EOI Cohort 12

Explicit Instruction Secondary Network

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.

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. 

Greenbushes Primary School is in the town of Greenbushes in the South-West of Western Australia, between Donnybrook and Bridgetown. The school is very small, catering for just 40 students from Kindergarten to Year 6, but despite the school’s size, they are part of a proud community who love to see their students succeed.  

Greenbushes Primary School joined the Fogarty EDvance School Improvement Program in 2019 with the aim of advancing educational outcomes for their students. The leadership team saw the need to provide their staff with more professional development opportunities, best practice research and tools, peer support and access to experts and additional programs.

Greenbushes is home to Talison Lithium Pty Ltd (Talison) the world’s leading lithium minerals concentrate producer. The mine has been producing lithium from Greenbushes since 1983 and works closely with the Greenbushes community to deliver projects that create sustainable economic, social, and environmental outcomes. For this very reason, the school requested the support of Talison for its involvement in the Fogarty EDvance School Improvement Program.

Lifting the capacity of the school’s leadership team to work together to create a healthy school culture and plan strategically to lift students’ educational outcomes was considered to be a key aspect of seeing real and lasting benefits for the local community according to Talison General Manager Operations Craig Dawson.

“We are a residential site with approximately 88 percent of our workers living within a 50 km radius of the Mine, so we take a close interest in education in schools across the Warren Blackwood region,” said Mr Dawson.

“Talison’s support for the Greenbushes Primary School goes beyond just providing funding on an ad hoc or transactional basis, we are seeking to add real value to the sustainability of the school and in turn to each and every child attending the school.”

Craig Dawson, Talison general manager operations

“The sustainability of the school is also equally important to our business being able to attract and retain a high- quality skilled workforce,” he said.

“When people are considering career choices it is very often linked to outcomes for their families and having a quality educational resource for their children is top of the list,” he said.

“We came on board because we could see the staff and school community believed it would achieve outcomes for students and be a tool for school improvement across the board.”

CRAIG DAWSON, TALISON GENERAL MANAGER OPERATIONS

The Fogarty EDvance team recently interviewed Kylie Loney, Principal at Greenbushes Primary School, about the school’s partnership with Talison and how the partnership is providing the Greenbushes community with great hope for the school’s future success.

Why did you apply for the Fogarty EDvance program?

Although staff at Greenbushes Primary School are highly experienced and skilled, opportunities for professional learning and collaboration with other schools are significantly limited in regional areas. We have been faced with poor academic results in recent years, but have had little capacity for change, when faced with barriers such as the cost of bringing quality training to the area, sending staff to Perth, and funding relief to cover classes in a regular teacher’s absence.

Our decision to apply for Fogarty EDvance was spearheaded by acting Principal, Chris Mott in 2018, prior to my tenure, which commenced at the start of 2019. Throughout 2019, staff worked toward developing a vision for the type of school we wanted into the future, and the types of evidence-based programs and resources we wanted to implement along this journey. My own positive experience implementing Explicit Instruction and overhauling lesson design at my previous school, gave me an insight into the approach encouraged by Fogarty EDvance, and led me to believe that this was exactly the type of School Improvement Program we wanted to participate in.

Despite Fogarty EDvance being heavily subsidised by the Fogarty Foundation, involvement in the program was still out of reach for our school. Although we could have budgeted to take part in the program, we would have been left with insufficient funds to purchase evidence-based resources, send staff to relevant training, and release staff from class as required, to work on school improvement plans. This would mean that we would see limited progress, despite our work with the Fogarty EDvance team.

What is your connection with Talison Lithium?

Having fostered strong partnerships with Talison Lithium, its contractors, other local industries and community groups, the school made the decision to capitalise on these partnerships and request support from Talison for its involvement in the Fogarty EDvance School Improvement Program. Talison quickly agreed to this proposal, demonstrating an understanding that having a good local primary school can work in their favour and attract a young, vibrant, and stable workforce. The success of Greenbushes Primary School will support the success of Talison Lithium, and vice versa.

How are they supporting Greenbushes Primary School with the program?

Without the significant contribution of Talison, which pays our program fees, as well as relief days to cover staff attending Fogarty Professional Learning, our improvement plans would be difficult to enact. The Fogarty EDvance team provides excellent support and planning frameworks, but the plans are reliant on funding for resources, professional learning and staff support. Within the school budget, we’ve been able to allocate funds for these things, safe in the knowledge that Talison has committed to funding our involvement in the program for the full three years.

What do you hope to achieve over the next 3 years as a Fogarty EDvance school?

Over the three years in which we are involved in Fogarty EDvance, we expect to develop whole-school plans for all aspects of literacy (our first priority) and numeracy. We are already in the process of implementing Explicit Direct Instruction across all learning areas, with a strong focus on early literacy, using cognitive science to drive the implementation of systematic synthetic phonics. Significant progress is already being made, which is giving staff, students, parents, community members and Talison Lithium, great hope for the future of our school’s academic success.

This term, our Cohort 7 school leaders had an opportunity to visit one of three EDvance schools to discuss their school improvement journey and observe high impact instruction strategies in classrooms. Gilmore College, Greenfields Primary School and Warriapendi Primary School hosted leaders and teachers from 14 schools, all of whom found the visit extremely valuable as they look to implement changes to teaching and learning in 2021.

Each school planned a packed agenda including an introduction from the school leaders, an overview of their school improvement journey, and the option to visit several different classes in action, from Pre-Primary to Year 7.

Feedback from leaders and teachers was overwhelmingly positive:

“I had an awesome morning – it was amazing to hear your change journey, showing us that all the hard work is worthwhile.”

“I enjoyed the school visit very much. Teachers were engaged and students were well supported 10/10.”

“Thank you for the insights into your context, the work you’ve been undertaking and the wonderful results you are seeing. Inspirational!”

Alumni schools can access school visits offered as part of the EDvance program.  To register your interest, please contact Daniella Hassett – daniella.hassett@fogartyedvance.au