Teaching & Learning News

Facilitated planning

You may have noticed that Therese made reference to facilitated planning in this week’s newsletter and might be wondering exactly what it is. Put simply, facilitated planning is regular, scheduled time for teaching teams and leaders to co-plan and co-design learning sequences, activities and experiences for students. 

At Our Lady’s, facilitated planning is a regular feature of our weekly routine, occurring across curriculum areas such as English, Religious Education, Maths, and Inquiry learning (which encompasses science, history, geography and in the higher year levels, economics and business, and civics and citizenship) and with individuals, level teams or as a whole school. We meet in teachers’ release times and after school, and as we plan for each new term, we participate in level planning days, such as the one scheduled for next Thursday. The Term Overviews that are sent home early each term are largely completed at this time, as staff consider the long term goals and direction for their classes, supported by leaders of the relevant areas.

We have a learner-centred approach to facilitated planning that considers:

• What we know about the students from formal and informal assessments, and from observations and interactions. This includes strengths, needs and the way that students learn best
• The Victorian Curriculum requirements at each year level
• What we want students to know or be able to do (Learning Intentions)
• How we will know if students have progressed (Success Criteria and/or assessments)

Facilitated planning builds the collective knowledge of teachers to enable them to effectively guide and support children through their learning journeys. Next term will certainly have its challenges as we navigate the possibility of further remote learning and hopefully the children’s return to school. The time we invest in planning for that will be well worth it to ensure the best outcomes for all our students.

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the last week of term.

Warm regards

Annie Facchinetti

Teaching & Learning Leader

annie.facchinette@olhceltham.catholic.edu.au