From the Assistant Principal Teaching and Learning
Year 11 students who have not passed one or more HSC Minimum Standards Tests, will resit the test(s) in Week 1 Term 4. Students are encouraged to practice the test they need to resit on the NESA website. Year 10 - BRAVO!!!
Every Year 10 student passed their HSC Minimum Standards Reading Test during the first sitting of the test. This is a wonderful reflection of the dedication of both teachers and students in the endeavour to continually improve reading and comprehension. Year 11 2020 (Year 10 2019) also had the same unanimous success in 2019.
The tests will conclude this week. Any student who has not met the HSC minimum standard in Writing or Numeracy, will be able to resit the test later in Term 4.
Year 11 Preliminary Examinations Commence 1/9/20
Students need to ensure they follow examination protocols.
- Students must be in full school uniform
- Students must be present for the first examination by 8.25 (student briefing and prayer) - bags must be in the room by 8.40
- Students need to make sure they go to the bathroom as leaving the examination is detrimental to concentration and time required to complete the exam
- Students need to be at school 15 minutes before every other examination - bags must be in the room by 8.45 for the morning exams and 12.45 for the afternoon exams
- Students need to line up at either the hall or common room (this is indicated on the student exam timetable)
- Clear bottles of water with no label are permitted
- Black pens and pencils, and other relevant equipment eg calculator
- Students should remember their NESA number
- Students need to enter the examination hall without speaking
- Follow all directions of the teacher
- STUDENTS MUST FOLLOW ILLNESS/MISADVENTURE PROTOCOLS - should a student be ill
- Failure to follow procedures will most likely result in a 0 award for the exam
St Andrews College - Questions are Important
Learning at St Andrews College is focused on developing students who are competent, confident and critical thinkers. These assets are imperative for students who will ultimately embark on and contribute to the world at large.
Therefore every teacher at St Andrews College is focused on consistent questioning techniques across classrooms in order to develop student capacity to demonstrate understanding, think critically and form articulated opinions.
In conjunction with teacher led questioning, students will be developing their capacity to ask questions.
Over the next two weeks, teachers at St Andrews College would like to encourage parents to support the learning their child is engaged in at school by asking
The Golden Question:
“What makes you say that?”
The best classroom discussion seeks student interpretation, rather than just recall, and also justification. This simple question formulation encourages students to provide evidence to support their interpretation. Used frequently in class it gets students into the habit of “evidentiary reasoning” and helps them “understand alternatives and multiple perspectives.” Easy to remember, flexible to employ and habit forming for students, the golden question is a classic default question for teachers running whole group discussion.
Source: http://www.pz.harvard.edu/vt/visibleThinking_html_files
Assessment for Learning
Assessments both informal and formal are for learning. Students often confuse formal assessment with the only important assessment, and therefore may not consider their classwork of equal importance. Everything a student does in class is important. When a student gets verbal or written feedback, which is consistently given to students, it is advice the student should consider to improve their learning. For example the current Trial HSC Examinations, will ensure students have feedback for every examination. The feedback given by your teachers is thoroughly important to consider as you approach the next steps in any course for example for Year 12 the next steps is the HSC Examinations. Therefore the feedback received from the Trial HSC Examinations is absolutely vital so every student can improve their marks before the HSC Examinations.
Students who are only focussed on marks/grade, are not focused on improving their learning as the feedback you receive is the most critical aspect of a task. Alternatively the feedback you get in every day lessons, is also critical to set personal goals and to aim to improve.
Lastly, when a student gets any feedback, self reflection is important. Consider the learning intention and success criteria.
Where are you at with your learning?
How do you know?
What do you need to do to improve?
How will you ensure improvement occurs?
