Faith Matters

The College motto is IN FIDE SCIENTIUM which is Latin for “to faith add knowledge”.  It is interesting that the founders of our College opted for this as our motto. Shouldn’t it be … to knowledge add faith? And shouldn’t faith be optional?

Our founding fathers were indeed wise. Faith comes first, not only because faith matters. Faith comes first because it is acknowledged that we all have faith, we all express faith in various things and people each day. Faith of course, is more than just believing. Faith is our acted out beliefs. Similarly, wisdom is not merely knowledge. The accumulation of information/knowledge can be useless. Knowledge misapplied helps no-one and is often unproductive. Wisdom on the other hand is applied knowledge in the face of the rigours of life. Wisdom is faith and knowledge put into the everyday practice of living.

Here at Newington we want to encourage and assist our boys to be more than knowledgeable. We want them to become wise men of substance. At the start of a new school year it is good to remind ourselves “to faith add knowledge”.

(Our motto is taken from the Bible. See 2Peter 1:5-8 for a fuller context.)

Rev Peter Morphew – Chaplain

Understanding the PYP (Primary Years Programme)

FAQs to help with understanding the  PYP

This article will assist in demystifying the PYP. To begin the journey of understanding, some of the acronyms that are used when talking about the PYP will be explained.

What does PYP stand for?

PYP stands for Primary Years Programme. It is an international curriculum and way of teaching for children aged 3-12 years. It was formulated by the IBO (International Baccalaureate Organisation).

Why do we teach using the PYP?

The PYP focuses on the development of the whole child, and provides a framework that meets the academic, social, physical, emotional and cultural needs of the students. It is inquiry based and strives to achieve a deeper understanding of the learning that is taking place. The PYP is able to include many disciplines across the curriculum. Students take ownership of their learning and develop skills and attitudes to help prepare them for life in a global world as global citizens.

What is the Learner Profile and how important is it?

The Learner Profile is central to the work of the PYP. It is what we would like our students and sons as well as ourselves, to become. It is important for the Learner Profile to be displayed in every class, so that we can understand the qualities and values they develop. The Learner Profile is the IBO’s Mission Statement in practice – what the mission looks like – and therefore the centre of all that is PYP. In the PYP Learner Profile, students are:

Inquirers, Thinkers, Communicators, Risk-takers, Knowledgeable, Principled, Caring, Open-minded, Balanced and Reflective.

What is the PoI (Programme of Inquiry)?

The PoI (Programme of Inquiry) outlines all the Units of Inquiry (UoI) that each stage will learn about. At our school the PoI spans two-years and is planned across the stages of learning (Early Stage 1 = Kindergarten; Stage 1 = Years 1 & 2; Stage 2 = Years 3 & 4; Stage 3 = Years 5 & 6). It is designed to enable teachers to guide students through the five essential elements of learning:

– Understanding of concepts

– The acquisition of knowledge

– The mastering of skills

– The development of attitudes

– The decision to take responsible action.

The PoI is reviewed at the end of each year. Teachers plan collaboratively to develop the PoI. Each stage has six units which are planned with transdisciplinary themes in mind.

What is a transdisciplinary theme?

There are six transdisciplinary themes which are:

• Who we are

• Where we are in time and place

• How the world works

• How we express ourselves

• How we organise ourselves

• Sharing the planet.

These themes are about issues that have meaning for, and are important to, all of us.

What is a UoI (Unit of Inquiry)?

A Unit of Inquiry (UoI) is based on one of the six transdisciplinary themes which are outlined in the school’s (PoI). A UoI should:

• be a significant, relevant and challenging learning experience

• build on the prior knowledge of the students

• involve students in a range of learning activities

• require students to engage in positive action

• integrate diverse subject areas whenever meaningful and appropriate

• incorporate different assessment tools for the learning activities

• stimulate further inquiry. 

Through the UoIs, classrooms become places of inquiry through which students have the opportunity to  practice skills and build new knowledge. The duration of each UoI is approximately 6 weeks. They are continuously reviewed and show a development from one year to the next within the transdisciplinary theme as students progress through the school.

What are Concepts?

The Concepts are ‘Big Ideas’ and learning is designed around these ‘Big Ideas’. The PYP is structured around 8 key Concepts which power the inquiry.

