SMARTER SCHOOLS NATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS INITIATIVE

St Mary Magdalen’s Chadstone

OUR CONTEXT

We are a small school in the south-eastern suburbs with approximately180 students.

We have previously won State Awards for Excellence in Literacy and Numeracy—2006, 2007.

Our Community-- High ESL background

Varying socio-economic background

A significant proportion of our families receive welfare payments

Refugees

Children under the care of grandparents, DHS intervention

High level of learning difficulties amongst our students—Severe Language Disorder, Physical, Social / Emotional, Intellectual as well as a high proportion who are just under a diagnosis level.

Over 50 /184 children access support from Speech Therapists, SCOPE, OnPsych psychologists or under the LNSLN umbrella.

School Improvement Goals 2008--2012

To develop confident, resilient life-long learners who are active participants in the changing global community.

To promote the academic, emotional, social and spiritual growth of each student.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN……

The National Partnerships Initiative

In Victoria, the Smarter Schools National Partnerships represent a partnership between the Australian Government, the State Government and the government, Catholic and Independent school sectors. 

We were selected to participate in this initiative due to our disappointing Literacy NAPLAN results in 2008.

GOALS Build leadership capacity through coaching

and professional learning.

Build teacher capacity through coaching and professional learning.

Improved monitoring of literacy performance.

Timely student intervention and support for students not achieving at expected levels.

The intended targets from this strategy were: To develop a shared vision for effective literacy learning and

teaching.

To raise the standards of all students in literacy particularly the lowest 25%.

That staff will embrace contemporary literacy pedagogy in classroom practice.

That all staff will participate in professional development in specific Literacy Teaching and Learning.

That all staff continue to collect and analyse data to provide strategic literacy activities that promote authentic learning tasks involving assessment of and assessment for literacy learning.

The Coach!!!!! A major component of this initiative was

the appointment of a Literacy Coach to work shoulder-to-shoulder in a school for oneday per week.

This required some level of adjustment by most staff—We believed we were working as hard as we could—we now know we can work smarter and achieve higher results!!!!!

The Vision—What we needed to do------

We needed to create a shared Literacy Vision—This now drives every PLT.

We created a list of non-negotiables.

We needed to create an Annual Literacy Plan based on the Sacred Landscape Document.

We needed to develop an impact statement where we could document, monitor and assess our progress.

FOCI from the impact statement

2010 All teachers will use explicit comprehension

strategies to match to the individual needs of the students.

(These strategies will sustain processing and expand thinking of all students)

2011 and 2012 All teachers will use a wide range of DATA to

inform their planning and teaching. (Use of evidence—What the child does, says,

makes, writes.)

Building the skills-- The role of the coach:

model explicit teaching strategies discuss the learning that was occurring challenge the thinking that was happening ensure explicit documentation of planning raise the level of professional conversations work alongside literacy leader and staff.

Professional DevelopmentOnsite--2010 and 2011

As a school we needed to provide additional time to specific staff to participate in weekly onsite professional development—30 minutes per week—this has been invaluable to our learning and student success.

These sessions provided feedback to teachers on strategies they were using and set goals for the next week.

There was a sharing of the learning that was occurring.

Offsite Professional Development

Throughout 2010 and 2011 the Literacy Leader attended 12 days of professional development—some with team and some individually.

We chose, as a staff, Prep—4 to participate in Foundation days in 2010.

Staff in years 2, 3, 4 and 5 were also involved in 4 days each of offsite professional development in the national partnership initiative.

5 Staff completed the TESL in 2011.

The Literacy Leader is completing the Experienced Literacy Leaders course and Literacy Support Leader is completing New Literacy Leaders course,

Structure for 2011 We were fortunate that CEOM recognised

the effort we were putting into the initiative but they were also aware of the heavy demands a small school experiences in delivering quality programs.

Thus they provided us with extra financial support last year which enabled me to be fully released from the classroom .2 and a literacy support leader .1 to commence training.

Implementation Structure--2010

foci—Reading

1st Semester—Years 3 and 5 /6 on a weekly basis—fast track

2nd Semester—Years 2 and 4 on a weekly basis—slow track

Implementation Structure--2011

Foci—Reading and Writing

Whole year---Years 3 /4 1st Semester 5 / 6 2nd Semester 1 /2

Term 4 we included the Preps in the program so that we had full coverage from Prep-6 over the two years.

