Communion of Saints Strand

ST DOMINIC GUZMAN, ST CATHERINE of SIENA, ST ROSE of LIMA, ST JOSEPH

In term 4 from weeks 2 to 6 we will be teaching the Communion of Saints strand. As this is one of the last strands of this year when we come together to celebrate our learning (during Whanau group time) we want to have a dress up as your saint day. This will be near to the feast days for All Saints and All Souls and children can share why they are inspired by their saint and what they have learnt about and from them.

I have also created a Pinterest Communion of Saints folder to share between staff to access resources and ideas.
Communion of Saints- Pinterest board

We have started to track children who may require extra teaching in this unit based on assessment information from 2014's teaching of Communion of Saints.
Teachers can access this private link below:
Targeted Children

Each Strand we meet as a staff to prepare for teaching the Communion of Saints strand we look at church theology and the requirements of the curriculum and in 2014 we agreed on three key concepts of church teaching we want children to develop as they move through the school:

1. Mary is our first and most important saint because of her special relationship with Jesus.
2. The Communion of Saints means all the members of the Church - living now, in purgatory and in heaven.
3. The choices we make on earth affect what happens when we die, we will be judged on our choices.

-Teachers also receive Posters displaying this main concepts with possible answers the children could say and illustrations that link to the messages. These are displayed in each Hub (classroom) area. 

Break Down of Main Concepts Taught at each year level

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1khj2m6f4PWV-jzmv5yQ8itSjvIovMHEHC1nt2ZQspr4/edit 

SOLO rubric for Communion of Saints

https://docs.google.com/a/stjoseph.school.nz/file/d/0B5kVPCsXjRbYd0JfUk9XYWZzNWM/edit

Test - Teacher's Marking Guide 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jpx3RVwaUTfWyTlSgwcnGZrvOF9s4QY91mOAl6Q54Ec/edit

Communion of Saints Test (year 3+)

https://docs.google.com/a/stjoseph.school.nz/document/d/1IdperFaIvFaxcOEpL33D7VUhQFBAzH_rm9wlzbXxH7Q/edit

Data entry for Communion of Saints

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17k3Vp9IZw9d0P-SGVDiVkd9U7KUSlkThQ4yCOlAHrXw/edit#gid=2

Sacrament Assessment

As I have stated previously in 2014 we decided as a staff on four concepts that we would like our children to gain through our Sacrament strand teaching.
1. Grace is God's love and strength working with us and the world.
2. Sacraments bring grace.
3. Know the seven sacraments.
4. Know the signs and symbols of the sacraments.

These four concepts will be the context of the Sacrament strand teaching throughout the whole school. We do continue to teach the learning outcomes for the Religious Education curriculum at each year level in context of these four concepts.

We agreed:
For the Junior Hubs the class teacher will decide the content of the assessment to make their overall teacher judgement. This will be entered on the assessment gathering file and the children will be marked out of 4  for concept 1. (1= uni-structural, 2=multi-structural, 3=relational, 4=extended abstract) for all the other concepts out of 7. Teachers new to our school are supported by a tagged teacher and Overall Teacher Judgments (OTJs) are formed in hubs. Our next step is to look at forming OTJs across the school.

For years 4-8 we will take the same test but leave it open for the children's answers. We would expect achievement to be shown mainly in the context of their year strand. For children to show mastery it should be clear that their understanding of their year level work is linked to some of the main concepts we want them to understand (above).

These are our second comparative results for the Sacrament strand. As we are tracking over three years we are tracking the year 1-6 cohorts of 2014.

Our results at this stage show that all groups have exceeded their two year projection, over one year.
We also look together as a staff at the children who need to be targeted following our assessment of the strand. These children are looked at by the whole staff at the beginning of strand meetings so we are aware of the children who have gaps and can support them in their learning.
As teachers we are all live long learners and this term and 5 of our teaching staff are studying towards a diploma in RE (Through the Catholic Institute of New Zealand). Our current paper is on Understanding Sacraments with Father Patrick Bridgman. We are gaining a deeper understanding of the Sacraments and can implement our new learning into our teaching.

God Strand Preparation for Meeting

God Staff Meeting - Term 3, 2015

Meeting date: Wednesday 19 August, 3.15, in Ruma Koru
Purpose: 1. To review and interpret previous assessments.
2. To reconnect with the theology and curriculum progression behind the God strand, and
3. To revise the  key ideas we want children to understand and deepen as they move through the school.


