Term 4 is a personal favourite of mine. It is alive with celebrations of learning, whether that be from the year just gone, or—in the case of our Year 6 and Year 12 students—a celebration of many years of learning coming to a meaningful end.
Over the coming weeks, your Concordia app will light up with invitations to come onsite and share in these moments. You may find yourself wondering (especially when the timing collides with something else in your calendar) why we invest so much time and energy into these events. The answer is that these are far more than just opportunities to see what your child has been doing.
Research from the Education Endowment Foundation shows that a child’s academic success is strongly linked to the level of parental engagement in their learning. So much so that it ranks as the second greatest-influence on learning outcomes (second only to high-quality teaching). The Australian Education Research Organisation research goes further, showing that when families engage, not only does a student’s academic performance increase, but they also develop more positive dispositions and behaviours towards learning.
Our College Wellbeing Model helps explain why. Family engagement provides psychological resourcing, helping to support motivation and provide encouragement and a sense of support. It also provides academic resourcing, as the additional conversations and questioning that take place enrich learning and provide additional cognitive scaffolding for supporting the understanding of complex ideas.
Here are some events for your calendars that we are looking forward to seeing you at:
- MADD Festival occurs this Friday 7 November (4.30–7.00pm) at the St John’s Campus, featuring an Art Exhibition and Year 3–6 performances in Wirrkuta Trukku—a brilliant window into learning across Music, Art, Dance and Drama.
- Launchpad occurs on Tuesday 18 November (3.30–5.30pm), showcasing learning from all learning areas on the Concordia Campus as well as the Primary School campuses. Following on from this will be the St John's Campus Year 6 PYP Exhibition (5.45–7.15pm), which will allow families with primary and secondary children to celebrate their learning on the same evening.
On the Concordia Campus, Learning Conversations provide an opportunity to speak with your child’s teachers about their progress. We are currently seeking feedback on how these are conducted, in readiness for 2026. We would appreciate if you could take the time to respond to an online survey to help with our planning.
Mathew Disher
Director of Learning & Wellbeing ELC–12
