Keegan Doherty - Year 5/6 & Student Leadership


Qualifications: Bachelor of Teaching (Primary)

Professional Interests and Expertise: I am currently in my second year of teaching and despite this being my first year as
a teacher at Christ The King Primary School, in 2017 I was a Learning Support Officer here whilst completing the final year of my
degree at Australian Catholic University, Melbourne. I was extremely excited by the opportunity to return to such a supportive,
caring and innovative school and although only being away for a year, the school has transformed in ways beyond imagination,
particularly in the areas of STEM and use of technology to enhance student learning experiences.

This year I have had the opportunity to take on the role of working closely with the Student Leadership team. So far it has been an
incredible experience to support these students in following their endeavours and establishing school-wide and community based
events across a range of areas. These included sporting events and House celebrations, supporting The Arts for our upcoming Art
Show, and student-led social justice initiatives such as our upcoming Pyjama Day to support the 'Vinnies' Winter Appeal. It has
been a rewarding experience and highly positive to see the Student Leaders growth in their confidence in public speaking and
becoming more actively involved in the community. 

Recent Professional Development: My most recent professional development opportunity has been in the area of LOTE,
more specifically, the integration of LOTE seamlessly into everyday practice. Having learnt Italian over my high school experience,
I was fortunate enough to attend the Leading Languages Professional Learning Program at the Catholic Education Office in
Melbourne. With a team from Christ The King, we experienced a range of contemporary approaches of how schools have managed to integrate a different language across subject areas as an alternative to more traditional approaches of the language being explicitly taught for
1-hour each fortnight. It was a highly beneficial experience and from observation, the student learning outcomes were much
higher with students being much more easily able to recall key language terms, recognition and appropriate use of gestures to
assist vocabulary development and further articulate their learning. Over Term 3, the Christ The King Language Team are planning
to reflecting on this experience in an integrated school-wide approach to teaching Italian.

Drive: Being a young teacher, I have always valued and recognised the importance of students fostering a “growth mindset”; believing that they can always achieve, improve and go beyond expected learning outcomes. Along with this, I value the importance of students taking risks in
their learning across all areas of the curriculum, viewing their failures as opportunities to learn new concepts and develop their
skills. All students have incredible talents, skills and abilities and as a teacher I recognise my role to provide the learning conditions and environment to ensure these flourish.  I know students learn best when they want to come to school and are enjoying their learning. Hence,
wherever possible student choice, use of creative and imaginative skills are at the forefront of all my learning tasks across all
areas of the curriculum.