SENIOR SCHOOL

Teaching and Learning

Ms Judith Tolomeo - Director of Teaching and Learning

“The heart of education is education of the heart”

The College Strategic Plan comprises 4 Strategic Priority Areas, one being “A learning Centred College”. Within this priority area are 2 key focus areas. One of these key focus areas is “Teaching will be built on

collaborative, contemporary practices which will engage and inspire students, further developing them to be graduates ready to successfully take their place in a changing world”.

The College is committed to the professional development of all staff, ensuring staff continually undertake professional learning opportunities that will enrich their teaching practices and increase their teacher capacity. All staff are required to develop their own individual professional learning plan each year to support and guide their own professional development. The College is fortunate to have John De Courcy facilitating Professional Learning sessions for all middle leaders from both the Junior and Senior school campuses in 2022 and beyond. These sessions will look at “How should we see data”, where those involved in the sessions will explore ways in which data can be used. Most people may recognise the name John De Courcy as it is synonymous with HSC results and the analysis of such. John is a Mathematician and has been a Principal in a number of schools. He developed the “De Courcy” analysis for HSC results and data analysis many years ago, with all schools in NSW using this data set as part of their HSC results analysis for school improvement purposes. In April, all teaching staff from both the Junior and Senior School campuses gathered for a Professional Learning session, with John De Courcy engaged to facilitate. The Learning Intention for this meeting was that all staff would leave with an understanding that data is not just numbers, the need for a

common approach to data and that a learning gain focus is highly valuable. Too often, schools and the wider community focus on achievement data; Band 6’s in the HSC, NAPLAN ranks, state average comparisons. However, we recognise that it is better to focus on learning gain; how much has the student learned? Identification of those students underperforming to ensure support mechanisms are in place for student improvement. The second part of the meeting looked at “So what builds the learning?” In other words, what are the underpinnings of Learning Gain. Notably, there are several factors including: knowledge of subject; skills in writing, research, problem solving and social skills; as well as engagement, future focus, wellbeing, resilience, self-concept, and growth mindset.

So where to now? Staff spent time at the conclusion of the meeting to provide feedback for the sessions. Two areas were highlighted for future exploration with staff; • Resilience as an underpinning of achievement • The impact of collective efficacy

John De Courcy returned to the College in June to facilitate learning and leadership sessions with all Middle Leaders. The Learning Intention for these sessions was to explore ways in which data can be used to understand the value of and effectiveness of an inquiry approach and to understand how an enquiry approach can be used to engage other teachers. These sessions were aimed at building the capacity of middle leaders to lead future developments in areas across the College. Those involved were able to experience a common approach for interrogating data and committed to a growth-oriented approach to data within the school culture.

The College is fortunate to have a partnership with an educator such as John, as we continue to build the capacity of all our teaching staff to ensure student achievement is a priority. ”Nothing is more important for our society than the quality of teaching and learning in our schools” NESA

NSW is currently undergoing major changes to Curriculum, known as Curriculum Reform. This is the first Curriculum Review in 30 years. This reform is in response to the Geoff Masters review. There have been two public consultations along with engagement with education, parent, employer and community groups, and students. New English and Mathematics K–2 syllabuses have been released. These are the first syllabuses of the NSW Curriculum Reform. They were released on a new digital curriculum platform with implementation to begin in schools in 2022, then taught in all NSW schools from 2023.

NESA have prioritised the student voice in this reform, and so students at St Greg’s have had the opportunity to engage in and provide feedback about what they love to learn about. Students in the Junior School spent some time with their classroom teacher, exploring questions like “What are you curious about?”, “What would you like to learn?”, and “If you could be the teacher for the day, what would you want your students to learn?” Students in the senior school were also given an opportunity to provide feedback to NESA in relation to the NSW Curriculum Reform.