Good Morning Port Melbourne Primary Community,
Highlights from the Last Fortnight
It’s been great to see students continuing their productive term over the last two weeks and engaging in community activities surrounding Father’s Day. I’m also excited to share that students are starting to learn and practice new routines in their classrooms. These routines are the foundation of our shift toward teaching methods that more closely align with what we know works best for learning. This update provides a very brief overview of some of the cognitive science principles that underpin these changes to our classrooms. You can also hear me briefly explaining some of these concepts in the video update.
Science of Learning Overview
Our new approach is informed by research on how memory works and how we can best support student learning. A key concept here is the distinction between working memory and long-term memory. Working memory is our brain’s short-term holding space, where we juggle a few pieces of information at once. However, it’s limited in capacity. To ensure that students don’t become overwhelmed—what’s known as cognitive overload—we’re focusing on methods that help move information from working memory to long-term memory, where it can be stored and recalled more easily.
This is particularly relevant in our approach to teaching reading, where we will implement explicit and systematic phonics in our F-2 classrooms. By breaking down reading into its component parts and teaching them in a carefully structured order, we ensure that students build a strong and enduring understanding of each concept before moving on to more complex skills. This method helps reduce cognitive load and supports better retention of knowledge over time.
It’s been wonderful to see staff and students make the early steps towards these practices and I’m looking forward to what’s ahead in our classrooms.
If you’d like to read more, this paper provides a comprehensive but accessible overview. As always, please reach out if you have any questions, or want to discuss anything further.
Warm regards,
