School Council
On 16 March 2021, the MGSC School Council met for the first time in twelve months in a face-to-face meeting. During 2020 all meetings were held online. It was a joy to sit together in one room and discuss School Council matters. New Council members for 2021 were welcomed and outgoing members were warmly thanked for their service.
The most significant agenda items were the evaluation of the 2020 school improvement priorities, and the forward planning 2021 Annual Implementation Plan. Despite the Covid-19 disrupted 2020 school year, it was encouraging to learn that expected outcomes had at least partially been met.
The three priority areas for school improvement in 2021 are: learning, catch-up and extension; happy, active and healthy kids; and connected schools. The principal outlined the strategies to be adopted to address the three priority dimensions, as well as how the outcomes will be evaluated.
Of particular note in the Council’s broader discussions were reports that parents and students had greatly appreciated the efforts made by the school to support students’ learning needs during the lockdown periods in 2020, as well as the ways in which students were encouraged to remain connected with each other and involved in school life more broadly. Some Council members, through personal experience and other anecdotal sources, drew attention to comparisons with other schools that had not catered nearly as well as MGSC.
As a former teacher myself, it was heartening to hear that parents’ appreciation for and understanding of the challenges faced by teachers, as well as other essential workers, in the conduct or their work careers had increased during the COVID-19 lock-down periods.
More personally, I remained professionally active during 2020. As a retired academic, I was honoured to be involved in two projects for the Department of Education and Training, Victoria.
- A former colleague and I authored a monograph on ‘Gender and mathematics’, a professional development ‘kit’ for schools and teachers on how to promote mathematics for girls (see https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/maths/Pages/research_genderissuesinmaths.aspx).
- Former Monash University colleagues and I worked on a series of classroom lessons for years 7/8 and 9/10 to embed numeracy in various subjects across the curriculum (see https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/maths/pages/numeracy-for-all-learners.aspx#link27).
It should be noted that numeracy is not a synonym for mathematics. In the Victorian Curriculum, numeracy is defined as follows:
Numeracy comprises knowledge and skills developed through learning mathematics, in conjunction with behaviours and dispositions that students draw on in order to use mathematics effectively in a wide range of situations. It involves recognising and understanding the role of mathematics in the world and having the dispositions and capacities to use mathematical knowledge and skills purposefully. Number, measurement and geometry, statistics and probability are common aspects of most people's mathematical experience in everyday personal, study and work situations. Equally important are the essential roles that algebra, functions and relations, logic, mathematical structure and working mathematically play in people's understanding of the natural and human worlds, and the interaction between them.
(see https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/curriculum/foundation-10/crosscurriculumresources/Pages/Numeracy.aspx)
Helen Forgasz
Professor Emerita, Monash University