Week 2

Middle Years Schooling:

The middle years of schooling one would say from a students, teachers and parents perspective are the most challenging. For student's it is a time of change that can be positive or negative depending on the school that they attend. Parents find their child/children facing social issues that where not so impacting in their younger years of development. Teachers struggle with over sizing in classes and huge behavior management due to government policies and procedures constantly changing to try and cater to societies wants and needs.
Schools that incorporate primary and secondary up to middle years may have touched on a way of making this transgression from one to the other a little easier on the students. Knipe states 'that in the last 20 years many schools have independently or jointly tried to create a transition through orientation programs to allow for a smooth transition for the student'. (Knipe, 2007). Schools that do this create a positive experience for students and eliminate the students fears when moving into this level of education.

There are many policies/procedures around in how we can make the middle years a more positive experience. Students have also been surveyed and asked what they want, most came up with they want lessons that are fun and have real life meaning to them. Teachers need to use the curriculum and construct lessons that have a real and meaningful bases, so that students engage in the lessons and not tune out or disengage. It is my belief we have to truly look at this part of our education system as I have seen to many student turn from being 'A 'grade students in primary to 'C/D' grade after their first year in high school. The Middle Phase of Learning State School Action Plan responds to the MACER report of 2003. It has 5 key action areas that seem to may be one way of creating a plan that will be able to be put in place and make headway on Middle Phase Learning.
They are:

• Focus and accountability - embedding this into a schools planning and framework and legitimizing Middle Phase Learning.
• Curriculum, teaching and assessment- improving the curriculum to promote deeper understanding and higher levels of engagement for students through assessments based on standards at key junctures.
• Achievement- Raising the bar for all and increasing flexibility and targeted interventions to lift achievement in literacy and numeracy.
• Transition- bridging the gap from years 7,8 and 9 then into Senior Phase.
• Teachers- Support students learning and development and give recognition.

(Queensland Government, 2010).

This plan allows for a positive outcome for Middle Phase Learning if it is implemented across all state education systems not just Queensland. Our education system needs to be the same in all states to cater for students who's families move around as this also places a huge strain on these students in this Middle Phase of learning.

I have seen some schools that are implementing this and it allows for student to make a smooth transition from primary to secondary. It has made some more work for teachers when it comes to assessment and reporting, but it also makes them accountable for the students learning journey to the parents, students and education system. Classrooms are more enjoyable due to students are participating in lessons, due to the content being taught has relevance to them and less behavior management is needed allowing for learning to occur. As teachers it is our role to encourage learning but to do this the systems policies and procedures needs to be correct to allow for this to occur.


References:

Knipe, S (2007). Middle Years Schooling, Pearson Education Australia.

Queensland Government (2010). See the Future, The Middle Phase of Learning, State School Action Plan, Education Queensland. Retrieved 12th July 2010, from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/file.php/3271/midaction03.pdf.