Agency Agenda #4

We are looking at meeting the other WST over the next couple of weeks which we are really looking forward to and seeing what other schools are doing and how we are tracking :)

Thank you so much for your support at the staff meeting last Tuesday. The enthusiasm around picking 2 target children and focusing on trying to move them from 'at' to 'above' was great and we are looking forward to working with you during this inquiry. We understand that time is very tight and so this focus can become either be an add on to your current collaborative team inquiry around writing or take over what you may have already started (or not started...). Like we said in the meeting there is only a term and a half to go but these children may be passed on to next years teachers or you may in fact achieve this goal by the end of the year! Now it is important to look at why your particular students may be underachieving and how you can change your practice to help them succeed.

The hunches that came up as to why these students may not be 'above' included:

• Associated with negative feedback, not as much success
• Teacher's perception of ability / high expectations
• Not seeing the point to writing / authenticity / not inspired / lack of motivation / engagement
• Fixed mindset and lack of confidence / self perception / 'at' is OK? / that'll do
• Lack of automaticity with handwriting, punctuation and spelling. Too focused on neatness?
• Quiet, just get on with it, middle of the road, under the radar
• High achievers experiment with vocab and take risks (increase vocab?)
• Unsure of how to move forward, not as good at self-regulating, how to overcome struggle
• Not enough teacher time (too focused on target kids and high achievers), teachers stretched for time, moving on too quickly
• Other learning areas come easily but not writing
• Choice is difficult
• Have the ideas but transfer to paper is difficult
• Checklist mentality
• Negativity around editing and re crafting
• Attention span

Feel free to copy this in to your collaborative inquiry!

What a great meeting we had with Louise on Tuesday. Lots of ideas she shared with us would be great to use with those target children. We are wanting to create a digital space for exemplars from Bayfield students. Watch this space...

Timeline

Friday 24th August:
- Please send us the names of 2x target children per teacher. We will look at their previous years data and look at trends e.g. have the ever been above? Are they above in other areas? We will share this information with you
- Also let us know if you have any suggestions for the Students Reviewing Writing doc that we gave to you at the staff meeting

Weeks 6:
Talk to your target students and get more detailed student voice from them

Weeks 7-9:
Focus on your target children and perhaps introduce the Students Reviewing Writing (or What Great Writers Do) doc with them. Try and make the time to conference with these kids. Could perhaps have one teacher or LA take the target group from your team for extra writing session/s that focus on the hunches you have developed for your particular children. Keep a record of anything you've tried on your collaborative writing inquiry on OneNote

Tuesday 18th September:
Louise Dempsey staff meeting and WST presenting to the BOT

Tuesday 25th September: 
We will come in to your classrooms and talk with your target students and discuss what the next steps may be for Term 4