Teachers attend development day

Teachers from St John the Baptist Catholic Primary School joined Catholic school teachers from across the Central Coast in a staff development day on Monday, October 17, at The Entrance.

The workshops were conducted by professors from the University of Auckland and focused on how the teacher could improve the learning outcomes for all students.

As a result of the lectures and workshops, the school resolved to set a course to build upon the work already started with spelling and maths.

"Already this term the staff now undertake 10 minutes basic drilling of maths facts prior to the start of each maths lesson to complement the use of concrete material to build maths understanding," said principal Mr Frank Cohen.

"Something similar will also commence with how we teach spelling so that all children for each grade of learning understand all rules and conventions linked for each chronological age group.

"Our NAPLAN results over the past few years indicate that as a school compared to others similar to ours we are doing exceptionally well.

"However, it is our goal now to aim for higher benchmarks and the work completed on Monday is one more step in realising this," he said.

Newsletter 19 Oct Frank Cohen, St John the Baptist Catholic Primary School