As part of the Year 9 Pathways Program, teachers are maintaining our focus on competencies as part of the learning design in Science, English and Mathematics. The same competency is taught in each learning area and these teachers will be responsible for assessing student progress in the competencies of Agency and Quality Thinking. As you can see from the snippets below, the competencies are made part of how we approach the learning of the content and skills of these subjects. Thus, the competencies enhance student learning and gives us all a shared language around what great learning looks like.
Students in Year 9 have been working with the language of competencies since Year 7 and are well aware of how they operate within their subjects. At the end of this semester, you will receive another report from the University of Melbourne in the fan reports on Agency in Learning, Quality Thinking and Active Citizenship. In Semester 2, the focus will be on Agency as the foundational competency and Communication and Acting Ethically. The Science, Maths and English teachers are the New Metrics raters for Year 9. All other subjects teach, assess and report on the General Capabilities in the Victorian Curriculum (2.0)
At Year 9, with students starting to think about their first jobs, the fans can be very useful in bolstering your young person’s application. When they apply for their first position, they often have little in the way of specifics they can articulate but with the University of Melbourne New Metrics Competency report, they can demonstrate categorically, that they are able to take initiative, communicate, act ethically and work collaboratively – whatever their strengths are that apply to the position they seek. This could bring your young person’s application to the attention of a potential employer because it is an objective measure of what they can do.
In addition, students who demonstrate strong capability in Student Agency through their solid work in the Study Lessons and in their studies in English, Science and Maths, can apply for a Study Passport in Term 2. A Study Passport allows a student with high agency to study independently anywhere in the school instead of remaining in the Study Hub. They attend the Study Hub and have their names marked off and indicate to the teacher where they are going to study in that lesson and off they go! Moreover, as we introduce Augmented Learning through Term 2 for Term 3, students will need to demonstrate that they can indeed be responsible for their own learning, if they want to apply for an online course. This is because they will undertake the course on their own (with support from a teacher who touches base) from universities across the world to personalise their Year 9 experience. More information on that will follow.
So, as you can see, developing students’ competencies start to make a significant difference in school and out in the world.
Should you have any questions, please contact me at the College.
Jo Ryan
Assistant Principal (Student Learning and Wellbeing)
