Smarter school national partnerships

Progress towards meeting TQNP reward reforms

South Australia provided detailed information against the reward reforms and related performance benchmarks/ reward milestones through the separate reward reporting process.

It should be noted that the practical implementation of programs designed to achieve facilitation or reward reforms often means a given program activity with school leaders, teachers and school communities may be achieving aspects of both types of reform simultaneously.

For participating school staff, it is neither practicable nor efficient for the activities to be distinguished as either facilitation or reward reform. Hence, it is likely that some aspects of a given program activity may be included in both reports.

Sustainability

The AISSA is seeking to build the capacity of school leaders, particularly to lead school improvement. This is expected to have a long term impact on leaders and independent schools. Some activities included specific change initiatives within schools.


Each principal who took part in the AISSA leadership program committed to developing a project within their school as a means of embedding best practice.
Assisted by the ITQ NP, the AISSA has developed considerable expertise on suitable professional development for school leaders in the independent sector, particularly in leading school improvement. The AISSA has also developed considerable expertise in facilitating school improvement in the independent sector. This expertise is valuable for AISSA and has been used to support independent schools and develop other school improvement initiatives.

The assistance being provided to school leaders in implementing the teacher standards has been well received, and the maximum benefits of the Standards would only be achieved with further support. Given the fundamental changes associated with the standards, the complexities and time required for schools and teachers to make maximum use of the standards should be recognised.

The AISSA Early Career Teacher Program is also expected to have a long term impact on participating teachers.

The AISSA hopes that further Government funding will become available to enable AISSA to continue to assist school leaders, including future leaders, in these areas.

Implicit in the AISSA’s approach to improving teacher quality has been the development of models of sustainability. Alongside developing capacity and capability within schools this has been achieved through supporting schools to align their changes with school strategic planning.

Each principal who took part in the leadership program committed to developing a project within their school as a means of embedding best practice. A Principals’ Professional Learning Community was established and peer coaching was designed to follow executive coaching for on-going support. Peer coaches were provided with professional learning in coaching to support sustainability and quality controls.

Likewise the Australian Curriculum workshops encouraged the formation of network groups for both principals and teachers. These networks enabled participants to share practice, provide encouragement to one another and maintain momentum in the implementation of the Australian Curriculum within their schools.

Alongside the rich program of professional learning, a community of practice was established within the early childhood leadership program. Their focus has been on action research as a model of sustainable practice which underpins leadership and quality improvement within schools’ services.

All of these groups are designed to be communities of professional practice which will exist beyond the life of the projects.

The CESA Managing Improvement Project has seeded new opportunities for professional partnerships between principals working in small primary, large secondary or R-12 school environments. Peer interaction, dialogue and learning have been facilitated between principals on issues that affect their work to support school improvement and managing self and others.

The focus on capacity building and developing leadership density and expertise in each school enabled 17 school leadership teams participating in the CESA Connected Learning Networks to continue work on improvement priorities beyond the funding period. Each school has documented a vision and strategy for improvement into the future.

The community of practice approach that CESA adopted to professional learning for assessment within the Australian Curriculum was used to establish structures for sustainability. This approach appreciates the combined knowledge of research and practical expertise and has been demonstrated through strong support for school principals and teachers for professional learning and requests for the rubrics that were developed.

The Catholic Education Office Indigenous Team promotes partnerships with families through consultation, development and implementation of school-based Reconciliation Action Plans.


Parents of Indigenous students in the Catholic sector were part of the decision making about their child’s learning through the Individual Learning Plan development process.
CESA has in place a highly successful model of case management and Indigenous student support. One aspect of this process involves regular planning/ review meetings with students and their parents, offering them both a voice and significant input into the achievement of outcomes. At one of these meetings each year, Individual Learning Plans are developed in consultation with key stakeholders and connections with community organisations are provided if required.

Individual invitations for parents to attend Individual Learning Plan meetings have empowered parents to be active in their children’s learning. Parents have been given an opportunity to contribute to goals within the Individual Learning Plan. Where relevant, parents have been made aware of support agencies available to them. The Individual Learning Plan process has provided parents with an avenue to be part of the decision making in regards to their child’s learning. In some instances the meetings resulted in teachers meeting a student’s parent for the first time. For example, one parent when asked to attend an Individual Learning Plan meeting only did so when she was informed an Indigenous Education Officer would be present at the meeting, otherwise, she indicated, she would not have attended the meeting otherwise.

In order to build school capacity to support Early Career Teachers, consultants have particularly focused on the development of mentoring programs in schools, and during 2012 three workshops were provided for school leaders in this area.

The Catholic Education Office consultants presented a summary of CESA’s Early Career Teacher Program at the national conference of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders (ACEL). It was also very well received at the South Australian cross-sector roundtable of the Early Career Teacher Resilience Research Project in 2012.

Collaboration with stakeholders locally and at a national level has established a strong foundation for ongoing development of teacher quality reforms. The Government sector has consistently partnered with other sectors and AITSL in a variety of pilots to support national reforms. As well as contributing to the illustrations of practice that make the National Professional Standards for Teachers explicit, teachers and leaders have been part of the Demonstrating Graduate to Proficient pilot and the development of a Module to support supervising teachers in Unpacking the Graduate Standard.


An on-line system for easier access, management and storage of performance and development statements, plans and annual reviews is being developed further for DECD staff use.
As a result of the successful implementation of an on-line system for storing and managing annual performance statements for Step 9 teachers, the system is being developed further to enable use of on-line performance and development plans and annual review for improving performance by all teachers and school services officers in DECD.

An external evaluator is currently undertaking an evaluation of both ITQ NP and the CMaD NP for DECD. The key aspect to this evaluation is to provide DECD with strategic information about ‘what works best’ in what context. This information will be used to guide future resource allocations within the agency. The evaluation report will be finalised in the second half of 2013.

Teacher Quality reforms in the Government sector have been drivers of different practices in schools and pre-schools with a focus on Leaders leading, performance and development and the establishment of the National Professional Standards for Teachers as a performance expectations framework. Ensuring consultation with teachers has influenced design and broad stakeholder involvement has promoted ownership and the continuing development and application of teacher quality reforms in the local context.