Understanding Student Engagement at Corpus Christi

In 2023, Corpus Christi Catholic High School began a pilot program to explore student engagement in learning, based on the research of Dr Amy Berry. The program had a positive impact, helping to promote a more supportive and engaged learning culture across the school. Over the past two years, we have gradually introduced this approach more widely, including a professional development day earlier this year where Dr Berry worked directly with our staff.

A key part of this work has been the adoption of Dr Berry’s Engagement Continuum. This is a framework that helps describe how students engage in their learning. We have adapted this continuum to suit our school context and use it to better understand and support our students.

Reporting on Engagement

This year, we are incorporating this language into our student reports. While we understand that students may not consistently fit into just one category, we believe this framework offers clearer, more meaningful feedback about your child’s typical approach to learning in the classroom.

Here are the categories:

• Driving: Seeks out feedback, acts on it, and considers different viewpoints.
  
  

• Investing: Actively participates by asking questions and joining class discussions; connects learning to prior knowledge and real-world experiences.
  
  

• Participating: Ready to learn and completes the work set by the teacher.
  
  

• Withdrawing: Frequently loses focus or puts in minimal effort.
  
  

• Avoiding: Often off-task and distracted during lessons.
  
  

• Disrupting: Refuses instruction and interrupts the learning of others.
  
  

We hope this helps provide a clearer picture of your child’s engagement at school and how we are working to support every student to become a confident, motivated learner.