Teaching and Curriculum Update
Enhancing Writing and Feedback with Writemark at St Benedict’s
At St Benedict’s, we are always looking for innovative ways to support our students’ learning. This year, we’ve introduced Writemark, a powerful AI-driven writing assessment tool developed by Elastik, to help us better understand and support student writing development.
Why Writemark?
Writing is a deeply personal and often subjective skill to assess. Traditionally, teachers have faced challenges in maintaining consistency when marking writing samples. Writemark helps overcome this by providing objective, standardised feedback using the same criteria as NAPLAN. This means we can quickly and accurately gauge how students are progressing and where they may need support.
What Does It Offer?
- Detailed Feedback: Writemark provides rich, personalised feedback on each student's writing, detailing their strengths and areas for improvement. Classroom teachers use this feedback when holding writing conferences with the students.
- Cohort and Individual Insights: Teachers can view both whole-class trends and individual student data, allowing for targeted teaching strategies.
- Goal Setting and Growth: Students work with teachers to set writing goals based on their feedback, fostering ownership of their learning.
- Time Efficiency: Teachers receive instant feedback, allowing them to respond while the writing task is still fresh in students’ minds.
How It Supports Teaching
Writemark doesn’t replace teacher judgment, it enhances it. Our teachers continue to use a variety of strategies in the lessons and problem solve together how to address areas for improvement. Writemark assists teachers to:
- Identify class-wide gaps and individual needs
- Group students for targeted groups
- Track progress over time
What Our Students and Teachers Say
Students appreciate the clarity and usefulness of the feedback, and teachers value the time saved and the depth of insight gained. Through using the program for the 2025 school year, we have already seen substantial growth in student’s writing and engagement. So much so that a range of other schools in our Diocese are working with us on implementing the program at their schools.
We celebrated Indigenous Literacy Day on Wednesday 3rd September. Year 3 and 4 First Nation Students helped kindergarten learn through Culture Storytelling Rotations.
Students listened to Dreaming stories and picture books by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors, learning about Country, animals, and community. Children explored traditional instruments like clapsticks and learned how sound is used in ceremony and storytelling. Another activity was Symbol Card Matching Using Aboriginal symbol cards. In small groups, students matched and interpreted symbols used in art and storytelling, sparking conversations about meaning and connection. The last activity was a Cultural Drawing Station Inspired by stories and symbols. Students created their own artworks using dots, lines, and natural colours to express what they learned.
Other classes listened to Aboriginal stories and joined online to a National Storytime session.
Thankyou, The Aboriginal Education Team
