From the Principal

Inside our Teaching and Learning Framework

Great teaching is a craft, and like any craft, it improves with practice, feedback and time. This idea sits at the heart of the work Girton is undertaking this year to implement our new Teaching and Learning Framework. With its focus on explicit teaching, the framework is guiding a whole-school approach built around academic excellence, consistency and student wellbeing, work led by Mr Wilbur Donovan, our Head of Teaching and Learning, and supported by Co-Heads of Instructional Learning, Mrs Tabatha Peter, Head of Junior School Curriculum Development and Mr Jordan Forster, Senior School Teacher of Mathematics. 

In an explicit teaching model, teachers set out clearly what is to be learned, model it, guide students through practice, check for understanding and only then ask students to work independently. It is not a new idea, but the evidence behind it has become difficult to ignore. Decades of research into how memory and learning work, alongside large-scale reviews of what actually lifts student achievement, point consistently in the same direction. Clear, structured instruction outperforms approaches that leave students to construct their own understanding, and it does so most markedly for those who find learning hardest. 

This year we have been laying the groundwork for instructional coaching across the school. Heads of Department and Junior School leaders have been preparing to take on coaching using the StepLab program, and all staff have been introduced to it ahead of the model being rolled out in coming years. Traditional professional development tends to happen in a single day, away from the classroom, however in coaching, teachers observe one another, reflect on their practice, receive specific feedback and refine what they do, week after week, in the rooms where they teach. Instructional coaching recognises that the greatest improvements in student learning occur when professional growth is sustained, practical and closely connected to the classroom. 

Alongside coaching, we have also been working on the structures that surround it. Curriculum audits have been conducted across the school, supported by the introduction of new curriculum planning templates. This work ensures that knowledge and skills are deliberately sequenced, that unnecessary repetition or gaps are identified, and that students experience a coherent learning journey from Prep through to their chosen VCE pathways. Our whole-school Assessment Policy is also under review, intended to ensure consistency in assessment practices, expectations and communication across year levels, while recognising the different developmental and curriculum requirements that apply from the Junior School to Year 12. 

An updated School Homework Policy will also be introduced from the beginning of 2027. The revised policy sets clearer expectations for teachers, students and families, supporting Girton's strong academic culture while ensuring homework is purposeful, appropriately structured and balanced against students' broader wellbeing and other commitments. 

Some of this work is deliberately small in scale. Across classrooms, we are introducing a series of consistent whole-school routines informed by the science of learning: clear entry routines, purposeful starter activities and a shared cue for attention. These sound modest, and they are, but consistent routines reduce distraction, support positive classroom behaviour and return time to the business of learning. Small gains, repeated daily, accumulate. 

Further reviews are underway into technology use in the classroom, the use of AI across the school, and the Student Mobile Phone and Personal Electronic Device Policy, each guided by the principle that student attention belongs on fostering relationships and engaging in positive experiences at school, and that the tools we use should support that rather than compete with it. As with all of this work, feedback from parents, staff and students has shaped these reviews throughout, and we are grateful to everyone who has contributed. 

Together, these initiatives reflect a deliberate and sustained commitment to ensuring that every Girton student benefits from high-quality teaching, clear expectations and a carefully planned curriculum. We look forward to sharing further progress with families as this important work continues. 

Building MasterPlan update: New Languages Centre, Senior School Campus

Construction is officially underway on our Languages Centre on the Senior School campus. The Centre will deliver modern classrooms and staff facilities that give our English and Languages programs the room and quality of environment they deserve, supporting our staff to teach at their best and our students to learn at theirs.

Rising on the former site of the Paul Saddler Swimland Building, the build will happen in two stages:

• Stage 1. Three storeys of new space, including six classrooms, a staffroom, meeting room and Year 12 study rooms. Due for completion in Term 3, 2027.

• Stage 2. Stage 2 is planned as a future development phase, comprising additional two and three-storey facilities including five classrooms, a second staffroom, a meeting room and Year 12 study rooms

Once complete, the Languages Centre will stand as one of Girton's state-of-the-art facilities, reflecting our commitment to giving every student access to purpose-built, first-class teaching spaces. I look forward to the day our staff and students walk through its doors, and to the opportunities it will open for generations of Girton students to come. 

We'll continue to share progress as Stage 1 takes shape.

Dr Emma O'Rielly

Principal