Excellence in Teaching and Learning

Term One 2022 has seen an uninterrupted return to regular teaching and learning programs at ESC which is welcome news for parents, students and teachers alike. For our junior students, this has meant experiencing some certainty and continuity for the first time in a while in high school, and our VCE students will be relieved that there hasn’t been major interruptions to SACs and CATs. However, our return to the new normal has also brought its own challenges with many students adjusting back to life in the classroom and some students and teachers needing to isolate over the term. Students, on the whole however, have been making progress in their learning, and teachers are making the most of the opportunity to gauge where our learners are at and what the next steps in their learning should be.

ESC collects data through a range of methods to help know and support our students. AAS testing at Years 7 and 10 done in Term One this year gives teachers a snapshot of the skills and knowledge our students have in literacy, numeracy and general reasoning. This information, in conjunction with assessment results and additional tests, will be used by teachers to create student data maps that assist teachers to identify student learning needs, and work individually and collaboratively to help our students achieve growth. As we head into term Term Two, NAPLAN Online (completed in weeks 3 and 4 by students in Years 7 and 9) will also give an additional wealth of information around reading, writing and numeracy and teachers will be working in Professional Learning Communities to develop strategies and interventions that will enhance the already fantastic teaching and learning happening throughout the College.

The data gathered so far has also informed our Term One focus on reviewing and renewing whole school literacy strategies which are a foundation of learning success. Teachers have undertaken professional learning in the recommended reading strategies essential for students in all Learning Areas. Skills such as inferencing, skimming and scanning and looking for context clues are being highlighted within the classroom and explicitly taught to students. This is reinforced by visual stimuli in the classrooms to help remind students of the strategies they need to improve their reading. We encourage you to ask students about their reading at home to consolidate their skills and help them to develop a love of reading. In Term Two, writing skills will come firmly into focus as we head toward NAPLAN, with numeracy on the agenda for the second half of the year after we consolidate our Maths curriculum.

And while I have focused on data and skills as being essential to our work in helping students achieve growth from year to year, parents and students are encouraged to view these types of tests not as a measure of the student, but simply as a diagnostic tool to help focus our efforts towards whole school improvement. As we know, our learners are much more than a test score, and at ESC we value a focus on the developing the whole child, academically, physically, socially and emotionally. Our curriculum focuses on building not only key skills and knowledge in each Learning Area, but creative, personal, social, intercultural and ethical capabilities to deliver genuine learning for life, a critical factor for success in school and the life beyond. Our aim is the help our students develop into independent, emotionally intelligent critical and creative thinkers who can engage positively and successfully with the world and achieve their goals.

On a personal note, as an Assistant Principal new to Epping Secondary College, it has been wonderful to be welcomed by so many students and parents. Thank you. I have enjoyed my first term at the school and look forward to meeting more of the school community throughout 2022.

Joshua Wolter

Assistant Principal – Excellence in Teaching and Learning