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).

What were the roles and

responsibilities of the
teaching staff you
observed?

The school I went to was a government school and in a lower

socio-economic area with a high majority of indigenous and ethnic
students. I found I had fewer resources and students had access
to less resources than they might receive if they attended a private
school. The school however, was well-kept and neat, there were
broken facilities and some graffiti but other than that, it was
relatively well-kept. Students made an effort to look presentable
and adhere to uniform regulations.

Because of the influx of the new year 7 students, the teaching staff
had a lot more responsibility than the previous year. 3 HASS
teachers had to undertake extra physical education/ health
education classes despite having no qualifications due to having
more students and less teachers/resources. This added an extra
strain to these three teachers.
My mentor teacher undertook a basic teacher centered approach
to teaching. However, another teacher I observed she took on a
different role from just teacher. She was caring and acted as a
therapist to some kids and was very student-learning oriented.

EDN550ProfessionalExperienceInformationforPreServiceTeachers2015

What did you observe

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

As the school had a lot of students considered academically

at risk, there were a lot of Education Assistants who sat in to
lend a helping hand. I found, these EAs were less contentfocused and focused more on behavioral management and
could read the students they were assigned really well. One
EA who sat in on our year 10 HASS class, was amazing.
She quelled any misbehavior in an instant and was quick to
help a student in need if my mentor teacher was preoccupied.

Students
You will have observed
As aforementioned, the school had a high enrollment of
the diverse nature of your Indigenous students and due to the specialized rugby
classes. How was this
program,a high Maori attendance.
diversity supported?
My mentor did not really cater for this diversity but the school
itself did. There were indigenous EAs who sat with individual
indigenous students to help them learn/understand the work
that was being assigned.
The school had two specialized classes that catered for the
different learning levels. One was Academic Curriculum
Extension program (ACE), that offered students considered
bright, work of a higher level to make sure these students
were challenged.
Another program was the Students at Educational Risk
(SAER). These students were considered students who had
lower learning capabilities. The work was approached ina
different way (less coursework and more inclusive,
interactive learning activities).

EDN550ProfessionalExperienceInformationforPreServiceTeachers2015

Function of Schools
Did you observe the
connection of your
schools with the broader The school I went to had a Maritime studies program that had
community? How did this connections with the local naval base and the school had a good
relationship with the naval base. Parents were kept informed of
happen?

school initiatives and programs via emails and pamphlets.

Individual parents were also kept informed of their childrens
successes/misbehavior via letters sent. There was one instances
where a child was misbehaving so my mentor brought the parents
in and they both worked on a behavioral plan for the child and the
parents left optimistic and with no ill-will

What do you think the

function of school is?

The function of a school is to socialize appropriate behavior,

develop social norms and values, allow students to develop skills
that will benefit them after schooling, pass culture on to the next
generation, allow for social mobility, allow for students to express
themselves creatively, offer opportunities for further learning.

EDN550ProfessionalExperienceInformationforPreServiceTeachers2015