OVERVIEW OF GRANVILLE BOYS HIGH SCHOOL
For my Professional Engagement placement, I was assigned to a UNSW ASPIRE program school, Granville Boys High School (GBHS), an single-sex government school situated in South Western Sydney. Due to its geographical location in one of the most multicultural regions in Sydney, with 95 per cent of the school’s total of 488 enrolments classified as Language Background Other Than English (LBOTE) students. Most students attending the school live in the surrounding Holroyd/Auburn area, with a large majority of students from Arabic or Muslim backgrounds. Additionally, there are recently arrived students from Africa and students with South Pacific Islander backgrounds. As well as being classified as a
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Currently, there are a total of 114 students enrolled in Vocational Education and Training (VET) courses
The Australian Government’s Productivity Commission (PC) highlights the importance of schools to minimise disadvantage in schools. It is crucial for schools to adapt teaching and learning programs that respond to the individual needs of students by recognising and addressing underachievement. In addition to quality tailored programs, quality teaching by highly trained staff is also quality learning. (PC, 12)
As a school, GBHS tries to cater to the needs of students and support them. The school employs teachers, librarians, a careers advisor, counsellor and a Learning Services faculty (My School, 2014). Within the Learning Services Faculty, Learning Support teachers work to build inclusive classrooms that cater to the needs of students. They work in collaboration with subject teachers, and they help by teaching ESL programs, and using diagnostic assessments such as Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT) to determine learning difficulties and student progress.
GBHS aids students by identifying the ways in which factors can influence learning. Early identification is important as it helps schools provide opportunities and tailor specific pedagogic strategies to compensate for the lack of support students get on their own. (PC 2012). This is done through early testing and assessments that monitors
Ahmed had begun attending Granville Public School in 2015, after arriving to Sydney the same year. After meeting with the principle, a regional panel determined his placement in one of the support unit classes for students with mild intellectual development (*note that he was not placed in a mainstream class with additional support due to not speaking or reading English properly). For more than a year, teachers recorded that Ahmed conveyed:
The government’s expectation for teachers to achieve outstanding has been slowly increasing and has been placing educators under more stress for their pupils to succeed. The delivering of the curriculum should be the most important aspect of a child’s school vocation as this provides them with the foundation of knowledge they will need to gain employment in the future. The expectation from the government on schools within the United Kingdom is to consistently be providing respectable exam results annually and this is how they are being judged by such departments as Ofsted. Should the teachers be continuing to stay within the guidelines of the curriculum? Or should more emphasis be put out there to question whither effective primary teaching is all about just delivering the curriculum to children or based on annual exam results that are collected each year to critic the educational setting. This essay will critically discuss what effective primary teaching is and cover if teaching and learning is really all about results rather than nurturing the child to be prepared for life.
With the world renown hallmark as the ‘lucky country’, it can be difficult to comprehend how the very people we have to thank for the prosperous land on which we live, are amongst the most disadvantaged in the world, rivalling many from developing countries. The dispossession of land, displacement of Australia’s first people and unremitting discrimination since European settlement, has given rise to intergenerational disadvantage in areas such as education, employment and health (***). Whilst the three areas are intertwined, education is unmistakably a quintessential vehicle for building resilience and improving socioeconomic outcomes for Indigenous Australians(***). Teachers and schools alike play a key role in acknowledging and addressing past and present injustices through:
Curriculum is designed to develop successful learners. Confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens (MCEECDYA, 2008, p.13). In 2008, the Australian Government promised to deliver a fair and equitable curriculum for the national’s educational system, taking the task away from the State and Local Governments. The purpose of this was to create an even level of education throughout the country whether in Hobart of Cape York, and to ensure our nations position into the 21st century. This essay will demonstrate the Nation’s curriculum, its structure and development ready for its initial implementation in 2011.
As we are all gathered here today in this humble Australian classroom full of life, love and learning we are accessing what we are entitled to, and that is educational equity which is a measure of achievement, fairness and opportunity in education. The former president of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy said “A child miseducated is a child lost”. A strong early education increases a students likelihood of attending a good college / university, and achieving good educational standards. Australia and America have some similarities.
Australian higher education establishments aim to enhance the learning experiences of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. The goal is to increase access to and participation of all groups in the community.
