Edgars Creek Secondary College Newsletter

Teaching and Learning 

The importance of talking about learning growth

One of our core values at Edgars Creek Secondary College is ‘Embrace learning’ which means that both teachers and students actively seek to learn knowledge and develop new ideas. We understand that learning is an active and ongoing process that we are all a part of. 

 

As part of investigating this value, we have spent much of Term 3 exploring what it means to be a great learner. Many of our teaching staff and students agreed that great learners demonstrate curiosity, creativity and resilience. These qualities can often be easy to display when we are learning new knowledge and skills in areas, we are passionate about. However, the ability to demonstrate the qualities of a great learner when we are challenged is far more difficult. This is one of the reasons why is it vitally important to view learning as a process rather than a set of achievements that define us. Great learners understand that there is always room for improvement and strive to seek feedback whenever they can.

 

I spoke with a group of students about their progress so far this year and whether they felt they had grown. Layne from 8B explains one of her greatest areas of improvement this year as being her ability to write essays in English “I’m using more of a structure now and my writing is more fluent. My teacher checks my work and my CAT scores also reflect the improvement I’ve made”. Rakshita from 7F talked about the importance of challenging yourself and sharing your achievements as a learner "I asked my teacher Ethan about attempting extension work in Science and he encouraged me to keep working at a higher level. I got the extension booklet today which made me really happy- I just went down to the office and called my Mum!".

 

Turker and Troi from 7B were keen to chat about their improvement in Maths this term. Turker said that last year he was "really bad at fractions" but believes this year he is much better. Both students stated that their teacher Jacque has made all the difference "She listens to us, gives us lots of help in different ways and she is really supportive". They believe that their improved results this term will keep them motivated and working into Term 4. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NAPLAN

Very soon our Year 7 students and their families will be receiving NAPLAN results from all tests taken in May this year. As the NAPLAN website states: 

 

“It is important to remember that NAPLAN is not about passing or failing, but about assessing learning progress. At the classroom level, it is one of a number of important tools used by teachers to measure student progress.” 

 

We encourage you to look over the results with your children as an opportunity to open up conversation about their learning progress so far in Year 7. To assist, we have provided some helpful guiding questions below:

 

Reading test

  • How did you feel about this part of the test?
  • Did you read anything in the NAPLAN magazine that interested you? What did you find challenging?
  • What books have you read this year at school?
  • Do you think your reading skills have improved since NAPLAN? How do you know?

 

Writing test (Narrative/Creative writing)

  • What did you have to write about?
  • How did you come up with ideas?
  • What were you proud of?
  • What do you think you could improve on?
  • What kind of writing do you enjoy doing in class?

 

Numeracy

  • How did you feel about completing the Numeracy tests?
  • What do you think your strengths were on this test?
  • What are you working to improve in your Maths class? If you need more help, what ca you do?
  • What other subjects at school, other than Maths, require you to use your numeracy skills?

I asked Rakshita how she felt about receiving her NAPLAN results. "I honestly don't care" she said "I know the level I was on then was average. If was to do it now I already know [the results] would be better. Even if my scores are bad at least I know what I need to work on"

 

In Term 4, our teachers will begin analysing the NAPLAN data to determine how to best plan for and support student learning at ECSC moving forward. 

 

Parents can find out how to read the NAPLAN report for their child here:

https://nap.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/individual-student-reports-faqs.pdf?sfvrsn=2