Page 5 - Flip Tiger demo

FROM THE HEAD OF PRIMARY
Remote and Distance Learning - What comes next?
As you can imagine this is the topic on everyone’s lips. Politicians in many countries are pontificating about what teachers will need to do to “catch kids up” and they of course are very happy to tell educators how it should be done.
I have read widely on the topic - from educators I respect to those I know very little about. Teachers worldwide know that they will need to accommodate learners and learning in a somewhat different manner. Asynchronous learning will become an integral part of our organisation - students will have more to say in and about their learning, becoming problem posers as well as problem solvers.
The enhanced PYP is already asking us to do more in this arena. We know that a student's voice needs to be heard loudly and clearly in our learning environments. Even the concept of a learning environment needs to change. Luckily for us, we have already started both of these journeys. Some teams are more developed than others, but we are already embracing these notions.
Our first step is to create baseline assessments in each of the learning areas to find student attainment levels - what students can do. Teachers will then work with each child to cater to their immediate needs whether it is to go back to consolidate learning before moving on, or it is to take a child even further. Yes, the attainment differences in our classrooms will be considerably larger but we are well-equipped with the
skill, resources and where-with-all needed to ensure each child is successful.
Rest assured, we have already started planning for the new academic year. We have three models of “start-up”, we are gathering as much data on your child as we can remotely, and within those first two weeks of school, much more will be collected. Pasi Sahlberg - a renowned educator from Finland, residing in Australia, supports the use of “small data”. This data is collected by teachers to drive learning, called assessment for learning. This is our focus.
The grade teams have adequate support staff to include in classroom instruction; we will deploy further teachers (and teacher leaders!) should that become necessary. Teachers are flexible and always have your child’s needs at the centre of decision-making. We are mentally prepared. We know we can do this.
Education is capable - we are capable - we are ready.
Karen Crooke
Primary School Principal
Karen Crooke