Presentation by Gary Underwood (Principal) Anthea Christian (Head of Primary)

1. Breaking Down the Walls Presentation by Gary Underwood (Principal) Anthea Christian (Head of Primary)

2. 260 P-12 Students 98% LBOTE 50% born overseas 46% families on Health Care Cards Middle Eastern & African refugees Christian and political refugees Some kids never been to school.

3. Why the need to change? • Had low NAPLAN data • Dropping VCE results • Enrolments dropped from 350 to 245 • Negative community perception • VRQA threatened closure unless • change was made • No leadership • Staff morale very low and negative

4. No corporate information on each child What were the literacy skills and levels of EVERY child? What were the numeracy skills and levels of EVERY child? Where were they? Who was using them?

5. We needed HELP! Who could we turn to?

6. Not sure Lara. Let’s call in Pauline and Alan! What do you think Ron? Pauline ALAN RON LARA National Partnerships Team

7. Step1: Collecting and interpreting evidence How can I cope with that much difference?

8. Established MIDDLE SCHOOL Years 6-8 FAST FIX Doubled literacy time

9. Established MIDDLE SCHOOL Years 6-8 FAST FIX Doubled literacy time Increased numeracy time John Hattie “Exciting” category

10. More time means more hands-on help NEEDS FIXING TIME Volunteer Program with manager and training in PAUSE PROMPT PRAISE Homework Clubs Parents with no English to hear reading. Developed AMES parent literacy classes.

11. PREP – Year 10 Encouraged DIRECT INSTRUCTION GO: Grammar GO: Phonics GO: Punctuation GO: Spelling GO: Numeracy skills FAST FIX John Hattie “Exciting” category

12. PREP – Year 10 MADE READING A PRIORITY FAST FIX John Hattie “Exciting” category

13. Alternative pathways Years 10 - 12 FAST FIX Introduced VCAL into Yr 11&12 Introducing Foundation VCAL Program in 2012 Early entry to VCE for more-able students “Exciting level”

14. Step 2 Increase professional skills and attitudes NEEDS FIXING TIME

15. A military framework bred competition rather than mutual support. On Everest this spelt disaster. • Mountains are great levellers and care nothing about hierarchy – least all of chiefs. “Mountains are only ever conquered by ‘Indians’.” Pan Macmillan, Sydney , 2011

16. EVIDENCE-BASED LEARNING Teachers need to be taught to: *collect evidence *interpret evidence *Use evidence to change teaching to meet needs NEEDS FIXING TIME Accountability e.g. ILPs comes from the Principal. They never taught me this at uni!

17. Collecting and interpreting evidence PAT tests 3 times per year to modify teaching

18. Evidence drives Individual Learning Plans for use of all teachers as well as a link to home. These are centrally available.

19. EVIDENCE - BASED teaching is more than NAPLAN, PAT tests 3 times a year ATTITUDE CHANGE Testing to get evidence to teach by is involved in everything. It is about changing teacher attitudes • STAR Reading Reports • AR Reports, • Mathletics reports, • testing in class • Self-reporting by students

20. ATTITUDE CHANGE Changing HOW we teach at ST ANTHONY’S Literacy teaching is across ALL the school ALL teachers are teachers of literacy All teachers are ESL teachers But I’m a maths teacher!

21. Getting Knowledge Ready Don’t assume prior knowledge or teaching is wasted GKR in every class subject, including maths and science PD

22. Getting Knowledge Ready – a student’s perspective

23. Differentiated Learning PD Differentiated Teaching

24. Big Ideas Friday PD Breaking down the tradition of teacher as the knowledge source. Thinking skills developed Problem solving skills Real-world out-of-school learning Challenge!

25. Children learning from each other in Big Ideas Percentage of Achievement Variance John Hattie Teachers Students Home Peers Schools Principal Students learn more from each other. So how should we teach? How should we set up the classroom? How should some work be assessed?

26. Ownership of learning Goal setting Where are you going? How are you going? Where to next? Relevance to teachers as well as students. New technologies that set goals NEEDS FIXING TIME

27. NEW PRIMARY SCHOOL BUILT FOR DIFFERENTIATED TEACHING P-2 BLOCK 3-5 BLOCK

28. Breaking down year levels – Learn where ability lies NOT based on age or year level

29. Sustainability of Professional Development PD CHAMPIONS

30. Teacher’s COACH PD Works with a teacher to improve teaching by: • One on One help where • the teacher needs it • Observation of lessons • Feedback sessions • Monitoring

31. Part 3: Knowing students and building relationships • Psychological issues • Social-behavioural problems • Refugee issues • Cultural “face” issues • Orthodox religious issues • Parent negative experience with education • New arrived migrants with no English – start again! Psych Support programs Post-traumatic stress programs Community involvement programs Camp program Breakfasts Welfare program

32. Yeah! But what about VCE? Now that’s a start! RON ALAN LARA National Partnerships Team

33. Av ATAR score % students Comparison to State Av. Over 99 8.7% 9.2 x better Over 96 13.0% 4.3 x better Over 90 26.1% 2.7 x better Over 77 56.5% 2.57 x better Data from students who sat exam and received ATAR score. That’s what I mean! WOW! ALAN RON LARA National Partnerships Team