We were met this morning by the AP Elizabeth Ovens and were warmly greeted and welcomed by staff and students as we had a tour around the school. St Joseph's Catholic Primary School has approximately 450 students and they pride themselves in being a Centre of Learning Excellence.
The weekly assembly is held on a Monday morning and is run by Year Six student leaders. The students at St Joseph's are involved in a wide range of activities throughout the school day including band, clubs and a student prayer group.
Today we spent the first part of our day within the Kindergarten learning spaces and the last session in Year Six.
How do you see the school’s educational and faith vision and mission informing and shaping daily practice?
The school motto is 'Love One Another'.
Daily practice at St Joseph's is shaped by a vision that enshrines Gospel values and the relevance of faith to life within a community of believers. The school shares in the evangelising mission of the Church.
This was made very evident first thing this morning with the school SPAR program. A teacher is employed by the school to link the parish with the school community. This teacher runs a number of different options for parents to develop positive partnerships and create a sense of belonging with the parish community. The SPAR sessions are held weekly and provide parents with an opportunity to spend time praying and reflecting. They also include an activity for pre school age children that may be there.
This was made very evident first thing this morning with the school SPAR program. A teacher is employed by the school to link the parish with the school community. This teacher runs a number of different options for parents to develop positive partnerships and create a sense of belonging with the parish community. The SPAR sessions are held weekly and provide parents with an opportunity to spend time praying and reflecting. They also include an activity for pre school age children that may be there.
Can you see elements of our own Contemporary Learning Framework at play in this school’s practice?
Pedagogy designed to empower the learner: This element was seen in two areas of learning.
-Kindergarten: students use iPads to capture evidence of their own learning with photos on a daily basis in Maths. Using the WordPress app the photos are automatically uploaded to the gallery on the class blog.
-Year Six: Inquiry based learning. Students are given a critical question to analyse and explore in HSIE and then work collaboratively to devise further learning thus making the learning purposeful and engaging. They were then asked to score themselves out of ten on how collaborative they were and give themselves 'next steps' for learning.
Range of ICT/digital devices in the learning spaces.
Our observations today largely took place in the Early Stage 1 classroom. Interactive Teaching technology in the classroom included
- SMART boards
- iPads (apps used for phonics and literacy included PicCollage, Endless Reader and Story Kit)
- desktops in the library space (basic computing skills taught during library time by teacher librarian)
- SMART boards
- iPads (apps used for phonics and literacy included PicCollage, Endless Reader and Story Kit)
- desktops in the library space (basic computing skills taught during library time by teacher librarian)
The SMART board was used as part of the explicit teaching phase and for demonstration.
Dear Anne Maree and Prue
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post. What things did you see today that you can take back to your own schools and where are you doing well? It's a wonderful experience being in a different school setting and having the time to reflect on your own situation. Enjoy your discussions.
Paul
Paul one thing that I saw today that I found very impressive was Kindergarten teachers working together in an action research project to improve learning outcomes in Maths. They use PIPS (performance indicators in primary schools) from the University of Western Australia to capture quantitative data based on what students know and can do prior to starting school and at the end of the first year of school. They as part of this research, engage with five other hub schools and the CSO question and examine classroom practice. It is something I know both Prue and I would love to look at further.
DeleteOne thing I take away that we do well is use Best Start and the Early Learning Plan to differentiate and plot learning and teaching.
Hi Prue. Looks like you enjoyed your first day. Any examples of learning intentions and success criteria around the school?
ReplyDeleteI'm very interested to know if the school is familiar with the concept of PLCs. How do their teachers work together?
Year 1 are JUST surviving without you ;).
Have fun. Liz
Hi Anne Maree, looks like your head should be very full of new learnings. Can you hunt and harvest some images of the goal setting and more particularly the children's reflections on these or similar to share? Love the glass and building learning walls. looking forward to tomorrow's notes
ReplyDeleteHi Ann sorry I have nothing to share at this stage but will keep looking.
DeleteHi Anne-Maree, hope you are enjoying your time at St Joseph's. Just wondering if the classrooms are open? How many children/teachers are in the one space? If they are open what classroom management strategies (or data collecting strategies) do they use to ensure learning is happening with each individual?
ReplyDeleteThanks Alanna
Hi Alanna we are having a wonderful time exploring at St Joseph's.
Delete- there are no open classroom spaces largely due to the design of the school. The kindergarten classes have a sliding door arrangement between them but the classes operate quite independently. The teachers do however collaborate closely and plan together.
- the school is two stream and their is approximately 34 students in every class with one teacher and a full time assistant in Kinder four and a half days a week
- assessment practices like ours include pre and post activities with paper versions, checklists and images. One great thing the kids do here is there is an iPad at every table cluster and when the kids use manipulatives to demonstrate their learning they capture an image through an app called word press. It would be great to see that linked to something like a QR code where the kids could make their thinking visible by explaining their learning as part of the process. They also colour code assessments with green for got it, yellow for working towards and red for not yet. It is a nice quick way to see where the problems are.
- there is no data displayed in the school
Hi Anne-Maree,
DeleteI love the idea of students using the iPads to record their learning when using manipulatives and I love your idea of the students being able to explain their learning. I'm sure you'll have that happenning back at school next term :-))
Hi Anne-Maree, Looks like you are enjoying yourself at St Joseph's. Just wondering if the classrooms are open? If so, how many children/teachers do they have in the one learning space? Also, what classroom management strategies and data collecting tools do they use to ensure all children are learning? If you can go further and find out how they use the data or display it that would be great.
ReplyDeleteThanks Alanna
PS. Kinder are doing great!
Hi Prue,
ReplyDeleteYear 1 are doing well (thanks Liz!) but missing you!
The app for sharing learning in Kinder sounds like it could work well for us. Can't wait to find out what else we can incorporate into our own practice. I am also keen to find out about their use of Learning Intentions and Success Criteria.
Toni
I am sure they are doing great they are in wonderful hands xx
ReplyDeleteHello Toni, lots of things to think about and share. I'm keen to try this WordPress blog/app in Year One. It gives the kids ownership of documenting their own learning.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your reply.
Prue :)