School of Education

102605 Secondary Professional Practice Community Engagement

Report

Pre-service Teacher’s Name: Tayla Nicholls

Pre-service Teacher’s ID: 18606762

Professional Experience Session: From: 30/01/2020 To: 05/03/2020

Quakers Hill High School

Name of Educational Setting:

Number of Hours 60 hours

Maria Romerosa/Jason Kantek

Supervisor’s Name/s:

Description of Educational Setting:

Quakers Hill High School is a public co-educational high school located at 70 Lalor Road Quakers Hill NSW. The
school caters for students from Year 7- 10. This placement has been undertaken every Tuesday and Thursday from
January 30th 2020 to March 5th 2020. This placement involved working within the school’s Wellbeing Faculty
primarily undertaking SLSO duties and occasionally assisting with admin duties.

Summary Comments:

Tayla has completed lesson observations in classes with students that have diverse learning needs and
difficulties. She has used students Individual Education Plans to provide one on one or paired in class
support; differentiating teaching and learning to enable those students to access the curriculum.
She provided assessment support for a student with IM and worked with a student with ASD and anxiety.

Using the school's student management portal Sentral, Tayla wrote detailed reports and gave feedback on
teaching and learning practices observed in class, she made differentiation recommendations,
consequently demonstrating engagement with colleagues to improve practices in class.

Tayla also provided students identified as having English as an Additional Language Dialect support and
encouragement in improving public speaking skills.

0
Final Grade: Satisfactory Unsatisfactory
x

Supervisors Signature: Date:

3/3/2020

Pre-service Teacher’s
Date:
Signature:
5/3/2020
WSU Co-ordinator’s
Date:
Signature:

1
 STUDENT TIMESHEET
Professional Practice Community
Engagement
Name: Tayla Nicholls
Name of Strand Attended: Quakers Hill High School

DATES: from: 30/02/2020 to: 05/03/2020 Total No of Days: 10 days/60 hours

Day Date Time Duties: eg. lessons taught, lessons
observed, tasks performed, other duties, sport, etc

Went to assembly, sat in and observed a range of

1 30/01/2020 On: 8:00am Off: 3:00pm classes, provided help to students.

Followed a Year 7 class all day. Provided

2 04/02/2020 On: 8:30am Off: 3:00pm assistance to lower-ability students.

Sat in and helped various classes. Worked

3 06/02/2020 On: 8:30am Off: 3:00pm directly with 2 students with learning
disabilities.

Worked directly with 1 student with a learning

4 11/02/2020 On: 8:30am Off: 3:00pm disability.

Worked directly with 1 student with a learning

5 13/02/2020 On: 8:30am Off: 3:00pm disability and assisted student with research
task.

Wrote reports on learning and teaching observed in

6 18/02/2020 On: 8:30am Off: 3:00pm classes using Sentral, as well as provided
suggestions for improvement and differentiation ideas.
Sat in and helped various
classes.

Helped EAL/D students to write speeches for

7 20/02/2020 On: 8:30am Off: 3:00pm Harmony Day. Filled out passes for EAL/D students to
leave class using Sentral. Sat in and
helped various classes.

Worked directly with 1 student with a learning

8 25/02/2020 On: 8:30am Off: 3:00pm disability, and assisted the student with an
assignment. Also provided support to another
student with anxiety and autism.

9 27/02/2020 On: 8:30am Off: 3:00pm Filled out and distributed passes for EAL/D students
to leave class using Sentral and assisted EAL/D
students with Harmony Day Speeches. Also sat in
and assisted an English class.
Sat in and assisted various lower-ability mainstream classes.
05/03/2020
10 On: 8:30am Off: 3:00pm

Preservice Teacher’s Signature:

 Supervisor’s Signature:

Professional Practice 3
School of Education
102605 Secondary PP Community Engagement
Self Reflection Form

Pre-service Teacher Details

Pre-service Teacher Name: Pre-service Teacher ID: 18606762
Tayla Nicholls

Pre-service Teacher Phone Number: Pre-service Teacher Email Address:

042 228 611 18606762@student.westernsydney.edu.au

Placement Details: If you haven’t complete 60 hours face to face you must provide
a detailed statement of how your experience meets the outcomes for Professional
Practice CE. Attach evidence.

