Tailored classes have students walking on AIR

An innovative program at Redcliffe State High School is boosting academic achievement for students.

Deputy Principal Allie Jeffries says while the school has run the Academic Intervention and Response (AIR) program for some time, a new focus is yielding amazing results.

“It’s about building our capacity - we’re really focused on promoting excellence and an aspirational mindset,” Allie says.

“We want our students to believe they can achieve an A.

"We are building a culture of excellence, supporting students to develop 'A level thinking' and providing them opportunities to succeed."

Improving results

An adjusted timetable on Fridays creates “AIR time” – a 70-minute session where chosen students or those who have asked to take part can receive tailored tutoring to improve their academic results.

“We’re seeing some really amazing results,” Allie says.

“Students who were getting Ds and Cs are now getting Bs and students sitting on a B are now achieving As.

“AIR is giving them the confidence they need to achieve the results they want.

“Our wonderful teachers are delivering quality curriculum in classes, AIR complements this by allowing extra time for them to support students in understanding the nuances of the assessment task. We are focused on building assessment literate students."

Big boost in confidence

Year 9 student Zaide Paton is part of the school’s Rugby League Excellence Program and was getting solid B marks in mathematics, but wanted to do better.

After just one AIR session that took a deep-dive into exam criteria and broke down the formulas for expanding binomials, Zaide breezed through his Term 2 exam and achieved a convincing A.

“I was always at a B level with most of my classes and going to AIR showed me it’s the little things I didn’t know how to do,” Zaide explains.

“It’s taken me from sitting at a C or a B to a comfortable A.

“I can take those tactics and use them for this term.”

Mia Butler, in Year 7, says a single session at the AIR program has unlocked a world of writing for her, giving a boost to her results across a range of subjects.

“They helped me with how to start a paragraph, get a sentence started and punctuation,” Mia says.

“It’s helped me quite a lot and it makes me feel really proud.”

A helping hand

Year 9 student Lorenzo Silva says he wasn’t doing very well in his classes until he was invited to join an AIR session.

“My teacher picked up on it and wanted me to do better academically,” Lorenzo says.

“The teachers … they really want to help.

“When I went to AIR it really helped me out – I was getting Ds and Es and now I’m getting Cs and C+ and even a B," he says.

“It’s made me feel more confident when exams come up because before AIR I didn’t know where to start.”

Find out more here.