Student Improvement Team
An Update about the School Improvement Team
The School Improvement Team (SIT) is a group of people that advocates for improving our school, Doncaster Secondary College, and student outcomes through motivation, encouragement, and documentation. The SIT assesses, improves, and monitors the effectiveness of the Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) and the School Strategic Plan which are undertaken in one year and four years respectively. In these plans, the SIT creates comprehensive, realistic, and specific goals to focus on for the year. These goals are evaluated, actioned and reported through identified strategies. The SIT comprises of classroom teachers; student representatives; Student Voice, Agency & Leadership LT; Education Support; Curriculum LS; Pedagogy LS; and the Principal Team (assistant principals and principal). Meetings with the entire SIT are held in a conference room with members sitting all together around two long tables. They begin with an acknowledgement to the country, and members are assigned roles for taking minutes, chairing, and reporting to the community. The agenda for the meeting is discussed and followed.
Recently, there were two SIT meetings held on Tuesday, 24 November and Friday, 3 December. During these meetings, the SIT team reflected on the school's status and planned for next year's goals. The members of SIT broke into small groups to work on different parts of the day's agenda.
Within small groups, the SIT discussed various aspects of the school's adaptability during remote learning and the COVID-19 pandemic, the goals our school achieved, the most significant learnings and methods to implement the benefits of remote learning in the future. The SIT discovered that our school operated above the standard of other schools due to its flexible and adaptable remote learning program. Our school created much structure for the students (we kept Compass as the main form of communication and regular timetables); adapted the curriculum to suit remote learning instead of developing a completely new curriculum; provided clear and structured lesson plans which greatly benefited students; and responded promptly to feedback from students, parents/carers, and teachers. During remote learning, the school community came together and collaborated which increased the sharing of knowledge and support at a higher level than ever.
Since the transition back to on-site learning, the SIT realised that the positive outcomes of remote learning had diminished. The SIT aims to sustain for the future: Compass lesson plans, accessible resources, 'flip learning' and collaboration between the school community, as well as allocating more time for students to work and learn independently.
Furthermore, the SIT evaluated the school's current Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) and also considered next year's goals. During the evaluation of the AIP, the team determined that the plan needed to be refined, made more concise and clearer, and include VCAL data.
The Department of Education and Training Victoria provided all schools across the state with a goal (Goal Zero) and priority Key Improvement Strategies (KISs) to focus on due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The SIT focused on the government's goal and KISs for 2021. After much deliberation, it was decided to embed the school's previous goals 1 (Maximising student learning through building practice excellence) and 2 (Improve student engagement and awareness through independent learning) into Goal Zero as they were still relevant. The KISs that our school will focus on are 'learning catch-up and extension'; 'happy, healthy kids'; and 'connected schools'. 'Learning catch-up and extension' consists of prioritising student learning gaps and extending those that are excelling. The second KIS, 'happy, healthy kids', focuses on children being happy and healthy in all forms, whether it is mentally or physically. The final KIS is to develop stronger bonds with the community by connecting our school in diverse ways to students, teachers, staff, parents/carers, the local community or other schools.
The SIT will reconvene at the commencement of next year to continue with the goal planning.
Dina M-G (7K)