Semester Break
The Primary Staff wishes you all a very safe and restful break. Your support of the College and teachers this Semester and during Remote Learning has been nothing short of outstanding. Your positive comments, through the ‘Wellbeing check-in’, emails and phone calls, were well received and a confidence-boost for our hard-working teachers. In community and in partnership with you, the boys at St Augustine’s College are provided with role modelling promoting our core values. Thank you for allowing us to educate your sons, which is the highest compliment you can give.
Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews
Hopefully the recent Parent/Student/ Teacher Interviews allowed you the opportunity to discuss your sons’ progress so far this year and more importantly set goals for future learning. For learning goals to be effective they need to be beyond what the boys can do or understand, and this is what they will focus on next Semester.
The significance of setting aside time with your son to discuss his learning goals, his Semester 1 reports and finally suggestions and strategies to improve and move forward (feedforward) is an essential and integral component, if the boys are to become ‘owners’ of their own learning.
The ZOOM meetings from all accounts seem to be effective, allowing both parents to be present, even from different locations. Your feedback regarding this format would be very much appreciated and if you have the time you could forward that to either mcashman@saintaug.nsw.edu.au or twalsh@saintaug.nsw.edu.au. During the holidays, I would encourage all boys to set the goal of reading everyday and going over their times-tables. It is amazing how these two simple routines can ‘grow’ confidence through important habits and routines.
Curriculum Overview
The upcoming release of the NSW Curriculum Review lead by Professor Geoff Masters AO has been described as a once-in-a-generation review of the curriculum, the first of its kind in almost 30 years. The review titled, ‘Nurturing Wonder and Igniting Passion’ has a long-term focus of ‘providing every young person with knowledge, skills and attributes that will help them for a life time of learning, meaningful adult employment and effective future citizenship’. The findings of the review will allow teachers to focus on the basics and declutter a very cluttered and over-crowded curriculum. It will allow a more in-depth teaching of core ideas, allowing students more time to master the basics and opportunities to apply their learning in a range of contexts. Providing opportunities for students to build skills through student projects, problem-based activities, STEM projects and Special Interest projects is something that the Primary School has committed to for some time now.
The review goes on to reinforce the importance of providing opportunities to build students’ skills in knowledge application such as collaborating, communicating, using technologies and interpreting information/data. These core skills were central to the design and the purpose for the building of the Primary School some five years ago. Central to our thinking was the provision of agile and flexible learning spaces which allowed students to communicate, collaborate and to be creative in presenting their understanding.
It is reassuring to note that many of the recommendations put forward by the Curriculum Review are common place in the Primary School. Ensuring that those students who are struggling to keep up are identified and supported through explicit smaller group instruction before progressing to the next level is the philosophy behind the Learning Enhancement Program. Those students identified as high achievers are continually challenged by programs and a curriculum which is differentiated to include Higher Order thinking skills, student ownership and choice. The Primary School at St Augustine’s not only focuses on the basics, it also provides opportunities which promote excellence academically, pastorally, spiritually, creatively and in sporting and co-curricular pursuits. This wholistic approach ensures that boys feel known, safe and valued, very much at the core of an Augustinian education.
Summation
After spending some time reading through this review, it seems the onus on teachers to individually plan learning experiences for 28 students, mark them, provide feedback and feedforward, map their growth ready for the next progression level activity, places a tremendous layer of responsibility on them. Managing this workload will be the challenge in the future, as will be maintaing the importance of the Creative and Practical Arts to ensure a balanced and equitable curriculum.
Primary School Teachers
The following quote by William Ward best sums up the teachers in the Primary School at St Augustine’s…
‘the mediocre teacher tells, the good teacher explains, the superior teacher demonstrates, and the great teacher inspires’
In James, John, Rose, Karen, Aidan, Andrew and Patrick we have inspirational teachers. Not only were they outstanding during the enforced Remote Learning period, they continue to keep the boys engaged in meaningful, worthwhile and fun activities.
Virtual Debating Team
Congratulations to our Primary School Debating team, comprising Paddy, Nick, Lewis, Sebastian and Ben for another hard-fought win last Friday. The team, coached by John O’Brien are excellent debaters, with victories over Claremont College and St Ives North. The Primary School Intraschool Debating Competition will commence next term with all boys participating in class then grade debates. This whole school approach is predicated on the belief that all boys need to be effective, confident and successful communicators, both written and in word.
Principal’s Poetry Competition Winners
Last Thursday 18 June, the four finalists from the Primary School had the opportunity to present their poems to College Principal, Jonathan Byrne as part of the annual Principal’s Poetry Competition. This year the themes were either Humility or Remote Learning and the four finalists presented poems boasting imagery, similes, personification and mature themes and rhyming patterns.
The finalist were Nicholas Christou, Matthew Bates, Charles Reed and Liam Kelly. All boys should be commended for reading their poems in front of a panel comprising of Head and Assistant Head of English, College Principal and myself. After much deliberation the winner of the Principal’s Poetry Competition for 2020 in the Primary School was Nicholas Christou with Matthew Bates as runner-up.
