High expectations
A key goal of our Teaching and Learning Philosophy at ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ»ÆƬ is for all students to achieve their best. We want to see ‘high expectations embedded in teaching and learning’.
The following principles characterise the approach teachers take when working to close the achievement gap by establishing and maintaining high expectations:
Establish an ambitious academic goal for what their students’ will accomplish that some may believe to be unreasonable.
Teachers look beyond traditional expectations and instead benchmark their students’ learning against the achievement of students in the most successful classrooms in the most successful schools in the country.
Invest students in achieving the ambitious academic goal.
This involves convincing students that that big goals are possible. It is amazing what students can achieve when they know someone believes in them.
Work purposefully and relentlessly to achieve their goal overcoming all obstacles.
Teachers who are determined to ensure students fulfil their true potential show an unusual level of purposefulness and determination.
Deliberately and continually improve performance over time through a constant process of self-evaluation and learning.
Teachers work hard to combat the constant messages of lowered expectations that eat away at their and their students’ visions of academic achievement.
Students achieve more when they believe their teachers and society expect that they will achieve at high levels. Teachers set academic expectations, and they work hard to get their students to internalize those expectations. It may seem surprising but students actually want to be held to high standards.
At the Years 7-10 and K-6 Assemblies, students watched an inspirational video showing 100 different individuals who had overcome huge obstacles. The promotional video for the Paralympics ‘We’re the Superhumans’ is based on the song by Sammy Davis Junior ‘Yes I can’. I encourage you to watch the video: .
Let’s teach our children to live by the motto: YES I CAN!
Mrs Selina Kinne - Director of Teaching and Learning K-10
A Catholic School in the Salesian Tradition
