Over the last two weeks, students have been busy covering content that will set them up for success later in the term during the assessment period. Staff in the English, Humanities and Languages faculties have been drawing on a range of teaching strategies to help students draw on prior knowledge, learn new content, and consolidate skills. 

Students in Miss Champs’ classes have been working collaboratively to pool their shared knowledge, firstly recording their ideas, and then sharing their work in a classroom gallery walk.

In Ms Diesing’s Year 9 English class, students have used infographics to record and display their notes. This technique uses pictures, symbols, colour and words to record information - a technique that will benefit students as they progress into the senior phase of schooling.

Through student-centred learning, Ms Wellwood has uncovered some excellent teachers in the making. Students from Ms Wellwood’s classes have been taking turns in teaching their peers. This strategy empowers students to own their learning, consolidating knowledge and skills. It also gives other students the opportunity to learn from their peers, access one-on-one teacher support, and students are often more comfortable asking for help in a student-centred classroom.

Last week on assembly, Miss Champs also introduced an exciting opportunity for our students to participate in the ‘2021 Kid’s Cancer Write a book in a Day competition. The Write a Book in a Day competition is a team writing competition open to writers from Year 5 to adult. Books are written and illustrated by teams of up to 10 writers in a consecutive 12-hour period on one day. Each team is provided a unique set of parameters to write their story: two human characters, one non-human character, an issue, a setting and five random words. We have more than 30 keen writers and artists who expressed their interest in participating. We will take the first 30 students to return their forms. Permission forms are due back by Monday 9th August 2021.