Between the Ocean and Estuary
The government primary school that I was placed for my final years practicum is situated on the coast, within the Peel district. The coastal community which surrounds this school is a mixture of low to high socio economic house holds, however most students attending this school are situated in low to middle socio economic households. The school caters for students from kindergarten to year seven, with the current enrolment around five hundred. The school buildings comprise of 4 blocks which consist of four classrooms each opening into a communal area, an art room, a library, a music room a specialist science lab, a LOTE room and a canteen and undercover area. The school is well resourced with an IWB in each classroom and playgrounds and is air-conditioned. The values of this school as stated in their prospectus are “ Respect, Resilience, Co-operation, Responsibility, Tolerance and Excellence.” The schools purpose is to provide a safe and caring learning environment that encourages all to fulfill their potential and contribute positively to society.
The school has input from the local community and many teachers on staff are members of local sporting clubs, prompting active participation within the community. The school is recognized in the local newspaper on a regular basis as being innovative and always willing to show their latest student and teacher achievements.
Currently the school is undergoing some big changes reflective of the past years NAPLAN results and they have made key changes to their literacy and numeracy programs thanks to a “National Grant for Literacy and Numeracy”, each teacher has been provided with a model and some specialist time to bring the operational plan into practice. Through the support of the Getting It Right Numeracy (GIRN) specialist, there are professional development sessions on explicit teaching of maths strategies and the expectation that the students will be taught these strategies and build upon them year after year, thus making it easier for teachers and students as they progress through the school. The school follows the gradual release of responsibility model; I do, we do, you do. As well as Madeline Hunters lesson Plan including the requirement of the “hook” to put the students into a receptive frame of mind at the beginning of each lesson.
At the beginning of term two, I experienced two weeks as a specialist teacher in the area of science and was able to lesson plan from year one to year seven. This provided me with many opportunities to trial different lesson formats with the same topic to the identical year level. I was able to see what worked with one group of students may not necessarily work with the other.
For the final Practicum I was placed in a year six class, consisting of eighteen boys and twelve girls. An Education Assistant was permanently attached to this class, as there is a student with special needs “Trauma”. This class had many low achieving students that needed constant attention with basic literacy and mathematical skills. There were 5 students who being at the top end of the scale needed to be extended. It soon became obvious that this class lacked some middle of the road students. It was what the mentor teacher called bottom heavy. Due to this, lessons had to be differentiated most times with a high extension and reliance on the EA for the lower students.
