Over the last semester staff at the College have been involved in two projects with the Association of Independent Schools of Western Australia (AISWA). Both projects involved learning about, implementing, and teaching their peers about High Impact Practices (or HIPS). Miss Deb Bruce and Miss Estelle Palmer have been working as a Year 3 team and Miss Aviana Francis, Ms Aimee Marais, Ms Trish Knoblich and Mrs Mariel Howard have been working as a Languages team.
The groups have met several times with leaders from AISWA, read several pieces of current research about how to improve student learning outcomes, completed online coursework, had their classes observed, listened to feedback and worked collaboratively together.
This week the teams presented some of their findings at our whole College professional learning event.
Staff have focused on making learning intentions and success criteria explicit and meaningful, as well as learning about cognitive load theory which helps us understand how the brain works.
Two individual teachers were chosen to be filmed by AISWA as their classroom practice is considered to be outstanding. The films will be shared with other teachers in WA modelling best practice. It is with great joy that I share the success of these projects with you and commend exemplary collaboration and diligence.
We are grateful to AISWA for the opportunity to participate in these two projects.
For more information on HIPS (or HITS as it is known in other parts of Australia, please see this link).
Mrs Christine Crump
Head of Pedagogy