FROM THE PRINCIPAL
TERM 4 - WEEK 3
To the St Nicholas School Community
On the 21st and 22nd of October, St Nicholas School employed the services of Paul Meldrum, Head of Learning Innovation and Project Leader Learning Space Design for the Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta. Paul’s brief was to critique St Nicholas School's teaching practices in our contemporary learning spaces. Paul’s findings would support improvement initiatives at St Nicholas. Below is the first draft of a paper I am writing to capture his thoughts and what it means for St Nicholas School.
“A great builder can build a house with a screwdriver or a power drill.
The power drill certainly makes their job easier
and may add an extra element to the modern home.”
This is an analogy we need to remind ourselves of at St Nicholas School. Our learning spaces are an enabler to a quality contemporary education. They do not provide a quality contemporary education. If we use the spaces as the ‘new old’, rather than the ‘new new’, we are no different than the ineffective builder. For the ineffective builder, even with the power drill, will build you a substandard house.
Contemporary learning spaces can be referred to as flexible learning spaces. While there is nothing wrong with this term, it can be misleading and in fact confuse people to believing there is a laissez-faire approach to the placement of furniture. This carefree approach would allow furnishings to be moved around by the children with them sitting where they want, when they want.
To use the contemporary spaces to enable quality learning our teachers must be precise in the arrangements of furniture. The modern day learning space actually requires greater precision with furnishing than the old traditional setting. The term ‘flexible’ does not refer to the ease in movement of furnishings, it refers to the movement of children. The children need to move, not the furnishings! The children need to move (usually directed by the teacher) to the area of the space that will support their learning.
At St Nicholas School we need to ensure our learning spaces are arranged to support the Gradual Release of Responsibility (Modelled, Shared, Guided and Independent learning opportunities). Our teachers need to be precise in the placement of furniture and then be able to articulate why it is positioned in a particular location. For example, “This configuration of furniture is to support modelled teaching … this is where the children go if they are going to share their learning with a teacher or peer ... here our furniture is arranged for guided learning from the trained professional … and finally this, where our children sit in a quiet location to work individually and consolidate their learning”.
Along with our teachers articulating how our spaces are set up to support learning, our teachers should also be able to describe what learning looks like at St Nicholas School. For this to happen St Nicholas needs to create our own learning framework based on current research, system directions and local data which builds on the foundations of the school's learning agenda.
Contemporary educators should be aware of John Hattie’s work on Visible Learning. At St Nicholas School we have used this quality resource as a way of guiding our learning and teaching. As teachers, we talk about making the learning visible for our students, learning inventions (WALT: We Are Learning Today) and success criteria (WILL: What it Looks Like) are obvious examples. We do however need to take Hattie’s work further. Along with making learning visible, we want to hear the learning. As teachers we must consistently provide opportunities for our students to “visualise their thinking and share their learning”.
Parents naturally compare today’s schooling with their own, often expecting to see and hear the same in today's learning environment. The media is full of reports of education needing to return to the good old days of a focus on the fundamentals of literacy and numeracy. Somewhat ironically, I am yet to meet a contemporary educator who does not believe a quality education in the 21st century requires a foundation of effective learning and teaching around Literacy and Numeracy. At St Nicholas School this portrayed in our daily 2 hour uninterrupted Literacy and 1 hour Numeracy block. Throughout 2019, and into 2020, we have and continue to work on the make up of our Literacy block and ensuring the Gradual Release of Responsibility are present each day for reading, writing and language development.
A major difference in 2019, from the time of mine and many of our St Nicholas School parent's schooling, is the acquisition of knowledge through Literacy, Numeracy and the other “subjects” is no longer enough to provide a student with post schooling options/success. At risk of simplifying our world, robots are a real threat to all of our jobs. This is particularly the case with jobs that do not require the general capabilities, like the four C’s of collaboration, critical thinking, creativity and communication. A contemporary education must also teach our children the dispositions (eg tolerance, trust, responsibility, perseverance) before progressing onto the general capabilities. At St Nicholas School our dispositions are present with our Manners Matter, though there is scope to develop these further into our teaching and learning.
When it comes to the general capabilities, our learning spaces give us a considerable advantage over the traditional setting. Once again however, this advantage is only as strong as the learning, teaching and the set up of our learning spaces.
The arrangement of our learning spaces are again crucial to effective learning and teaching of the dispositions and general capabilities. Furnishings must be arranged to support our children working together and tolerating each other’s differences, before progressing to effectively collaborating. This means that our children must have the opportunity to sit in groups and talk (critique and share their learnings). At St Nicholas School we also need to be conscious of how much the teachers are talking compared to our students. If our teachers are following the Gradual Release of Responsibility our students will be talking more than the teacher.
St Nicholas School is an excellent school and one I am exceptionally proud to be principal of. The responsibility and challenge I hold as principal is not as to whether we continue to improve, but to ensure our demand for improvement is done at the right pace to ensure what we value is embedded and sustainable.
Have a wonderful week.
John Clery
PRINCIPAL
SCHOOL ADVISORY BODY
Calling for nominations ....
The St Nicholas School Advisory Body meets to discuss, monitor and direct the overall operation of St Nicholas School. It aims to support the Principal, staff and Parish Priest in their delivery of programs and the daily management of the school. The School Advisory Body consists of the Parish Priest, the Principal, the Assistant Principal, a staff representative and representatives from the school parent body. Parents are encouraged to contact Advisory Body members if they have any concerns that can't be dealt with by the Principal or staff, or if they wish to provide suggestions or positive feedback on the school management.
The St Nicholas School Advisory Body has two positions available and is calling for nominations.
Nominations (full name and contact details) must be emailed to jgrady@arm.catholic.edu.au by 3.00pm, next Tuesday, 5th November 2019.
SCHOOL FEES
Can I remind all parents/carers that outstanding school fees need to be finalised by 30th November 2019. If you are experiencing any problems with payments, please contact me via my email jclery1@arm.catholic.edu.au.
TERM 4 ASSEMBLY ROSTER
Week 4 - Friday, 8 November - Year 5
Week 6 - Friday, 22 November - Year 2
Week 8 - Friday, 6 December - Awards only assembly
Week 10 - No assembly