Celebration of Learning

Australian Youth Aerospace Association

Careers Adviser Natalie Conroy has organised a number of infomration sessions for Stage 6 students as they plan their future pathways as lifelong learners.  One of these workshops was with the Australian Youth Aerospace Association, a great initiative in encouraging girls to participate in STEM based learning and career paths.

Year 12 Stress Management Workshop

Thanks to the generosity of The Kidman Centre at UTS, Year 12 were a willing and attentive audience at the hour long stress management presentation by Dr Mia Markovic who delivered “Managing HSC stress: A guide for students” .

The presentation included handouts for the students to takeaway and you will be able to find these on the school website on the Year 12 Curriculum page.

HSC Economics Study Day

Year 12 Canterbury Girls and Ashfield Boys joined forces to attend the HSC Economics Study Day

FUTURES LEARNING TEAM

Evolving Teaching Practices – Blended and Project-Based Learning

Not all students learn the same way or at the same pace. As part of the Futures Strategy, staff at Canterbury Girls High School have been evolving their teaching practices to cater to the learning needs and styles of students.

Blended Learning practices combine direct in-class instruction with student self-directed learning.  There are many tools available to educators to achieve this.  Using Ted-Ed, Year 7 History students are being guided to develop their independent learning and study skills and be inspired to think more creatively and share their ideas via online discussion boards as well as in-class. Teachers can monitor student progress and provide individualised feedback.  This also helps ensure students who do not normally discuss things openly in class still get the attention they require to achieve their personal best.

Year 11 Project-Based Learning

Students in Year 11 Standard English are working on a digital narrative project in B7, the Futures Learning Space. They are working in groups across the 3 Standard English classes to design and implement a digital narrative using online software like Videoscribe, iMovie or Animoto to complete this. This is part of the module: Contemporary Possibilities which aims at exposing students to the use of technology to determine an audience’s reading pathways. Teachers of Standard English are monitoring submission via Google Classroom and the digital narratives will be presented at Field Study Day to the Year 11 cohort. 

Design-Thinking and Social Entrepreneurship via Young Change Agents

Team Cerebrum consisting of Year 10 students Hailie Brown, Kiara Green, Billie Guice and Jessica Holt are taking part in the Mental Health Youth Incubator (YINC) program run by Young Change Agents. This is a program focussing on Design-Thinking applied to developing a Social Enterprise.  

Team Cerebrum develop critical thinking, problem-solving, communication and teamwork skills as they work towards providing a solution to a real-world problem. This program is unique as it becomes “real-world” and concrete as our students are being guided by a group of mentors and industry representatives from Young Change Agents and MakerSpace. Their initial problem statement and idea can be found at https://youngchangeagents.com/projects/cerebrum.

Team Cerebrum is developing their idea of using plants as horticulture therapy to address mental health. The team will be launching their idea along with 4 other teams via crowdfunding in late June 2019. They are now at the prototyping stage and are working with manufacturers and suppliers in Sydney and Melbourne to bring their idea to fruition. More updates to come…

Team Cerebrum will need support to raise funds for this worthy cause. Their Crowdfunding website will be posted on the CGHS Twitter page once available. We hope that the CGHS community will get behind this worthy cause! 

Futures Committee Professional Learning

With evolving curriculum needs requiring a balancing of providing teaching and learning experiences to build knowledge and develop core skills sets such as problem-solving, critical thinking, communication and in a Futures Learning environment, an increasing load is placed on young minds. The Futures Learning Team has been undertaking professional learning in Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) to better understand the need for explicit teaching practices and how to integrate this with Futures Learning practices geared towards Project-Based Learning (PBL). 

The Futures Committee Team had completed a trial in 2018 of Futures Learning and PBL. Now in 2019 based on reflective practices, student and teacher feedback, programs and teaching strategies have been refined that embody CLT principles to ensure students continue to develop their knowledge, as well as the critical skills required to become independent and more confident learners. 

Year 11 Debating

Zoe, Sara , Sofia and Hester set off CGHS in debating to take on  Kirrawee HS. Thank you Ms Stephenson for accompanying our team.

Field Study Day Term 2 - June 28

Another day of enriched learning expereinces beyond the classroom is about to occur as this edition of the newsletter goes to press.

Year 7 is off to the Japanese Gardens at Auburn with CAPA and English faculties for a cross curriculum experience.

Year 8 Mathematics is going to the Botanical Gardens to see how Mathematics really is everywhere in our world.

Year 9 is particiapting in a PDHPE Trivia Day, at school, a full day immersion in all things wellbeing.

Year 10 is undertaking a mandatory field trip to Cronulla for Geography.

Year 11 is doing an English Rich Day - see more about this in the Futures Learning report on this page.

Year 12 is having a careers day with information workshops in the morning about UAC and EAS, followed by an excursion to the Careers Expo from recess onwards.

Schoolstream App and emails to students contain all the information for how the day will run; notes are still on the website if you need to check details, however in most cases any payments due will have closed.