Any files containing student information are private to us.  Everything else is public.
Our first step  is to review our assessment information from 2014 and see who our targeted learners are. How is this reflected in our teaching?
1. Review from 2014 the "end point" for our school leaver of what we would like them to know about God

Step 1: Have a look at the key learning objectives for each year level: https://docs.google.com/a/stjoseph.school.nz/file/d/0B5kVPCsXjRbYMTN6SFFxa2lTS0E/edit

Step 2: Have a look at the SOLO assessment rubric  https://docs.google.com/a/stjoseph.school.nz/file/d/0B5kVPCsXjRbYTVZZaXVzd1gwVUE/edit

Staff Meeting God STrand

Assessment to be added here

Holy Spirit Whanau Groups

At the end of each learning strand we meet as a school in our whanau groups to share what we have learnt. It is such a special time where you witness brothers and sisters learning off each other. All the children return to their classes buzzing with information and proud of what they have shared. We try to have our celebration whanau groups followed by our assessment. Here are some short clips of some of the whanau groups sharing. They always begin with the Gospel of the week and a pray before sharing.

Sacrament Strand Meeting Term 3

An overview of the assessment for 2014 is at:
https://docs.google.com/a/stjoseph.school.nz/spreadsheets/d/1Bvvd8tiOr9feP6oxufM_frs96VYf4pxiK8lZg1tp0zU/edit#gid=0
Please have a look at these links in order to support your learners in 2015. Pay particular attention to the targeted learners in your hub group
 It would be a good idea to also review some of the key concepts taught from the previous year level with your class. 


Mrs Brookes & Miss Gray- holy things
Mrs Burke - Baptism
Miss Day - Reconciliation
Mrs Dooley - Eucharist
Mr Cartlidge - Sacrament of Anointing
Miss Huls - Confirmation
Miss Tangney - Holy Orders
Mr Moore - Marriage

Read the theology for Sacrament at the beginning of your strand book. Before teaching the strand 
Read through the key concepts at each level
https://docs.google.com/a/stjoseph.school.nz/file/d/0B5kVPCsXjRbYMkRLNThIUmRSQUE/edit

If you have any resources or links that you use for Sacrament please share them in the resources folder.
https://drive.google.com/a/stjoseph.school.nz/?tab=mo#folders/0B5kVPCsXjRbYdmpMcnM4aFJTRGc

Here is the agenda for Week 1's meeting: Prayer Sacrament meeting

From blessedmotherchurch.com

The test for year 4+ is here:

https://docs.google.com/a/stjoseph.school.nz/document/d/17gMt0_VjM_dpwohZzlEecnW61-3L2-mmQ4bhwB4yvp8/edit

The spreadsheet to enter assessment results is here:

2015 Sacrament Assessment

For years 1-3 use please use your own questions based on what you've done and enter on the spreadsheet.

We agreed we would test on the last Thursday (20th of August) of the Strand timetabled after our whanau groups.  Please enter assessment information as soon as possible.

Church Assessment 2015

In 2014 we decided on four key concepts that we would like our children to gain through our
Church strand teaching.
They were:
- The Church is the people united with God
-We all have a role in the Church
-Formal roles within the Church
-The Mission of the Church

These four concepts will be the context of the Church strand teaching throughout the school.  We continue to teach the learning outcomes for the Religious Education curriculum at each year level in the context of these four concepts.

We agreed:

For year 1-3 the class teacher will decide the content of the assessment.  This will be entered on the assessment gathering file and the children will be marked 1= exposed, 2=achieving, 3=mastered. 

For years 4-8 we will take the same test but leave it open for the children's answers.  We would expect achievement to be shown mainly in the context of their year strand.  For children to show mastery it should be clear that their understanding of their year level work is linked to some of the main concepts we want them to understand (above).

These are our Second comparative results for the Church strand.  As we are tracking over three years we are tracking the year 1-6 cohorts of 2014:

Our results at this stage show that some groups have already exceeded their two year projection, over one year, Particularly at the Senior end of the School where they cover more concepts than the Juniors.  

We decided at our Strand Staff meeting for Church strand that we needed to moderate our marking and that making OTJ's in our Hubs will work and also supporting Beginning Teachers new to the programme. We also try to do our assessment straight after our school wide celebration of learning in Whanau groupings.

FOR TEACHERS:

Specific assessment information is available at:

Church  2015 assessment: click the link below:

2015 Church Assessment

Church Assessment Overview Year 1-6 2015

and the year level breakdown of comparisons from 2014 is at: Comparison 2014-2015