The 8 Concepts are:

• Form – What is it like?

• Function – How does it work?

• Causation – Why is it like it is?

• Change – How is it changing?

• Connection – How is it connected to other things?

• Perspective – What are the points of view?

• Responsibility – What is our responsibility?

• Reflection – How do we know?

Teachers base their open-ended questions on these concepts.

How is the PYP assessed?

Assessment is important and is planned collaboratively by teachers with students being involved in setting goals as well as how these goals can achieve success. Teachers set clear learning intentions and success criteria which is shared. Assessment is carried out across the 6-week  learning period of a UoI – pre-assessment, formative assessment, summative assessment. Data that is gathered at these points in the UoI indicate progress of learning. Many methods are used to gather data of assessment.

Why should we encourage taking action?

Taking action is an important part of the UoI as it demonstrates to students the relevance and purpose of what they’ve been investigating. Action is about putting back into the community what you got out of it and helping to make the world a better place. Action can be as small as finding a book related to the UoI which occurs during the timeframe of the unit, or some time after learning has ceased in the classroom. Action can also occur many year after the learning has taken place.

These are just a few of the terms that you will be confronted with as you become increasingly familiar with the PYP. An evening will be held in the school Library on 25 February 2016 which will supplement this information and continue to develop learning and understanding of the PYP for you.

Ben Barrington-Higgs – Head of Campus

Newington Community Choir

“While the feel-good effects of singing have long been recognised, there is growing evidence that it can have a positive impact on a range of physical and psychological conditions, leading to campaigns for singing on prescription.

In previous studies experts claimed that joining a choir could improve symptoms of Parkinson’s, depression and lung disease.

Swedish research has suggested that it not only increases oxygen levels in the blood but triggers the release of “happy” hormones such as oxytocin, which is thought to help lower stress levels and blood pressure.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/10496056/Choir-singing-boosts-your-mental-health.html

http://theconversation.com/choir-singing-improves-health-happiness-and-is-the-perfect-icebreaker-47619

These are two easily readable articles about how singing can be of benefit across your health.

Come and join the Newington Community Choir on a Tuesday evening from 5:30 – 6:30 in the Hall.

It is open to Newington Families. Boys can come with parents or parents can come by themselves!

I hope to see you there on Tuesday evenings starting 16 February.

Vanessa South – Music Mistress

Years 1 and 2 – Relationships Unit of Inquiry

The boys in Year 1 and 2 are learning about relationships and how to maintain and enhance them through communication. Over the past couple of weeks we have examined our first line of inquiry discussing different types of relationships such as friendships, family relationships and helpful relationships.

It is imperative that boys are happy in the classroom and in the playground. The boys have discussed what it means to be respectful towards one another and how they can do this during class time. Some of their responses were – by waiting patiently, staying in their own personal space, using their manners and listening to the speaker, just to name a few.

The boys have also been practising their drama skills in the Library lesson. Each small group of boys was given a scenario and had to use their problem solving skills to enhance their relationships with a situation at home, school or in the community.

Year 1 have started their Relationships UOI (Unit of Inquiry) by buddying up with the Year 5 classes. The buddy system allows the Year One boys to learn from their older peers, whom they really look up to. The boys spent their first session by getting to know one another, the Year 1 boys brought up their favourite books and shared them with their buddies. Going forward, the buddies will be spending time together in the playground, in Chapel and most importantly, they will be sharing their learning with one another.

When tuning in to students’ thinking, teachers establish what students know and connect it to their lives. The boys have sorted some images of different people in relationships and chose whether they were family, friends or helpful relationships.

In the next coming weeks we will be discussing how boys can maintain and enhance their relationships at home and at school. Concepts such as empathy, feelings in different situations, building confidence and showing compassion will be examined in class. Empathy helps boys to perceive and understand what others are feeling. It also motivates boys to show compassion by using caring words and actions with others. This helps boys to feel less isolated and to provide emotional support to friends when times may be difficult. By helping boys to develop the ability to have empathy for others provides a good foundation for helpful and socially responsible behaviour. It also helps boys to develop and manage their own strong emotions and solve interpersonal problems.

