Teaching & Learning

I am very excited to be back in the saddle and able to bring you our latest edition of teaching and learning. In today’s edition we will talk about the upcoming Parent Information evening informing you of the exciting new learning opportunities for our students who may access a new Applied Learning program during their secondary education. We will also discuss the wonderful learning taking place in our classrooms right now and offer some hints and tips for what you can do at home to support this learning. Finally today we will have a quick reminder about payments to the school.

English In Practise

During the last few weeks most of our students have been focusing on one of two text types. These have been a procedure and an informative text. Our writing content is often matched to our integrated unit topics. It is our aim to expose the students to all of the text types but to make it meaningful by aligning the content to what they are learning about. Our integrated units focus is on identity this semester and this content matches the text types well. Students are reading and writing procedures or informative texts and are learning about the specific features of that text type. It has been excellent to see some of the information that students have learnt about something that interests them and their ability to sequence that knowledge using the correct features of the text type. Just this morning I was able to learn all about Labradors through the writing of one of our students.

Mathematics In Practise

So far this term the Number Algebra content has been focused on the process of addition. As a school we have been utilising a lot of research to ensure that we are using the correct and best strategies for teaching when teaching concepts like addition. It has been a very interesting process when looking at how this relates to Maths content. In the past many Maths concepts have been taught through a rote process that has not engaged understanding in the process.  All of the research tells us that the practical application of skills is essential to the understanding of these concepts. As with all students we do want our students to be able to access skills when they are not at school and transfer their knowledge to an unfamiliar situation. It is imperative for understanding that students can access these skills and articulate how they are solving addition situations. In order to ensure that students are learning skills that they are developmentally ready for we do pitch the content at an appropriate level because you cannot transfer a skill if the understanding does not accompany it. Many of our students are learning to add using various mental strategies. The reason for this is that in the real world they will not be reaching for a piece of paper to work out an equation.

It is worth talking to your classroom teacher to find out what strategies your child is working on so that you can support this learning in the home. Remember, if you are running through different scenarios in the home that it is better to use lots of oral language to support the learning. Concrete materials are fine as they might be the strategy that works best for your child right now and repetition is extremely important. The more your child sees a given situation the more likely that they can transfer the knowledge from working memory to long term memory.

Parent Information Evening Concord Applied Learning Program

This is a reminder that on Thursday the 8th of June at 6.00pm Concord School will be hosting and information session about our proposed applied learning program. The academic skills that we teach our students are designed to support them with the independent application of tasks when they conclude their schooling. Over the past fourteen months we have been very focused on ensuring that all of our programs are individually targeted to meet the needs of all of our students. Last year we held a parent forum where we asked what you want for your kids and have taken that information and combined it with staff data and external research and we feel that we are nearly ready to begin with a program that will really meet the individual needs of our students. We do want to discuss our progress with the families of these students.

Closer to the date parents from the classrooms that this will directly effect will be invited to the evening but we would like a strong presence of parental involvement as we all work together to ensure that our students have every opportunity to ‘be the best they can be’.

Parent Payments

This is just a quick reminder that there are two separate bank accounts when delivering an online payment to the school. One of these accounts is set up for fees and the other for camp and excursion payments. It is very easy to see that a payment needs to be made and simply send it to a Concord account that you have used before but this does cause extra workload for the office staff and delays in receipting. Please take care to check the BSB and account numbers before finalising your payments to avoid any delays. Your cooperation and support is greatly appreciated here.

It has been terrific to catch up with you all once again through the teaching and learning component of the newsletter and I look forward to reaching you all throughout the year in this capacity.

Kirrily Lamers

Assistant Principal