Good afternoon Year 7 Parents and Guardians,

It is the beginning of an exciting week for our Year 7 students who are about to embark on their Independent Learning Time journey at JPC. This email is to let you know of the arrangements for the Year 7’s so that you can support them on their journey.

The Year 7 students will begin on Tuesday (27 Feb 2018) afternoon with an introduction to Independent Learning Time. In Week 4, they will be introduced to a variety of skills that they will need to be successful in ILT including organization and planning, goal setting, how to structure an assignment, and study tips. The session on Tuesday afternoon will help them plan out the Wednesday lessons including which tasks they want to complete, with which teacher, and in what room. Our aim is that students will work through this booklet and for each task to be completed by Period 1 on Thursday. The students will then finish ILT with a reflection on their work in Period 2 on Thursday. We know that the ability to work independently can be a stressful time for our Year 7’s, particularly in the first few weeks. The teachers will be monitoring them over the course of this week, and we will use their booklets as a guide to see which areas they may need more assistance or support in.

We have many parents ask us how they can support their child during ILT. I suggest these three strategies for parents.

1 - Help them and engage in the planning process. Whilst we will help them in Week 4, and there is no ILT for Year 7’s because of Camp in Week 5, the Year 7’s will need to plan effectively from Week 6 onwards. This includes nominating a room and teacher for each period, writing detail of the work in the task box, and ensuring they are writing the names of students that they want to collaborate with in the appropriate spaces. Please help them with this process by asking them about the spaces they are choosing. Are they visiting their teachers? Have they planned enough time for 2 IH lessons and 2 IMS lessons?

2 - Help them be prepared. The ILT planners need to be completed before Tuesday morning’s PC time. We also ask that students take care of their planning booklet. My advice is to get a document folder to keep it safe and prevent it from being torn when it is unceremoniously shoved into a locker.

3 - Allow them to fail. This is the hardest part of the process. We want students to be able to complete their work during ILT each week. Looking at their work is an excellent way for us as teachers to identify which supports and interventions each child may need. If they come home upset about an assignment they haven’t completed in time, open up the conversation about why it wasn’t complete. Was it because they didn’t understand parts of the task? Was it because they didn’t manage their time well? Was it because they were absent for a period of time? Each case is different and requires a different level of response from their teacher.

If you have any questions about ILT or the process, please contact your child’s mentor or contact me here at the school.

Liam Stakelum
Assistant Principal