Coach worked fortnightly in each classroom but planned weekly with these teachers.

Term 4 2011 As we were aware that the program was coming to an end we

implemented a slightly different format in Term 4. We implemented a team approach where the Coach

modelled shared reading and writing strategies to whole groups-e.g. both prep classes or 1/2 or 3/4 classes together so both teachers and all aides could see the same strategy.

This was the start of team teaching and mentoring between teams and is the format we are hoping to implement in 2012.

We were trying to allow the teachers to take control/ownership and share the teaching of the program and develop the professional dialogue between the teams.

This year we are continuing to focus on mentoring amongst staff—modelled on the role demonstrated by the coach:

Setting guidelines/timetable Specific structure—what to focus on Feedback opportunities Powerful conversations are now occurring and

this is leading to deeper knowledge and improved practices—staff are actively seeking professional talk/development sessions.

Professional Learning Team Meetings

Weekly Professional Learning Team meetings are conducted for all staff, Prep—6 and the Principal attends every session—thus reinforcing her level of support for the program.

A smarter way of conducting PLTs is to be investigated in 2012—allowing strategies to determine focus, applying these strategies across all subjects—literacy, numeracy, inquiry

Data analysis Effective school planners Explicit strategies.

Special Needs—Catering for All Our commitment to providing the best possible education

for all and to match learning and teaching explicitly to needs has resulted in a higher level of identification of students with learning or social and emotional needs—I am now able to assess at point of need as I am released from the classroom.

LNSLN—2009---16 students 2010—13 students 2011—20 students 2012—24 Students. (Possible)

Another 25 students access Speech pathologist

15 students access services from on Psych--Psychologist

Integration Aides (6) Possibly 7 in 2012

AIDES----I have been able to provide the Aides with professional knowledge

They were keen to develop their skills. They can now complete:

Running Records Speech Pathology programs Develop targeted small group activities Administer targeted programs to larger groups of

children and document Make informed judgements about student progress.

COMMUNITY In 2011 without my classroom

commitments it enabled me to conduct Parent workshops on topics of importance in an informal environment which encouraged many parents to attend.

I will offer this opportunity again in 2012.

Here I am reaching out to our families to try and change the cycle.

WHAT WE DID--

The Action we took----

The Action---NAPLAN Tests

We analysed the NAPLAN data and test to document the skills that were being tested and the skills that our children were having difficulty with.

This formed the basis of our teaching.

The results were evident immediately through classroom programs.

The Genre of Testing We began to explicitly teach our

students the genre of testing— To access texts in a variety of forms—charts,

diagrams, advertisements, factual excerpts To understand importance of print, bold, italics,

headings, labels To identify distractors in questions To read different texts for longer periods of time.

We used classroom resources to support this teaching—not tests!!

TEACHING TO THE TEST!!!! AT NO TIME WERE WE TEACHING TO

THE TEST—WE WERE FOCUSING ON EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION OF COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES.

It was pleasing to hear Anna Burke our local federal member congratulate our school on having the greatest value added in her electorate in 2010!!!!

Students were encouraged to think, pair and share.

This strategy became an integral part of our teaching—we were encouraging children to articulate the strategies.

EXPLICIT STRATEGIES

Making connections Finding the main idea Sequencing Paraphrasing Summarising Scanning Interpreting tables / diagrams Predictions Fact and Opinion Phrasing and Fluency Inferences Analysing

Progress in 2011 Last year we were able to consolidate the learning that had

occurred in Reading and transfer it to Writing.

We focused on: Explicit strategies—such as

fact and opinion compare and contrast note-taking cause and effect skimming and scanning locating the main idea summarising.

The Incentives / results

Students began articulating the strategies they were using.

There was continuity across all levels of the school Prep—6.

They began transferring the strategies across all areas of the curriculum.

There was a real effort to match text to needs / matching specific strategies.

The professional dialogue was developing—staff realised that the coach was interested in the best teaching and learning that could occur.

It was not about criticising staff efforts. It was about acknowledging their

strengths and raising questions to probe where they might go

Accountable talk became a powerful teaching and learning strategy.

