Learning  

Dear Parents /Guardians,

Arguably, the middle of Term 3 is the most challenging time of the school year.  Assessment begins to occur in earnest and the cold winter months make the journey to school harder.  This feeling is, undoubtedly, more acute this year, with a complete return to onsite learning.  There has been a real momentum shift this year.  While this change is a very welcome one, the change of pace takes some getting used to for both students and staff.

In recent weeks, the subject selection process has required students to reflect on their plans for next year. I would hope that this opportunity to look ahead will galvanize students to embrace the challenges of this term as a means to move forward in their learning.   

Anxiety and Learning 

You will notice that in this week’s newsletter, Mr Sam Di Camillo shared a powerful blog post providing strategies for how to help a child suffering from anxiety.  Here at Academy, we are acutely aware that a student who is in poor mental health and feeling vulnerable is not in an optimal state for learning and flourishing.   

Armed with this knowledge, the staff here at Academy, are also working on strategies to support vulnerable students in the classroom, extending on the support that you are offering your daughters at home.  Our staff have been working for the past two years with Dr Jared Cooney Horvath, an expert in the field of educational neuroscience.  His work reinforces the importance of prioritizing the creation of a safe space in the classroom.  A psychological safe environment allows students to develop the robustness to take on the challenge of learning, and that is what we aim to do here. 

Parent Teacher Interviews 

Thank you to all families for engaging in Parent Teacher interviews for Semester 2.   You play an invaluable role in your daughter’s learning disposition, particularly in your capacity to encourage them to persevere in the face of challenge.  The College values your support and feedback.  In the event that you have been unable to speak to teachers during these scheduled interviews, you are always welcome to email teachers to talk about your daughter’s progress. 

Pedagogy Team Teacher experience

After 2 years of remotely attending EduTECH  Ms Annette Williams, Mr Eric Chan and Ms Kate Jones were able to attend in person. 

Richard Culatta from the International Society for Technology in Education discusses rethinking our relationship with technology in the post – COVID world with a focus on how we can connect and engage people to become amazing humans in the digital world. He talked about the need for students to practise their skills with technology and the need to expand our digital palate and how technology is a tool to be used to solve important problems and help each other.

Mark Sparvell, the Director or Microsoft Education, talked about schools being places where society itself is created and recreated. He spoke about the need for students to be able to build on basic skills including social and emotional skills. He also discussed the need for students to develop emotional intelligence and how technology can help to develop and make strengths stronger. He mentioned that adults smile or laugh about 15 times per day whereas children smile or laugh about 400 times per day. I think there is a definite message there that adults need to smile and laugh more.

Each teacher attended a variety of sessions with inspirational ideas; Ms Jones attended some sessions with Grok Academy, whose software we utilize at Academy in Digital Technology classes. Mr Chan heard about the changing face of pedagogy and how students learn in today’s technology enabled world. MS Williams attended a variety of sessions including an interview with Niesh Patel on entrepreneurship and building an EdTech Unicorn. 

We hope to incorporate many of the STEM focused pedagogies showcased at the conference, into Academy learning. Take a look at the video on this page for a quick introduction into this exciting, developing space.

Ms Annette Williams

Pedagogy Team 

Best wishes for the weeks ahead.

Ms Fiona Lennon

Deputy Principal, Learning & Teaching