Message from the Headmaster
‘There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heaven’
Ecclesiastes 3:1
Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Dear Parents and Carers,
A very winsome feature of Shore, which came to my attention as soon as I arrived at the School in July 2022, was the investment our teaching staff make in teaching and learning excellence. This is not the case everywhere. It is also contrary to the narrative of many in broader society, who imagine teaching is a mechanical process and that anyone can do it. This is certainly not the case. Teaching is an artform, full of complexity and the need to fashion it in a manner which is exactly at the point of need for the class at the time. I celebrate the deep interest in pedagogy from excellent staff who are keen to be even more excellent.
Teaching changes as society changes, as the tools of technology become more sophisticated and as brain research relevant to processes of teaching and learning develops further. Teachers need to be nimble in adjusting teaching techniques in the light of research, such that their modes are evidence informed. Shore has its own STEP programme (Shore Teaching Expertise Programme) in conjunction with the Faculty of Education at the University of NSW, in order to provide opportunity for ongoing refinement of teaching skills.
Recent research commissioned by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) has identified five keys to high quality teaching. They are:
- Ensuring cognitive engagement;
- Presenting quality subject content;
- Providing social and emotional support;
- Fostering classroom interaction; and
- Formative assessment (establishing what a student knows and can do), followed by specific feedback.
At the University of NSW, Professor John Sweller has been talking for some 40 years about the issue of cognitive load. Just as he has retired in recent years, his concept has become mainstream. Essentially, his proposition is that all of us have a limit in terms of our brain’s capacity to cope on an immediate level with the flurry of new information. What teachers need to become very good at doing is helping students move new concepts and learnings from the short term memory into the long term memory where it will be retained. Not only is this necessary for deep and lasting learning, it is essential to make room in the short term memory for new information.
The craft of teaching is far more than standing and delivering a narrative!
The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has recently listed five essential skills to achieve the highest learning impact:
- Critical thinking;
- Creative thinking;
- Collaboration;
- Communication; and
- Self-regulation.
My own view is that Shore is strong in both these sets of five indicators. My understanding is that these skills of teaching have been fundamental to the outstanding academic performance of our students in recent years. A further factor is that at Shore, teaching staff are given freedom to exercise their professional judgements about what mode of teaching is required with their students at this time. Accordingly, Shore is not entirely in the camp of explicit or Direct Instruction (DI, as it is coming to be known), while recognising the pertinence of this method of instruction. Nor is Shore entirely in the mode of discovery learning. It is the role of each teacher to determine what pedagogy is required in the immediate setting. As the scriptures say, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens”. Ecclesiastes 3:1.
Achieving the “holy grail” of comprehensive excellence in teaching is a career-long quest. Anyone who thinks they have arrived by definition has not!
I derive particular delight out of accidentally or purposefully eavesdropping on discussions between Shore teachers of how to leverage their craft of excellence even further.
New School Council Member
After some attrition from Council, with very experienced members feeling they have completed their tour of duty and it is time to give way to fresh faces, we welcome Shore past and present parent, Mrs Sally Connell. Mrs Connell has had an illustrious career at high level human resources management, change management and business transformation over 25 years in a number of very well known corporate entities. With Mrs Connell’s appointment, all three stakeholder groups, the Old Boys’ Union, the Sydney Anglican Clergy and the Sydney Anglican Lay appointments have brought our Council up to full size once again. All recent appointments from these three groups are in fact Shore Old Boys, with the exception of Mrs Connell, who is a Shore student mother.
Regards
Dr John Collier
Headmaster