EOI Cohort 12

Latest Impact Report celebrates Cohort 5

Congratulations to the nineteen Cohort 5 primary and secondary schools who recently celebrated the launch of their Fogarty EDvance School Improvement Program Impact Report. Included in the report are nineteen individual stories of impact, capturing how the Fogarty EDvance School Improvement Program supported them in building the capacity of their school leadership teams with the goal of transforming educational outcomes for their students. 

The leadership teams from Cohort 5 began their school improvements journeys in 2018. The Cohort consisted of nineteen schools, ten of which were from regional areas including the Pilbara, South-West and the Wheatbelt. This represented the first intake of regional schools into the Fogarty EDvance program, providing the schools with access to onsite school visits from mentors, professional development opportunities in regional areas, and regular trips to Perth for workshops and leadership collaboration, and included access to EDvance Teaching Intensives and the Secondary Teacher Leader program. 

Georgie Wynne, Fogarty EDvance Program Director, said it was a pleasure working with the leadership teams from Cohort 5, supporting them as they bravely embraced the challenge of undertaking whole-school transformation for the benefit of students in their communities. 

“Over the past 3 years the Cohort 5 schools have worked with evidence-based research and best practice tools from both education and business, they have created and responded to rich data sets, and they have been supported by outstanding mentors and their cohort of peers, to turn theory into action.”

“Every school has seen growth in outcomes for their students from improved academic performance, to increased social and emotional wellbeing, improved attendance and classroom engagement.” 

“As a result of their sustained commitment and hard work, every school has seen improvements in academic and social outcomes for their students, with sixty percent of schools in the cohort, reporting significant improvements in student outcomes.”

Louise O’Donovan, Principal at Beeliar Primary School and  2021 Primary Principal of the Year, thanked the Fogarty Foundation and the EDvance team for their exceptional commitment to supporting schools through their improvement journeys.

“EDvance is the best professional learning I have attended. It is a world class program that should be compulsory for all schools. Congratulations on an outstanding program.”

The Fogarty Foundation initiated the Fogarty EDvance School Improvement Program to significantly improve and sustain academic outcomes of students in disadvantaged communities in Western Australia. Each school starts the EDvance program at a different stage of student performance. Our aspiration is to see all Fogarty EDvance schools reach, or exceed, the state average for their students. When students from challenging backgrounds perform strongly, we demonstrate to our community that it is possible to achieve excellent teaching and learning for every student in the state, regardless of their postcode.

To date, EDvance has worked with 111 schools over 8 cohorts, involving over 350 school leaders and impacting more than 50,000 students across WA.

We welcome you to download a copy of the Impact Report for Cohort 5. 

The Fogarty EDvance team love to celebrate the achievements of our hard-working school leaders, and last week, we had the wonderful opportunity to acknowledge our Cohort 4 schools and the significant improvements they made during their School Improvement Program.  

Lisa Rodgers, Director General of the Department of Education WA, congratulated the school leaders for their dedication to their school improvement journey, recognising the unique nature of the program and its focus on building leadership capabilities as the mechanism to improve student outcomes.  

Cohort 4 consisted of 14 schools, with approximately 70 school leaders with a direct impact on almost 8,000 students.  

“As a result of their sustained commitment and hard work, every school that participated has seen improvements in academic and social outcomes for their students, with 60% of schools in the cohort having seen significant improvements in student outcomes,” said Georgie Wynne, EDvance Program Director. 

Bernadette Jones, Principal of Bullsbrook College, spoke enthusiastically about her school’s journey with the Fogarty EDvance team. 

“My wonderful team engaged with the program completely. For the first time we gave ourselves permission as an executive team to leave the school and take the time to be completely present at EDvance sessions,” she said. 

“We connected closely with our mentor, Peter, and felt very safe and trusting of his capacity to mentor and counsel us. That counselling from an independent person, with no connections other than that of advancing us within the Fogarty program was special. 

“We engaged with the readings and the learnings. We engaged enthusiastically with The Transformation Framework, the School Development Document, McKinsey and the OHI. 

“We have now engaged with the Alumni and I really feel that the Alumni has the potential to be as potent for the program as was the time we had as Cohort 4. 

“On behalf of the executive teams from schools in Cohort 4, a very warm thank you to Ingrid from our first couple of years, Georgie, Daniella, Caitlin, Annie, Peter, and the wonderful principal mentors, Learning Bar (TTFM), McKinsey (OHI) and all those open minded individuals who see the value of levelling the playing field of opportunities for all children across all schools.”  

Many thanks to Lisa Rodgers, Director General of the Department of Education WA; Dr Tony Curry, Director of Leadership & Employee Services, CEWA; Naveen Unni, Managing Partner Perth Office, McKinsey & Co; Megan Enders, Fogarty Foundation trustee; our Fogarty Foundation Partners and supporters; School Leaders and their EDvance Mentors, for attending. 

You can see the schools achievements in the Cohort 4 Report Card. 

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

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