Jigsaw Semester 1 2012 - International Grammar School

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Staff profile Meet Jacqui Baker Jacqui Baker moved into the newly-created role of Assistant Principal–Academic Programs K–12 earlier this year. Having taught high school maths for the past 19 years, she tells Jigsaw about some of the challenges and visions of her new role… Q: Tell us a little about your teaching background JB: When you teach maths, in particular to the highest levels where the content is so abstract and theoretical, you can lose sight of the context in which your content is driven. It is a bit like teaching a bag of skills and tricks with nothing to pin it on. This can become very disconcerting for students and teachers. In all subject areas and particularly in maths, I believe that as teachers, we must show students that there is a driving context to their learning. Q: What do you hope to achieve in your new role in Academic Programs? JB: I am anticipating that my new role will give me the opportunity to develop an overview and scope of the context of learning for IGS students. It is not unusual in most schools for teachers to go about their business, teaching their content, and teaching it well, without the greater vision of what their students are learning in other subject areas. I would like to help teachers and students to ‘join these dots’, so to speak. There is nothing more satisfying for a teacher to experience than their students having that “ahh I get it” moment or that constant nagging “have you marked our assignments yet” because they genuinely want to receive feedback on their learning. Q: There are constant changes in curriculum and assessment and the next two years will see a lot of movement, for example, the new 'RoSA' replacing the School Certificate, a National Curriculum— and then there’s IGS’s own IB Consideration Study. How will you negotiate or co-ordinate all this from the ‘hot seat’? JB: Co-ordinate is the key word here. You can’t possibly sit in this seat and think that you would have all of the answers to questions that have taken years and years of academic thought and inquiry. I truly believe that the answers for IGS lie within our whole community, staff, students and parents. We do have all the necessary expertise available in our community to determine our curricular needs and direction for this school. My task will be to source and access these answers, provoke the right discussions with the right groups and to synthesise the information obtained. Q: Are there other issues at play for the way we learn into the future? JB: Most of my own school friends now have careers that did not exist when I was at school. Yet, when I was at school with them, I don’t think that they were learning the skills or content that they would need for their careers. It is an information world now and we have access to information at our fingertips. When I was at school, the skill to learn was the ‘how’ to access information. That, in itself, took up most of our time. Now, it’s the ‘what’ we will do with this information. There’s the ‘what’ information we will value and the ‘what’ can I do with the information. The other issue is that the curriculum has now widened. The curriculum is 4 Above: Ms Baker chats with visiting teachers from Boston University not limited to the classroom. It is all that we come across in the classroom, in the school buildings, in the playgrounds and of course, in our virtual classroom, street and playground. Attitudes and values are formed from deep learning and understanding. Q: And what about social media and learning? JB: How we behave, our actions, are a result of our attitudes and values. The notion of good citizenship when I was at school was limited to the boundaries of how one should behave within the context of our environment. Our environment now extends to the virtual environment. That is where information is being sought, so young people need also to learn good citizenship in this extended environment. So in summary—without doubt—we cannot ignore the very real place of social media in learning. The more we ignore the place it has, the longer we wait to teach young people how best to use it in every aspect. Q: You have two children who must keep you busy. What do you most like to find time for outside of school? JB: The highlight of my week is watching my children play soccer. This is where I relax. I look forward to the Saturday morning coffee van at the sporting field and the change in scenery from the week. The other thing I will always make time for, and never take for granted, is regular exercise. I’ve learned that for me it’s the best way of managing stress. I also enjoy good theatre, film and music.
Familiar faces for our busy families The 'After Care' or Out of School Hours Care (OSHC) service allows students from Years 1–6 to fill in their time in a variety of ways—either in fairly structured Clubs or through unstructured play, homework or indoor activities. There are sandwiches each afternoon and every second Friday everyone enjoys a barbecue. Of course, at IGS, you cannot mention After Care without thinking of Manuela. Manuela Bachmann is the very small feisty lady with the German accent and the huge heart. In a former life she was a prima ballerina and now she runs After Care at IGS. She has been doing this now for over ten years and is an institution at the school. Few will know, however, that she was there right at the beginning of the School’s existence, nearly 30 years ago (see Manuela’s story below). Manuela has proved to be the most reliable, responsible and understanding of carers. Nothing is too much when it comes to the safety, comfort and care of the children, workers and parents who come into contact with her every day. Wendy Blackburn with some of her young July holiday charges OSHC also includes Holiday Care which runs every non-term day except public holidays and the extended Christmas-New Year period. Holiday Care offers excursions and incursions of every kind and is available to all students from Kindergarten to Year 6. It is popular, so bookings are essential. Just as Manuela is the face of After Care, Wendy is the face of Holiday Care. Head-hunted from another school eight years ago, Wendy Blackburn plans and co-ordinates a terrific program for the students. She is an extremely energetic and caring person who makes the care and the enjoyment of the students her priority. Wendy knows our students well as she works during the term as an assistant and this allows her to give her special care to the students on their vacation. So don’t be afraid of saying a big ‘hello’ to these wonderful women— they are very important members of our community, especially for our working families! Paul Galea, Director of Student Activities Next page—‘Clubs view’ Manuela Bachmann 5 Meeting Manuela IGS’s ‘after school care (K–6) co-ordinator’ Manuela Bachmann is the longest serving staff member at the School, having operated her Bachmann School of Dance (along with her popular husband Til) on the same site as the School in the Eastern Suburbs in the early 1980s. A former prima ballerina with the East German Ballet Company, Manuela is a ‘living treasure’ for IGS: passionate, reliable, familiar. Jigsaw caught up with her in her usual spot one afternoon—out the front of the Kelly Street campus. Manuela has held the role for 12 years after running dance as an after-school activity for several years before. When asked what led her to accepting the OSHC management role in the Year 2000 she said: “ When the dance school was winding back I was looking for the least boring job in town—and I found it! “There’s always something happening, new students to get to know and new activities. “Running the centre is more challenging than dancing Swan Lake for three hours but the kids reward me daily with affection and their humour. It can be chaos but it’s the time of day when they can enjoy quality play time in the afternoon—it’s like their home away from home”. Note: Manuela and other past and current staff and students are being invited to contribute to the School’s special Anniversary book project—30 Years of Learning Journeys. Do you have a story to tell? See page 13.
Page 1 and 2: Also Inside… Volume 16 Semester 1
Page 3 and 4: “Connecting effectively with past
Page 5: makes global connections were taugh
Page 9 and 10: Above: L-R: Lucy Howard-Shibuya, Li
Page 11 and 12: Meet the Head Boy and Head Girl Bei
Page 13 and 14: 11 As Head Girl I have learnt to co
Page 15 and 16: The Book of Everything Why IGS need
Page 17 and 18: Clockwsie from top: Principal addre
Page 20 and 21: Drama spotlight IGS is very proud o
Page 22 and 23: Arts Fest— the best of the ancien

Jigsaw Semester 1 2012 - International Grammar School

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