From the Principal

Staff Professional Learning Day

Last week we had our staff professional learning day.  The focus of the day was on “Differentiation to meet our students’ needs through collaboration and collective efficacy.” Teachers worked in teams to discuss what collective efficacy means and reflect on their teams at school.  We discussed the importance of teachers learning from each other and valuing different perspectives and the need to look at evidence to inform our teaching.  This work is guided by the work we are doing with the Menzies Collective Efficacy program, and we will continue with its focus throughout the year as it develops the leadership capacity of our teachers and improves outcomes for our students.

The other focus area for the day was on collectively developing snapshot tasks for students and on differentiating learning to engage and challenge all our students.  I was impressed by the various strategies that were demonstrated by our teachers to differentiate student work.  It was a very successful planning day, and I would like to thank all our staff for their input.  I would also like to thank the staff who ran sessions and Louisa Phillipson – Leading Teacher Instructional Practice, for organising the day.

Education State Principals Conference

This week I attended the 2022 Education State Principals Conference at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.  The theme for the conference was ‘Stronger Together: Every Student, Every School’ and how schools can work together to make schooling an enjoyable experience for every child.  The Minister for Education, James Merlino spoke of the Victorian Departments’ focus on equality, inclusion and wellbeing.  He explained that as leaders in schools we do not have to face challenges on our own and the importance and benefits of working together.  Professor John Hattie, University of Melbourne, delivered the keynote address and spoke of the great collaborative practices the teaching profession showed during the COVID pandemic.  He has carried out metadata studies following the pandemic lockdowns, and explained that once students returned to school, there was little loss in student learning, as students bounced back.  He praised teachers and schools for enabling this.

I also attended a session on ‘using evidence well as leaders’ run by Associate Professor Mark Rickinson and his team in the Education Faculty at Monash University.  I have been working with the Monash team on their Q Project on ‘Improving the use of research evidence in Australian schools’.  It was affirming to reflect on the work we are doing in terms of evidence-based teaching and learning practices which are well embedded at our school.

Student Focus group

I really enjoyed listening to our students' perspectives last week in the focus group that was held on student voice in learning, differentiation, and formative assessment. Students from Years 7, 9 and 11, were shown data from our 2021 school Student Opinion Survey, where they analysed specific items and discussed their thoughts on what was going well and areas to work on.  They also had an opportunity to think about what they can do as students to be more proactive in their learning (having more agency and choice) by discussing strategies around organisation and getting feedback on their learning.  Finally, students reflected on how the Snapshot Tasks have been implemented so far this year and provided some valuable feedback on this.  I would like to thank all the students involved who showed great maturity and were so eloquent in their responses.  I would also like to thank Ms Price – Leading Teacher Student Voice and Agency, for taking part in this forum.

Parent Public meeting and workshop sessions - Tuesday 14th June 6.00pm - 7.00pm

Just a reminder that on Tuesday 14th June at 6.00pm, we will be hosting a parent forum at school.  We will present our 2021 School Annual Report and run parent workshops on our current priority areas of:  Challenging all Learners, Assessment and Feedback and Building School Community.  Parents will be able to select the workshop they wish to attend.  

A Compass invitation has been sent out to all families inviting them to this event.  The School Leadership team as well as our school councillors will be present, and we look forward to many parents coming along and working within groups.