Dear Parents,

Over the last weeks the leadership team and myself met with Education Officers from the Teaching and Learning Team. Together we participated in a Learning Walk and Talk.  As you would know, this year we have had a whole school focus on improving writing amongst our students. During our learning walks we asked our students the 5 key questions:

1.What are you learning and why?

2.How are you doing?

3.How do you know?

4.How can you improve?

5. Where do you go for help?

We filmed student responses to discuss at our follow-up discussion. In all our classrooms we found evidence of success criteria for a good piece of writing that had been collaboratively developed by teachers and students.

For example, in Year 4 students understood their learning intention: "to write a text to persuade an audience."

It was particularly evident that our students understood the why. Students confidently articulated that they might need this skill to be Prime Minister, or for a job interview in the real world. 

The success criteria displayed in their classrooms was referenced by students as helpful in knowing what they need to do in order to become better writers.

This on-going work has led to greater consistency across the school in our expectations of students and the strategies we use to teach writing.

To see these evidence-based teaching practices embedded in our school culture can only lead to one thing..improved student outcomes!