Teachers can articulate what and why they are teaching and students can now articulate what, how and why they are learning.

This focused explicit teaching combined with professional conversations was the catalyst for improvement.

NAPLAN RESULTS!!!!!

These are the cut scores from the CEO / Philip Holmes Smith—red

one year behind, green one year ahead YEAR 3 READING2008 2009 2010 2011

StateMean 419

StateMean 434

StateMean 430

StateMean 430

StateMean 502

2008 2009 2010 2011

StateMean504

StateMean 506

StateMean 496

These are the cut scores from the CEO / Philip Holmes Smith—red

one year behind, green one year ahead YEAR 5 READING

These charts look at the progress of the same cohort of children in Reading. 2008—2010 2009--2011

ABOVE STATE MEAN 2008----5, 2010---- 12, 2009-----3, 2011---7

Expected growth is 80 points per 2 years—10 points per term

Expected growth is 80 points per 2 years—10 points per Term

WHAT HAVE WE ACHIEVED?

On reflection---What have we achieved?

Everything is documented—data drives the instruction.

Decisions are being made based on data and evidence.

Focus sheets are used from P-6.

Our commitment to providing time and support to explicit planning and documentation has underpinned and ensured continual success.

Differentiated teaching and learning is evident—whilst the strategy is the same the learning is appropriate.

Students and staff can articulate what they are learning, what they are teaching and why.

We have embraced the contemporary curriculum through explicit teaching of literacy.

COACHING The role of the coach has been paramount to the success

of the initiative.

Her guidance, encouragement, mentoring, knowledge and support have underpinned the decisions we have made.

She has been able to transfer off-site professional learning to our school context and build upon it to explicitly match our needs.

She has been a mentor to myself as a Literacy Leader and this has then empowered me to lead staff.

How do we embed this practice?

1. VISION We have a documented Literacy Vision We have documented expectations and non-

negotiables. We have developed an Annual Literacy Plan.

2. INCENTIVES Classroom data—what the child says, makes, writes

and does, and NAPLAN data significantly support the improved outcomes that we have documented.

3. SKILLS We have provided opportunities for professional development

on-site and offsite. We are providing mentoring opportunities.

We need to ensure school is committed to maintaining time commitment to Literacy Leader and Literacy Support Leader.

The Literacy Leader has been able to attend all back to back planning sessions, conduct literacy learning walks and conduct informal workshops on specific strategies.

The Literacy Leader is able to conduct informal Education workshops for parents to skill them in supporting their children at home with learning.

The Literacy Leader will complete the coaching module of professional study next year (2012).

4. RESOURCES We have provided targeted people resources to support the

initiative.

We have purchased new resources.

We provided specific time for Literacy planning and this has been extremely beneficial and valued—people and time resource.

5. ACTION PLAN We now formulate a literacy plan for each term documenting the

strategies and skills we wish to teach. We are beginning to transfer these explicit strategies across all

areas of the curriculum—thus ensuring true contemporary learning is occurring.

INTO THE FUTURE……

CHANGE—Through National Partnerships and the support of the coach we have had a positive impact on the learning patterns of our students

We have documented exceptional improvement in both classroom and NAPLAN data.

We must continue with our focus on: Professional support---for ALL Professional conversation Feedback.

We must continue with our: Explicit planning, Explicit instruction Accurate documentation.

We must continue to analyse data effectively.

DIRECTION FOR 2012 We have been able to fund the Literacy

Leader .5 and Literacy Support Leader .1 from our own budget. This will ensure the focus for literacy is maintained and the progress achieved over the last two years will be built upon.

We have been fortunate that the CEO has provided us with continued support of the Coach this year –on a fortnightly basis.

As a staff we now value the coaching model and we have decided to implement this model in numeracy as well in 2012

Thus we employed a Numeracy Coach from our own budget to work fortnightly alternating with the Literacy Coach.

Every year level will participate in 1.5 hours of focused planning time for either Numeracy or Literacy on a fortnightly rotation—this is in addition to their weekly planning schedule/release time.

Useful resources Strategies That Work—Harvey & Goudvis

Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency—Fountas and Pinnell

Guiding Readers and Writers—Fountas and Pinnell

When Readers Struggle—Fountas and Pinnell