Secondary School

Learning support in the Secondary School

Assessment

Every student’s needs are different and St Paul’s School has a strong track record in helping each student reach their full potential through strong support offerings.

St Paul’s undertakes learning assessments to determine students’ ‘readiness’ for learning.  By targeting specific knowledge, understanding and skills that students will require to achieve identified course objectives, teachers can use assessment results to plan more effectively for appropriate pedagogy and learning experiences that will meet students’ needs.

Differentiation

St Paul’s also uses ‘differentiation’ to plan strategically to cater for the diverse learning needs of students who differ in their readiness for learning, their interests and their learning profiles.

Vertical tutoring

To better facilitate student collaborations, the tutoring system in the secondary school at St Paul’s was reformed in 2017 to be structured as a mix of year levels (vertically) rather than partnering students with people simply their own age (horizontally).  We are observing that Vertical tutoring  has shifted the culture of a traditional school into one which better reflects the workplace – where people are required to work alongside people of various ages, ethnicities and backgrounds.

Vertical tutoring means that, for 20 minutes each day, 18-20 students across Years 7-12 will meet, to help facilitate mentoring and leadership opportunities for students. Each tutor group has two adult tutors – a teacher and non-teacher.  This significantly increases the potential for peer -to-peer mentoring while also building stronger partnerships between the tutor, student and parents. Ideally, students remain in the same Tutor Group, with the same principal pastoral carers, for six years, allowing strong relationships to form between the Tutor, co-Tutor, child and parents.

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