Teaching and Learning Matters

NAPLAN 

Years 7 and 9 sat their NAPLAN exams during Week 3. Both year groups should be commended on the mature way that they approached their NAPLAN examinations. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the teaching staff involved, Ms Day, Mrs Dalton and the Diverse Learning team for their significant support that was provided. We look forward to being able to analyse the results in the coming months, and use this to support the learning of our students. 

Year 7 Writing Pilot 

Ecree is an online writing program that provides real time feedback as students write a response to a question. Mr Cummins and Mrs Robinson Dawe and their Year 7 Embark classes are currently trialing the program, with the assistance of 2 presenters from the Elevate organisation. They have undertaken a pre-test and the first of two seminars on writing a persuasive text on the question “Does having more money make you happy?” After this, the boys will sit a post-test and have access to the software to get feedback on their writing for the remainder of the year. The trial will be evaluated over the course of the year to see if the College invests further in this resource. 

Inquiry Based Learning Projects 

2 projects are currently running to trial Inquiry Based Learning in our classrooms. The first is a Western Sydney University project, sponsored by the Sydney Metro. Mr D’Souza and Mrs Shankar are working on an Embark unit, and Mr Mackinnon and Mr Gerlach are creating a Year 7 PDHPE unit. Both these units will focus on inquiry learning surrounding the development of the Sydney. The units will be trialed in Term 3 of this year. 

The second project is called Generation STEM and is run by Penrith City Council. Mr Zammit, Mrs Walsh, Mr Chapman and Ms Lui are working on an integrated unit of work to be taught in Term 4. The focus of this project will be on the measurement and mitigation of the climate impacts on the Penrith region.