Curriculum, learning and teaching
A game-changer for boosting students’ performance Ben Thompson highlights the importance of sharing information well in school
Working together to support students So, what’s new? Teachers have always talked to each other about their students, and these conversations can often be
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hugely beneficial. A quick chat in the staff room about a boy who is falling behind in maths might reveal that the same student is having difficulties in other subjects, for instance. Teachers can then work together to put interventions in place that help to boost the child’s achievement across the curriculum. But we wanted to take a more proactive approach. At Wynberg, we do not want key information such as details of a student’s attendance, homework marks or test scores to be recorded only to simply sit in a filing cabinet or on the school’s computer system. Our staff have an electronic dashboard of information, such as details of students’ attendance and achievement, that is pushed out to them from our SIMS management information system. They don’t need to seek it out for themselves: if they are authorised to see it, it goes straight into their hands. We’ve found that this Spring |
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The best way for a school to motivate its students is to really understand them. This is easy to say, but in a large international school with eight houses, how do you put this into practice? At Wynberg Boys’ High School in Cape Town, South Africa, we seek to understand our students better by discovering what makes them strive for excellence. Established in 1841, Wynberg has a long and illustrious history and, like many older schools, we value our heritage and traditions. I am, however, a firm believer in embracing new ideas and innovative ways to help students achieve their full potential. At the heart of this is information sharing – it is essential for helping staff across the school to keep their finger on the pulse of student progress.
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