The journey from idea to reality: personalising learning in a primary school

Climbing enrolments have prompted staff at Kew Primary School to reflect on our teaching and learning approaches, and facility development, in order to develop students’ interests and curiosity in the world around them and become responsible independent learners in the 21st century.

School context

Our current enrolment is 512. Kew East Primary School is classified as a ‘like school’ Group 2 and consistently achieves high academic results. In 2007, we had four preparatory classes, four year 1s, three year 2s, five year 3 and 4 composites, three year 5s and three year 6 classes. We also had five specialist programs: ICT, performing arts, visual arts, physical education, library and Languages Other Than English (LOTE).

We have a balance of expert, accomplished and graduate teachers. In 2007, we had two people sharing an acting leading teacher position. The level team leader position is divided into two roles; ‘administration’ and ‘teaching and learning’. Some levels have people splitting the role, some have one person do both. The teaching and learning team comprises one representative from each level and a specialist representative. We meet twice a term to discuss student learning, teaching practice and curriculum. The role of this team is to lead their team and implement outcomes of our discussions.

Our strategic intent is to better develop student’s interests and their curiosity in the world around them. We aim for them to become responsible independent learners in the 21st century.

Our objectives are to:

• continue to support teaching approaches that are developmentally appropriate, use a range of learning styles and facilitate independent and cooperative learning in a safe and stimulating learning environment
• keep class sizes from 20-24 across the school. Research supports that smaller class sizes benefit students learning and progress - emotionally, socially and academically.

How do we meet our objectives, that is:

• how can we enhance our teaching approaches to develop 21st century global thinkers?
• how can we use and develop our 19th century facilities to reflect our strategic intent?

Facility challenges

Our facilities (with their inherent challenges) comprise:

• 19th century buildings- our school was established in 1870. We have a double storey historical red brick building built in 1920. This contains nine classrooms, one art room, one library and one ICT lab.
• an historically significant  red brick building with cathedral ceilings and stain glass windows: this contains six classrooms, one withdrawal area and one hall that can hold 250 students.
• three single portables and two double classroom portables
• one permanent performing arts centre.

It is unlikely that the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development will not be allocating any more teaching spaces for us in the near future. Our school is also located in a safe Liberal Party seat.

Teaching and learning challenges

Since the school charter was developed in 2004, there have been a number of curriculum changes and developments to meet those goals. There is a danger that the staff would see this as more change. We developed a plan of strategic intent, in four stages.

Principal and AP discussed how we could use the environment to accommodate smaller class sizes whilst enhancing teaching and learning practice.

We considered several questions:

What is our core purpose?
Provide an educational child centred experience which develops independent learners to interact with the 21st Century. We set a vision.

Human resources, financial resources and facility options were measured in order to develop a strategic plan for 2008. We also considered a number of class grouping options; such as larger class sizes and composites, but felt they didn’t fit with the vision.

Is it sustainable?
We believe it would be until 2010 based on current enrolment predictions and the state of the budget.

How do we do it?
An emergent strategy developed, through dialogue and discussion with a number of key staff members.  Success of this proposal will depend upon relationships with the staff, developing teacher confidence, sharing experiences and getting teachers to think about the purpose of education and their current teaching practice.

Articulate

Current understanding and desired new strategy
We presented the proposal to staff of having year 5 and 6 ‘learning centres’ with 60 students and 3 teachers in 2 separate double teaching spaces. In order to do this the ICT lab would be moved into the library creating a resource centre. This in turn had a flow on effect on the positioning of other teaching spaces around the school to maximise learning opportunities.

A school map of proposed changes was left in the staffroom for feedback, discussion and suggestions. It was stated that any suggestions would need to be based on best practice principles.

The teaching and learning team visited two schools that were using interesting approaches to learning.  The experience was shared with the staff highlighting a number of areas that were of particular interest:

• collaborative teaching approaches in planning and working together. It questioned the notion of one teacher, one classroom and 21 children.
• child centred curriculum
• flexible use of teaching spaces.

Build

Images
Metaphor
Experiences

Through discussion and suggestions, a number of other class moves were suggested by the staff to provide further opportunities for team teaching.

A suggestion was made that the specialist program might need to change as the current timetable could not allocate 24 classes in one week. This prompted further discussions around how the specialist program will be delivered.

