From the Deputy Principal - David Hodges

Hello Families

Each week our teaching staff meet to collaboratively work and learn on one, or more, core areas of effective teaching. Those being Curriculum (what we teach), Pedagogy (how we teach it) and Assessment and Feedback (how we move the learning forward).

At our Week 2 curriculum meeting, staff engaged in Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) in a curriculum mapping activity. Curriculum mapping is a strategic design and review process. It is a vital part of our work as it ensures a guaranteed and viable curriculum is in place for all students at our school.

The purpose of the session was to ensure all year levels and subject areas are consistent in their teaching of the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP) curriculum framework and the Australian Curriculum (AC). Our PLTs mapped the authentic links between each curriculum and mapped the remaining AC topics to be covered. The conversations were rigorous, and our PLTs demonstrated that learning grows from working in teams.

Over the first few weeks of the year, each of our teachers completes a range of assessments to gather information about your child/ren, to ensure we know our students and can personalise the learning to meet their needs.

One of these assessments is the Progressive Achievement Test (PAT), which is a series of online tests each student from Year 1-6 will sit over the next few weeks. The tests provide immediate results to the teacher, and important beginning of the year data, to help guide our teaching instruction and understand the different needs of each learner at our school.

If you would like to know more about PAT testing, or have any other questions, please send me an email at dhodges@standrews.sa.edu.au

David Hodges
Deputy Principal