The following information was shared at the October Parents Coffee Morning. The information was summarized from research from the UK and internally from 8 different studies on attendance involving over 1 million students over 10 years. Why is high attendance important to my child's education? As a parent/carer you want the best for your children. Having a good education is an important factor in opening up more opportunities in adult life. Did you know that:
We base our approach on research studies and have looked at how attendance impacts on the overall achievement of the students. Research: UK - Department of Education.
What can we do to help? School
Parents
We believe that students learn best when they are in school, in classroom and with the teacher who understands how they learn. We are committed to recognizing excellence attendance and also supporting students who need to improve their attendance to give everyone the best possible chance of succeeding at school.
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During term 1 we have spent time looking at the start and the end of lessons, to engage the students at the start of the lessons and to reinforce the learning at the end of the lessons. We have looked at research, various techniques and shared different ways in which this could be achieved.
During term 1, every teacher had 3 other teachers visit their classroom to observe the start and the end of the lessons. During these peer observations, teachers shared practice and developed how we can create good routines to benefit the learning of the students. All observations have been documented and after this first term, below are the findings. Strategies used to start a lesson (Engage students):
Strategies used to finish a lesson (consolidate and reinforce learning):
Fundamental to managing pupil behaviour during starters and plenaries are rigorous planning and the appropriate use of a range of interactive teaching strategies. I believe every minute in the classroom is important and a well-planned lesson helps the next teacher when the students arrive to their lesson. Successful interactive starters (Start of lesson) and plenaries (End of lesson) During successful interactive starters and plenaries:
We look forward to developing this further and then sharing with you our focus for Term 2 in the classroom. I thought I would give everyone a quick update about our Parent Portal, how it can be used, and what is in there that might be of interest for Parents. For example, in this last week I have uploaded the following for parents:
Over the half term, I will be uploading more documents for Years 7-9, including information about 'Preparing for Checkpoint' and also 'Promoting Good English Skills at School'. The portal is a great place for us to share documents, presentations and other files that might be useful for you and your children. Logging in to Parent Portal: https://slims.austinheights.edu.my/ New parents receive a first time username and password that can be changed when you log into the the Parent Portal. Help with Parent Portal: Please contact Mr Fong if you have any problems or if you would like email alerts from the portal, [email protected] As usual, your feedback is very welcome. At the moment I have received a lot of ideas from parents and look forward to implementing some of these during this term. Last night we had incredible attendance to the IGCSE Exam Revision Evening. Over 120 parents and students from Years 10+11 coming in to school to join us in sharing active revision techniques, looking at research-based strategies and exam preparation advice from some of the best universities in the world. It was great to sit in groups, communicate, listen to ideas and share viewpoints. Exam preparation should be personalized as every student learns in a different way. All resources were emailed out to parents through the portal, including the following:
I used www.menti.com with parents and students able to post questions on the display in the hall about IGCSE exam revision which are being shared with teachers and students this week. I shared the following Research-based advice on student learning and revising for exams: 1. Active Learning. 2. Cone of Learning (Edgar Dale 1967). 3. Testing yourself with questions + Researching over time from 1000 scientific studies (Prof Dunlovsky 2013). 4. Mindset and Praise for Effort (Mueller and Dweck 2002). 5. Lack of Sleep impairs reasoning and memory (Pamela Thacher 2003). 6. Reducing novelty and stress of the exam day (Sian Beilock 2009). 7. Using Flashcards and memory (Hermann Ebbinghaus 1970) 8. Keywords and intervals (Bahrick, H. P. et al. 1993) 9. Foods to boost brain power (Jo Lewin) 10. The influence of Exercise on cognitive abilities (Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, Charles Hillman 2013) 11. Information viewed amid distractions (Nicole Dudukovic) 12. The Protégé Effect + Betty's Brain @ Stanford Uni (While we teach, we learn 2007) We then had discussions about which exam techniques students used at school and which they should try, depending on their preferred learning style. The students looked at how they currently revise and how they can revise more efficiently using active revision techniques. It was great to see the students get involved and talk about what they current do for their revision and also to consider how to use the examples presented.
I shared over 50 apps, websites, strategies and examples of ways to revise. Students also receive a timetable and calendar showing when their exams are. I feel it is very important to give our students every opportunity and advantage to give them the best preparation for their subject papers. A huge thank you to the parents and staff who attended last night. I hope to open up more sessions on different topics and meet you at the next event we host. This year at Austin Heights, we have encouraged student to get involved in leading Assemblies at school. Students talk about international events, celebrations and areas of interest to the rest of the school in assemblies. This helps build valuable presentation skills, public speaking skills and also develops their use of English vocabulary. One of the main positives in student-led assemblies is seeing their confidence and self-esteem improve as they take the responsibility of articulating their thoughts over a range of subjects. Bringing the community together to listen to each other builds respect, their character and a friendly togetherness.
Its a great way to start the week. So far we have covered:
Our teachers have done a great job so far in coaching and encouraging the students when they present. The role of the teacher to help support the students when presenting, guides them through any questions they might have and also enables them to have ownership over their own learning: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-centered-learning-environments-paul-bogdan Having implemented this in previous schools, I am always interested to see how the students sitting, watch the presentations closely and learn about what they will do differently or the same when they have a chance to speak. Everyone is involved in our student-led assemblies to help create the best learning opportunities possible. During the staff training, we looked at how we can check the understanding, learning and skills that have been covered in a lesson.
