School Improvement - the thinking, the focus, the process, the gains... Using the Evaluating Excellence programme to develop school communities

1. Evaluating Excellence

2. Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal these words appear: “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.

3. Humility “Guru is a word used by people who can’t spell charlatan”

4. What do we remember from conferences and guest-speakers? Leadership is the grain of sand in the oyster

6. 1587 – Map of the World. Issued in Geneva. Created by Mercator.

7. Navigation - tools

8. Change Now we have Google Earth! The Internet. 16 year-olds, 14 year-olds, sailing around the world, Facebook with 500 000 000 users, and it is only aged 6!

9. Why? Hope is not the same as joy when things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but rather an ability to work for something to succeed. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It’s not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. It is this hope, above all, that gives us strength to live and to continually try new things, even in conditions that seem hopeless. Life is too precious to permit its devaluation by living pointlessly, emptily, without meaning, without love and, finally, without hope. Vaclav Havel “Disturbing the Peace”

12. What really works?

13. Why do we have such a short-sighted view?Have you ever really pondered the word Question? The root word is Quest – an adventure, a journey

14. Oxford University Dictionary – 3rd Edition will never see print A TEAM of 80 has been working on it for the past 21 years, but now the lexicographers compiling the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary are being told that it will never appear in print, its owner has admitted in a report today The dictionary’s owner, Oxford University Press (OUP), has said that the impact of the internet means the latest update to the definitive record of the English language will never be published as a book. "The print dictionary market is just disappearing, it is falling away by tens of percent a year," said Nigel Portwood, chief executive of OUP. Asked if he thought the third edition would be printed, he said: "I don’t think so." The OED will live on online, where it has already been available for a decade and receives two million hits a month.

15. Ten Percent – one tenth

16. Is there a better way?

17. SETTING THE SCENE TUDOR HOUSE – UNIQUE IN THE AUSTRALIAN EDUCATIONAL LANDSCAPE

18. Things are not always as they seem

19. Setting the Scene My School – not MySchool!

20. Doesn’t really give the context – but now we can with Google Earth

21. More than just ‘my’ school

22. School Improvement – RISK! Challenging Does this mean the school wasn’t good? Does that mean the teachers are at fault? Does every new Head think this? Ethically, what does change mean for the students?

24. So – what defines ‘quality’ in a school?

25. Governmental Pressure Directives“Schools play a vital role in promoting the intellectual, physical, social, emotional, moral, spiritual and aesthetic development and wellbeing of young Australians, and in ensuring the nation’s ongoing economic prosperity and social cohesion. Schools share this responsibility with students, parents, carers, families, the community, business and other education and training providers.”

27. Quality Learning Environments

29. Bloom’s (Anderson’s) taxonomy As educators, we seem to focus on one domain – but there are three: Affective – receiving, responding, valuing, organising, characterising Psychomotor – physical manipulation of tool Cognitive – thinking skills

31. Squares on a chess board

33. The jack refers to the jackstay of a ship, on which the Union Jack would be displayed. Strictly speaking the flag should be called the Union Flag, but Union Jack is well known.

34. OUR STARTING POINT THE VISION STATEMENT Write down your school’s vision statement Write down your school’s motto What encapsulates your school visually?

36. STAKE-HOLDERS SCHOOL CAPACITY = The collective power of the full staff to improve student achievement. School Capacity includes and requires: Knowledge, skills, dispositions of individuals Professional Community Programme Coherence Technical Resources Principal leadership Fullan, 2004. Education in Motion: Leading in a Culture of Change VIDEO OF LEARNING – RT/LFT BRAIN

