Principal News

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

If the relaxed and happy faces across our school yesterday and today are anything to go by, our students certainly enjoyed the beautiful winter weather and made the most of the mid-year holidays even with a few days of rainy weather. We are looking forward to an exciting semester, with activities like assemblies, Catholic Education Week celebrations, Prep 2023 transition mornings, Book Week, excursions, sport and culture programs.  I know this will be welcome news for all.

The cyclical review process for staff is an important aspect of our School’s commitment to continual improvement. As part of the cyclical review process, I thank parents and staff who have provided feedback, via a survey, on the performance over the past five years of Mrs Judy Smith in her role as Assistant to the Principal – Religious Education. On Monday, July 18th panel members consisting of myself, Ms Angela Travers (Manager of Mission and Identity), Kathleen Doherty (APRE – Mater Dei Primary School) will interview staff and then provide feedback on Judy’s commitment to leading our faith community. I would like to thank you for taking the time to provide this important feedback which assists in growing Judy’s leadership.

With end of Semester One report cards sent via the parent portal in the last week of Term 2, I wish to share with parents and students, the importance of the upcoming teaching and learning that is ahead for Semester Two. In supporting our learners it is necessary to take on the feedback provided to parents and students via the reporting process for future guidance for improvement in learning.

This effort on the part of teachers to provide pointers and guidance about improvement matters for little if we don't also provide students with the skills and mindset needed to respond to this feedback in positive and productive ways.

Dylan Wiliam is a leading educationalist and researcher into the science of how students learn and some of his most noted work is in the area of teacher feedback to students. His research indicates that in schools, feedback tends to fall into two categories: ego-involving and task-involving.

According to Wiliam, feedback that focuses on praise or a student's position in the class (e.g. 'you produced some of the best work in the class') is ego-involving and the research clearly shows that this has almost no impact on learning improvement and in many cases it leads to negative outcomes in the long run. In contrast, task-focused feedback where students are advised what they need to improve and how they can improve it, shows a significant effect when it comes to learning and academic outcomes.

Teachers, in their comments to students on class work and assessment, aim to provide feedback that causes them to think. So for students (and parents!) the challenge when receiving feedback, is to do this thinking rather than react emotionally or disengage.

Wiliam's analysis of the research in this area shows that when students receive feedback, they make a choice about whether to protect their ego through an emotional response or whether to engage in activities and tasks that respond to the feedback advice provided. If a student's first reaction is to protect themselves, then they remain focused on activities and practices that are about their sense of self rather than focusing on learning.

As you can imagine, responses that focus on emotion and self-protection are ultimately counterproductive because they don't lead to improved learning or performance and produce more disappointment and emotion then when the next task and feedback is returned. This is the sort of thinking that leads to disengagement, demotivation and a stagnation or slide in academic performance.

Teachers give feedback to students that shows them performance and ability are incremental and not fixed, and that by adopting a task-focused response to feedback they have some agency in their own improvement. Our understanding of the interrelatedness of wellbeing and academic improvement supports the position that in the long run, a healthier sense of self-worth in students is gained by task-focused responses to feedback where the student can see how strategies they apply can make a positive difference to their learning and performance.

What can parents do to help students regulate emotional responses in favour of thinking?

What conversations about results and feedback will help to foster motivation for improvement?

The following might be helpful discussion points for parents to draw on when speaking about student learning and progress for Semester 1 and into Semester 2.

• Look for areas of improvement in student results and ask your child what they used do and what they now do that has made a difference.
• Discuss your child’s attitude to different subjects and how this might affect their effort or performance.
• Look at teacher feedback comments and suggestions for improvement. What sort of support does the student need to take on this advice? If more information is needed, rehearse with your child how they might go about asking clarifying questions of the teacher.
• Work with your child to identify one small goal and learning strategy that they can work on for each of their learning areas this term. Avoid focusing on getting a particular grade and instead focus on an aspect of learning that can be improved. If the learning strategies improve then the results will take care of themselves.
• Talk with your child about their learning this term. Improved learning and outcomes usually comes from the effort put into classwork and homework in the first half of a unit when new knowledge and skills are addressed in lessons rather than at the end with the assessment response itself. What can students be doing to be better historians, mathematicians, writers or readers before they get to preparing the assessment response?

The research data is quite clear that having the right mindset when it comes to feedback will ultimately influence the way a student engages in the learning process to improve performance. Parents play a crucial role in supporting the development of positive mindset in their children - one that focuses on thinking, learning and growth.

God bless everyone and thanks for reading.

Madonna