Day 2 - St Rita's A whole Group Reflection

Today we have decided to post as a whole group and then where necessary post individual ideas. 

In  Year 4 and 5 there is a 1:1 laptop program that allows the students to take home the laptops for learning purposes. We spent a session with year 4 groups. There is a common understanding with students that '45' which means the students move their screens to 45° and look at the teacher. ICT user expectations are very simple and clear. They use the acronym SIR S =Is it safe?, I= is it inspiring?, R= is it respectful? Teachers refer to this when addressing any issues with students use of the laptops. There were a variety of apps and web tools used. This is a really simple, easily understood and clear way of addressing user responsibilities. 

SIR posters have been seen in every classroom so far

Some of the tools we saw used today include: Padlet, Powtoon, Sunshine Online, Google Docs, Google Forms, Tagexdo and Answer Garden. Some of these tools are available as apps through our Google Drives. The school runs off cloud based storage which is really effective. The students all have Google accounts and this is used for many collaborative tasks.

The learning spaces allow a lot of flexibility. Students were allow to sit where ever they want but there is a lot of discussion around making good choices about who are you working with. The modular furniture is that it allows for flexibility,  students being able to move through sessions and choices about where they are work. The design of the tables, being circular with the cut out allows for greater variety in organisation, some of the stools were were rounded on the bottom meaning the children could rock or move. This would be fantastic for ASD kids giving them a chance to move.

These tables are on wheels and are able to be adjusted. The stool has a rounded bottom. 

Differentiation today we noticed that for some teachers the expectation that not all tasks were finished. The lanyards with red, yellow and green paddles allow students to show their understanding of a task or concepts.

These paddles were on lanyards, which each child had with them to indicate their understanding. 

The values were evident in HPE where Dan discussed the focus question for the week with the Prep class in relation to how the can be the best they can be in that class. It fantastic listening to the answers coming from the preps. The mission and values seem ingrained with even the preps being able to articulate ideas round their goals.

Learning intentions are evident in most classrooms. The ST RITA rules and behaviour and attitudes acronym is present in all spaces. This is displayed in different ways but all focused on this statement.

We visited The Drop In Zone. Where ASD children are welcome to visit at lunch times for some refuge. They are encouraged to bring a friend to play board games.

In the afternoon we attended the Curriculum Team meeting with four teachers from Prep to Yr 5 and Shane (Assistant Principal Admin). The discussion was mainly around an upcoming meeting called CTJ (which means Consistency Teacher Judgement) meeting. The school meets with four other schools in the area and grade levels sit together and moderate 2 or 3 work samples from each teacher. These meetings occur to ensure consistency of marking. The focus for the upcoming meeting is going to be consistency in reading levels compared with the Australian Curriculum standards. In our view this team is a PLT they are working together to ensure that all curriculum issues are addressed. This team also reflects the shared leadership vision of the school. We also shared to how PLTs, LOPs and LOCs work within our schools. They were interested in how our PLTs operate and disseminate information.The discussions that occurred were very open and followed the agenda. All present had an opportunity to share. They were eager to hear about what we do. There was also a discussion about homework and how they have changed their approach to no homework based on research and the battle to change parent opinions.

Thanks again to the staff of St Rita's for making us feel so welcome.

Abbie, Amy, Jeanette and Vanessa