Learning and Teaching Update

Teaching & Learning

As I walk through the learning spaces, I realise how immersed our students are in their learning, how stimulating the lessons are and the many opportunities that students have through the school day to be successful. 

Our teachers are constantly learning new ways to engage students in their learning. As a staff, we have a Professional Learning Plan for the year that ensures that we honour the goals of our Annual Action Plan and Strategic Plan for school improvement. 

This year our teachers are having Professional Learning around using the High Impact Teaching Strategies. When teachers work together to improve their practice, students learn more. This simple yet powerful idea is at the heart of effective schools. Collaboration builds collective responsibility for constantly improving teaching practice and so student learning. The challenge for teachers and schools is to develop a shared understanding of what excellent practice looks like. While it will not look exactly the same in every classroom, there are some instructional practices that evidence suggests work well in most. These High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS) have been brought together to support the thousands of increasingly collaborative and evidence-based conversations taking place between teachers in schools each day. These strategies provide teachers and teams with opportunities to observe, reflect on and improve a range of fundamental classroom practices. 

This term our staff have been working on two HIT strategies which are Setting Goals and Structuring Lessons. 

Setting Goals - All teachers at St Anthony’s use Learning Intentions with goals that clarify what success looks like. Lesson goals always explain what students need to understand, and what they must be able to do. This helps the teacher to plan learning activities, and helps students understand what is required.

Structuring Lessons - Our teachers plan lessons together and clearly map the teaching and learning that occurs in class. Sound lesson structures benefit students as they reinforce routines and build on learning through specific steps and activities. They optimise learning time in the classroom by ensuring smooth transitions. Our teachers plan collaboratively to ensure a sequence of teaching and learning activities that stimulates and maintains engagement by linking lesson and unit learning.

As you can see, our Teachers engage in professional learning to stimulate their thinking and professional knowledge and to ensure that their practice is critically informed and current. 

When a wide range of high-quality, sustained professional learning experiences are undertaken, teachers are more likely to inspire pupils and provide high-quality teaching and learning experiences, enabling learners to achieve their best.

Glennis Kerr

Teaching & Learning Leader