EOI Cohort 12

Interview with Anika Blackmore, Principal of Balga Primary School

Anika talks about the Fogarty EDvance program and what she’s currently focused on as school principal at Balga Primary School.

Q1: Name 3 valuable things you gained from being part of the Fogarty EDvance program?

Through my engagement with the program I developed a deeper understanding of the importance of committing the time to establish the pre-conditions for school improvement, prior to implementing improvement initiatives. 

The program is designed for Leadership teams, which meant that we built the capacity of the whole team (not just the Principal). As a result of active participation in the extensive professional learning program everyone had increased role clarity and ownership over designing and implementing the three-year strategic plan.

The program gave me an increased appreciation of the importance of having a sustained focus on both your organisation’s health (school culture) and improved student academic achievement. 

Q2: What is something you wish you had known earlier in your career?

The evidence base around effective change management.

Q3: What is the best piece of advice you’ve received about being a principal?

“It’s better to go slow in the right direction that to go fast in the wrong direction”.

Q4: What is the latest topic on your mind?

I am currently reading Schools that Deliver (Bill Martin and J Edwards) so I would have to say ‘transformative leadership and creating an aligned culture’.

Q5: Would you recommend other principals apply to be part of the Fogarty EDvance program? Why?

Yes! The program is comprehensive and is structured in a way that provides a balance between high levels of support and accountability. Our mentor Su, provided extensive support when developing and monitoring the strategic plan and provided ongoing advice to ensure alignment of our school’s vision with the key themes, objectives, strategies and targets outlined in the plan. The Expert Engagement component allows schools to receive ongoing practical support in professional learning, including in-class modelling and coaching to ensure teachers are fully supported to implement new approaches.  

Through my active involvement in the program I have developed a much wider network of colleagues committed to promoting evidence based school improvement and sharing best practice teaching and learning, with the ultimate aim of improving the life chances of ALL students across our system.

Today, the Fogarty Foundation was proud to launch the Report Card for Cohort 3 of Fogarty EDvance, a 3-year whole school improvement program for schools in disadvantaged communities in Western Australia. The EDvance program works to support schools in closing the educational gap for students in lower socio-economic communities.

Distinguished members of Parliament, school leaders, teachers, program partners, sponsors, mentors, program stakeholders and members of parliament joined the EDvance team to celebrate the exceptional achievements of the Cohort 3 schools.

Cohort 3 finished the program at the end of 2018 and their results are very promising. On very visible lag metrics, such as NAPLAN, this cohort of schools has seen material improvements in essential foundational skills for their students across all areas.

There were 13 schools in Cohort 3 of the program, serving 4,600+ students, including:

– Balga Primary School – Dianella Primary College
– Roseworth Primary School – Warriapendi Primary School
– Yule Brook College – Bentley Primary School
– Forrestfield Primary School – St John Paul II Catholic Primary School
– Dianella Secondary College – Southern River College
– Bungaree Primary School – Middle Swan Primary School
– Thornlie Primary School  

On average, the 12 government schools in the cohort are now at, or above expected performance in over 70% of NAPLAN areas (up from 50% at the start of the program) and on average, the cohort is above expected performance when compared to peer schools.

The primary schools are now, on average, above expected performance in all areas of Year 3 and 5 NAPLAN. At the start of the program, just 2 years ago, this cohort was on average, below or at, expected performance in all areas of NAPLAN except one.

Two of the three secondary schools have seen major growth in their NAPLAN results too – with expected Year 9 performance improving by 0.2 – 1 full standard deviation.

Mr Lee Woodcock, Principal of Thornlie Primary School, spoke about his schools’ experience with the EDvance program and credited a strong improvement plan, regular mentor support, feedback and advice as key factors of their success. Mr Woodcock also made sure to credit his teaching staff on their hard work and commitment and spoke of his renewed enjoyment in writing the school’s annual report since completing the program.

A long time supporter of the program, The Hon. Sue Ellery MLC, Minister for Education and Training, congratulated the schools on their achievements in improving student outcomes and of the importance of strengthening leadership skills in schools.  

Fogarty EDvance are currently working with their sixth cohort of schools in 2019 and plan to launch Cohort 7 in 2020, which will extend their supportive reach to over 100 schools in disadvantaged communities in WA. Read the full Report Card for Cohort 3 here.

For more information, please contact Katie O’Driscoll at katie.odriscoll@fogartyedvance.org,au

Congratulations to two EDvance schools – Warriapendi Primary School and Lynwood Senior High School – that have recently been nominated as finalists in the Primary School and Secondary School of the Year categories of the WA Education Awards. Both schools have seen significant improvements in outcomes for students in their communities and we are thrilled to see their achievements and efforts recognised at state level.