Mr Watson and Mrs Russell – Stage 1 Teachers

Years 3 and 4 – The Human Body Connections

‘Hearts’, ‘intestines’, ‘lungs’, ‘brains’, ‘muscles’ and ‘bones’ are common vocabulary in the Year 3 and 4 classrooms for this Unit of Inquiry. Our Central Idea that we are inquiring into is: The human body is made up of connected systems that enable us to live a healthy life. Our Lines of Inquiry for this unit are:

–       Connected systems of the human body

–       Caring for our bodies

–       Body responses to physical activity

The provocation for our first Unit of Inquiry was juicy one! The boys walked into a classroom of brains, bones, liver, kidneys and a tongue. We conducted a ‘See. Think. Wonder.’ as we observed, felt and even smelt these body parts. It was a learning experience to remember and resulted in some very engaged boys wanting to know more about the human body.

After breaking apart our central Idea to make it more meaningful for us we began exploring the different systems of the body, starting with the nervous system. We formulated some ‘Open’ and ‘Challenging’ questions in our Library time and we were able to put our brains to work and find out more about this system. We read articles and watched some videos. We then had a chance to share some of our findings.

These research and communication skills were then put into practise as we formed interest groups around particular body systems that the boys wanted to inquire into. These groups were mixed between Year 3 and 4 students and covered the respiratory, circulatory, digestive, muscular and skeletal systems. Each group formulated questions, assigned roles within the group and worked collaboratively to become experts about their particular system. They were able to share evidence of their inquiry through an informative poster. Each group then presented their system to the class, Exhibition style. The boys soon started to make some pretty strong connections between the systems and how they function together.

These inquiry and collaboration skills will continue to be developed and strengthened throughout the remainder of the unit as we explore how the body responds to physical activity and the responsibilities we have to care for our bodies.

Ms Tonkin and Mr Pollard – Stage 2 Teachers

Sports Star of the Week

Harry is his name and Tennis is his game!

Rydal and Interhouse Champion Tennis Player, Harry Forsyth, took his skill to a new level on Wednesday when he competed at the IPSHA Tennis trials at Roseville. The fresh-faced Year 4 student was up against the most talented tennis players from all of IPSHA (and in Year 6 too!) and accounted for himself brilliantly, finishing 4th in his division, and winning a contest in the process. The sky is the limit for this red-haired superstar as he looks to conquer the might of Wyvern this year in the Interhouse tennis competition later this year. Well done Harry!

P&F News

What’s happening in your P&F and Committees

Welcome from the P&F

On behalf of the P&F, Committee members and Class Parents, we would like to welcome everybody, especially our new families.

The Parents and Friends Association (or P&F) work closely with Ben and the school staff to provide a parent perspective on school related matters.  The P&F is the same as a P&C.

The P&F’s role is to assist in improving facilities and resources for our boys and to build our school community by providing opportunities for parents to connect with each other and the school.  We oversee the Canteen/Tuckshop, Prep Shop (uniform shop), Sports Committee, Social and Fundraising Committee, Creative Arts Support and Casserole Crisis.

We work on behalf of all our families, therefore, encourage you to communicate with us, provide feedback and let us know if there are any areas you would like us to work on or see funds used to benefit our boys.

Once or twice a term we will post articles in Prep Talk to let everyone know what has been happening, what might be coming up and updates from each of our committees.

As with any P&F, we can’t run without volunteers.  I would like to thank all our families that have already committed to volunteering in any capacity in 2016.  We can’t provide the services and support to our boys, families and the school without your help, so thank you so much.

We are incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful school community at Lindfield and look forward to another fantastic year in 2016 and seeing you at the Welcome Reception on Saturday night 20 February at 7:30pm.

Julianne Ashworth
P&F President

Committee Members Contact Details

The P&F Executive Committee welcomes your involvement … please contact us if you have questions or suggestions for our Lindfield campus or would like to get more involved.

Julianne Ashworth – President

M: 0411 047 816 – E: jcashworth@vbmglobal.com

Susie Martin – Vice President

M: 0404 303 877 – E: preston_susie@hotmail.com

Novak Chandler – Secretary

M: 0411 402 208 – E: novaklaf@hotmail.com

Leearna Plank – Treasurer

M: 0402 879 373 – E: leearnaplank@gmail.com

How will the P&F contribute to our school community this year?

