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Teacher Planning and Accountabilities

Teachers must produce a written unit plan that provides the student with opportunity for the demonstration of learning outcomes specified in each curriculum organiser. The ‘rich culminating product’ provides a meaningful and ‘integrated’ means of demonstrating the outcomes. The specified ‘Rich Culminating Product’ may be varied from the one specified in the program in consultation with the Principal.

This facilitates generic assessment and reporting. A unit plan must be developed prior to commencement of the unit. The plan should be a ‘living’ document and may be modified and adapted to meet emerging needs or conditions. These unit plans are to be made available to the Principal and Deputy Principal as required.

Collaboration with colleagues at the unit planning stage is strongly suggested as a means of developing a common understanding of the curriculum organiser, related outcomes and the rich culminating product. Collaboration also facilitates consistent approaches to assessment and reporting.

Whilst the format is at the discretion of the teacher, the unit plan must contain the following elements:

• Curriculum Organiser

• Rich Culminating Product to be demonstrated

• List of outcomes to be demonstrated

• An analysis of the above ie what does the student need to know and be able to do

• A strategy to develop the students ability to know and do

• An assessment plan

• A plan for the incorporation of productive pedagogy

• Task specification statement for students and parents ie tasks, assessment standards and criteria

• Strategies that take account of the developmental needs of the individual student

In planning integrated units of work and task ‘specs’ teachers are encouraged to work as teams building on the ideas of colleagues and search widely to identify suitable teaching material and topic information around which learning can be focussed. Key Learning Areas Sourcebook modules, the school resource centre and the Internet are just some sources of material to inform planning, teaching and learning. The Springwood Road State School Curriculum Plan and Planning Support Materials binder is supplied to teachers to facilitate easy access to essential Queensland Studies Authority syllabus, sourcebook and module information.

Pedagogy Guidelines

Pedagogy is the art of teaching. Effective pedagogical practice promotes the well being of students, teachers and the school, which in turn builds community confidence in the quality of teaching at our school. Teachers should use an array of teaching strategies as Education Queensland and our school holds that there is not single universal approach that suits all
situations.

Different strategies used in different combinations with different groupings of students will improve learning outcomes. Some strategies are better suited to teaching certain skills and fields of knowledge than are others. Some strategies are better suited to certain student backgrounds learning styles and abilities.

All students should be involved in intellectually challenging pursuits – those that provide opportunities for deep engagement with a topic or concept. When students of all backgrounds are expected to undertake work of high intellectual quality, overall academic performance improves and equity gaps diminish. The ‘dumbing down’ of curriculum must be resisted (especially for at-risk students).

Classroom practices that engage students in solving a particular problem of significance and relevance to their worlds – be it a community, school based or regional problem – provide the greatest opportunity for connectedness to the world beyond the classroom.

Strategies that promote supportive social environments have high expectations for all students, make explicit what is required for success, and foster high levels of student ownership and motivation. Teachers respond positively to all attempts by students to display their knowledge and skills and explicitly acknowledge behavioural and classroom procedures.

Strategies that recognise difference do so in ways that actively support individuals in participating, having their individual perspectives and experiences given status, and operating within embedded democratic values.

Assessment

Assessment is the purposeful, systematic and ongoing collection of information as evidence for use in making judgments about student learning. In the context of an outcomes approach to education, the assessment process involves:

• Providing students with opportunities to demonstrate core learning outcomes

• Gathering and recording evidence about students' demonstrations of these core learning outcomes

• Using this evidence as the basis for making overall judgments about students' demonstrations of core learning outcomes

The purposes of assessment are to:

• Promote, assist and improve student learning

• Inform programs of teaching and learning

• Provide data that can be communicated to a range of people about the progress and achievements of individual students or groups of students.

• Springwood Road State School - Assessment Plan

Our schools assessment plan is based on the following principles:

• Curriculum, pedagogy and assessment are interrelated and interdependent

• Assessment is an ongoing and integral part of the teaching and learning process

• Assessment is a key element of professional practice

• Informed teacher judgment is at the heart of assessment

• Assessment relates to learning outcomes that are agreed to be common across schools and students as well as those that are agreed to by our own schools

• Incorporates assessment and reporting practices that are responsive to difference

• Assessment provides evidence to inform decisions at both school and system level

• Requires teachers to make standards-referenced judgments about student learning outcomes.

• Judgments of student achievement are defensible and comparable, based on sound evidence and a shared understanding of standards.

• Reports to parents/carers are readily interpretable in relation to individual student learning outcomes

• That school-based assessment data along with state-wide testing provides information about the performance of cohorts of students and will inform future planning

• Be practicable and sustainable (based on : Assessment and Reporting Framework for Years 1–10)

Techniques for gathering evidence include observation, consultation and focused
analysis of student demonstrations of learning outcomes. Assessment instruments include, but are not restricted to, assignments, oral work, demonstrations, practical work and tests, further information on formative, summative and diagnostic assessment, and (social) moderation.

Reporting

SRSS Guideline 1 - Regular and varied opportunities for the student and their parent to receive and discuss information about student progress and achievement in the context of the school curriculum plan.

Written Reporting - A written report will be provided to student and parent at the conclusion of each Curriculum Organiser. The report will list the outcomes covered in the organiser and will detail the students performance against the criteria and standard set for the Culminating Product. The criteria and standard is to be developed collaboratively by year level teachers engaged with a particular organiser, approved by the Principal and reflect a school-wide
approach and style. The ‘criteria and standard’ applies to all students in a year level. A copy of the written report is to be retained in the school’s central file.

Feedback to Students - Regular feedback will be provided to the student on their progress in relation to the criteria and standard set for the Rich Culminating Product. Regular and meaningful dialogue between the teacher and student underpins student progress. Feedback to the student is an ongoing and integral part of the teaching and learning process.

Face-to-face Reporting - Parents and teachers are encouraged share relevant information that may affect the students learning and/or social and emotional well-being. The timely exchange of information allows both parent and teacher to properly exercise their ‘duty of care’. The onus for timely communication and follow-up lies with both the parent and the teacher where there is a particular concern for the progress or well-being of the student.

A mandatory face-to-face interview between parent and teacher, to discuss progress and development will take place twice a year.

Information Sharing - Parents are encouraged to share relevant information about circumstances that may affect a students progress at school at the time of enrolment and entry into a class group. At the beginning of a school year, or on enrolment, teachers should meet with parents to share information on a needs basis. The telephone is encouraged as a useful and expedient alternative to a face-to-face meeting.

SRSS Guideline 2

Reporting practices provide for the diverse needs of individuals and groups.

SRSS Guideline 3
Reporting mechanisms are grounded in good theory and practice about which reporting style suits a particular purpose-for example, formal or informal; written, oral or electronic; formative, summative or diagnostic; verbal, numerical or graphical; rankings or descriptors of performance.
The modes of reporting incorporate a broad range of communications strategies.

Teachers and schools are committed to recording student progress and achievement in all mandated areas of study.