Education and Training Minister Sue Ellery recently announced the finalists for the WA Education Awards 2018. The WA Education Awards are the State’s premier awards for teachers, principals, school support staff and public schools. In the Minister’s words, “The WA Education Awards are a stellar opportunity to acknowledge our inspiring teachers, outstanding principals, excellent school support staff and successful Western Australian public schools.”

This year, two schools in the Fogarty EDvance School Improvement Program have been nominated. Warriapendi Primary School, nominated as a finalist for WA Primary School of the Year, is part of Fogarty EDvance Cohort 3 (now in their final year of the 3-year program). Warriapendi Primary School has seen significant improvements in academic outcomes, particularly in relation to students’ writing. As can be seen below, Warriapendi primary students are performing above the WA State average in writing:

Further details of Warriapendi Primary School’s recent successes in academic achievement, as well as how they did it, can be found in the Fogarty EDvance 2018 Interim Report Card.

Lynwood Senior High School, part of Fogarty EDvance Cohort 4 (and nearly 2 years through the EDvance program), has been nominated as a finalist for WA Secondary School of the Year. Lynwood Senior High School’s commitment to the student voice and community feedback has seen Lynwood’s success skyrocket. In the words of Principal Geraldine Hardy, “If schools aren’t focused on well-crafted programs with caring people in place to make sure kids can get to school, feel safe at school and enjoy school, they won’t perform well.”

Associate principal Jo Willesee agreed, adding that “The changes which have led to where we are today are things like a focus on student wellbeing, introducing academically focused programs, specialist soccer program and having a focus on sustainability, so you’ve got a unifying focus for the school.”

Further details on Lynwood Senior High School’s recent successes and their nomination as a finalist can be found here.

A full list of the finalists can be found here, with the winners announced on 26 November 2018.

Congratulations to all finalists and in particular, Warriapendi Primary School and Lynwood Senior High School, for all of your hard work. We wish you all the best for the finals in November.

Lynwood Senior High School, Cohort 4, are have made a significant improvement in students’ academic performance. The Lynwood staff have a clear moral purpose of supporting their students to perform at or above the State average for key indicators, including NAPLAN and ATAR.

The recent release of ACARA 2017 data shows Lynwood students are out-performing their peers in NAPLAN reading and are close to the National average in NAPLAN writing and numeracy. This is a significant improvement in achievement of the students, as in 2015 and 2016 almost all areas of NAPLAN were close to ‘like schools’. See Lynwood’s NAPLAN profile here.

Lynwood’s high aspirations for student outcomes does not stop at Year 9 NAPLAN. The school was ranked 28th in the State in median ATAR score for 2017. They were the 7th highest ranked public school on the Better Education ranking. See the full list here.

On behalf of the EDvance community, we congratulate all the staff at Lynwood Senior High School on the dedication to supporting their students to aim and achieve high! We look forward to seeing the great results continue.

During the January school holidays, 29 dedicated teachers and pre-service teachers, 28 eager students, three expert coaches and a magician met at Dawson Park Primary School. The Teach Well Intensive is a week-long, professional development program for experienced and pre-services teachers to develop high impact instructional practices.

Teachers from 11 schools observed English and math lessons by Dawson Park teachers Mr O and Mr B, with year 3 and 4 students. The teachers had several opportunities to practice the skills they were observing and learning, by teaching the students throughout the week. Many teachers were apprehensive as the style of lessons are fast paced, systematic and teacher led, but with the support of experienced teachers and Dr Lorraine Hammond, teachers finished the week confident to teach their own classes using the high impact, explicit instruction method. The student’s schooling during the holidays was rewarded with a range of activities each afternoon, including a magician, activities with Sports Challenge Australia and CoderDojo WA. The teachers were fortunate to have such engaged students to develop their teaching skills with.

The Fogarty Foundation initiated the program to provide teachers wanting to teach explicitly with the content, support and practice often difficult to access in traditional professional development. The initiative generated interest from the media and system leaders. The West reported the program, here, and Minister for Education and Training, Sue Ellery, MLC as well as the Member for Forrestfield, Stephen Price, MLA came and saw the program in action.  See the Minsiter’s selfie with the students here.

The Teach Well Intensive pilot program is being evaluated by Murdoch University professor Dr Tony Fetherston, including follow up reviews to investigate if and how these new skills are being used back in the schools.  We look forward to sharing the report with educators, advocates and the community in April.

Image – Minister for Education and Training Sue Ellery, MLC with Dawson Park Primary School students, Teacher Jared Bussell, Annie Fogarty and Dr Lorraine Hammond.

We talk to Peter Jakimowiez, Principal of Warriapendi Primary School,  a Cohort 3 school.