The P&F will confirm over the course of the term our contributions for this year. 

We will liaise with Ben and the staff to determine areas we may be able to assist and will endeavour to ensure we are using P&F funds in the best way possible.

We will continue to subsidise the co-curricular touch typing and chess programs and look at any other co-curricular areas we may also be able to assist.

A full overview of how the P&F contributed last year is posted on Spaces at the following link – https://spaces.newington.nsw.edu.au/lindfield/parents-and-friends/pages/291-thank-you-all-families-and-staff-for-a-wonderful-2015.

Working on behalf of the parent body, the P&F is so pleased to be able to contribute to our school community and welcomes any suggestions from parents on ways you might like to see P&F funds utilised.

Prep Shop News

The Prep Shop has been a flurry of activity since the beginning of the year.  Our volunteers have done an amazing job outfitting our new boys.

Please find below a note from Kylie Strawbridge, our wonderful Prep Shop Convenor, with updates on the Prep Shop:

A new item of uniform has recently arrived in the Prep shop. We now have a training t-shirt that the Year 3-6 boys can wear during Monday and Wednesday sport sessions rather than their white PE shirts. They are black and made of light, breathable material; perfect for winter when the boys get awfully wet and muddy. They are available in sizes 8-16 for $30 each.

While you attend your son’s school sports on Saturday mornings (or any time at all) why not show your support for Newington by wearing/using our Black & White supporters’ items. We now have new black caps, beach towels, folding chairs, lots of different balls and reusable bags to carry everything in, plus more. 

Winter uniform fittings for new boys will be held during Week 8-10 of this term. Boys will be fitted for winter shirts, shorts and blazers at this time as well as winter sport uniforms (for Year 3-6). Winter uniform is worn in terms 2 & 3. You will receive an invitation to book a time later in the term.

Why not volunteer in the Prep Shop? To keep the shop open on Mondays 3-3:45pm and Wednesdays 8-8:45am we need volunteers. Right now we really need extra people to staff the shop on Monday afternoons. New volunteers are scheduled with an experienced volunteer to allow on-the-job training. Please fill out the attached form https://spaces.newington.nsw.edu.au/lindfield/parents-and-friends/pages/1110-the-workings-of-our-prep-shop-volunteers-welcome

or contact Kylie Strawbridge directly if you would like to get involved. kyliestrawbridge@outlook.com

Tuckshop News

Cheryll Clark, our Tuckshop Convenor does an amazing job ensuring our boys are provided with fresh, healthy food during each school term.

We still have spaces on our tuckshop volunteer roster if you are interested in doing a shift or two.  Filling the roster means that parents don’t have to double up on shifts during the term, making it fair for everyone.

The tuckshop is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.  Shifts can be split between 9-12 or 11-2:00pm.  Alternatively, if it suits you can do a day shift from 9:00am till 2:00pm. 

The more volunteers, the more home cooking we can do! Just send an email to lindfieldtuckshop@newington.nsw.edu.au or follow the link https://spaces.newington.nsw.edu.au/lindfield/parents-and-friends/pages/1951-how-to-use-volunteer-in-the-canteen-tuckshop

Sports Committee News

The parents Summer Sports Spreadsheet will be posted on Spaces in both the Sport and P&F section in the coming week. 

This useful concise spreadsheet outlines information on the summer sports rounds, uniforms, training, coaches and teachers supporting each team. If you have any questions for our Sports Committee, please contact newingtonsports@gmail.com

Social Committee News

Our Social Committee is about to start organising our annual Easter Raffle on Wednesday 23 March.  Information and Raffle Tickets will be sent home with your boys in the coming weeks. 

We look forward to your contributions which will go towards assisting our boys.  Easter Egg prizes will be on offer for each class and as usual a large assorted egg basket will be donated to the Royal Far West Foundation.  Royal Far West is a non-government organisation that has been providing health services to children living in rural and remote NSW since 1924. 

Every year, thousands of country children who have non-acute developmental, behavioural, learning, emotional and mental health disorders, and limited access to local services, benefit from their integrated clinical and educational model of care.

