Great teachers are the key to student well-being and academic learning

As a school principal I recall the little ones first days at school when there was a fair bit of crying and wanting to go home with mum and/or dad.  Great teachers eased them through this and they set off on their school journey with confidence because they were immediately nurtured by the teachers and felt safe and cared for.  Today I took my young granddaughter to pre-school which she loves.  We played with some small plastic toy creatures before it was time for me and the other parents to leave.  One little girl was sobbing on her mother's shoulder and the mum brought her to the mat where I was interacting with my little one.  The crying stopped as the interest in the toys took over and the mum gave me a nod of gratitude.  This is what reminded me of the first day at school blues.

Just the other day I was also reminded of the exuberance of youngsters when they find something that ignites their curiosity.  I spent the day with my granddaughter who is 4 and one half years old.  She wanted to search for insects and observe what they do.  Off we went and captured all sorts of creatures in our observation jar.  We looked at and discussed them.  I am gradually teaching my granddaughter what characterises an insect but didn't raise this when the majority of creatures captured were snails.  We let the snails loose and watched through a large magnifying glass talking about what they looked like and how they moved.  Of course we freed our subjects at the conclusion of this interactive time.  It was golden time.

Learning is a brilliant thing and the best teachers are constantly attuned to the wonder of it. This wonder is not only to be had with live subjects like insects but I experience it all the time with mathematics from the youngest students to the halls of university lectures in statistics.  I recall a wonderful stats lecturer who spoke with excitement about the parsimony of certain statistical formulae that had their roots in calculus. It was for me the switching on of a light.  I could do calculus problems as a final year secondary student but never experienced the wonder of what they were really all about.  It took a great teacher to open this door.

I am privileged to experience the wonder of the research outcomes of our scientists.  It never ceases to thrill me when I come across another wonderful discovery.  These are Crick and Watson moments. I know that great science teachers immerse their students in such wonder.  I am weird but as a student organic chemistry was a big new world to me and my interest has never dimmed.

I am privileged to experience the richness of words that the best wordsmiths put together in literature and in the great orations.  The hair stands up on the back of my neck when I am reading a book and come across another pearl of sentence and paragraph construction.  Recently I sent to my journalist son a line from a book on the Middle East set around 1917 and the struggles of the various powers and nationalities for control at that time : the author wrote:  "Those acorns of misunderstanding which become the great oaks of prejudice."  My son's response was that he wished he'd written that.  Great teachers will create for their students this wonder in the words and I was lucky enough to have two of the best literature teachers that ever trod the classroom.  I was even luckier when as a teacher I worked with them as colleagues.

I was and am no giant brain so full credit to the great teachers who broke through for me and gave me moments of unforgettable wonder.

As school principals it is worthwhile working hard to be leaders who inspire our teachers about this wonder in learning.  It is an exercise of reinvigorating the teachers, assisting them to marvel at the richness that is their profession and feel good about the skills that they daily demonstrate and the positive influences that they have.


GD

No Australian Viewers

I can't seem to get Australian viewers of this blog.  Either the subject matter is rubbish or I am an IT incompetent or both.

I'd love to know if anyone out there has some advice on my audience issues.


GD

Being an Australian Independent Government School (IGS)

I've just read a report on an IGS by an Education Department central office review panel. Such periodic reviews by central office are a requirement of the IGS contract.  The reviewers set out to critique the school's self review system.  In order to respect the independence of the school it seemed to me that the reviewers were hesitant to set the context of the overall organisation of the school and then within that context to make their comments on the school's self review process.  There is no point in reviewing a school's self review process if the school is not well organised.

Being well organised for me as a principal is that the school have a comprehensive School Development Plan (SDP) that covers the key elements of an effective school over a chosen duration like 3-5 years.  Within the appropriate elements of the SDP there should be embedded explicit school effectiveness criteria.  In the report I read there was regular mention of the schools' Business Plan (BP) but no convincing comment on how comprehensive it was.  The BP was probably some form of an SDP.  I can't warm to the BP nomenclature as the sense that a school is a business just doesn't resonate with me.

The SDP elements for me are:

1          1. The mission statement

2. The goals/aims of the school

3. The school leadership organization, inclusive of distributive leadership.

4. The organisation of the school for learning – staff/student configurations or class structures

5. The curriculum and standards moderation, inclusive of NAPLAN testing.

6. Core principles of best practice teaching and student learning processes as applied in the school.

7. The teacher driven assessment program to ascertain student learning progress in the subjects/learning areas of the chosen curriculum and the associated data bases of student records, inclusive of NAPLAN testing and data bases.

8. The NAPLAN assessment program: processes and practices.

9. The role of teachers and administrative staff in monitoring the outcomes of student learning from the prescribed curriculum to provide conclusions about the overall effectiveness of that learning across the school.

10. The state at any one time of student well-being across the school student population and the effectiveness of the monitoring of this #1 priority school effectiveness criterion.

11.Communications within the school.

12. The representation on and role of the School Board and the role of the P&C.

13.Parents the school and the learning of the parents’ offspring.

