Teaching and Learning News
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Some great things are happening in Teaching and Learning to kick us off in Term 3! In other news, we are entering my favourite time of the year for teaching and learning! By Term 3, classroom routines have settled, students know their teachers and their teachers know them and it is by far the best term to knuckle down and get so much quality learning done. I always saw the most growth in my students in Term 3!
Pupil Free Day
On Monday the teachers met for a day of planning and collaboration. The morning began with a look at each year level’s reading results. In their year level teams, teachers looked at the greatest area of need and decided on the best direction for their teaching this term. Some year levels are looking and segmenting and blending, others are focussing on vocabulary etc. This was a great opportunity for teachers to use the data to plan their lessons in a way that targets exactly what the students need. Each year level team will be sharing how their students have progressed in this area at a staff meeting later in the term.
In the middle session we used the revised version 9 ACARA curriculum to plan out units of work for 2024 for English. We are now well underway for implementation of the revised curriculum in 2024 for Maths, English and HASS. We have a twilight session this term where we will look at the changes in the HASS curriculum so that we can be ready to teach it in 2024.
Learner Qualities
We are continuing to make our learner qualities part of our everyday language here at SSPS. This Term, we want to hear from the students at assembly and how they use them in their classroom to enhance their learning and get out of the learning pit! Here is the proposed timetable for the presentations (subject to change) – come along if you can!
Week 3 – Year 6
Week 4 – Year 1
Week 5 – Year 5
Week 6 - Prep
Week 7 – Year 4
Week 8 – Year 3
Week 9 – Year 2
Teacher Coaching
We have had great success with our Coaching Cycles for the first Semester. Our impact coaches have now all had experience running a coaching cycle with a teaching staff member and this term they will each work with a new teacher. Through the coaching cycles we’ve completed so far, we’ve seen so many positives come out of the experience, some examples are:
- Improved student achievement in a specific focus area based on the needs of the students
- Teachers transferring learnt skills across many subject areas, extending their impact
- Increased teacher confidence with a high impact teaching strategies
- Opportunities to share amongst colleagues in a professional conversation
Have a great week!
Warm Regards
Nicarla Prentice (Acting APA)
