MS Readathon

The MS Readathon challenges kids to read as much as they can in August and raises money for vital support services to families with multiple sclerosis. 

The stats so far are:

• 15 students registered!
• $673 out of the $1000 goal raised (wow!)
• 16 Books read so far (what a great head start for reading in August!) 

 CLICK HERE TO REGISTER YOUR CHILD OR CHILDREN TO READ and then join our school! 

Co-Teaching

Being at St Benedict’s you may have heard the teachers or children talking about Co-Teaching! Have you wondered what this actually means? I will endeavor to give you a snapshot into co-teaching at St Benedict’s. Co-teaching is the practice of grouping teachers together in classrooms to share the responsibilities of planning, instructing, and assessing students. Overall, this means teachers in each of the year levels are working together to plan for, review, and evaluate teaching and learning. Two, three, or four heads are better than one, right!  Furthermore, many teachers at St Benedict’s also deliver the teaching collaboratively. Co-teaching within the classroom can look different throughout the day. Some ways that teachers may co-teach include: 

• Team Teaching: Both teachers teach both classes for an explicit lesson (these are short sessions and age appropriate)
• One Teach, One Support: One teacher teaches and the other assists (again, short sessions)
• Parallel Teaching: 2 classes are split into 2 groups (sometimes by classes, sometimes in a different way) and are taught by 1 teacher. 
• Station/Group Teaching: Students work independently and collaboratively while both teachers take groups for guided learning. 

At St Benedict’s we value collaboration immensely, for staff and students. This is shown in the way the Leadership Team has a shared office with our principal, the staff collaborate when teaching and planning, and our students collaborate with each other many times throughout the week. 

Some benefits of Co-teaching and Co-planning include: 

• More heads are better than one! Co-planning encourages teachers to bounce ideas off each other, and use their own unique expertise, to plan the strongest, most creative lessons.
• Students are able to connect with different personalities.
• All students are included which increases self-confidence and self-esteem, academic performance, and increased social skills.
• Strong classroom communities.
• Teachers have shown to have increased professional satisfaction, opportunities for professional growth, and for personal support. They also feel more energised, creative, and have more fun teaching. 
• Provides for more on-task time as both teachers are able to manage behaviour.  

I found this wonderful quote in a report called ‘School Learning Environments and Change.’ “Will co-teaching solve all education problems? Obviously not. But in the hands of two teachers who are committed…, co-teaching enables them to create an excellent, joyful classroom community in which adults can teach and students can learn at their best.”  I am so proud to work in a school with such dedicated and innovative teachers. 

Yours in Learning, 

Aleesha Rockemer

(Learning and Teaching Adviser)

Quest for Knowledge
Quest for Knowledge is an “It’s Academic” style competition where teams of Year 6 students from the Diocese of Townsville compete using a ‘first-in’ buzzer method answering a series of questions which cover literacy, numeracy, general knowledge (incorporating areas such as science, history, religion/scripture and tradition), Indigenous studies and current affairs. 

Congratulations to our team for 2022:

 Sarie Beeton, Peyton Toigo, Sophia Van Der Ros, Scarlett Torkington and Macy Smith.