14. Written and oral communications with parents, with the main area of communication being the school reports on student progress with their learning.

15. The infrastructure of the school as being appropriate to student learning – included new structures, maintenance of existing structures.

16. Student population predictions and the concomitant staff and infrastructure needs.

17. Staff recruitment procedures in terms of the needs of the school teaching and learning program and staff induction programs.   

18. Roles of non-teaching staff who support in the classrooms and the administrative clerical staff.

19. Budget processes, inclusive of evaluation of efficiency and effectiveness of budget decisions as applied to facilitate the student learning program.

20. Occupational health and safety procedures.

21. Staff welfare, inclusive of procedures when staff are performing below the core standards expected in the school.

22. Best practice teaching and the related staff professional development.

23. Maintenance of and respect for the symbols that are part of  the culture of the school, such as the uniform, the school flag, the school song, the traditional award trophies and ceremonies that define the school.

24. Relationships with quasi government assessment bodies appointed by the Sate or territory. This applies more to secondary schools and the need to meet tertiary entrance requirements.

25. The Myschool website requirements.

26. The Annual Report.

For each element there would be a statement about its purpose, how it was to be organized, how it was to work, an itemisation and costing of any resources needed and a set of strategies about how to evaluate the effectiveness of this element of the SDP. The timeline over the 3, 4 or 5 years of the SDP would show which items were up for evaluation in the particular year.  Elements 7, 8 and 9 focused on student learning would be in play week by week as they are part of the ongoing learning program.  Element 10 would be evaluated regularly according to a manageable schedule.  Element 9 would be  organised around the school processes for reporting to parents, to the School Board and to any external authorities as required. 

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The School Effectiveness Criteria for me in order of importance are: 

Criterion #1 My School Respects Me Every Day  (Aligns with SDP element 

                                                                                                    #10)

Criterion #2  My School Helps Me To Be Fit And Healthy And To Feel Good

                           About Myself (Aligns with SDP element #10)

Criterion #3  My Teacher(s) Talk To Me Personally Each Week (Aligns with SDP element #10)

Criterion #4  My School Helps Me To Learn How To Learn (Aligns with SDP element #6)

Criterion #5 My School Makes Sure That As I Progress I Don’t Develop Gaps

                           In My English Language, Mathematics And Digital Skills

                           Learning (Aligns with SDP elements #s4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

Criterion #6  My Child’s School Gives Me The Opportunity To Be Part Of My

                            Child’s Learning (Aligns with SDP elements 12, 13, 14)

Criterion #7  My School Cares About Me As A Staff Member And Has

                           Reasonable Expectations Of Me (Aligns with SDP elements

                          #s17, 18, 21)

Criterion #8  My School Was Rigorous In Taking Me On (Aligns with SDP

                           element #17)

Criterion #9  My School Gives Me Leadership Opportunities (Aligns with

                           SDP element #3)

Criterion #10 My School Relieves Me Of The Stress Of Severely Disruptive

                             Students (Aligns with SDP element #21)

Criterion #11  We The School Staff Accept Responsibility For Keeping Up To

                              Date (Aligns with SDP element #s6 and 22)

Criterion #12 Our School’s Budget Spending Is Focussed On Improving

                             Student Learning  (Aligns with SDP elements #s 15,16,19)

Criterion #13  We The School Staff Are One With The School Board (Aligns

                              with SDP element #12)

Criterion #14 Our School Has Reassuring And Necessary OHS Procedures

                             (Aligns with SDP element #20)

Criterion #15  Our School Focuses On Change That Improves Student

                              Learning (Aligns with SDP element #s 9, 15, 20)

Criterion #16  Communication Works In Our School Community (Aligns

                              with SDP element #11)

Criterion #17  Our School Respects The Traditions Of The School Culture

                             (Aligns with SDP element #23)

Criterion #18  We Laugh A Lot In Our School (Aligns with SDP elements

                              #s10 and 21)

A Special School Effectiveness Criterion:  Our School Has An Effective

                                                                  School  Development Planning Process

 I place this effectiveness criterion separate from the listing in order of importance.  It reflects everything about the school and deserves its separate positioning.

For me the key features of an effective SDP are:

·      It covers the main elements describing the school as listed above.

·      The elements of the SDP align in large part to the criteria for school effectiveness.

·      It ensures that all staff, parents, the School Board and the students had appropriate opportunities to contribute to the development of the SDP.

·      The SDP is cast over a suitable time period such as 3-5 years so that targets 2, 3, 4 years ahead can be set for each element of the SDP as appropriate.  In any particular year of the duration of an SDP some elements will have development objectives activated and other elements will be in a status quo situation.

·      The SDP has built into its requirements an evaluation agenda for finding out whether it worked as an SDP.

All of the above on the SDP and the School Effectiveness Criteria is explained further in my treatise on school effectiveness which is at the draft #4 stage.  In this treatise I have set up an example of a working SDP for primary schools.  The SDP process is vital also for secondary schools.

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