To ensure high-quality teaching and improve the achievement of Patricks Road State School students, we focus on the following five priorities in the school and classrooms:
1. Unrelenting focus on improvement
2. A shared commitment to core priorities
3. Quality curriculum and planning to improve learning
4. Teaching focused on the achievement of every student
5. Monitoring student progress and responding to learning needs.
It is essential to maintain an unwavering focus on improving the achievement of every student. I acknowledge the dedication and focus on teaching and learning and am convinced that Patricks Road State School is firmly on a path towards improving the achievement of every student.
At Patricks Road State School the teachers work very hard towards mastering the four broad characteristics of highly effective teaching which are summarised briefly here:
High Expectations
Highly effective teachers create classroom environments in which all students are expected to learn successfully. They are driven by the belief that it is imperative to develop students own beliefs in their abilities to learn successfully and work to promote students' understandings of the relationship between effort and success.
Deep Knowledge
Highly effective teachers have a deep understanding of the subjects they teach and how students learn those subjects. They are aware of common student misunderstandings and errors and know how to diagnose and address obstacles to further learning.
Targeted Teaching
Highly effective teachers establish where students are up to in their learning and then direct their teaching to student needs and readiness. The teachers work to ensure that all students are appropriately engaged, challenged and extended, including high-achieving students who already are working well beyond grade expectations.
Continuous Monitoring
Highly effective teachers provide continuous feedback to learning. They continually monitor the progress of individual students to support further learning.
Planning
Our teachers plan explicit units of work each term with the Head of Curriculum, based on the Australian Curriculum around
• Reading and comprehension
• Writing – spelling, grammar, punctuation etc
• Mathematics – number and algebra, measurement and geometry, statistics and probability and problem solving
• Science
• HASS
The other curriculum areas are also planned to be meaningful and purposeful.
Our NAPLAN results are consistently above the State and National benchmarks and will be enhanced due to this explicit focus on the English and Maths and exposure to The Arts, sport, ICT and technologies.
Our school also employs a Lilteracy Coach to assist teachers to improve their pedagogy, particularly in the teaching of Reading and Writing.