EOI Cohort 12

Cohort 9 Resources

If you need help accessing the materials, please contact our team at info@fogartyedvance.au.

Content Outline
FED C9 Content Outline high level version Feb 2022

Pre-Work

Cohort 9 Pre-readings and Pre-work Part 1
Cohort 9 Pre-readings and Pre-work Part 2

Workshops

Workshop 1a

Live Stream Printing

Workshop 1b

Workshop 2a

Workshop 2b

Workshop 3

Workshop 4

Other Resources

Video Resources

The quality of student learning is intrinsically linked to the ability of schools to translate the mandated curriculum into an actionable scope and sequence, to best meet students’ needs. As a result, the proposed new Australian National School Curriculum has met with a lot of discussion and feedback. 

In our opinion, the proposed curriculum does not prioritise evidence-based learning, nor does it set aspirational and achievable standards for schools to drive towards improved student outcomes. You can read our submission to ACARA, with attachments from other regarded educationalists below.

The Fogarty EDvance response to the National Curriculum review

The Fogarty Foundation is a social purpose organisation, providing educational opportunities in Western Australia.  I write to you with our 21 years of experience in education and particularly, through our 10 years of delivering Fogarty EDvance, a three-year school improvement program for school leaders in challenging communities. 

Through Fogarty EDvance, we are working with over 100 low socio-economic schools (both primary and secondary schools) throughout Western Australia.  We know that there is a high proportion of students who have difficulties with literacy, predominantly in their ability to read.  Thirty-five percent of students in Year 7 in these schools (this equates to approximately 17% of Year 7 students nationally) are reading at a Year 3 level and below, which means they are not independent readers or able to read with fluency. At this level, these students are not able to access information in their books or on their screens in their classes. They lack confidence and no longer identify as a ‘learner’ in their school. As a direct result, many students disengage with education and for some, finish 13 years of school, illiterate and innumerate.

Many of the schools with which we work as part of the Fogarty EDvance School Improvement Program, set out on a journey to make significant improvements in the educational outcomes of their students – starting with reading. These schools set out to use evidence-based teaching and learning approaches to the teaching of reading. This typically involves using high-impact instructional strategies (such as explicit instruction) across the school with a strong focus on effective reading instruction in the early years. Effective reading instruction requires students during the early years of school to master the alphabetic code via systematic, explicit, and intensive instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension strategies (Department of Education, Science and Training 2005, p.25). 

The schools strategically plan to implement effective reading instruction as part of their school improvement work and in doing so, know that the evidence that supports this type of instruction is solid. However, many of their teachers do not have the necessary skillsets to be able to teach reading in this way. As a response to this, the Fogarty Foundation established a teaching intensive in 2019, for schools to send teachers (both new graduates and experienced teachers) to receive a week of intensive coaching and demonstrations in explicit instruction. This included a focus on effective reading instruction in the early years. The teaching intensive was carried out during school holidays, with students at the low socio economic primary school giving up a week of their holidays to take part in the intensive. Demand was so great that we ran two intensives the following year, three in 2021 and are planning four for 2022.  Again, there is no shortage of school students and teachers who want to be part of this program. In total, 250 teachers have been trained through our EDvance Teaching Intensives (using 200 students, 15 expert teachers/coaches and 2 program leads, Dr Lorraine Hammond and Brooke Wardana). 

The demand for these skills is great, but the supply is low: skills which are not being taught in most Initial Teaching Education university courses. A previous EDvance staff member has now established a business to help address this need.

Given our work with school leaders over the past ten years and more recently, our work with teachers, our strong submission is that only evidence-based teaching approaches should be included in the proposed curriculum. The inclusion of whole language in the revised Australian 

Curriculum is out of step with research and is failing our children. We concur with the submission made to ACARA by Emeritus Professor Max Coltheart on behalf of the members of the Developmental Disorders of Language and Literacy (DDoLL) network dated 7 May 2021, including the attachment of the article written by Dr Jennifer Buckingham that was published in The Australian on April 30, 2021. 

We draw your attention to our website and in particular, the Report Card for Cohort 4 which can be located here. What school leaders and teachers need to improve reading for their students is clear guidance from the Australian Curriculum on effective reading instruction. It is our strong belief that with evidence-based approaches to teaching and learning, all schools can improve academic (and ultimately, life) outcomes for their students.

