Primary News

Dear Families,

I visited a few classrooms this week and I saw lots of good examples of student-centered learning. Student-centered learning involves methods of teaching that shift the focus of instruction from the teacher to the student, that are intended to address their distinct learning needs, interests, aspirations, or cultural backgrounds. Student-centered learning aims at engaging students in their own success and at incorporating their interests and skills into the learning process. It is personalized, competency-based, and happens anytime and anywhere. In a student-centered classroom students have some opportunity to work at their own pace and explore their own interests; there is a mixture of individual, small and large group work; students know not only what they are learning but also why. Students are doing the bulk of the work and the teacher acts as a facilitator, and there are multiple forms of assessment, feedback and demonstrations of learning.

One example that I would like to bring to your attention is the Year 2 class doing some work on reading the time. Reading the time from an analogue clock involves spatial awareness, being able to differentiate between up and down, right and left, before and after; it also implies an ability to skip count by 5s and to add and subtract minutes and hours. Time is an abstract concept that can be tricky for many students but if the teacher is using different teaching methodologies, and students are actively engaged and have an element of choice in the classroom activities, then learning to tell the time becomes much easier, just like a game! And while the students are 'playing', the teacher can assess what they know and plan for future consolidation if needed.

Finally, just a reminder that if you have special dietary reasons for sending packed lunch to school, snacks such as crisps and chocolate are not allowed. This is because other children do not have access to such items at school.

Enjoy your weekend.

Sara Borgarelli

Deputy Principal (Primary School)