Learning & Teaching News

Positive Development

It has been a welcome development to see all students now back at school.  While the preferred mode of teaching is undoubtedly onsite schooling for the vast majority of students and teachers, we cannot ignore that there were some positive experiences and important learning from remote schooling.

No experience is wasted if we can learn from it and our inquiry of staff and students have produced some important insights.

• The teacher-student relationship matters and learning suffers when external factors negatively impact upon this relationship. Being able to see our students and easily communicate with them is crucial for us teachers.
• Mental health and wellbeing are very important if we are going to be good teachers and learners.  We are social creatures and we missed our friends and colleagues.
• Teachers talking less can allow students to engage more through active learning.  Students were given more time in class to produce good work.
• Technology is an important tool in learning, however, you never want to overuse it or become totally reliant upon it.  Many teachers benefited by using some teaching tools for the first time such as Google workbooks, different functionality on our learning management system SPACE and Kahootz.
• Student engagement with each other is an important source of learning for students.
• Hands on learning is very important for many of our students and they will become easily disengaged when the lessons are top heavy with theory.
• When students are unable to distract others in the class, the amount of learning increases significantly.  I know that some teachers have said more than once over this last week how much they miss the mute button!
• Formative feedback is crucial in keeping students engaged and motivated as it helps them to make the next step in their learning.
• The flexibility in contacting parents and other teachers via Zoom meetings assisted good communication.
• The ability for teachers and students to continue working when not necessarily 100% well.  Staff and student absenteeism actually fell which is somewhat ironic when in the midst of a pandemic!

From my own perspective, I think my greatest fear from this experience of remote schooling is that it has increased the gap between the capable and struggling students.  The students who were motivated, continued to thrive and without other distractions and more time to put into study, I think they probably accelerated in their learning.  Unfortunately, for those students who were already disengaged with school, it became even more difficult to work online and with the greater challenge in seeking the support required, I fear they may have fallen even further behind.

Our task now is not to stress these students and try to catch up all that was missed.  We have to calmly reset and use good evidence-based teaching strategies to ensure that we can reengage all our students and work towards an accelerated rate of growth in the months ahead.  Rest assured that we have staff committed to doing this.

Events Calendar for Year 12

There are a number of significant date changes that affect our Year 12 students and parents/carers of which you need to be aware. These are listed in the table below:

Futures Expo

On Tuesday, 21 July 2020, we will host Futures Expo at both campuses during the day for students and virtually after school for parents/carers.  This is a very important day to provide senior students with the background information that they may require for pathways to tertiary study, apprenticeships, traineeships or meaningful employment. Year 7 students are not required on this day and it will be STUDENT FREE FOR YEAR 7 STUDENTS ONLY.

After school, we will be offering a virtual expo for parents/carers in which they can participate in relevant webinars about subject selection for their children, watch videos skillfully prepared by teaching staff informing them of the options and attend virtual presentations from universities and TAFE colleges providing details on different post school courses and pathways. Parents/carers will be given the opportunity beforehand of posting questions that staff will endeavour to address. With current COVID-19 restrictions we have had to be creative in presenting this important information and we believe our Careers Team of Ms Melissa Dillon and Ms Robyn Cardamone have done an amazing job in preparing a relevant and innovative day for our students and their families.

All students will be participating in a range of Careers activities in Pastoral Period in the first day of Term 3.  This is designed to inform them about their options for the senior years of secondary schooling, as well as to encourage them to consider their pathways post school. Year 8 – 12 students’ understanding of school subject and university course options will be expanded at Futures Expo on Tuesday, 21 July.

In particular, Year 9 & 10 students will be required to undertake subject selection interviews with their parents/carers for their 2021 Year 11 program. It is important that students make informed decisions based on their future career interests, relevant prerequisites and consider their own abilities and strengths. 

Please keep the following important dates in your diaries to attend these interviews at the school:

Wednesday, 22 July 2020 & Thursday, 23 July 2020: Year 9 into 10 subject selection interviews

Monday, 27 July 2020 & Tuesday, 28 July 2020: Year 10 into 11 subject selection interviews

Wishing you an enjoyable time with your children over the coming mid-year break.

Mr David Hansen

Deputy Principal - Learning and Teaching