Learning @MFG
Term 3 Parent-Teacher-Student Learning Conferences
Our Term 3 Parent-Teacher-Student Learning Conferences will be held on Tuesday 22nd August between 12pm and 7pm on the Main Campus of the College. There will be no classes in the morning. However, your child is expected to attend the Conference with you. Teachers will be having a short break between 2-2.20pm and a dinner break between 4.25-5.15pm and you will not be able to make a booking during these times.
MAKING A BOOKING ON COMPASS
BOOKINGS OPEN: Tuesday 15th August at 9am
BOOKINGS CLOSE: Monday 21st August at midnight
You can make a booking using Compass – go to the Community icon (the two people) and select Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences. Students cannot book interviews using their accounts.
During the next few weeks you will be emailed a list of our teachers and the rooms they will be in on the day. There is also a handout which explains how to make a booking on Compass, a list of where teachers are located and a map of the Main Campus. These documents are in the School Documentation section on Compass– go to the folder called ‘Parent-Student-Teacher Learning Conferences’.
Please be mindful that each Learning Conference goes for 10 minutes only. If you would like to arrange a more in-depth discussion with a particular teacher, then please make another appointment with that teacher.
We look forward to seeing you at this event and discussing your child’s progress, learning and goals. Please contact me at the College on 4243 0500 or at toussaint.damien.a@edumail.vic.gov if you have any questions.
Attitudes to School Survey 2017
This is the annual survey offered by the DET to find out what our students think of school. It helps schools in gaining an understanding of our students’ perceptions and experience of school.
Our preliminary results are in and about 70% of our students completed this online survey.
This year the questions are different and improved. We’ll be using our students’ responses to develop some student focus groups in Term 3 and zoom in on the areas that require some focus and improvement.
For example, our students responded, across all year levels, very positively to the prompt ‘My teachers give me feedback about my work’. This was very pleasing especially given we have had a whole school focus on feedback and improving the way we give feedback – in other words, our feedback practices.
However, our students did not respond so positively to the next prompt which was about the usefulness of that feedback. ‘The feedback that my teachers give helps me to understand how to improve’ received a less positive response. In fact, our Year 9 students who completed the survey didn’t feel that their teachers’ feedback helped them to understand how to improve.
So, we’ll form some focus groups at Year 9 (for example) and zoom in on this area and develop a clearer picture of how our students are feeling and what the kind of feedback they feel would be more useful and meaningful in terms of helping them to understand how to improve.
PATHWAYS EXPO AND STEAM MAKER PROGRAMS
While our Year 9 and 10 students were thinking about their future subject and pathway options at our annual ‘Subject and Pathways Expo’, our Year 7 and 8 students were at their creative best on Tuesday 18th July.
Angel Patri, an Italian teacher and educator, once said in 1917 that ‘Playrooms and games, animals and plants, wood and nails must take their
place side-by-side with books and words.’
This was our third annual ‘Invent to Learn’ day, underpinned by two important ideas – ‘hard fun’ and collaboration. This year, we had a STEAM focus (Science Technology Engineering and Maths) and this was weaved into each challenge.Our Year 7 students had a whole day to create an educational board game for children and many students incorporated the use of LED lights and electrical circuits to have a functional buzzer as part of their game.
Our Year 8 students used the prompt below to work collaboratively with a group, and using the resources available, to create something that showed their group’s thinking about the prompt.
The future of learning and schools
Prompt: Schools and learning will be radically different in 20 years and beyond.
What do you think the future of learning and schools will look like, sound like, feel like, be like?
Success criteria:
We will be successful if we can:
- Work together as a team and involve each team member in all parts of the design process
- Use each stage of the design process
- Document and make our thinking visible using our ‘Make, Create and Invent’ workbook
- Be smart and thoughtful about how we use the available resources
- Incorporate the use of LED lights
Year 8 Task:
Create something that represents your group’s thinking about the prompt – the future of learning and schools.
Your group can use the available resources, including LED lights, to create your representation. Your creation will be shared with students across the school and at an assembly.
First you’ll need to decide think about what the future of learning and schools might look like. Here are some questions to consider:
- What will schools stop doing and start doing in the future?
- In what ways will classrooms be different?
- How will mobile technologies continue to change learning and teaching?
- What impact will Virtual Reality have on learning and schools?
- What will the role of teachers be in the future?
- What do you think will be the next big thing in education?
Subject Selection and Pathways Process 2017
This the Pathways and Subject selection process for students has begun and runs for 5 weeks. At the end of last term all students participated in an assembly to outline the subject selection process. Each student has a booklet which further details the process and timeline for them. Please encourage your child to show you their booklet and have a conversation with them about their subject selection and pathway options and choices.
This year we are introducing Year 10 Pathways Mentoring Interviews in Term 3 starting on Tuesday 25th July. This will replace the annual Later Years Information Night for Parents/Carers. These interviews will involve interviews for all Year 10 Students and their parents over two days with a team of Pathways mentors.
All subject selections are due in by 9th August.
Interview with Carol Dweck
Inspired early on in her life by how different people treat the challenges they face, Carol Dweck has devoted her career to mining for deep insights that help improve our understanding of intelligence. She rose to prominence in 2006 when her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success garnered critical acclaim. Here’s an interview with Dweck at EduTECH in June, following her presentation entitled Growth Mindset - Culture and Strategy. Here, she shares her insights.
Change for Music, Arts and Technology at Year 7 in 2018 & 2019
In 2016 with the introduction of the Victorian Curriculum our School’s Curriculum Committee agreed that we would expose our students to the breadth of curriculum to expose them to a range of subjects. Then in years 9 & 10 we would aim to provide our students with more choice. It was agreed that the school would move to the following model in 2017: 2 units of Arts and 2 units of Technology in 2017 – all different subjects to gain breadth (choice to be up to the Learning Areas).
Due to interim changes and to ensure students were not missing out on different subjects in 2017 we ran with this model:
This year, as a result of not doing music in year 7, there was in impact on the Instrumental Music Program. After discussion between Technology and The Arts Learning Areas the following proposal was presented to and ratified by our Leadership Team. The following structures will run in 2018 and 2019.
Damien Toussaint, Assistant Principal, Learning and Teaching