Future focused learning

Questions asked after Mark Osborne spoke at our Forward to Learning evening.

How will MOE fund and support schools to implement changes to practice and approaches?

What on-going professional development is on offer to support teachers and schools in moving forward?

  • Schools are expected to set aside a portion of their operational grant each year for teacher's professional learning.

  • A number of providers offer specific courses that support teachers to develop the types of teaching practices that will enable them to teach in a way that will help students to develop the skills and dispositions that they will need to be successful in the future.

    • Teachers at Ridgway School have taken up many opportunities to increase their understanding of best practices for teaching in ways that will help our children to develop the skills and dispositions they will need in the future. These include online courses, and attendance at conferences in the holidays and weekends. Some teachers have paid for some of these courses themselves as they are keen to learn more, even after completing school provided professional development.

  • The Ministry of Education also offer a variety of Professional Development programmes that support teachers to develop their expertise. While these may not always be purely focused on "future technologies" such programmes always promote quality teaching and current best practice.

How is teacher education reflecting these necessary changes in pre-service courses so graduates are already "ahead"?

  • There are many teacher education providers and a number of different courses that aspiring teachers can undertake.  Each is likely to have it’s own strengths. New teachers receive comprehensive support and guidance once they take up their first teaching role, and all teachers undertake continued professional learning throughout their careers.

  • At Ridgway School we understand that it is important to have a diverse staff who bring a range of different strengths and capabilities as well as various life experiences and world views.  When appointing teachers we try to find people that will be able to bring something different to our team while being about to fit in to our culture. We expect to support new staff to develop any skills and understandings they may not yet have when they start with us.  

What is Ridgway's long term plan?

  • The school vision, values and charter set out our long term plan for the direction of the school this can be accessed via the Board section of our website.

  • Every school develops their own school based curriculum and ours is focused on developing the ‘skill-sets’ and ‘mind-sets’ that will enable our students to be successful in their future.  We are currently trialling our updated school based curriculum and will be consulting with the community about this during the second half of 2018.

What can parents/caregivers expect to see in our children's learning programmes at Ridgway?

Firstly see our graduate profile - this decscribes the type of student we want all children to be after 8 years at Ridgway School.

Parents can expect that Students will

  • use technology to learn, and to present their learning

  • learn skills to get along with others, resolve conflict and to express their needs and viewpoints

  • work with others from different year levels and with different interests or abilities to learn and to complete learning tasks

How can parents/caregivers support Ridgway teachers in this mission both at home and school?

Parents will need to understand that their children’s school experience will not necessarily resemble their own school experiences.  Ask questions of the school if you are not sure about what you notice and support your child by talking to them about their learning.



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