On Thursday evening of this week, Deputy Principal, Mr Robert Marshall hosted our third in a series of St Catherine’s School Parent Webinars with an engaging interview with Head of Mathematics, Mrs Angela Klancic. The interview provides an insight to the transition to online learning in the Mathematics Faculty and highlights some of the teaching and learning benefits that have transpired across the term for our students and teachers.

The use of Channels as a private chat room within the online Maths class has enabled the girls to work in small pods of 4-5 girls and to work through the maths problems with collective thinking, and the trust of a small group of friends. In the Webinar on Thursday evening, Mrs Klancic shared her enthusiasm for the girls’ endeavour to stay on task. When she worked across the Class Channels, she marvelled at their ability to work collaboratively and with an improved confidence to ask questions.

In recent years, research into mathematics education reveals learning in group work shows that students can improve their critical thinking and problem-solving skills; furthermore, their way of expressing themselves improves. This method supports students to learn interactively and efficiently.

Learning within groups has also shown to be more effective in terms of academic success comparison to competitive and individualised learning systems; furthermore, it helps to improve the attitude towards mathematics and overcome the anxiety of mathematics. I believe our girls will attest, this way of learning in group work is aimed to be more fun and enjoyable for learners by assisting them to learn with discussions or conversations instead of memorising during mathematics lessons.

I invite parents to watch the Webinar here.

Reference: Z.F. Kocak, R. Bozan, O. Isik (2009) World Conference on Educational Sciences 2009: The importance of group work in mathematics. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 1 (2009) 2363–2365

Return to School – Key Dates

The Autumn colours beckon our students and staff to School in the forthcoming weeks and create a stellar backdrop for the drone to zipline through the trees along St Catherine’s Walk. Undoubtedly, I am looking forward to opening the doors and hearing the sounds of laughter, chatter and joy.

As outlined in my communication this week, there are a number of key dates below for parents to note in the coming weeks. Once the State Government Restrictions were lifted on Monday, independent schools may design the return to campus model as they see fit for their school. Parents will be aware over the course of this week, most independent schools will adopt different strategies according to their building design, different year levels on different campuses and workforce capacity. At the heart of our decision making is the safety, health and wellbeing of all girls and staff participating in school-based activities but ultimately the girls’ learning.

In the Junior School, the design of our building across three levels enables the re-introduction of classes to be much safer than many other schools. We can separate the Years 4-6 girls on the ground level and the Prep-3 girls on the Library level. We also have numerous entry points to safely allow the girls to arrive in class. The curriculum in the Junior School also allows for the girls to stay in the one classroom, with little integration across year levels. This is in addition to the staggered times for morning tea and lunch that will reduce the mixing of students. Some other schools across sectors have 25-28 students in the class, which would be entirely different to manage, including just the temperature checks that will need to occur every day.

Senior School

Wednesday 20 May 2020: Curriculum Planning Day (no lessons Years 7-12).

Monday 25 May 2020: Years 10, 11 and 12 Commence learning on campus / Years 7, 8 and 9 will remain in Learn@Home Programs.

Wednesday 27 May 2020: Years 10, 11 and 12 Online Parent-Student-Teacher Interviews / Years 7, 8 and 9 remain in Learn@Home classes.

Barbreck Junior School

Monday 25 May 2020: Curriculum Planning Day.

Tuesday 26 May 2020: Prep, Years 1, 2, 3 and 6: Commence learning on Campus.

Thursday 28 May, 2020: Prep, Years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 Learning on Campus.

Early Learning Centre

Monday 25 May 2020: 3 year old and 4 year old ELC classes commence

Further detail in the form of Return to School Manuals for parents will be issued next week to assist in understanding the School’s plan over the coming weeks.

Guest Blog

In recent weeks, the School has invited Guest Blog Writers to contribute to our Blue Ribbon articles and social media platforms. This week, Director of ICT, Mr John Toulantas, provides a somewhat humorous lens to the demand for technology across Schools in 2020. Sitting behind every successful online lesson is a team of St Catherine’s General Staff that enable this learning to occur; none more so at the moment than our ICT Team who have provided unwavering support, training and IT problem solving. I take this opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate the contribution of Mr John Toulantas, Mr Smit Mahidadiya, Mr Harj Singh and Mrs Henrietta Pius to the success of our transition to the online learning.

I invite parents to read Mr Toulantas’s blog, In Chaos we Reign

We encourage and invite submissions for our parent community to contribute and share their experiences. Submissions can be emailed to news@stcatherine.net.au.