Revisited our understanding of Principles of Learning and Teaching. Discussed at length, and had staff presentations on best practice in teaching.

Create

Dialogue
Cognitive map
Shared understandings

Workforce plans for 2008 were shared with staff, consequently positions were advertised.

Teachers were invited to nominate a preference for a teaching level.

The final classroom structure of the school was decided and teachers were allocated a teaching space.

Specialist program was discussed and an appropriate timetable was developed to best meet the needs of individual teams.

Define

Formal plans
Outcomes

Change management principles:  What have we considered?

Engaging people in the process was important. This was done through a variety of strategies.  Discussions with individuals and teams ensued to investigate interest levels and possibilities of the process. This was also important in anticipating likely reactions of, so much change or I am comfortable doing what I am doing, or even I don’t want to move classes. Gathering a political ‘lay of the land’ assisted in deciding what strategic approach would be most successful at any given point in time. It was also important that a number of teachers across the year levels begun discussions around teaching and learning approaches for 2008. The teaching and learning team were able to articulate their experiences of visiting a other schools clearly and passionately to their colleagues. Having these effective relationships with people is paramount to implement any change. 

One of the great qualities of our school is that teams provide developmentally appropriate learning experiences for their students. This means that each team could utilise a different teaching approach that best suits the needs of that particular cohort of students.  It would be highly desirable to continue to provide that supportive environment which allows teachers to be researchers in knowing what is best for their students. It is a school culture of learning together, rather than being told what to do. Teachers would embrace a bottom up model of collaboration, rather than a top down model.  It would be imperative to adopt that model to ensure success.

Building capacity of teachers – The teachers are highly passionate dedicated teachers who want the best outcomes for children. The teachers at our school are also independent learners, who like to be challenged and enjoy the relative autonomy of working within their teams.  It would be very important not to formalise the details of the proposal too early, as they would appreciate suggesting ideas themselves.

Developing a common understanding about how children learn. Staff have been exposed to this constantly, the latest being a revision of the Principles of Learning and Teaching, during fortnightly professional development meetings.

Resource allocation – It was important that we develop a number of models that took into account variance in financial and human capital before we articulated our vision to the staff. We needed to have considered most of the possibilities, anticipating people’s questions in this area.

Considering what has gone on before in order to move forward. It was very important to acknowledge the amount of change that has already happened, and the value that each step of the journey has had.

Our Teaching and Learning Journey thus far ...

2004 – The aim as outlined in the school charter was to better develop student’s interests and curiosity in the world around them and being responsible independent learners in the 21st Century. 

2005 – The school formalised and articulated their beliefs and understandings about how children learn. 

2006 – Worked extensively with David Hornsby to develop inquiry approach to integrated curriculum.  Throughlines were developed which indicated the underpinnings of the curriculum in line with VELs.  These were life pathways, communities, how the world works and sustainability. The outcome was a two year scope and sequence chart outlining curriculum intent from prep to year 6.

2007 – Teaching approaches embedded across the school include incorporating Early Years literacy and numeracy, Middle Years experiences, explicit teaching of thinking skills, inquiry approach, and a balance of co-operative and independent approaches.  Kathy Walker, an educational consultant in developmental curriculum has guided the prep team in implementing this approach to teaching and learning. The prep team have worked closely together, learning from each other in utilising this approach. This approach is in line with our strategic intent, their biggest frustration is the limitations of the buildings and size of rooms. 

The year 5 team are part of a teacher professional leave project in investigating digital learning. The three areas have included robotics, digital portfolios, film making and claymation. A team approach has developed with sharing their learning with each other and each other’s students. At times they have utilised the library space to work together, having 60 students and 3 teachers learning together in this environment.

2008 – Given this history, we needed to consider the next successful step in our evolutionary learning journey to accommodate 24 class groupings in 22 teaching spaces.

Major learning

In one word; patience. It has been a lesson in creating an idea, considering all of the possibilities, anticipating the questions and challenges, and then think strategically about how to go about implementing that, all the while balancing long and short term goals. It is a little bit like planting seeds in strategic rows, watering them, feeding them and then watching them grow. Sometimes I am impatient and want to harvest too soon, but I have learnt if I do that it might not be a good crop!

Technical Leadership: thinking and planning strategically

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ms Natalie Nelson is Assistant Principal of Kew Primary School, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

 

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