Teaching & Learning

New learning strategies

This year, across the whole School, we are introducing some new strategies into our teaching. It is important that you become familiar with these as they will be used in all your classes.

1. Each teacher will share their Learning intentions in each class. ‘A learning intention is: what we want you to know, understand or be able to do by the end of this class or topic. e.g. today, in Science we will label the digestive system and learn the functions of each part.

2. Before an assignment, presentation or exam, Teachers will tell you what they expect from you, this is called Success Criteria. e.g. “When presenting your project I expect you to speak clearly, begin with a good opening sentence and use examples to back up your work”.

3. We have introduced a new sticker system for Formative Feedback. Formative feedback is where you find out what you are doing well or where you can improve.
These stickers can be filled in by your teachers, your peers or you can fill it in yourself based on verbal feedback from your teacher. These will be stuck into your copies after smaller assignments e.g. homework. It is important that you take note of all the feedback you receive as it will help you improve.

4. Based on feedback we received from YOU last year (student voice), we are now going to use the medal and mission sticker on each of your exams e.g. Mid- term, November assessments, Summer exams. Your teacher will tell you what went well in the exam or what areas need improvement. Using this feedback you must then set yourself a goal for the next exam.

5. At the end of each term e.g. September-October, you will be asked to fill in a Term Review Sheet for each of your subjects (new Junior Cycle). This is to help you look back at what you enjoyed, what was interesting, what new skills did you learn. Most importantly, you will now look back at all the feedback you received e.g. formative feedback stickers and medal and mission stickers. You will be asked to summarise the feedback e.g. I’m not giving examples in my answers, and set a goal for the next term e.g. “For every point I write next term I’ll give an example, especially in History.”

6. Each student must get a large lever arch folder and store ALL their exams for each subject as well as all your term reviews, this will be called your ‘Assessment and Feedback Folder’. Each time you meet your year head you will bring this folder for discussion, we also expect you to bring it to your parent teacher meetings, this will help your teacher explain to your parent/guardian how you are doing.