Mentor Spotlight

Mentoring school leaders is a critical component of educational leadership and organizational development. Academic literature underscores the importance of mentorship in helping school leaders navigate the complexities of their roles effectively. For instance, Ingersoll (2018) highlights that mentoring for school leaders can positively influence their leadership skills, decision-making abilities, and overall job satisfaction. By offering guidance, sharing experiences, and providing emotional support, mentors help school leaders build the confidence needed to make informed decisions and address challenges within their schools.

Additionally, research suggests that mentorship can contribute to the professional growth and continuous improvement of school leaders. Mentors can assist in developing leadership competencies, such as instructional leadership, school culture enhancement, and effective communication, which are crucial for driving school improvement and student achievement (Wong and Wong, 2005).

Mentoring relationships often create a sense of belonging and professional community among school leaders. Frattura et al. (2004) demonstrate that mentors can help new school leaders integrate into their school communities, establish positive relationships with staff, and foster a collaborative and supportive school culture.

Mentoring school leaders has a profound and positive impact on their leadership development, job satisfaction, and effectiveness in leading schools toward improved outcomes for students. It underscores the importance of establishing formal mentoring programs and structures within educational institutions to support the growth and success of school leaders.

Find out more about the Fogarty EDvance mentors here

EDvance offers cohorts a variety of additional workshops throughout their time in the program (and beyond as alumni).

Some examples of these workshops include Instructional Advisor, High Impact Instruction, Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum and a Masterclass in interpreting OHI.

As a cohort you will hear about these classes as they are offered (usually in the second year of the program), however, if you have any specific enquiries please do not hesitate to contact us.

At this stage we are collecting Expressions of Interest for our Instructional Advisor Workshops and Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum. If you are interested in attending please send us an e-mail

On September 4th, Fogarty EDvance had the pleasure of hosting an instructional coaching workshop with representatives from ten of our Cohort 9 schools joining us! Thanks to Anika Blackmore and Victoria Rowland from Brabham Primary School for their leadership and insights.  It was a great day of learning and planning and those who attended gave amazing feedback to the hosts.

If you are interested in participating in any upcoming workshops see what we have coming up

Congratulations to the eleven Cohort 7 schools who recently completed the three-year EDvance School Improvement Program.

Despite beginning their improvement journey in 2020 with the onset of COVID-19, the cohort participated in the program through a combination of face-to-face and online learning, including via livestream. Together, these schools have managed and adapted to the challenges of the pandemic and were able to share their ‘green shoots’ for school improvement at the final workshop this term.

 We look forward to welcoming these schools to our FED Alumni Network in 2023 and publishing the Cohort 7 Impact Report next year. The full list of Cohort 7 schools who successfully completed the program can be found here.

The Grattan Institute recently published an article on curriculum planning in schools, outlining workload challenges faced by teachers in the time taken to plan curriculum to facilitate student learning experiences in their classrooms.

A lack of detailed resources and direction for teachers has led to teachers having to create lessons from scratch and searching for appropriate materials or activities online to support learning. This often leads to variability between classrooms in what is being taught, and privatised classroom practice, which leads to students in the same year groups not having equal access to grade level content. 

Of the schools surveyed, the majority did not have robust curriculum planning processes in place, with only 15% of teachers having access to common materials for their classes – with teachers working in disadvantaged schools being half as likely to have access to common materials than teachers in more advantaged schools.

Having common materials has a significantly positive effect on teachers and teaching, such as consistent learning in classrooms, increased teacher collaboration, decreased workload, and greater satisfaction with their schools’ planning process.

The report outlines what can be done to ease the workload for teachers – which equates to 20 million teacher hours per year – by education systems investing in the creation of high-quality curriculum materials made available to schools and investing in developing deeper pedagogical content knowledge for teachers to create these materials. 

We are excited that two EDvance Alumni schools, Aveley Secondary College, and Serpentine Primary School, were recognised in the article as exemplars of curriculum planning and development and were able to share how they implemented low variability curriculum across their schools, and the subsequent positive impact this had on their teachers and student outcomes.

You can read the full report here.

Congratulations to the eighteen primary and secondary schools who recently celebrated the launch of their Fogarty EDvance School Improvement Impact Report.

Cohort 6 schools commenced their journey in 2019, with 10 primary schools and 8 secondary schools – one of the largest contingents of secondary schools for the EDvance Program. The inclusion of such a large group of secondary schools enabled the EDvance Program to further develop support structures and gain critical insights into the strategic and operational challenges faced by secondary schools.

The Impact Report includes a story of impact for each school, capturing how the EDvance Program supported them to improve student outcomes by building the capacity of their leadership teams, catalysing changes in teaching practice, and developing robust strategic plans. 

“It has been a pleasure and a privilege working with Cohort 6 during the EDvance program and beyond into the EDvance Alumni program. They have bravely embraced the challenge of undertaking whole-school transformation and all that entails, for the benefit of the students in their communities,” said Georgie Wynne, Fogarty EDvance Program Director.

“Belmay Primary School staff have always been committed to providing quality education for each child. The EDvance Program has given us the skills, tools, and confidence to continue to improve the quality of that education.”
Sarah Durham, Principal at Belmay Primary School

“The Fogarty EDvance program has allowed Coodanup College to grow and achieve genuine improvement around our shared moral purpose. The guidance and support we received to lead staff through the implementation of research-based best practice was invaluable.”
Mark Utley, Principal at Coodanup College

“The Fogarty EDvance program allowed our school to develop a greater sense of direction and provided opportunities to celebrate success. This program was the most beneficial professional learning I have been part of in my 25+ years in education.”
Steve Beaton, Principal at Hampton Senior High School

“The impact of the Fogarty EDvance Program on the leadership team’s focus and solidifying the direction of the school, I believe, has directly impacted on the improved educational outcomes of the students across the school.”
– Andrew Jack, Principal at Tom Price Senior High School

You can read the Cohort 6 Impact Report here.