Name 3 valuable things you have gained from the EDvance program (so far)?

The EDvance program has introduced me to strategic, validated frameworks, processes, methodologies and tools that I use for whole school improvement.  All too often we look for programs and processes in isolation to solve our problems.  Fogarty EDvance enables you to orchestrate these and enable clear direction, leading to sustained school improvement.  It allows you to establish clear processes that are based on research, involving the whole school community, enabling you to make quality decisions linked to performance and common understanding.

 What is something you wish you had known earlier in your career?

The placemat documents and formulation of key performance indicators have been invaluable in developing a common professional language amongst my administration team, the staff and our community.  Reporting on the progress of our business plan to the School Board using clear, strategic direction has never been easier.

 What is the best piece of advice you’ve received about being a principal?

The position of Principal is certainly challenging, rewarding and an honour to hold.  The responsibilities are enormous.  I have been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to work with some inspiring leaders.  One of those has been my former Principal and current Fogarty mentor, Ross Albones, inspired me as a young teacher.  He encouraged me in taking on leadership opportunities that enhanced my teaching and eventually led to my current leadership position.  I particularly liked the way he led cultural change through respect, empowerment and developing teachers’ talents.  My father always taught me to keep a work, life balance and respect other people’s point of view.  I am always mindful that my staff also have family/personal commitments and cultural change occurs when common values are shared.  As a leader I prefer to be a learner rather than a knower, guided by the principles of Adaptive Leadership.

 What is the latest topic on your mind?

Teacher quality and schoolwide pedagogical development are two areas I have focused on to enhance student achievement.  EDvance has enabled me to develop a strong, professional administration team that has the freedom to operate at their optimum through the distributed leadership model.   I want all my staff to develop and build on their professional persona by taking responsibility for self-improvement.  EDvance has introduced us to the concept of using Expert Engagement as a tool for improvement.  This coupled with the Research-Based Framework for Organisational Alignment that uses the Diagnostic Inventory for School Alignment data gathering tool, has been the foundation stone of our success.

On May 4, we had a very successful launch of Cohort 2’s Report Card, with much cause for celebration. There was an excellent attendance of Executive Directors from theDepartment of Education, Deans of Education from 3 of the 4 major teaching universities and the corporate community was well represented.

The Education Minister, Hon. Sue Ellery MLC, officially launched the Report Card and spoke generously about the importance of school leadership and the role that our leaders play in ensuring an excellent education system. She praised the Foundation and our Partners for the work that EDvance has undertaken, in particular acknowledging the efforts and successes of our school leadership teams in improving student outcomes for their students.

Photo 1: The Hon. Sue Ellery MLC – WA Minister for Education

Photo 2 (right to left): Hon. Sue Ellery MLC with secondary school principals – Bernadette, Everal, Stella, Mary, Hilary, Alen – Jeannette Gee (WASSEA), Annie and Ingrid

Principal interview with Grant Kennedy as he reflects on key learnings from his time in the EDvance program as part of Cohort One. Read his insights and see how the EDvance program continues to support his work as a school leader.

What have been some of the most valuable elements for you from the EDvance program?

The Leading for Learning Framework (Dempster) was central to the work we undertook at North Balga Primary School. With our constant focus on using this Framework and with the ongoing support of EDvance, I believe it was a key strategy to understanding what was most important in our school context and ensuring that these key domains were the drivers of improving student learning. It made it clear that each of the domains has relevance and importance to student success, allowing the ability to identify and prioritise key strategies for improved student learning, linked back to our broader moral purpose.

Secondly, the opportunity to access an experienced and knowledgeable mentor was important, especially as within the EDvance program there is flexibility to use this support as the principal and school seem fit. Rose Moroz was key in challenging me and my leadership team to think of alternatives to problems. It was great to have a mentor that understood the context of the school and was just as invested in the success of the students as my staff and myself are.

Finally, the importance of distributed leadership and this is now the ‘norm’ at North Balga Primary School. This is an area, I truly believe is essential. My staff are willing, competent and have an enormous amount of initiative, and it is my role to activate and facilitate these characteristics to the benefit of improved student learning throughout the school and in preparing pre-school children within the North Balga community.

What are some key ideas from EDvance that you’ve applied in your school?

The importance and necessity of whole school approaches not only in curriculum and teaching but also the conditions for learning. Whole school approaches in curriculum are essential for improved learning which is evident in the school’s NAPLAN data, but whole school approaches to for example, behaviour, student health and classroom environment are just as important to positive progress.

The requirement for professional learning to be targeted and relevant to the school’s Business Plan. It is essential for all staff to be focused on the school’s targets as outlined in the Business Plan, to ensure that professional learning is targeted and well-resourced and leads to desired outcomes in student learning and wellbeing.