When meeting to discuss the educational goals that would apply to the curriculum for Australia, The Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs [MCEECDYA] committed to promoting equity and excellence and providing the support that young Australians need “to become successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active informed citizens” (MCEECDYA, 2008). The Australian Curriculum is designed to be world-class, providing challenges for students that prepare them for life long learning (ACARA, 2011b; Brady & Kennedy, 2010). The aims of the Australian
Though this policy attempts to achieve a support of diversity and an increase of equity among the Victorian community, its affects are hindered by an education system that favours the middle class and above. As stated by Reid (2013, p. 13), the equity espoused within policy ‘is produced by policy processes which are counterproductive to the achievement of equity.’ This means that, in order to really achieve equity for all students, the education system needs to
I am currently at a placement site, where there is not much diversity when it comes to race. Many of my students consider themselves white or non hispanic with the exception of seven students. Out of those seven, two identify as African American, three identify as hispanic and the other two identify with two or more races. Besides race, I have diversity amongst gender, socioeconomic status, learning styles, accommodations, and modifications. My classes are comprised of more females than males who come from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. Some of the students come from well off families with occupations such as pastors, educators, military personnel, business owners, and doctors while others come from farmers, grocery store workers, restaurant employees and construction workers. Though there is nothing wrong with the occupations of the parents, it is obvious that there is a difference between the
In exploring the Australian Curriculum, it becomes apparent that this curriculum was developed to encompass a wide range of skills and abilities that will be needed to enable young Australians to become productive and successful members of society of the future. The influence of a range of different curriculum models and education theories has bought together a comprehensive overview of what the Australian education system will deliver and how this can be accomplished.
The week of September 11th through September 15th was extremely busy both at Trautmann and Alexander High School. I began my week by working a full day at Trautmann where I started accessing DMAC to pull data and print reports on my students who fell under special education, ELL, and 504. After school on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, I reported to J.B. Alexander. At that time, my mentor and I began working on setting up a plan to assist those students who have not passed their English STAAR exam and who are currently seniors. We started by printing out various data reports off of DMAC so that we could begin analyzing the data results for those students. Also, I began learning the ropes on some of the administrative duties that the Assistant
Our class has been based on the center for Multicultural Engagement pillar. CI’s Multicultural Engagement mission pillar is an advocate for bringing diversity into the school. Therefore, this mission pillar correlates with the National Bubble Theme. The pillar engages students with different cultural backgrounds like me to value and respect ethnic, racial gender, sexual, national, religions of other students. I take this pillar for granted, it motivates me in fact to be appreciative of such a diversity culture at CI. Overall, the mission pillar makes feel welcoming to the school, and make me realize that every student at CI are achieving the same attainments, a career. Being informed of multicultural to our students at CI can beneficially fulfil
Australia is very a multicultural and diverse country. Consequently schools are faced with many diverse students of different abilities and backgrounds. To ensure equity and fairness among students, policies and legislations have been put into place to ensure diversity is being catered for and that no student is being excluded from the education system. Some of these policies and legislation include: The Disability Discrimination Act 1992, The Salamanca Statement, Disability Standards 2005, Inclusive Education Statement, Disabilities Services Act QLD 2006 and the Melbourne Declaration.
Regardless of the financial costs of education, statistics show in the years from 1983 to 1996 numbers of students in tertiary education doubled and retention rates within secondary schooling reached new heights, rising from 40.6% in 1983 to 71.3% in 1996 (Jamrozik, 2009), clearly placing education as a high value within the Australian society and becoming a lifetime pursuit for many people. However historically, the changes that have occurred over the years, have reinforced Australia’s problem with social inequalities within the education system.
Under-achievement is a threatening position to educators and can be a disruptive force throughout education systems. The idea of under-achievement suggests that the systems is at fault because students do not reach their potential under the guidance of that system. The purpose of this essay is to analyze the idea or terminology of under-achievement in the context of my specific teaching scenario. I will present my argument by first, introducing literature that has been specifically enlightening towards the subject. This essay will then highlight my personal experiences with this phenomenon in my own class room and how certain experiences have helped me define what under-achievement actually is and can help me recognize its features in the future. Lastly, this essay will offer some guidelines in fixing the problems that will be indentified in examining under-achievement, and focus on strategies that may be useful in improving this particular area of education and learning.