Old is new again

In a recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald http://bit.ly/19FWZYX the new Education Minister, Christopher Pyne, called for a ‘back to basics approach’ to education. The article quoted him as saying, ”I’m sure there’s a place for child-centred learning but unless children are given the basic skills and knowledge required in an area, it’s hard to expect them to successfully research an area of study,”

These types of statements are likely to provoke all kinds of reactions ranging from complete agreement to absolute disagreement. Whilst at first glance it flies in the face of much of the current research about student learning there is some truth in his statements.

At Lindfield we are seeking to promote a fine balance between learning the basics and also learning about how these skills can be used more broadly to investigate the world around them. The PYP provides a framework for allowing both of these to occur in a meaningful way.

Throughout the article Mr Pyne refers to the lost art of students learning phonics. I can assure you that this is untrue and our focus on phonics is as strong and meaningful as it has ever been. If you walk past the Kindergarten classroom of a morning, not only will you hear the boys making use of phonetic sounds to help them with their reading and writing, you may also be lucky enough to see the boys practising their ‘sounds’ with the support of actions. This is a perfect example of using child-centred learning to support students learn the basics.

We don’t absolutely disagree with Mr Pyne’s call for a focus on the basics, however we would argue that there are many ways that this can be achieved. Given the importance of engagement in boys’ education, we believe it is of the utmost importance to promote a child-centred approach to learning.

NAPLAN and Parent Survey Results – P&F Meeting

At next week’s P&F Meeting I will provide an update on our NAPLAN results that have recently been sent to Year 3 and 5 parents. On the whole, these results are particularly encouraging and demonstrate that our recent teaching and learning initiatives have had a positive impact on the boys’ learning.

I will also provide a summary of the recently conducted Parent Survey.

PYP Exhibition

On behalf of the Year 6 students, I wish to extend an official invitation to all members of the school community to attend the PYP Exhibition on Tuesday 22 October from 6:00pm.  The boys have really thrived on the opportunity to explore a local issue of interest and are excited to share this with the community at the Exhibition.

The Exhibition focuses on the central idea “Finding solutions to human-made issues can lead to new beginnings”. At the Exhibition there will be presentations about the following issues of local significance;

• Homelessness
• Rubbish / Littering
• Bullying
• Racism
• Shark Finning
• Asylum Seekers
• Over-population
• Social Networking / Cyber-Bullying
• Coral Bleaching
• Sweatshop production

We hope you can join us on the evening to celebrate the boys’ learning and to take the opportunity to hear their ideas for possible solutions to these issues.