The importance of community in creating a culture in the school that is welcoming and vibrant (and the huge amount of energy that this requires in a low socio-economic school) but involving community in the classroom, in decision making and allowing them a voice develops the culture that supports improved student learning.

What is something you wish you had known earlier in your career?

That we should always make the time to keep learning, through professional learning, reading, networking and collegiality, no matter what stage of our career we are at. Education is constantly changing and we need to ensure that as teachers, educational leaders, facilitators or managers we maintain our instructional leadership knowledge and leadership knowledge in general to perform our role effectively.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve received about being a principal?

To look after myself! Having recently attended wellbeing professional learning facilitated by Kaya consulting on behalf of the Department of Education, I acknowledged that I had not been consciously looking after my own health and wellbeing. With one or two changes, such as setting an alarm to remind me to get up from my desk and walk around or spending recess and lunchtime in the Staff Room, with these minor changes, I am now making a more conscious effort to ensure I look after myself.

What is the focus of your school improvement journey, two years on from finishing the program?

The Admin team recently engaged with the Fogarty EDvance School Transformation Framework at a half-day workshop presented by Ingrid Sealey, as we had not had opportunity to engage with the Framework in Cohort One. During that workshop, we used the framework to pinpoint our stage of improvement and decided that we were at the top end of Stage 2. We recognised that we had worked through many of the Stage 1 strategies and incorportated them into our practice. We are now doing the same with Stage 2 strategies and many from Stage 3. We used the Dempster model to brainstorm our strategic position and will use this information to drive the development of our new Business Plan that we will be writing to guide us from 2018 to 2020.

What habit or saying from your Mentor has stuck with you?

Challenge yourself to think of an alternative solution. It may not be the solution but it will broaden your thinking and expectations.

The schools who now comprise cohort 4 commenced EDvance on February 13 and have now completed their first three days of professional learning workshops.

After day 1 an evening of Lawn Bowls helped participants to further develop relationships across schools in the cohort and was very well attended. They have also shown great enthusiasm for the professional readings and evidence-based research and have begun reflecting on the implications for their own school data sets.

The EDvance Mentors have also been getting to know their new schools there have been many meeting dates set between now and the end of term 1, as schools are beginning to develop their FED Performance Placements.

We welcome the following schools to C4:

Welcome Georgie Wynne
EDvance Program Development Lead

Georgie has recently commenced as the new Program Development Lead with Fogarty EDvance. She has been involved in the education sector as a teacher, leader and consultant with experience across WA, NT and NSW in both government and catholic schools and at systems level. Her specialty areas are teacher and leadership development, team building, teaching and learning and student engagement.  Most weekends you will find her out on the golf course perfecting her swing.

Georgie’s focus will be in developing the EDvance program beyond the Perth metro area, to ensure that low SES schools across Western Australia have access and support to EDvance to transform their school communities to achieve better student outcomes. Her work will also involve developing some more tailored approaches to working with schools in regional contexts.

The Trends in Internat­ional Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), conducted every 4 years, measures student achievement in maths and science at Year 4 and Year 8 in Australia and many other countries. TIMSS assesses 630,000 students across 49 countries in Year 4 and in 39 countries in Year 8.

The recently released TIMSS results reveal little change in Australian students’ achievement since 1995.

These alarming results have sparked calls from education commentators for Australia to “wake up’’, reject short-term fixes, raise the effectiveness of teaching, and improve retention and training of qualified maths and science teachers. Further, Australia has had little success in closing equity gaps between students from indigenous and non-indigenous backgrounds and lower and higher socio-economic backgrounds.

During this same period (1995-2015), other high-performing countries such as Singapore, Korea, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei and Japan have made steady improvements. Other countries including Canada, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, the US and Kazakhstan have improved and now outperform Australia.

TIMSS shows that Australian Year 4 students are significantly outperformed by students in 21 countries in mathematics and 17 countries in science. Year 8 students are outperformed by those in 12 countries in mathematics and 14 in science.

Commentators say that this is a national challenge that requires a national response. We need Australia to take urgent action to access this decline in academic outcomes and the answer is not to just do more of the same.

EDvance program results show that educational inequality CAN be addressed at a whole school and a state wide level.

Fogarty EDvance is a 3 year whole school improvement program for school leaders in disadvantaged communities. The program works with school executive teams to help them transform student outcomes in their schools by providing them with best practice tools and research, rich data sets, ex-principal mentors and peer support. Over the 3 years schools turn theory into action by designing and implementing strategies that fit their unique school context.

We believe that by improving the quality of leadership in schools we can enable high quality teaching, enhance parent and community support for the school and achieve our fundamental aim: an Australia where all children, regardless of background, attain an excellent education.