We talked about how we can engage students when they arrive at the start of the lesson and discussed strategies that are enjoyed by our students. We looked at: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/engage-with-7x-the-effect-todd-finley We then took a deeper look at the structure of a lesson and how we can use the structure to make sure that 'New Learning' in a lesson has been consolidated. To do this we looked at what made a successful starter and plenary activity: During successful interactive starters: • pupils engage fully in learning from the outset; • they gain an understanding of the objectives and purposes of the lesson; • there is a sense of pace; • pupils spend most of their time on-task and focused on learning; • there is an appropriate level of challenge that enables pupils to make good progress in their learning. During successful plenaries: • pupils are actively engaged; • they are given opportunities to extend and deepen learning; • they are required to reflect on and articulate how they learned; • the teacher rounds off and summarises the lesson, assessing what has been accomplished in order to inform planning for future lessons. We will follow this up with peer observations and further observations during the year to share good practice at school and measure the impact of the training we have had. They were fantastic in their willingness to share ideas, have good conversations and displayed an enthusiasm and drive to want to create a great learning experience for the students. It was a fun, interactive and enjoyable session that we feel has help equip staff with a wider range of tools to help students progress in the classroom. Our staff and Students have a fantastic on Saturday at the 'Leadership and Motivational Camp'. This was held at Golf Resort and our students enjoyed the wonderful facilities to work together and developed their collaboration, leadership and problem-solving skills.
With many activities organised by the teachers, this was a fun-packed day with the students enthusiastic and excited about working together and also in competition in various events. We left at the end of the day with a clearer idea of what good leadership entails and also how leadership can be about listening to others as well as having the confidence to get involved. I look forward to seeing how our students use these leadership skills over this year at school. We are very proud of our Student Council and Prefects and believe they play a very important role in the school community. This was a great way to support their leadership development, understanding and respect when working with others. Congratulations to everyone involved and a big thank you to all staff who arranged this experience for our students. We were delighted this week to host Amitofo Care Centre, on their visit from Malawi. This has been a reoccurring visit from a school that we have a proud and strong relationship with.
Our students at AHIS were treated to a spectacular event including, Mandarin speaking, singing, dancing and Kung Fu. It was a morning to celebrate and take time to look at other cultures and see how you can learn and be influenced by many countries in the world. This was a wonderful educational experience for our students and we were all impressed by the quality of the performances. We wish everyone in the Amitofo community safe travels and look forward to welcoming them back in the future. Dear Parents,
It has been a wonderful first day back at Austin Heights International School and a pleasure to meet so many of our members of the community in such a short space of time. We started off this morning by meeting our extremely excited students in the main hall, greeting those that were just joining today and those that have returned back from holiday. I was very impressed with the warm welcome by the students for the new members of staff who were introduced by Mr. Suresh. It was a great way to start off the day in such a positive, friendly and cheerful manner. I've mentioned several times to parents that I have enjoyed arriving back in Malaysia and one of my highlights has been how special this community is. With 26 nationalities, over 100 new students and also new members of staff, the transition has been made easy to be a part of this school very comfortably by the amazing people who live and work here. At the end of the assembly, the students were introduced to their tutors and headed off to the classrooms. I have been around the subjects all morning, meeting students, popping in to see staff and walking in to lessons. I've really enjoyed spending time getting to know the children, their names, understanding what they are interested in and also seeing them learn in a very positive and productive environment. All students today were very engaged in class, with teachers they respect, friends they enjoy working with and lessons that help them learn. It was a pleasure to walk around listening to students and seeing as many activities as possible. I'm excited about tomorrow and the rest of the year. Knowing that the staff greatly care about the students, support them passionately in their academic studies and enthusiastically encourage them in other experiences gives me considerable satisfaction already to be a part of this school. I hope everyone has had a tremendous first day back and I look forward to meeting more parents and students throughout this year and working with you. I thank you for your kind support and cooperation so far, it has been very much appreciated. Together We Excel. Kind Regards, Paul Walton In the first week of induction for staff, we have looked at how education is changing and discussed in teams what we can do for international learners now, across the world in 2017. We looked at the famous video by Sir Ken Robinson: Changing Paradigms. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U After watching the video, the staff shred ideas about the points below:
We talked about how students should be encouraged to ask more questions in class, how we can enable students to follow their passions and also how to help build thinking skills. A lot of the time was spent on looking at collaboration techniques and how we can develop these skills in class. We have shared the article below on our teaching and learning area in our staff room: www.edutopia.org/article/5-strategies-deepen-student-collaboration-mary-burns From this we looked at the deep questions about what students should learn at school? and how? At the end of the session, the resources were shared on thinking skills, collaboration and the video on how education is changing above. Our staff were very involved and discussed some interesting areas and suggested some ideas that can be used in the classroom to improve the quality of learning of our students. Further reading and information by 'Yong Zhao - Teach students to invent jobs' was shared for staff to look into: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOXAJzqm2Rw&t=440s Photos are included below from the session: |
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