Learning Community

What is the Learning Community?

The Learning Community is a team of teachers in HCETSS whose purpose is to promote evidence-based practice around teaching and learning; we add to what’s already there.

What do we do?

This year the Learning Community is trying to completement our school’s SSE goals of UDL and homework. Based on staff feedback, we led two workshops that align with our SSE goals: one on cold calling in the classroom and one on best practice around sharing examples of students’ work.

In conjunction with our SSE goals, the Learning Community also sends out a newsletter to staff each month with links to upcoming CPD webinars and events by subject.  

Finally, the team also organised a peer observation initiative where teachers got to see how their colleagues work.

CBAs

Class based assessments or CBAs are small projects completed in class during second and third year that complement the knowledge and know-how students learn through their subjects.

They typically run for three weeks of class time, but for practical subjects, they can go on a little longer.

They do not carry any weight towards a student’s final grade in most subjects, but students do receive a separate grade based on the merits of their CBA.

For a couple of reasons, students can find CBAs stressful, but they are not something to worry about. They are quite low stakes, come with plenty of structured time in class to do them, and they are usually a chance for students to explore their interest in the subject.

Let’s briefly go through the English CBA students complete in second year for a taste of what they’re like.

The English CBA is called the Oral Communication Task and runs for three weeks. At the end of those three weeks students present to the class on the topic of their choice. It does not have to be a presentation (it could be speech, a mock interview, acting a scene from a play etc.) but most students choose to present.

The students are graded on their oral communication skills, so the success criteria focus on tone, pace, body language, projection, use of a hook, the script they’ve written etc.

The week by week is easy to follow. In week one, students select their topic or mode and start to research and prepare. In week two, students finalise their work and start to rehearse for feedback. And finally in week three, students present (or perform).

CBAs are just a chance to show off what students know or can do outside of how they’re usually assessed.