Extension & Support

Extension & Support

EXTENSION:

At St. Patrick’s’s our focus is always on the `individual learner’, providing the opportunity for every student to reach their full potential. We use a range of formative assessment to identify the needs of every student, including students who require extension. Our aim is for every student to be challenged, engaged and to show learning growth in all areas of the curriculum. Our highly professional teachers work collaboratively to ensure that all our students, at both ends of the learning spectrum, can fully flourish.

Students who consistently demonstrate that they have mastered standards and skills through their tasks are challenged with explicit teaching in the classroom to progress to the next level of work. This can include a range of tasks designed to extend these students, including:

Reading more extended and complex texts, and discussing these with peers in guided groups and literature circles
Developing knowledge of more advanced vocabulary and elements of grammar and punctuation
High order thinking tasks
Extension through creativity such as art or music projects
Being challenged to solve multi-step mathematical problems
Special programs such as Tournament of the Minds

SUPPORT:

Our expert teaching staff are extremely skilled at identifying students who require additional support. With the support of our Learning Diversity Leader, teachers and our Learning Support Officers implement intervention strategies in the core areas of Literacy and Numeracy. In addition to this support, our Reading Recovery Program supports students from Year One to reach reading benchmarks.

At St Patrick’s we work in partnership with our parents through our `Student Support Group’ (SSG) meetings to set learning goals and Personal Learning Plans (PLPs) for students where adjustments for learning need to be made.