School warp and weft

 

Mr Henry Gray Leanyer School Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

 

Aerial view of Leanyer School, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
Photo credit 'Designs 4U'

In 1994 I had the chance to act as our district's regional superintendent. The area for which I was responsible included a good number of Darwin primary schools, special education schools, the Don Dale Detention Centre for young offenders and several Aboriginal schools on Bathurst and Melville Islands to the north of Darwin. In all, there were 21 schools, both government and private, in the area.

At that stage, I had spent only three years at my present school, Leanyer. I accepted the appointment, leaving my school in the competent care of my assistant principal. The six months in an acting role taught me one of the most vital and important lessons of my teaching career.

My time away, shared with other schools, taught me that the best schools in our region were not the ones with the most modern of material resources. Superior schools were those that operated on the basis of the cooperation and collaborative principle that underpins sharing of ideas, thoughts and opinions between members of staff. The best sharing was that which took place in an environment of listening and speaking, where things were ‘shared and shared alike'. That sharing was underpinned by the respect colleagues had for each other, which was not qualified by experience in or newness to the profession.

The realisations, about what is important within organisations, that this six month appointment confirmed, gave me an appreciation of, and about, people within schools. This confirmed absolutely the importance of collegiate togetherness.

Staff linkage and school health

Prior to and following this temporary transfer, I contemplated the fact that there were many instances in which the ideas and capacities teachers had remained with them and were in no way transferred by way of shared understanding. In the late 1970s, a Northern Territory educator, Charles Beresford, had researched and written about the fact that beginning teachers were not well accepted by their more senior colleagues in the workplace. Beresford's report implied that experienced teachers felt they had a lot more to offer than their junior colleagues.

Those new to teaching were seen to be ‘passengers' rather than contributors to schools.

Beresford's paper stuck with me and its memory was obviously in my thinking when I spent my six months as regional superintendent. I quickly learned — and this was to some extent a confirmation, rather than a discovery — that productive workplaces were those in which experienced staff and their neophyte colleagues engaged in true professional exchange.

On returning to Leanyer, I redoubled my efforts to integrate experienced teachers with their more junior counterparts in a healthy professional mix. A school is as strong as the fabric that weaves its members together. Simplistically put, experienced staff might be typed as the fabric warp, more junior staff members the weft, or vice versa.

Without the one, the other is lost. Woven fabric is as strong as its interlacing strands. Schools are as strong as those within who matrix and link together, to determine organisational strength. It is on that strength that organisational health is predicated.

From 1994 onward, staff at Leanyer School have worked toward linking staff members in terms of deep learning and deep support. The depth factor means that learning from each other is honest, genuine and sincere.

The support each staff member has for the other goes beyond superficiality, to wrap us in a blanket of care and empathy. Staff, regardless of their hierarchical position, their length of teaching experience, the length of time they have spent at the school and their location within the school, work in a way that encourages them, in both coaching and mentoring terms. They are fully supportive each of the other. They make me proud to be one of their number.

Keys strategies we have developed

In order to develop the oneness and unity that grows from an implicit and explicit approach to coaching and mentoring, the following have become elements of our approach to collegiality and shared development.

