We pride ourselves in teaching students how to learn and what to do when they get stuck. Our students know that learning is meant to be challenging and that we have to ‘go through hard before we get to easy’. We encourage students to say what they are finding difficult and to share strategies for overcoming tricky situations when they are stuck. We have developed learner dispositions that support this and are integrated across all learning. Our five learner dispositions (attitudes or characteristics that we believe good learners show) are Self-Regulator, Thinker, Collaborator, Innovator, and Challenge Taker. The learner dispositions are an essential part of becoming a successful learner.
We want the learning to be visible to our students so that they are partners in the learning process. Students know what and why they are learning and they co-construct what success looks like for each learning situation. They are taught the skills of self-review and evaluation so that they can proactively advance their own learning. This requires students to know where they are in their learning, where they need to be next and how they will get there using the most efficient strategies and tools. We expect students to articulate their learning clearly. A sign of our success as a school is how confidently students talk about learning, assessment, progress and goals at student led conferences.
Making learning visible for our students is a deliberate choice of pedagogy and philosophy. It has developed from a wide range of research and theory that is proven to make a positive difference to student learning. By making learning, assessment and progress visible we empower students, families and teachers.
Because we believe our students deserve the very best we are constantly reviewing what we do and how we do it. We are making changes to the school to ensure that we are providing authentic, collaborative educational experiences for all our learners. Learning environments are being altered to enable collaborative learning practices as well as being well resourced with modern technologies. We know that the physical space and resources only have an impact if we have the best staff to deliver the philosophy. We are committed to, and take pride in, selecting the right staff who can make our vision happen for our students.