You can read additional feedback at the following links:

Curriculum takes backward step on the path to literacy – Five From Five

Open letter to Mr. David de Carvalho, CEO of ACARA, and the ACARA Board

High-Impact Instruction in a Primary Context

Teachers from our EDvance schools had the opportunity to take part in some inspiring optional sessions this term. Brooke Wardana and Anthony Chiappalone facilitated an engaging workshop about High Impact Instruction in the primary context. Fifty-nine teachers from 15 schools across Cohort 3 to 7 attended the workshop. Brooke and Anthony worked with participants on developing a firm understanding of the evidence base for high impact instruction and demonstrated daily reviews using high impact instruction lesson delivery and design strategies. Participant feedback was extremely positive:

“Participating in the hands on lesson demonstrations was useful to consolidate the research and strategies at the beginning of the session.”

“The objectives were met with lots of examples for teachers to go on and implement in their class no matter what level they are teaching.”

Explicit Instruction in a Secondary Context

Dr Lorraine Hammond presented the evidence-base for Explicit Instruction as an instructional approach to teaching and learning in a secondary context. Thirty-five participants across 11 schools and from Cohorts 4 to 7 attending the workshop. Dr Hammond took a deep dive into the Principles of Instruction and explained how including daily reviews as part of a lesson reduces cognitive load and allows information to be committed into the long-term memory. She also unpacked the elements of daily reviews by providing examples, and opportunities for participants to view videos of daily reviews in practice.  Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive:

“I thought it was fantastic!  I was able to see EI presented from the start – which helped as I had previously been taught about it in small chunks – whilst I was still a little confused.  Now 2.5 years later I was able to consolidate what I know and clear up misconceptions.”

“it is interesting to observe teachers using best practice and this helped me to consolidate my understanding of exemplar teaching.”

The FED team ran their second Explicit Instruction (EI) Secondary Network event for 2021 on 19 June at ECU in Mt Lawley, with 30 teachers and leaders from the EDvance school network in attendance. A more streamlined format for this session saw participants: 

The EI Secondary Network is held once per term on a Saturday, in partnership with Dr Lorraine Hammond and Edith Cowan University. The next EI Secondary Network seminar will be held on Saturday 18 September 2021. If you would like more information or are interested in attending the seminars, please contact Stacey Plaut stacey.plaut@fogartyedvance.au

Fogarty EDvance recently launched  the third series of the Secondary Teacher Leaders (STL) Program. There are ten schools from Cohorts 4, 5, 6 and 7 participating in the program, including: 

The STL Program is a professional development program for Heads of Learning Areas (HOLAs), Program Co-ordinators and Level 3 teachers in EDvance secondary schools. The program is designed to support secondary teacher leaders in whole school improvement by connecting their work to the broader school strategic plans, with the ultimate objective of improving student outcomes.

This year’s program includes 5 full-day workshops over Terms 2, 3 and 4 of 2021, with an optional school visit to Coodanup College in Term 3. With over 55 participants this year, the STL Program has become an important support to the FED School Improvement Program for secondary schools. For more information, contact Stacey Plaut at stacey.plaut@fogartyedvance.au.

Anika Blackmore and Peta Nelson facilitated an Instructional Coaching Workshop for our EDvance Schools this term. 

Former principal of Balga Primary School, Anika was part of Cohort 3 of the Fogarty EDvance program. Now the Foundation Principal of Brabham Primary School, Anika and her team are implementing a strong Instructional Coaching Framework with their committed team of teachers.

During the workshop, Anika and Peta outlined the evidence base behind Instructional Coaching and provided some practical examples of coaching in action. They shared their process for establishing an Instructional Coaching Model, including pre-conditions and protocols for classroom observation. Jenefer Goronski, a teacher at Brabham Primary School, also shared her experience as a ‘coachee’.

Participating school teams had the opportunity to reflect on their school practices and develop an action plan for moving forward to implement and improve Instructional Coaching practices in their school. The feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive:

“Wonderful! We have so many good ideas and strategies to take back to school and value add to our journey.”

“The modelled coaching conversation was outstanding, and overall, I have so many practical strategies to return to my school with.”

“I really enjoyed the fact that the presenters were working from past and current professional experience, it made the PL very relatable.”

“Loved it! So great to hear such a positive, well planned process that you are obviously so passionate about and how successful it has already been.”

Thank you Anika and Peta for sharing your knowledge and experience with 90 school leaders and teachers from 26 EDvance Primary and Secondary schools. Due to the popularity of this workshop a repeat session will be offered in Term 4. Contact Daniella at Daniella.hassett@fogartyedvance.au for more details.

The Fogarty EDvance 3-year School Improvement Program continues to build leadership capacity to improve student outcomes in participating schools; however, the improvement journey does not end once schools complete their time in the program.

