Teaching & Learning Practices

Celebrating our work in Professional Learning Communities (PLC)

Throughout Semester 1 the teaching staff at the college have again been working on a cycle of inquiry as part of the Professional Learning Communities (PLC) initiative. This important PLC work is linked to the Patterson River Secondary College Annual Improvement Plan (AIP) and aims to improve student academic achievement. 

The PLC work provides teachers with valuable time to work together in small, subject-based teams. The work includes evaluating student assessment data, developing improvement goals and plans, implementing changes to teaching practices in the classroom, monitoring the improvements in student learning and then reflecting and sharing the results of the PLC work with other teaching staff. 

Recently we completed our PLC Celebration Day where all the teaching teams presented their work to their colleagues and we celebrated the work that had been undertaken as a school community. The 20 different PLC teams completed a range of projects across all subject domains related to improving student literacy, numeracy, key subject knowledge and developing more inclusive classrooms. This PLC work represented a total effort of over 1000 hours of teacher time. The photos below show some of the team presentations. 

The PLC initiative at the College continues to be recognised by the Victorian Department of Education. In  2024, our College is again a PLC Link School for the Bayside Peninsula Area (BPA) and we have been hosting Open Days where staff from other schools can visit. During the Open Day sessions, we discuss the implementation of the PLC Cycle of Inquiry at Patterson River Secondary College, our College processes and documentation of the PLC work, complete observations of our teachers during their PLC work, and share best practices in the areas of teaching and learning. This work has been very successful and we continue to work with the staff from other schools to help improve the PLC initiative across the entire school network. 

The PLC work will continue throughout Semester 2 as we start our next cycle of inquiry. The teaching staff are engaged and energised to continue with this important work.