was coming?” We had not! He was referring to our rows, seating plans, calm entries and Do Nows that were clearly visible in action across multiple classrooms. We shared a summary of the work our staff have been completing together this year around classroom routines, our Year 7 Pilot Team and more. Dr Fyfield was truly impressed, saying that we are well ahead of other schools he has been to see.  While we are already very proud of the work we are doing across the college to create the conditions for learning, it was reassuring to have an expert in the field praise our teachers and classrooms.