Learning Initiative
| Purpose
| Description |
| Improved writing - through steps such as 'sizzling starts' and 'ban the boring'.
| The
program breaks writing skills into clear steps to ensure students don’t get
‘bogged down’ with writing the whole piece.
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| Improved
fluency in numeracy.
| Years 1-6 work towards automatic recall of all 100 addition facts and 100 subtraction facts. Years 3-6 work towards automatic recall of all 100 multiplication facts and 100 division facts.
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Booklists
| Streamlining student readiness routines.
Supporting students so they are on task, not hunting for their things.
| Ordered at Copylink.
Please
order these for your child each year to reduce their stress.
Sample lists
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| Whole school program Improved
work presentation.
| Making
lesson preparedness, and presentation and neatness routines achievable for all.
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| Whole school program
Explicit
teaching of reading strategies for all year levels.
| Comprehension strategies, focusing on making meaning from texts. Accuracy strategies, focusing on decoding skills, especially using 'Jolly Phonics', 'Beanie Babies', 'Magic 100' sight words, and Reading Eggs in the early years. Fluency strategies, encouraging the amount of reading completed, through home reading in Prep to Year 3, and turbocharging library borrowing through use of Literacy Pro in Years 3-6. Expanded Vocabulary strategies, explicitly building vocabulary to improve comprehension
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| Supporting
better classroom interactions between students and teacher.
| Classroom Profiling is a supportive, reflective professional practice relevant to all educators regardless of their years of experience or educational setting. Classroom Profiling allows teachers to reflect on the effectiveness of their pedagogical practices they currently use in their classroom.
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| Supporting
staff professional development
| Professional development program Experienced and lead teachers work alongside colleagues to develop professional knowledge and skills.
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| Whole school program
Promoting
independent literacy learning | Students learn strategies to independently Read to Self, Read to Others, Listen to Reading, Work on Writing, and gain vocabulary in Word Work, so that teachers can target reading intervention during guided reading lessons.
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| Supporting
student learning through the use of Information & Communications Technologies (ICTs)
| ICTs are used to support student learning. BHSS recommends parents and carers allow students to have access to subscriptions for these apps in 2024:
Reading Eggs (Prep-Y2) Literacy Pro (Years 3-6). Clickview (Prep-Year 6).
BHSS
uses a range of Microsoft Office 365 apps and Apple iPad apps. BHSS
students may download a copy of Microsoft Office 365 to a device at home.
Where
staffing allows, BHSS offers older students opportunities to code, design, and 3D
print using tools such as Scratch and 3D viewer.
|
| Explicit
writing strategies
| Years 1-6 Expanded sentences is an activity that uses the construction of a single sentence to make language features and sentence structure explicit.
|
Gradual Release of Responsibility
| A teaching
model that makes expectations and learning explicit
| BHSS teachers work towards the goal of making learning explicit by using these elements: A WALT statement – the learning goal that 'we are learning to achieve'
A Success Criteria – the response required from a student An I do phase – the teacher models the success criteria. A We do phase – students have guided practice. A You do it together phase – students work with each other to achieve it.
A You do it alone phase – students work alone to achieve it.
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‘Heggerty’ phonemic awareness program
| A structured
phonics & decoding system
| A program that explicitly teaches phonological and phonemic awareness for effective decoding and encoding of English texts. Introduced in Prep, and continued in Year 1.
|
Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar
| Structured
phonics and sight word spelling programs
| Jolly Phonics includes songs, actions and activities to reinforce the link between letters and sounds. Jolly Grammar reinforces the link between letters and sounds with sight word spelling.
|
Learning Sprints | Supporting
staff professional development
| A Learning Sprint is a short investigation into an aspect of the program by a teacher or a team. It is an organisational routine that supports robust teacher team development.
It provides a simple, effective and field-tested approach to support our teachers in continually enhancing our practice.
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Maths Warm-ups | Teaching
method – an important lesson element
| A 'warm-up' is a routine part of each lesson that repeats information that needs to be recalled automatically. In our maths warm-ups, basic number facts, and the maths vocabulary needed for the day's lesson focus are repeated a number of times a week
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Positive Behaviour for Learning | Explicit
teaching of desired learning behaviours
| This is a whole-school learning program.
It has a weekly cycle of teaching and learning to reward and reinforce improved student conduct and learning.
|
Solid Pathways | An extension
program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
| Years 4-6 It is an online program for high-achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students attending Queensland state schools to engage in critical and creative thinking.
|
Spelling Mastery
| A school-wide spelling program promoting consistency in the teaching of spelling in classrooms.
| Years 3-6 Spelling Mastery is a six-level Direct Instruction series that teaches students dependable spelling skills. Year levels regroup students across classes to offer spelling lessons at their developmental level
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| Student
leadership program
| The program begins Term 4 for Year 5 students in preparation for Year 6. To qualify for a Senior Badge, teachers and Admin 'sign off' on evidence of a full range of required conduct and participation standards. Senior badge recipients are then eligible for election for range of student leadership positions in Year 6.
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Sustainability – Be Green | Continuing
a Bald Hills State School tradition of looking after our place and community.
| A whole-school program highlighting a feature of the Australian Curriculum. Each Year Level has responsibility for a different facet of sustainability learning. Prep Year – Veggie Gardens / Composting Year 1 – Bees
Year 2 – Greenhouse Year 3 – Energy Saving Year 4 – Recycling Year 5 – Forestry
Year 6 – Orchard
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Targeted Teaching
| A method
of responding to student achievement data to better focus teaching in Literacy and Numeracy
| Targeted Teaching occurs in year levels when it best suits the teaching team to regroup across their classes for parts of English or Maths teaching. This may happen in reading, writing or maths lessons, depending on when teachers identify it as appropriate for the students in the year level.
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| Essential paraprofessionals
supporting student learning.
| The Teacher Aide role is very diverse in its scope. Some specialised tasks (e.g. library operations, or special needs student programs) and many general tasks (e.g. playground supervision) require considerable skill and training to be completed effectively. A Year Level model currently is in place where a general teacher aide is assigned a majority of hours to working with a dedicated year level, and progressing with them to the next year level for two years.
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| Timetabled
alignment of teacher time for focused planning
| Classroom Teaching teams plan together for 80 minutes a week during class time. This is supplemented by an hour's planning each fortnight after contact hours.
This is an opportunity for year level classroom teachers to coordinate and plan learning programs that respond to student achievement data in a coordinated and targeted way for the following week.
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