Ayden-Skye Ah Quay has made a promising start in her career as a Prep teacher at St Monica’s Primary School, Oakey.

Having studied psychology and early childhood education she now applies her knowledge to the personalised learning of her students.

Under the Reading Improvement Strategy (RIS) initiative of the Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office (TCS), Ayden-Skye’s students have demonstrated growth in their reading comprehension over the past 18 months. 

“As the Year 3 teacher in 2018, Ayden’s students achieved a high level of growth, measured using PM Benchmarking and/or Probe Data. 88 per cent of her students registered high growth, with 67 per cent of the class reaching the TCS reading target of Probe 8-9 [reading comprehension assessment] (reading 8.5 – 9.5). This data is noteworthy as 33 per cent of these same students reached the RIS target at the end of Year 2,” Assistant Principal – Religious Education Lisa Cavanagh says.

Regularly in contact with parents, she invites them to several open classroom times to come and see students’ work and sets information sessions regarding report cards prior to end of term results.

As a beginning teacher she works with the learning support teacher (LST), guidance counsellors and Student Support Committee to try new strategies and refine her teaching practice.

Ayden-Skye is also part of the Early Years Professional Community at St Monica’s and works with other early year teachers to hone her skills. She also gets coaching from her mentor, Middle Leader Teaching and Learning and Toowoomba Catholic schools (TCS) support staff.

She is part of a team trialling a spelling and phonics project to be implemented across the school in 2020.

Ayden-Skye attends ongoing professional development and is part of the Early Career Teachers network. For the Oakey Under 8’s Committee, Ayden-Skye worked with other early year teachers to plan a day of celebrations at the school.

With the support of colleagues and mentors to guide her, Ayden-Skye has maintained her enthusiasm and enjoyment of teaching as a beginning teacher.
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Congratulations Ayden-Skye on your nomination.