We are proud to be able to assist them in providing these children with a little treat over the Easter period. 

Thank you all again for your support and we hope you have a great term!

from the P&F – Julianne Ashworth, Novak Chandler, Susie Martin and Leearna Plank

A Message from the Head of Lindfield Campus

Most Likely To Succeed

Contemporary education is grappling with some very large questions about the evolution of education and our role of preparing our boys for a very new and ill-defined future. On 3 March, Newington Lindfield is hosting a screening of a documentary called ‘Most Likely To Succeed’.  This movie raises critical questions about the nature of contemporary education and how best we help our boys prepare for an exciting future. It is important to get as many parents as possible to come along and be part of the discussion.

I would like to start this conversation in Prep Talk with an extract from an interesting article from Ed. Magazine summarized below by Kim Marshall. This article reports on the recent thinking of David Perkins (Harvard Graduate School of Education) one of the influential thinkers on education of our times (the education equivalent of a rock star)! This article starts the discussions that will continue with our movie screening on what’s worth learning in school.

“What’s Worth Learning in School?”

Perkins says there’s often a skeptical student at the back of the class who asks, “Why do we need to know this?” Lots of teachers, including Perkins, find this an uncomfortable moment: “When that ballistic missile comes from the back of the room, it’s a good reminder that the question doesn’t just belong to state school boards, authors of textbooks, writers of curriculum standards, and other elites. It’s on the minds of our students.”

The fact is that we teach a lot that isn’t going to matter in students’ lives, says Perkins – and we don’t teach a lot of stuff that really will matter. Why? Because of three rival learning agendas:

• Information – Students are asked to master a vast body of stuff, even though much of it won’t matter, in any meaningful way, to their lives. “It’s nice to know things,” says Perkins. “I like to know things. You like to know things. But there are issues of balance, particularly in the digital age… the world we are educating learners for is something of a moving target.” The problem is that the conventional curriculum is “chained to the bicycle rack,” he says – parents demand it, textbooks convey it, teachers are required to teach it, and we don’t feel comfortable throwing it out. But knowledge without utility has a short half-life. “The hard fact is that our minds hold on only to knowledge we have occasion to use in some corner of our lives,” he says. “Overwhelmingly, knowledge unused is forgotten. It’s gone.”
• Achievement – The pressure to do well on high-stakes summative tests is a life-support system for the conventional curriculum, but this type of testing “makes for shallow learning and understanding,” says Perkins. “You cram and do well on the test but may not have the understanding. It unravels.” Besides, is it important to know state capitals and major rivers? Perkins argues that what matters is how the location of rivers and harbors and other features of the land have been shaped by and continue to shape the course of history. Better than learning facts about the French Revolution, understand how those events relate to world conflict, poverty, and the struggle between church and state. “All that talk about achievement leaves little room for discussion about what’s being achieved,” says Perkins. Besides, less-formal, more frequent formative assessment produces much better learning.
• Expertise – The Holy Grail of education is becoming an expert – for example, in math, moving through algebra, geometry, and reaching the pinnacle, calculus, “an entire subject that hardly anybody ever uses,” says Perkins. But any time there’s push-back on the conventional curriculum, supporters claim, “We’re sacrificing rigor!” Perkins would rather that schools prepare students to be “expert amateurs” in, for example, statistics, appreciating art, understanding insurance rates, filing taxes, raising children – areas with immediate relevance to daily life.

In short, Perkins believes we need to rethink curriculum content in a radical way. Historically, we’ve focused K-12 schooling on educating for the known, “the tried and true, the established canon,” he says. “This made very good sense in the many periods and places where most children’s lives were likely to be more or less like their parents’ lives. However, wagering that tomorrow will be pretty much like yesterday does not seem to be a very good bet today. Perhaps we need a different vision of education, a vision that foregrounds educating for the unknown as much as for the known.”

Perkins likes to tell the story of Mahatma Gandhi losing one of his sandals as he boarded a moving train in India. There wasn’t time to retrieve the sandal on the ground, and without hesitation, Gandhi took off his other sandal and threw it toward the first. Asked by a colleague what he was thinking, Gandhi said one sandal wouldn’t do him any good, but two would certainly help someone else. Gandhi “showed wisdom about what to keep and what to let go of,” says Perkins. “Those are both central questions for education as we choose for today’s learners the sandals they need for tomorrow’s journey.”

