Schools as text looking at the whole

school
Understand the importance of effective communication with students
and colleagues to develop positive relationships.
Graduate Standards AITSL 6.3 and 7.1
Describe the school in
terms of its
demographics,
appearance and
resources (be general
here and do not name
the school).

The schools dominate demographic is middle to upper class

students. Their parents would be well off to wealthy. The
ethnicity of students is more diverse than I anticipated, with a
large number of non-Caucasian students. However, the
majority of students in the school are Caucasian.
The school is very clean with plenty of open areas with grass
and plants. The school colours and crest appear on almost
every building. The newer buildings have an interesting
design with a lot of windows and curved walls. Artwork is
utilised around the school, both in and outside of buildings.
The school has very good quality resources for a variety of
purposes. There is a projector in almost every room to
connect laptops and tablets too. If a room does not have a
projector it has a flat screen television to connect laptops and
tablets. There is a Trade School within this secondary school
with a fully equipped workshop. There is also a large,
restaurant quality kitchen for students working towards
certificates in hospitality and cooking.

What were the roles and

responsibilities of the
teaching staff you
observed?

The first and most important role of the teaching staff is to teach
their students the curriculum. It was the responsibility of every
teacher to ensure that all of their students were being taught the
required content. How they fulfilled this responsibility was up to
each individual teacher.
It was also the responsibility of each teacher to teach their
students how to learn. I had a number of conversations with my
mentor about how many students did not seem to know how to
efficiently study and learn. These students did not take
responsibility for their own learning. We took time in class to
discuss with students research and studying methods. We
discussed with different classes how to approach answering a
variety of questions in a test or exam scenario. We did this hoping
that it would help our students to not only succeed in the subject
we were teaching but in other subjects as well.

EDN550 Professional Experience Information for Pre-Service Teachers 2016

Teacher have a responsibility to represent the school that they

work at. They are expected to promote the schools values and
enforce the rules. Teachers represent the school in and out of the
classroom.

What did you observe

non-teaching staff doing
to support teaching and
learning in the school?

The library staff were very active in supporting teaching and

learning in the school. There were often multiple classes in
the library during any given period. The libraries arranged
rooms and tables to ensure that there was enough room for
each class. They also set aside the resources teachers
needed to conduct their lesson.
The librarians would also conduct lessons for classes if they
were asked to by the teacher. They gave lessons on how to
use library resources and how to appropriately reference in
assignments.

Students

You will have observed

the diverse nature of your
classes. How was this
diversity supported?

Allowances were made to facilitate those with exceptional

circumstances. There was a student with anxiety issues in
one of my classes. She had a special card that gave her
permission to leave a class at any time if her anxiety levels
rose. This gave the student a way of managing for stress.
I witnessed a great range of abilities between students which
needed to be accounted for in class. In a Year 9 class the
top students would finish an activity while the lowest
preforming students were still starting. The teacher would
have another activity organised for the faster students to
work on while they gave greater assistance to the students
who were struggling.

EDN550 Professional Experience Information for Pre-Service Teachers 2016

Function of Schools

Did you observe the

connection of your
schools with the broader
community? How did this
happen?

During a school assembly two trips conducted last year were

discussed. Some teachers and students participated in a tour
of Cambodia and others went on a tour of Japan. The tour
groups visited different schools in these nations to see how
life is different outside of Australia. This demonstrated the
schools relationship with a larger international community.

What do you think the

function of school is?

I believe that the function of a school is to facilitate the

learning of students in the subject areas they wish to pursue.
Schools need to provide the opportunity for students to learn
the skills and attributes required to become productive
members of society. A school should teach their students not
just the content of a curriculum but teach them how to be
responsible and accountable learners.

EDN550 Professional Experience Information for Pre-Service Teachers 2016