Teachers from Cohorts 4 and 5 recently attended the EDvance Alumni Workshop on the topic of a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum. These schools, which commenced their school improvement journeys in 2017 and 2018, have established Professional Learning Communities and a whole school approach to high impact instruction.

The Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum Workshop builds on the work already commenced by the schools by ensuring all students are provided access to the same curriculum content in a specific course and grade level, regardless of their assigned teacher, and that this curriculum can be taught in the instructional time available.

During the workshop, presenters Georgie Wynne and Stacey Plaut identified the research base for weaving instruction and curriculum into school improvement efforts. A structure and process for extracting critical content from the Western Australian Curriculum and developing a fine grained scope and sequence was then modelled using exemple programmes across a range of learning areas.

The final session for the day provided ample opportunity for school teams to reflect on their existing curriculum documents and engage in collaborative disciplined dialogue to plan their next steps.

A core component of the Fogarty EDvance School Improvement Program is the concept that a school’s culture (or organisational health) drives the performance of student outcomes. Schools need a healthy culture to have long term, sustained improvements in student learning. When school leaders have a baseline measure of their school culture and know how to focus on building their organisational health, they can take steps to positively impact student performance over time.  

Since 2016, Fogarty EDvance has partnered with McKinsey & Company to measure and improve the organisational health of each school in the program. Schools use the Organisational Health Index (OHI) to measure how their schools’ health is tracking and identify areas for improvements. 

The OHI survey, which is conducted each year in the program, provides schools with a picture of their organisational health at a practice, outcome, and overall level. Schools will either commence with a higher overall OHI and aim to maintain this over the course of the program and beyond, or they start with a lower overall OHI, and aim to improve their health over the course of the program and maintain this beyond. 

To understand how schools either maintained top decile health or built their health to reach top decile, the Fogarty EDvance team ran OHI focus groups in November 2020, with Cohort 3, 4 and 5 schools, that either sustained or substantially improved their organisational health throughout their Fogarty EDvance journey and beyond.

The aim of the focus groups was to:

The focus groups identified common themes amongst schools that either maintained top decile health or built their health to top decile. These included role-modelling by leaders, ongoing and active communication and investing in professional development and coaching of staff.

In conjunction with McKinsey these themes will continue to be explored and integrated into the wider Fogarty EDvance School Improvement Program.

In February, a second cohort of schools completed the Secondary Teacher Leaders (STL) Program, a 9-month professional development program for Heads of Learning Areas (HOLAs) and Level 3 teachers from EDvance secondary schools. 

Fogarty EDvance understands the complex role undertaken by secondary HOLAs and Level 3 teachers in school improvement. This program has been designed to support secondary teacher leaders in whole school improvement.

More than 75 HOLAs and Level 3 teachers from seven EDvance schools came together for five workshops in 2020 and 2021, including one session in the January school holidays.

Key objectives for participants of the STL Program include:

Feedback from program participants is very positive:

“The course has greatly boosted my confidence, furthered my leadership and management skills and made me more reflective about what I do.” 

Secondary Teacher LeaderParticipant, 2020-21 Program

“I have a greater understanding and ability to input whole school directions and development.” 

Secondary Teacher LeaderParticipant, 2020-21 Program

“Working and talking with other school leaders about their journey was very valuable.” 

Secondary Teacher LeaderParticipant, 2020-21 Program

To complete the program participants will submit a ‘story of impact’, allowing them to reflect on achievements they made against their action plans, and identify areas there have been changes to their leadership practice.

The third cohort of the STL Program is scheduled to commence in Week 9 of Term 2, 2021.  To find out more, please contact the Fogarty EDvance Team – info@fogartyedvance.au.

Fifteen West Australian schools have started their school improvement journey with the Fogarty EDvance School Improvement Program. School leadership teams from primary, secondary, regional, metro, public and Catholic schools have now begun their 3-year journey; a journey that for previous EDvance schools has significantly improved the academic outcomes for many West Australian students. 

Established by the Fogarty Foundation, the program focuses on building the capacity of school leadership teams to make informed, evidence-based decisions, strategically plan and ultimately, improve the academic outcomes of students in challenging communities.  

Cohort 8 consists of 9 regional schools, the largest number of regional schools in one cohort to date.

Congratulations to the following schools who make up Cohort 8 of the Fogarty EDvance School Improvement Program:

The Fogarty EDvance program has engaged with 111 schools, working with more than 350 school leaders who are impacting more than 50,000 students. 

To find out more visit fogartyedvance.au.