Schools as text looking at the whole

school
Understand the importance of effective communication with students
and colleagues to develop positive relationships.
Graduate Standards AITSL 6.3 and 7.1
Describe the school in terms of its
demographics, appearance and resources
(be general here and do not name the
school).

The school is situated in a middle class

social demographic, with 50% of its
students being born overseas or having a
parent born overseas. It is a very large
school with over 2000 students and 200
staff. The school is quite old dating back to
1977. Although it is old the classrooms
were all air-conditioned,maintained well
and the grounds are pleasant and clean.
The school has a large selection of
resources available to the staff and
students which was quite impressive, and I
utilised some of these during my time there.
It was a pleasant environment for both
students and staff.

What were the roles and responsibilities of

the teaching staff you observed?

The roles I noticed were that of teacher,

mentor and mediator. The teacher
obviously teaches in the classroom,
nurturing ideas and engaging the students
in learning. My mentor teacher also runs
programs for the gifted and talented with
study sessions set up during the year for
the students to gain extra tutelage. The
teacher is also a mediator between
students when debates may become
heated, or on school grounds during break
times. The responsibilities I observed were
that the teaching staff had to liaise with
people such as the year co-ordinator about
pastoral issues or with parents in regards to
their child and with the resource centre
about special needs students. They also
gave of their time and offered extra help
after school, they have a duty of care to the
students and they are responsible for their
presentation, being suitably dressed for
their profession.

What did you observe non-teaching staff

doing to support teaching and learning in
the school?

The library is a prime example of nonteaching staff supporting student learning.

They are open an hour before classes start
until 5pm Monday to Thursday so that
students have access to resources or a
quiet place to do homework if needed. This
is an invaluable asset to students that may
not have a quiet home life or access to the
internet at home. I also observed the
Student Centre which is where the students
are sent if the misbehave in class or are
late to school. They undertake the duties of
discipline and referral to the psychologist
where necessary as well as the monitoring
of the students in each year level by the
year co-ordinators to ensure students are
not lacking in support.

Students
You will have observed
the diverse nature of your
classes. How was this
diversity supported?

The resources centre employs Education Assistants for the

students who may need extra support in their education. In a
few classes I sat in on there was an EA taking notes of the
class for the benefit of the students under her care, as well
as helping the students with understanding the work they
were to be doing. The teacher also ensured that the lesson
and tasks were understood by all students and that the tasks
were attainable by all.