JS News: 20 October 2021

By Nick Martin, Assistant Head of Junior School Teaching and Learning

Dates to remember

• Monday, 25 October: Pre-K, K, Years 1, 2 and 6 students first day back at school
• Monday, 1 November: Years 3, 4 and 5 students first day back at school

As the end of remote learning draws ever closer, we are excited to be having more students re-join us here at school very soon. I would like to thank the parent community for their support throughout this time. I would also like to extend an enormous thank you to the staff of the Junior School for their efforts in supporting learning whilst the majority of students have been at home.

I would like to take this opportunity to share with you some developments that have been taking place in the background. You will be aware that the College is in the process of launching Nexus, a portal that will enhance the communication experience for parents. We are also in the process of reviewing and refining the way that we communicate information about the whole child with families. This includes a review of our current reporting processes. You can learn more about this by attending the upcoming Education and Wellbeing Committee open forum on 4 November at 5:30pm.

Working in alignment with these initiatives, Junior School staff have been engaged in the introduction of a Learning Management System for the Junior School called Toddle. You can watch an overview video of Toddle here. Toddle will be embedded within Nexus, ensuring easy access for parents. It also offers a Parent App which will allow parents to browse student portfolios from the comfort of their own phone!

Some of the exciting elements of Toddle are:

• It has been designed specifically for the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme.
• It streamlines our processes of planning, designing learning experiences, assessment, feedback and reporting.
• If we enter a remote learning situation again, Toddle will be used as the single platform across the Junior School.
• Students will maintain a portfolio of learning which will capture the interesting experiences from throughout each week and also document student learning growth in key areas over time.
• Parents will have access to the portfolio which will provide a unique window into their child’s learning that has not been possible before.

Throughout this year, teachers have been uploading and developing unit planners and learning experiences within Toddle. Selected teachers are trialling Toddle with students through the Toddle student app. These students have begun accessing and completing tasks online whilst teachers ensure that the technology supports our usual mode of learning. Some students are trialling the use of the ‘goal setting’ module where they can document milestones towards the achievement of specific learning goals.

We are excited to continue our implementation of Toddle when we return to face-to-face teaching soon. We have made the decision to launch Toddle with the parent community at the start of the 2022 school year. Keep an eye out for information and parent workshops early in the new year. We are excited about the enhanced opportunities that Toddle will bring for teachers, students and families.