Western Sydney University, 102605 Secondary PP Community Engagement

Self-Reflection

Georgia Linnenbank (18366570)

Pre-service Teacher Details

Pre-service Teacher Name: Pre-service Teacher ID:
Georgia Linnenbank 18366570
Pre-service Teacher Phone Number: Pre-service Teacher Email Address:
REDACTED REDACTED

Placement Details
Placement Name: Placement Phone Number:
Jamison High School REDACTED
Placement Address: Placement Email Address:
REDACTED REDACTED
Contact Person:
REDACTED

For my professional placement community engagement I attended Jamison High school on

Thursdays and Fridays from 15.08.19 – 13.09.19. During this time, I was based in the library

working alongside several experienced mentors to help with minimum standards tutoring for

year 10 & 11 students, participate in reading groups for year 7 students with low literacy

ability, and working in classrooms as a student learning support officer. I was privileged and

surprised during this placement to gain valuable knowledge about different roles in the

school including teacher librarians, learning and support teachers (LaST), student learning

support officers (SLSO) and school administrative and support staff (SASS). I have gained a

new-found appreciation for the ‘behind the scenes’ work that these individuals do to

support classroom teachers and keep schools running. Working alongside these various

members of staff has helped me to achieve the Australian Professional Standards for

Teachers standard 6.3 “engage with colleagues and improve practice” (AISTL, 2011, p.20).
 My goals at the outset of this placement were to gain experience working with

students one-on-one or in small groups settings, and to spend more time working alongside

senior students, as these were skills I felt I had less opportunity to develop in my first two

placements. I feel that my work as a tutor and SLSO have afforded me these opportunities as

I have had specific students with which I have been working with over a sustained period,

allowing me build friendly rapport and positive teacher-student relationships. My minimum

standards tutoring saw me working exclusively with senior year 10 and 11 students, an

opportunity that I appreciated as the attitude and rapport building with students off this age

is very different. I did not, however, have a great deal of exposure to the stage 6 syllabuses,

and I know that my understanding and implementation in this area of teaching will be an

important element of my ongoing professional development.

The personal nature of this work allowed me to cater my teaching to the unique

needs and abilities of my students, set specific and achievable goals for my students (such as

reaching a level 3 for minimum standards, or completing an English presentation for my

reading students) and supply continuous feedback on their learning and assistance to ensure

their achievement. As such, my work during this placement has helped me to achieve

standards 1.5 “Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across

the full range of abilities” (AITSL, 2011, p.11), 3.1 “establish learning goals” (AITSL, 2011,

p.14), 5.2 “provide feedback to students on their learning” (AITSL ,2011, p.18). Overall, I

believe that my students benefited from my time at Jamison High school and learnt crucial

and transferable numeracy and literacy skills such as essay structure, grammar rules and

arithmetic strategies.
 References

Australian Institute for Teachers and School Leadership. (2011). Australian Professional

Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from