Staff |
Other special programs |
Leading Schools Fund ProjectProject Overview |
"In
a nutshell" - we believe: Why? - Schools across the State system, including ours, have introduced many improvements in pedagogies used in classrooms but student outcomes have not improved as much as we would have expected. We want to help students build their learning power! We want to engage them! To do this we need to travel with them on their journey in learning! We are now working with our students to really determine how classroom activities affect their learning behaviours and their understandings and why, in some instances, activities motivate and in others they don't. Teachers and students are working together in partnership in the development of more effective learning processes. Students' reflections on successful learning strategies and their views on those activities that engage them best are becoming a vital part of the feedback system. On the basis of this feedback classroom programs will be developed where teachers help students understand how to learn more effectively. We are using our experienced leadership staff to work closely with small groups of teaching staff (focus groups) conducting action-research on student engagement issues which are firmly based in the classroom context. We have identified areas of concern, so improvement will be data driven. We have staff with the skills and commitment to address these concerns and the educational leadership to support these staff. This project is providing them with the time they need to meet the challenge. We aim to model an approach for the state system that is sustainable beyond the life of the project and one that leads to increased student engagement in their learning. We would take pride in becoming a school of excellence that the system can look to as a model and we would welcome the opportunity to share our experience with others.
Our teachers are now taking another step along the pathway to school improvement. |
Where
we have come from: Over many years, work in KLA's has seen the development of improved teaching strategies using good interesting activities based on shared KLA resources, published resources, innovations, training / experience in the areas of co-operative learning, multiple intelligences (Gardiner), levels of thinking (Bloom), learning behaviours (PEEL), integrated units, independent learning, a range of assessment approaches, use of IT / media, library / information processing etc. |
We
established Professional Learning Teams to take these
efforts further. |
Where
we are now: Our focus groups have helped teachers develop high level reflective practices enabling them to better understand why these improved strategies work and why they are good! This ongoing PD of sharing successes & failures and building reflective & supportive practitioners is the basis of our strong T&L culture and whole school improvement. However Data on student outcomes is still of concern (as it is state wide). Issues include: - gender differences in academic results, the Year 9 /10 malaise, repeated boredom / failure experiences in Year 7 & 8, gender issues in PE & sport, issues in literacy / numeracy, the need for applied learning programs, homework effectiveness, more effective integration of ICT in the curriculum etc. |
What we want to do: (with
the assistance of the Leading Schools Fund)
|
We
are also part of the Portland Innovations & Excellence
Cluster so we propose to integrate the work they will
undertake with their two foci into our LSF school improvement
process - Thinking orientated curriculum - Student leadership (in classrooms) |