School Report

Thebarton Senior College

About the school

Thebarton Senior College is a senior secondary college, delivering the South Australian Certificate of Education (year 11 and 12), a New Arrivals Program and nationally-recognised vocational certificates as a Registered Training Organisation. Students come from diverse backgrounds and from over 75 countries. Approximately 70% of students come from a non-English speaking background. Over 1200 students may access courses at the college in each academic year.

How they use Mangahigh

At Thebarton College, Mangahigh is used both in-class and at home. Mr. Stevens started using Mangahigh to incorporate a fun element into the learning, in which students can independently learn both maths and work on their literacy skills. The independence factor is important to the students, as they come into the college on varying levels, which means differentiation and working at their own pace is extremely important. The competitive element of Mangahigh really helps to motivate students to strive for excellence. As an extra motivation, the college awards the Top 3 every semester, which drives student engagement even more. Many students come from a disadvantaged background, and never expected to be rewarded for academic achievements.

Results

A great benefit of the Mangahigh activities is that students can go back to questions they got incorrect and use that as an opportunity to learn. Solutions are also explained, which helps the students work through their mistakes encouraging a growth mindset. Additionally, teachers can look at the efforts of the students, see where they struggled and support that topic in a next lesson. For the teachers, it’s a great tool to identify common misconceptions, but also to support individual students better with specific topics.

Summary

• School-wide use of Mangahigh, for young people learning on all learning levels

• Use Mangahigh to help students to learn independently

• Helps to reduce teacher workload, as the activities fit the curriculum

• Reports help find common misconceptions and personalise learning