Here at Lindfield, we are already looking at the way we educate our boys. We are a PYP school and so we naturally want our boys to be asking the probing questions that help us think in new and unique ways.

Education is evolving quickly and as an independent school we are in the lucky position to be relatively agile is the way we work with our boys. We realise that the essential foundations around numeracy and literacy are our building blocks for higher order thinking but we are acutely conscious that our boys need to be flexible, resilient individuals who are adept problem solvers and collaborative learners in order to  meet the complex educational paradigms of our time.

“What’s Worth Learning in School?” by Lory Hough in Ed. Magazine, Winter 2015 (p. 36-41), www.gse.harvard.edu/ed

Social Skills – PALS and Second Step

The development of social skills and a positive mindset are essential for all young people. To support this process each year we run the PALS program which forms part of our Pastoral Care Policy (incorporating Anti-Bullying) together with our use of the Second Step program across all year levels. There is a large amount of research available to support this program which can be found at http://www.cfchildren.org/second-step/research.

Over the years the teachers at Lindfield have collaboratively developed the PALS program and recently adopted the Second Step program to bring together current research on the importance of well-being, social skill development and resilience, and our observations of the needs of our boys.

Our Second Step scope and sequence (found on the Lindfield:Learning Spaces Page) is followed sequentially throughout the year at all year levels with deviations/modifications as required by the cohort and circumstance. Further information on our approach to Positive Attitudes and Life Skills will be shared throughout the year and the attached scope and sequence will serve to assist you in communicating with your son about his school based learning experiences related to social skills.

The PALS program also provides a leadership opportunity for our Year 6 boys as they are given the chance to lead teaching sessions with each of the other classes. In addition to these lessons, there is at least one other weekly session (often in the form of ‘Circle Time’) to allow teachers to consolidate the skill or attitude that has been introduced/revisited.

If you would like further information on either program please do not hesitate to contact your son’s teacher, Mr Benjamin Barrington-Higgs or myself via the school office.

Pascal Czerwenka

STEAM Focus

Last year, we began exploring the ‘Maker Movement’ in greater detail, with several staff attending workshops and participating in professional development and students participating in ‘Maker Spaces’ and Coding Clubs. Whilst ‘making’ in the classroom is certainly nothing new, the Maker Movement harnesses creativity to develop solutions to current issues/problems through an authentic use of materials and technology. Stager (2013) stated that using technology to make, repair, or customize the things we need brings engineering, design, and computer science to the masses. Fortunately for educators, the maker movement overlaps with the natural inclinations of children and the power of learning by doing. When making meaning, students start reflecting that “creating allows me to be inventive”,“I can really make my imagination a reality” and “being able to test out solutions to problems is exciting!”.

The philosophy behind the ‘Maker Movement’ is strongly aligned to our constructivist approach (students creating meaning from their learning experiences) to learning and teaching and serves to enhance the PYP at Lindfield. You just need to watch Caine’s Arcade (www.cainesarcade.com) or Richard Turere’s TED talk titled ‘My invention that made peace with the lions’ to see the value behind encouraging students to be creative, curious and purposeful learners who take action and contribute positively to our world. Such making experiences allow boys to see the impact that their problem solving could have and leads students to start realising that “I can make a difference”.

The shift to “making” represents the perfect storm of new technological materials, expanded opportunities, learning through firsthand experience, and the basic human impulse to create. It offers the potential to make classrooms more student-centered: relevant and more sensitive to each child’s remarkable capacity for intensity. Making is predicated on the desire that we all have to exert agency over our lives, to solve our own problems. It recognizes that knowledge is a consequence of experience, and it seeks to democratize access to a vast range of experience and expertise so that each child can engage in authentic problem solving. Taken from http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3758336

The maker movement poses exciting opportunities to transform learning within our school community and it is exciting to see students starting to design and create solutions to real world issues whilst also exploring their inventiveness and creativity.

Our desire to remain innovative and purposeful in our teaching practices led us to apply for and receive a grant to further explore the Maker Movement and the purposeful integration of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) into our learning experiences. With this grant we are investigating the concept of ‘Design Thinking’ and how we can facilitate our students to become meaningful thinkers who are empowered to make a positive contribution to our society.

