by Liz Andrews, Secondary School Principal
In previous articles we explored autonomy and belonging which are key elements of our Impact Strategy. Another important element is the way in which we learn from each other. When young people learn from each other and we harness the knowledge and skills of the wider YIS community, we can create a more impactful learning environment.
In order to support student learning through building the knowledge, skills, understanding and dispositions to learn from each other; Esther Butland, ELC teacher; Kyle Quint, Design teacher and whole school service coach; Viki Radford, Elementary Librarian; Amy Lee, Elementary teacher; Mimi Iwamoto, Elementary teacher; Susie Clifford, Director of Learning and Liz Andrews, Secondary School Principal reviewed and refined data collected from across the school community and developed the following two evidence of impact statements:
- Students connect across the school to improve learning through shared experiences.
- Connections are made within the community to improve and enrich learning.
Grade 4 students celebrate and share their learning journey with each other
One of the strengths and opportunities of being an ELC - Grade 12 school located on one campus is the potential for students to connect across the school to improve peer learning through shared experiences. This means that students can demonstrate growth in planning and creating purposeful learning activities. We have already seen this with our high school Gender Equality Movement group (GEM) who prepared lessons for their middle school peers around friendships, relationships and understanding consent and boundaries. The GEM group read, researched and prepared a proposal for the middle school leadership team, refined their material following feedback and then crafted two sets of workshop materials for students. In turn, middle school student learning is improved through these materials as there is credibility and authenticity coming through the older teenage voice.
Workshop material prepared by GEM group members for their MS peers
Similarly, the high school service group working with Honmoku Kannen Sweetpea Residential Home worked with ELC students to plan a visit to the residential home. The older students supported the learning of our ELC students in terms of understanding the possible needs of the elderly residents and how the young students could contribute. At the same time, our high school students learned how to notice and document learning through working with Ms. Ito, Kindergarten Learning Assistant.
ELC student comments after visiting the residential home
Of course, our community extends beyond students learning from their peers. The second strand looks at how we can draw on the knowledge and skills within our community to improve and enrich learning. This means looking for opportunities for students to intentionally access primary resources to improve learning; such as parent and community speakers and specialists.
We also want to ensure that parents understand the learning programs which leads to a deeper connection with their child's school experience. Recently we had secondary school parents visiting classrooms to look at learning and have students explain what learning looks like. Over the coming months we will seek out more opportunities to enhance the ways in which our community can learn from each other.
This is the fourth article in a series of five articles about the five pillars of our Impact Strategy.
Read the fifth article, Embracing Leadership and Impact.