APA News

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to 2022!!  It has been fantastic to see all of the St Saviour's Primary Learners back at school this week.

During the Professional Deveolpment and Planning Days (prior to supervision weeks), all teachers at St Saviour's Primary participated in training relating to our Ignite Learning Project with Education Officer Catherine Kimmorley from Toowoomba Catholic Schools.  

One part of this training was a focus on the learning process and during this time the following questions were asked of the teachers:

What is learning? and How well do the students at St Saviour's Primary understand what learning is?

For your information, Professor Guy Claxton defines learning as:

“Mastering something new. First you don’t understand it or can’t do it; then wrestle with it, flounder intelligently, and begin to get some ideas about how to do it; and then consolidate, hone and broaden your competence through practice in varied settings and contexts.”

Of course, our teachers at St Saviour's are in the business of learning and are constantly introducing new concepts to your children, allowing them to struggle with this new idea and then guiding them to connect their ideas and understand the relationship between them.

Something that may be new to what your idea of learning should be is the idea of allowing students to struggle or 'flounder intelligently'.  Not suprisingly, a survey conducted last year of Years 4-6 students revealed that only 12.5% of students wanted to be challenged in their learning.  However, part of our job as educators is to help our learners realise that struggle and challenge is an important part of the learning process.  

Just a reminder that the St Saviour's Primary Learning Dispositions are there to help your child through this challenging part of learning.  Feel free to discuss these at home or use them at home when your child is learning something new and potentially in that 'struggle' phase.

Student Protection Contacts

The St Saviour's Primary School Protection Contacts are there to assist students, parents/care providers and those working in the school when concerns or disclosures
of abuse, harm or inappropriate behaviour towards students are brought to their notice. 

In 2022, you will see the below poster around the school to remind the students of who the St Saviour's Primary Student Protection Contacts are and  that there is always someone they can talk to if they are feeling unsafe.