37. "Good morning, Eeyore," said Pooh. "Good morning, Pooh Bear," said Eeyore gloomily. "If it is a good morning, which I doubt," said he. "Why, what's the matter?" "Nothing, Pooh Bear, nothing. We can't all, and some of us don't. That's all there is to it." "Can't all what?" said Pooh, rubbing his nose. "Gaiety. Song-and-dance. Here we go round the mulberry bush." "However," he said, brightening up a little, "we haven't had an earthquake lately." We Adults are fond of Eeyore and his gloom. We adults become wary of Tiggers. But education is an act of optimism, of hope. Teachers must have some Tigger in them. Imagine an Eeyore teacher. ‘Good morning, children, if it is a good morning. There is little point in learning, and you probably won’t. Don’t be surprised when you look at the wall clock, if you see time standing still. This lesson will include phrases, pronouns, and adverbs: you may be allergic to these parts of speech and have an unusual or severe reaction. If you experience fast talking and excited feelings, or actions that are out of control, before you bother me, first check to see if you are a Kindergarten child, for whom this is normal.’

39. Bizarre as it may seem, pessimism has been rife in our education system for many years. Why does our system want to test children more than others? The pessimist tests, the optimist trusts. The pessimist sets limits. The optimist challenges. Let me read you a tender poem: Wrapped within these words is something that lies at the heart of this school – and, hopefully, all schools – HOPE and TRUST. If we are a great school, these are just some of the most important words we can ‘teach’ – and we can only do this successfully with the help of our entire community. Schools are amazing places because we hold dear the hope for the future. HOPE and TRUST make us optimistic. The pessimist sees limitations and says no. The optimist imagines possibilities and says why not. Optimism liberates excellence, places no limits on what children may achieve. Be an optimistic school. Our children achieve great things. Optimism and pessimism are things we make. They are habits of thinking. Sometimes our hope faces the most difficult of tests. When I speak of optimism I do not mean that we should be blind to life’s difficulties. I mean that we must face them and support each other with unyielding hope. An Evening Walk A black cockatoo Flying across the aqua sky A plane whining in the distance Rose and orange clouds on the horizon Going places Going Home Going no where A trail of lights in the valley Somewhere a wallaby thumps I look up into the sky To find two pin pricks Of Light One a planet One a star A sun for other worlds. This poem was written by a Year Five boy for homework in 2009.

40. EVALUATION GATHERING, ANALYSING DATA

41. Quantitative Data – raising questions Surveys Results Behaviour Focus Groups Observations Students’ Voice FEELS LOOKS SOUNDS

43. What the children said... What did they want to tell teachers? more outside lessons, greater choice of learning content and more say in what they are learning, more pair and group work, a ‘fairer’ reward system, and for distractions to be dealt with. They were very aware about what makes a good learner: Remembering new content, Persistence, Creativity, Talking and Listening Skills, Engagement, Concentration, Determination, Expression (through writing, talking and actions), Social Skills – such as confidence and getting along, Organisation, and Understanding (linking ideas). I then asked what were the negative habits they had with regard to learning: Fidgeting, calling out, losing concentration, poorly organised, rushing work, procrastination (a word they used), having a mind blank or daydreaming.

46. Action Plan

47. 5Ps – Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance

48. THE PRODUCT CELEBRATING OUR ACHIEVEMENTS

50. THE IDEAS BRAINSTORMING BEST PRACTICE

52. Diary – with Goal Setting at the front of each term, and reflection at the end Timetable – with protected hours in the morning for literacy and numeracy Electives – to give boys choice You Can Do It! programme for social emotional well-being Building programme – thank you Labor Academic report format Focus on rubrics for assessments Spotlight Lessons – templates and observation Welfare roles – Colour families with a vertical connectedness Menus and Food Learning Standards of Expectation and Curriculum Letters Website and portal

53. SUSTAINABILITY – THE WORD OF THE DECADE How do we protect our little world?

54. There are no exact guidelines. There are probably no guidelines at all. The only thing I can recommend at this stage is a sense of humour, an ability to see things in their ridiculous and absurd dimensions, to laugh at others and at ourselves, a sense of irony regarding everything that calls out for parody in this world. In other words, I can only recommend perspective and distance. Awareness of all the most dangerous kinds of vanity, both in others and in ourselves. A good mind. A modest certainty about the meaning of things. Gratitude for the gift of life and the courage to take responsibility for it. Vigilance of spirit. Vaclav Havel 1999