Director of Pedagogy

The power of feedback

After my first month at St Mary’s, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the entire College community for its warm welcome. The College’s Presentation values have shone through in the hospitality I have received and witnessed at events such as our welcome evening for new families and Junior School Learning Conferences.  Building a working partnership between parents and schools is a proven key to student success and it is great to see so many families engaging in these opportunities provided by the College.

A further way parents and students can build this partnership is through SEQTA. SEQTA Engage allows parents to see information about their child’s subjects, timetable, assignments, homework, school notices, past reports and, most importantly, the ongoing feedback that teachers provide students. Our teachers aim to provide ongoing and timely feedback as research suggests that targeted, formative feedback is one of the most effective ways to improve student learning. Parents are encouraged to monitor feedback and reinforce with their children the importance of using this information to improve their skills and understanding. Research conducted by the Australian Family-School and Community Partnerships Bureau (2012) found that:

'...Providing feedback in an online forum supports students and parents/caregivers to engage with the learning process as it is happening. Parental/caregiver engagement has a positive impact on many indicators of student achievement, including, learning outcomes, enrolment in higher level programs and advanced classes, and higher completion rates of tertiary education.'

Some students can tend to focus solely on their marks and grades and ignore descriptive feedback. A grade gives an indication of a student’s progress but does not explain the steps a student needs to take to improve. Engaging with feedback is, therefore, essential for student learning and St Mary’s teachers are constantly trying to improve the quality and impact of this information for students.

All new parents to the College, or those yet to access SEQTA Engage, should have received their login information. If anyone is having difficulty accessing the information, or has previously registered but forgotten their details, please contact the College office on 6108 2560.

Simon Eade

Director of Pedagogy