The five elements of the PYP (see article on the PYP) can be evidenced in the implementation of STEAM and Maker Movement Makerspaces. The Learner Profile, Concepts, Approaches to Learning, Attitudes and Action are at the heart of learning which focuses on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. Curiosity and wonder are natural byproducts of any learning environment that incorporates STEAM Makerspaces generating engagement with authentic, meaningful, and real world issues.

This approach inspires all learners (students and teachers) to build resilience as they think critically and creatively, problem solve and troubleshoot along the way. Scaffolding inquiry becomes seamless when students use hands-on design thinking skills. An atmosphere of rigorous thinking opportunities ensues as growth mindset, differentiation and ICT skills converge to support this self-directed learning opportunity.

We look forward to sharing this journey with you throughout the year!

Pascal Czerwenka

Homework

The mention of the word homework evokes strong opinions amongst teachers, parents and students. Stances vary on whether there is too much, too little or even the right kind. Homework beliefs and their historical influences affect the debate on homework in many ways. Arguments for or against homework today are no different to the arguments that have been carried out for the last 100 years. Today, however, there are many new and unique challenges placed upon students to meet the demands and standards being set for them.

Attempts from researchers to answer the question on whether homework assignments improve achievement have led to conclusions that are inconsistent at best and contradictory at worst (Kohn 2006). Enough research has been done on homework to support almost any position, as long as conflicting studies are ignored.

Although teachers from K-12 commonly assign homework, research has produced no clear-cut consensus of the benefits of homework at a primary level (Marzano and Pickering 2007).

Cooper (1989) claims that homework has smaller effects at lower grade levels, however, still recommends homework for young children because homework for young children should help them develop good study habits, foster positive attitudes toward school and communicate to students the idea that learning takes place at home as well as at school.

In The Battle over Homework (2007), Harris Cooper notes that homework should have different purposes at different grade levels:

• For students in Kindy and Year 1, it should foster positive attitudes, habits, and character traits; permit appropriate parent involvement; and reinforce learning of simple skills introduced in class.

• For students in Years 2-5, it should play a more direct role in fostering improved school achievement.

• In Year 6 and beyond, it should play an important role in improving standardised test scores and grades.

Advocates of homework who believe that it should be part of a child’s daily life recognise that it has many advantages, some of which are:

Immediate achievement and learning:

• Better retention of factual knowledge
• Increased understanding
• Better critical thinking, concept formation and information process
• Curriculum enrichment.

Long term academic:

• Learning encouraged during leisure time.
• Improved attitude towards school.
• Better study habits and skills

Non-academic:

• Greater self-direction.

• Greater self-discipline.
• Better time organisation.
• More inquisitiveness.
• More independent problem solving

For homework to be successful, we need to make sure that it must be increasingly inspired by students own interests and motivations. Students must be given control over what they learn, how they learn it and how they show they have learned it. Students must also have opportunities to self-evaluate, to reflect on their own learning and to set their own goals.

Over the years we have found that discussions on homework almost exclusively focus on short-term achievement or passing the test, not on what the practice of homework does to a child’s long-term learning, attitude about learning, or attitudes about their intellectual life. We do not want homework to dampen a child’s natural curiosity, passion, and love of learning.

Using the experience and expertise that the teachers at Newington Lindfield have can allow for us to use the research available and put it into perspective for our students. If teachers are able to plan homework collaboratively and then reflect on the experience they will be able to provide creative and interactive tasks that engage the students at home.

If the students are provided with such tasks they can successfully complete their homework using self-control, direction and regulation. When students can successfully plan and prepare their learning into small time frames using the support available to them without any distractions it would be hoped that the students are not bored by the homework but rather excited because they are using their own autonomy to complete the tasks that have been prepared for them.

In the next Prep-Talk we will discuss how parents can be involved in student homework to help positively impact learning (without the arguments…).

References

Cooper, H., 1989. Synthesis of research on homework. Educational leadership, 47(3), pp.85-91.

Cooper, H., 2007. The battle over homework: Common ground for administrators, teachers, and parents. Corwin Press.

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