Principal Team Editorial
College Tours
Tours for prospective students and their families began this week. It’s always enjoyable to show people around and talk about what we have to offer at Wantirna College. There is plenty to talk about and there is plenty for us as a school community to be proud of.
Please click here for College Tour bookings.
Developmental Assessment
This week, Assistant Principals Carrie Wallis and Natalie Manser, joined Associate Professor Mark Rickinson, for a presentation at Monash University’s Q Project on “Using research well to drive improvement in schools.” Carrie and Natalie shared our journey, passion and commitment in moving to a Developmental Assessment approach to learning, and the influence it is having on improving outcomes across our school. It reinforces that our approach is not just based on “gut feel”, but strongly influenced by evidence-based practice.
We focus on evidence before inference, and growth over grades, not just because we want to “try” something different, but because we know that it works, and that there is plenty of reputable evidence from educational research that reinforces that our students will benefit.
Leading the tours this week, I explained my strongly held belief that this year, parents of our school community will have access to more learning and school data in real time, than any other parents in the country!
It’s a big statement, but one that I am confident we can deliver. The Maestro platform that we have pioneered with Analytics for Schools will give parents up-to-date insights into student learning. It allows parents to understand what their children can do, what they can’t do and the next steps in their learning.
Bigger than that, the feedback in a Developmental Rubric breaks a unit of learning down into the discreet skills and knowledge that students are being taught, and need to demonstrate, in their learning. Students and parents can see the assessments from the teacher and they can understand what is required to demonstrate the next steps in their learning.
Students are also self-assessing and regulating their own learning, proactively chasing improvement by activating themselves to take on the next challenge.
We know that evidence-based practice emphasises the importance of regular, quality and specific feedback to students for learning to flourish. The same can be said if we want to engage parents to also play an influential role when it comes to improving learning outcomes.
For parents to facilitate learning we need to give them the data and tools to understand where their child is at and what comes next. Giving parents grades and/or comments that tell you nothing, twice a year, can’t be our benchmark, not just at this school but in our system. Parent’s want to help and want to play a proactive role in supporting the work of the teacher and improving learning, and we as a school have not been effective at giving parents the tools they need. That changes this year.
Employment Opportunities
We currently have two non-teaching employment opportunities at Wantirna College. Please click on the role you may be interested in to be directed to a full job description and to apply:
Kevin Murphy
Principal