• Team teaching has become part of our strategy, maximising the opportunity for teachers and paraprofessionals in engaged sharing. Team teaching develops under set parameters and is underpinned by equality in sharing, teacher loading, and so on.
• Identified teachers who are experienced, who are teachers of exemplary practice, or who have special skills, are teamed with colleagues in order to coach and mentor. This is two-way, in that those identified to participate in shared learning experiences, are active in giving of their own ideas. The program is not based on one-way dialogue because teachers who are ‘passive receptors' are not, in the end, fulfilled teachers.
• Unit meetings are held each fortnight, to link preschool to year 3 staff, and year 4 to year 7 staff in a similar manner.
• Meetings cover topics ranging from sectional policy, to moderation, to development of other's skills by input from the group or by persons invited from outside the unit or school. This helps with the building of knowledge and understanding.
• We have developed email address books to link the whole of our staff, or staff groups, by section. This facilitates administrative and professional communication. Sharing of professional material is included with staff being able to ‘piggy back' on the address list in order to share with some, or with all, within the groups or school. This linkage includes teachers, paraprofessionals, administrative staff and staff who support children with identified and special needs. School council members (parents and teachers elected to council) and notary public persons (politicians, head office staff and others) are included in these links.
• While they may seem like small things, these linkages enable staff to share in terms of both coaching and mentoring needs within groups. It enables this sharing to embrace those with stake and interest in our school, who are not necessarily staff members.
• Nine members of our staff have, or are undertaking, leadership development programs provided by our Department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET). The program is designed to support those with leadership potential, in terms of both awareness and realisation. This group is supported by email linkage, by meetings we hold from time to time, by the sharing of ideas, educational papers and by rich formal and informal conversations. I have sponsored all within the group and work with them in terms of coaching and mentoring. Those within the group who have engaged the in the ELP (Emerging Leaders Program) for the longest times, work in mentoring teams with our newer candidates.
• As a school community, we engage those from outside the school who can assist our enrichment, to engage with us in professional development. In turn, many of our staff participate in professional development activities supplied by providers outside our school, in order to enrich their status as caring and sharing professionals. Many devote significant amounts of time and money to this goal.
• A significant number of teaching staff engage in the upgrading of their formal qualifications through tertiary study undertaken at Charles Darwin University or at other online tertiary institutions around Australia. Staff share learning outcomes with colleagues at our school and we are enriched and blessed by this sharing. Our knowledge is enhanced by an awareness that, to me, equates with coaching.
• We are a school with strong linkages to Charles Darwin University (CDU) and other interstate universities for the sake of accepting hand-helping in the development of teachers in training. Neophytes coming to Leanyer are accepted as being temporary members of our staff by students and teachers alike. In that context, they are coached, mentored and developed by classroom teachers to whom they are attached. These young trainees also share with us, knowledge of current curriculum developments, the latest teaching strategies and practices in which they are being trained. This helps members of our staff to be aware of, and to keep abreast of, developments and trends. In a context where it is easy to be out-of-touch with current thinking this, to us, is a critically important link. It is also a regular link, because we accept up to 30 teachers in training each year, so the relationship and the two-way benefits outlined are continuous.
• Although in its infancy, I have encouraged members of my staff to engage in online conferences. Through global linkages facilitated by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust and CyberText, teachers and others are able to link in a global exchange 24/7 during program cycles. While at Leanyer, there have not been many active ‘takers' to date, the concept is catching on. In terms of personal participation, I'd attest to the rich way in which online conferences and web dialogue have helped me in terms of my personal development. I have been enriched by the engagements I've had with educators around the world and hope that I have contributed to their development. Online conferences are facilitative in terms of offering a link that enables participants to learn, and to contribute to learning. That offers both coaching and mentoring opportunities that embraces a huge group of active learners.

Conclusion

In writing this supporting paper, I have not been overly concerned with the definition of the terms ‘coaching' and ‘mentoring'. Rather, I have considered the benefits that accrue to organisations that focus on the development of those within, through giving and sharing strategies that enrich and enhance participants. I firmly believe that these opportunities develop within people the confidence to share opinions and the capacity to receive, and reflect upon, the advice of others.

Giving and receiving is about meaningful two-way dialogue. Issues of age, experience and background are superfluous.

Coaching and mentoring are strategies that have been, and will continue to be, a part of the way in which we provide for the enrichment of staff and those associated with the delivery of educational outcomes at Leanyer School and within our school community. In Northern Territory terms, we are a large school going places. This is due, in no small part, to the commitment we have, within our school community, of going forward in the light of the collective wisdom that comes from professional sharing.

Coaching and mentoring are developmental strategies that work for us all.

 

Mr Henry Gray is Principal of Leanyer School, in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. He commenced his teaching career in 1970, having entered training college as a mature age student. He has taught in remote, town and urban schools in both Western Australia and the Northern Territory. His principalship in WA and NT schools encompasses the past 35 years. He holds several degrees and is a member of various relevant professional associations. Mr Gray was president of the Northern Territory Principals Association from 1992 until 1996. His concern is that the human side of education should always remain at the forefront of teaching and learning. Schools should always be for children.

Join the online discussion for all supporting papers from Monday 19 June to Sunday 26 June 2006.