On Tuesday 6 September Doncaster Secondary College hosted teachers from Doncaster Primary and Doncaster Gardens Primary Schools for a day visit.  Mrs Karon Alkemade has worked closely with a small team of Manningham school leaders to design a professional learning opportunity that aims to improve the transition experience from Primary to Secondary school.

Our primary school colleagues had requested to follow groups of year 7 students for a ‘typical’ school day and see them engaged in learning across a variety of subject areas.  I was able to catch up with the primary school teachers during lunchtime and was delighted to hear of their positive experiences in our classrooms.  The teachers commented on how different it was to have set times allocated to different subjects and for the students to have a range of different teachers during a single day.  They compared this to their own teaching experience where there are many days in their program where they are with the same group of students for the entire day. 

The visiting teachers were surprised at the level of excitement their presence generated with students who knew them from their primary schooling.  Students were keen to say “Hi” and catch up on the news from their primary schools.

The day finished with a structured reflection activity where the primary school teachers were able to consolidate their learning and discuss further with students what works well with secondary school transition and areas where the process could be refined.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank both staff and students who were such wonderful hosts and say a further thanks to teachers who opened their classrooms to our visitors.  In the near future, we will be participating in a similar visit from our colleagues from Beverley Hills PS and Biralee PS.  The next phase of this initiative involves our staff visiting the primary schools for a day to learn more about our future students learning experiences in the primary setting. 

The growing professional relationship that exists across the Manningham Network of schools will no doubt translate into improved learning outcomes for our students.