Placement Name: Placement Phone Number:

Quakers Hill High School 02 9837 1533

Placement Address: Placement Email Address:

70 Lalor Road, Quakers Hill High quakershil-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au
School NSW 2763
Contact Person:
Jason Kantek/Maria Romerosa

Describe in 500 WORDS any features and benefits of the setting you attended. Consider
number of students, location details, age of students, types of educational programs offered
and any other salient aspects of the experience. Consider how this experience will contribute to
your development as a beginning teacher.

AITSL Standards

The criteria for pre-service teacher reflection focus, the first, second, third and sixth
standards.
 • 1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and
socioeconomic backgrounds
• 1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across
the full range of abilities
• 2.2 Content selection and organisation
• 3.1 Establish challenging learning goals
• 6.3 Engage with colleagues and improve practice

Subsidiary questions:

What surprised you about your learning in your community setting?

What research about communities did you engage with before you commenced?

What goals did you set for yourself in your service learning activities?

What do you believe the participants in your service learning project learned?

What did you learn? How will the experience shape you as a teacher in a classroom?

Professional Practice Community Engagement-

Reflection

For my placement, I attended a 10 day/60 hour placement at Quakers Hill High School and worked within the

Wellbeing and Support Unit, mostly undertaking SLSO duties and assisting occasionally with admin duties. Having

previously worked as an SLSO at Doonside Technology High School, I enjoyed the facilities and learning environment

available at Quakers Hill High School. I also quite liked how the school is a co-educational school, as I feel that it is a

good type of school to get experience because there are a greater range of students. I also liked how the school catered

towards just Year 7- 10 students because I was able to focus more on these year groups. Although I gained greater

experience with these year groups, I do feel as though not having senior year groups in the school was a downside to the

placement because I did not gain any experience with senior students. Another downside to the placement was that I did

not end up doing what was specified on the InPlace strand. However, the placement allowed me to gain more

experience as an SLSO.

One of the highlights of my placement was the EAL/D class I assisted in which I was team teaching with my supervisor

to assist students to write a speech for Harmony Day. This aspect of the placement aligns with Standard 1.3.1 as I

implemented teaching strategies for students with diverse linguistic backgrounds. This experience was highly beneficial
as it helped me to see what it is like outside of a mainstream classroom and get experience in an EAL/D environment.

One of the main benefits of the entire placement was also being able to sit in on so many classes. In particular, I found

the English classes extremely beneficial as it is my teaching area and I was able to get an idea of what my class should

look like when I am teaching. I highly benefitted from also sitting in on other KLA classes as I was able to gain a little

bit more knowledge about the subjects. Most of my placement involved working one on one with students with diverse

learning needs and disabilities, in which I aligned with Standard 1.5.1 as I differentiated teaching for these students.

This also aligns with Standard 2.2.1 as I organised teaching in a way that they understood the content, as well as

Standard 3.1.1 as I set learning goals and encouraged these students to get certain aspects of the set work done at a time,

and I set other challenging goals such as asking them questions in addition to the work, and encouraged them to try

certain activities themselves. I also displayed Standard 6.3.1 as I received and asked for feedback for my teaching

strategies from the class teacher, as well as my head teacher and implemented this feedback (such as asking a certain

student if he can verbalise answers instead of writing).

Making reports about my observations via Sentral also highly benefitted me as I was able to get an idea of the admin

program that schools use and that I will be using in my teaching career. These reports also allowed me to develop my

critical thinking skills, as I made recommendations for differentiation strategies and thought critically about the classes

that I observed. This placement was highly beneficial and enabled me to see teaching from a student/observer

perspective, information that will be highly useful in my future career as a teacher.