Day 1- Abbie Matthews

St Rita's is a relative new school, built in 1993, starting with only 92 students. It has now grown to around 700 students from Prep to Year 7.

The school has many different zones with blocks of rooms spread over a large, beautiful grounds. There are multiple play areas which appears to have been carefully designed based on practicality as well as the needs of the students. The Church is onsite, where it is easily accessible.

The first structure which was very different within the school was the idea of parallel leadership and collaborative working spaces. The administration area is a very open space where the Principal/APA and APRE share and work together collaboratively. The concept of not having their own individual offices/spaces was a new and refreshing idea which appears to work very well within the school.

Anne gave us an overview of "St Rita's Bullseye" which outlines their Framework for Teaching and Learning.  I will post a visual representation of this later in the week.  Their "Diamond Nine" was discussed which is their essentials for learning.
Anne also discussed the idea of 3 main areas for success: Personal Pedagogy, Authorities Pedagogy and School Wide Pedagogy. Effective teaching and learning occurs when all 3 of these areas are being used together/ not as a stand alone. (more information to come)

School Teams were discussed as an important part of the shared leadership experience. All teachers are part of a team which meets once a week during the afternoon session.  The release staff within the school are designated to the classes each afternoon so that the team can meet. (More to come during the week) 

The mural above states the School Wide Pedagogy plan of: Know More, Do More, Be More.

Within these 3 main areas there are a number of reflective questions. Throughout the term, there is a focus on one of the questions where all teachers and students are aware of the focus question as a reflection.

How are they using data to inform decision making?
(Year 6 & 7)
Within the Japanese lesson, visible learning intentions and success criteria was evident. 
It was displayed and clearly stated at the beginning of the lesson.
There was also a tracking system on the wall which stated levels 1-6 and the goals within each of those levels which needed to be achieved. Each term, students wrote as much as they knew about Japanese language on a piece of paper, including examples or words etc. They then added their piece of paper to the wall under the identified level according to their goal. This would then be updated each term to track progress along and the student could then see what they need to achieve to move to the next level. 


Today was a very positive start to the week. We all felt extremely comfortable within the school environment. I am looking forward to the many opportunities to share ideas and be involved within the classrooms and activities planned.