In 2022, EDvance celebrates 10 inspired years of working with West Australian schools in challenging communities. The program has impacted 125 schools, over 430 school leaders and more than 57,000 students. All schools have seen improvements in student outcomes, including behaviour and attendance data; with over 50 percent of schools achieving significant improvements in student academic outcomes. 

Established by the Fogarty Foundation in 2012, in a unique partnership with the Department of Education and Catholic Education WA, the goal of EDvance is simple yet bold – to improve student outcomes and bridge the inequality gap in education.

Annie Fogarty AM, is delighted that Fogarty EDvance has seen all 125 participating schools achieve improvement, and over half of these, realise significant improvements for their students. 

“Fogarty EDvance believes that with strong leadership, a whole school improvement strategy can be successfully implemented, transforming schools, and improving educational outcomes for students,” Annie Fogarty explained.

“We looked around the world for best practise in education and we gathered a diverse group of highly qualified and committed people to discuss how we could improve outcomes in challenging communities,” Ms Fogarty explained.

“We brought together wisdom, ideas and different approaches, and using this knowledge, we created and have continued to refine what is now the Fogarty EDvance program,” she said.

Georgie Wynne, Fogarty EDvance Program Director, explained that the program improves academic outcomes for students in challenging communities by enhancing the leadership skills of principals and their leadership teams.

“The program has a two-track agenda – school improvement and leadership development. It brings together the best tools from education, business and philanthropy, shares these tools and practices with school leaders, and supports them as they translate these practices into their schools and classrooms,” Georgie Wynne said.

“We work within each school’s context, mentoring and supporting schools for the entire three-year program. We focus heavily on the school’s organisational health and use data to inform ongoing strategic planning – with the ultimate objective of improving student outcomes.  Unlike other ‘off the shelf’ development programs, we also hold school leaders accountable for measuring and reporting their progress at the end,” she said.

“One of the main reasons why EDvance has been so successful, is because it has been brought together and supported by an exceptional group of people from within education and across the business and community sectors – all who bring knowledge and expertise from a wide range of sectors. They are involved because they all believe in the importance of quality education for all and the benefits this brings to our whole society,” Ms Fogarty said.

Cohort 9 school leadership teams had the opportunity to attend school visits to Aveley Secondary College, Coodanup College, Serpentine Primary School and Woodland Grove Primary School to see high-impact instruction and a whole-school behaviour framework in action.  

School visits are an important element of our School Improvement Program, allowing leadership teams to see high-impact instruction practices, as well as evidence-based literacy and numeracy programs, implemented consistently throughout classrooms across the school.

Participants had the opportunity to speak with host school leaders about their school improvement journeys, including how they encouraged staff to explore the benefits of high-impact instruction strategies, and how long it took to implement these practices in the classroom. 

Many thanks to everyone involved, especially those teachers who welcomed the leadership teams into their classrooms.

Year 1 students in public primary schools in Western Australia will commence a phonics screening test from the beginning of 2023 – which is already mandated in NSW and South Australian schools.

Education Minister Sue Ellery and Premier Mark McGowan committed to the screening tests, following a push from education and business leaders.

The test will involve students reading a list of words to assess whether they can identify and blend sounds. This follows the evidence-based research that spelling or decoding skills are derived from phonemic awareness, including a knowledge of the alphabet, phonic sounds and sight words. The test will consist of 40 words, some nonsense and some real, and be used to identify students who need extra help, by assessing their specific phonic knowledge skills.

“One in six students in Australia start high school with poor reading skills which inhibits their ability to fully access the curriculum – if we can identify struggling readers much earlier, this could ultimately reduce the time it takes for children to move from learning to read, to reading to learn.  The phonics screening checks will help schools to intervene much earlier and provide students with the extra help they need to read fluently.”   

Georgie Wynne, EDvance Program Director

“Many schools throughout Western Australia are already following an evidence-based phonics program, including a large number of Fogarty EDvance primary schools. We’re excited that now all schools will get access to the six evidence-based phonics programs that they can use to assist their teaching,” Georgie explained.

“This initiative will ensure that all schools will be encouraged to adopt this highly regarded and effective model of teaching, which will improve the educational outcomes of all West Australian children.” 

The Science Of Learning Accelerator aims to engage enthusiastic teachers and middle leaders from across Australia and build their knowledge and skills in making and sustaining evidence-based change. Over two days, participants will be guided through workshops on evidence-based models for change in both Primary and Secondary contexts, and every participant will be supported to develop their own action plan to implement in their school.

The event will be facilitated by Ollie Lovell and Annie Fogarty AM will be speaking during the panel discussion. Keynote addresses and workshop sessions will be presented by Dr Jenny Donovan, Dr Lorraine Hammond, Dr Pamela Snow, Toni Hatten Roberts, Ross Fox and Elena Douglas.

Day 1 will consist of keynote addresses and presentations on alternate models for change in streamed sessions. There will also be an Educators Dinner for participants to network with like-minded colleagues.

Day 2 will provide participants with facilitated small-group sessions to plan how to lead a change in their schools.

Participants are selected for the program after a rigorous application process including presenting a school-specific plan or initiative in line with evidence based practice. Once selected, participants will complete assigned readings and an online unit to ensure that everyone comes to the SOL Accelerator with a shared language and understanding. Scholarships are available to encourage application from low socioeconomic schools.

Find out more here.