Learning and Teaching
YEAR 12 ENGLISH MASTERCLASS WITH ROSS HUGGARD
Congratulations to five of our Year 12 students – Caitlyn Hennessy, Annabelle Kingston-Brown, Eyrian Morgan, Amelia Taylor and Madison Taylor - who were selected to be part of two special Yr 12 English ‘Masterclasses’ for high achieving students. The workshops focused on helping the students to develop their understanding of each section of the English exam and to maximise their performance on the three sections of the final Year 12 Exam later this year.
The workshops were run by Ross Huggard and funded by the South West Region of the Department of Education as part of a VCE English improvement agenda. Ross is a highly experienced Year 12 English Assessor and was a previous member of the English Review Committees and a member of the Board of Studies for VCE English.
We wish these students, and all of our Year 12 English students, all the best as they start to direct their attention and efforts towards their final exams.
Our Year 12 VCE students will be starting their practice exams on Thursday 7th October and these will run through until Thursday 14th October.
EXAM REVISION
I found some wonderful resources on Twitter via the educators and teachers I follow. Here’s one I thought was worth sharing (we’ll share this with our students) about ‘Studying and Revision – what does the science say?’.
Parents and carers – note the least effective in relation to long term memory.
https://twitter.com/ChemCommando/status/1430507048714838020
STEAM WEEK @ MFG
Our STEAM week again coincided with National Science Week. The theme for 2021 is Food: Different by Design. It honours the United Nations International Year of Fruits and Vegetables and the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development.
In December 2019, the United Nations created two new international days and one new international year devoted to issues relating to food and agriculture. The UN General Assembly adopted resolutions designating 2021 as the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables, 21 May as International Tea Day, and 29 September as International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste. With this in mind, some of the scientific discoveries, inquiries, activities and themes used in this resource book examine fruits, vegetables, tea and food waste. Other themes include cooking with food, preserving food, bottling food, fermenting food, upcycling food, designing gardens, designing menus, plates and even designing insect-based burgers.
It was great to see so many STEAM activities happening during the week including our students’ reimagining of the board game ‘Operation’, the Instagram #foodbydesign competition and the work by our students on the Tiny House.
Thanks to all of our students who participated during the week and to our amazing staff who planned and ran the activities.
READING ATTITUDES OF 15 YEAR OLDS
NAPLAN 2021
NAPLAN 2021 reporting packages will be delivered in the week commencing Monday 30 August 2021 and will include a printed Individual Student Report for each student who participated in NAPLAN in 2021 and Year 9 NAPLAN certificates of achievement for eligible students.
Year 7 students achieved the highest scores of any jurisdiction for the foundation skills of Reading and Numeracy, and our Year 9 students achieved the highest scores for Spelling.
Victoria also improved on our 2019 results. Reading was a particular highlight, with students in years 3, 5 and 7 demonstrating significant improvement.
Across secondary schools, more students are achieving in the top two bands of Reading compared to 2019 and there are fewer students in the bottom two bands.
Year 7 students improved in Reading, Writing and Spelling compared to 2019 and achieved the highest scores of any state or territory for Reading and Numeracy.
For the first time, almost 19,000 Year 9 students are receiving certificates to recognise their excellence or significant learning growth on their Year 7 NAPLAN results.
TIPS FOR PARENTS AND CARERS WHEN USING COMPASS
- If you’re using Compass to look at student progress, teacher feedback etc, use a laptop/computer and not a phone.
- Prior to coming to MFG for a Parent-Teacher-Student Conference, do some ‘detective work’ using Compass. You could look at:
- ATTENDANCE – do any absences need to be approved by me?
- TASKS – Are they on-time, over-due or pending?
- FEEDBACK – click on the Learning Task and the Feedback Tab:
- Any task in ALL-CAPITALS is a CRLT (Common Reportable Learning Task). These are usually the important assessments. Focusing on how your child performed on these will save you time when looking at their list of Learning Tasks.
- ROUTINE: Develop a routine of using Compass. My son is in Year 8 and I have a quick scan of his Learning Tasks every Thursday so I know what to ask him about.
Damien Toussaint, Assistant Principal, Learning and Teaching
