which has become the focus of much modern “student-centred learning” — education into — “student-centred teaching”. Shalvey Primary School near Mount Druitt in western suburbs is Sydney’s one of the 400 schools. Principal Tanya Rose said the school had been trying, unsuccessfully, for many years to improve learning years gone outcomes. “In a lot of kids go into Year 3 still learning to read and those by, I’ve seen numbers have been reduced. Now we have kids ready to read to learn,” she said. the end of last year, we had 60 per cent on target, and a high “At it’s quite target.” Ms Rose attributed the success to a more individualised teaching approach, with students taught in small groups and teachers intervening early with struggling students. Student progress is tracked on a which “data wall”, features every and students even track their own progress, child’s face, moving rockets or balloons on a vertical line as they pass each stage. The other main factor is the in-school professional development provided by Lydia Berger, so that teachers are given the skills and strategies to suit their rather than the previous method of heading off children’s immediate needs, to a day-long seminar. have this sense of urgency. A few years ago, kids would come into “We kindergarten and give them a term to settle in and it was a bit slower we’d she said. we still into school, paced,” “While recognise they’re settling more a sense of urgency to get things there’s started.” NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said the early evidence from the action plan, which started in 2012, was In the four years I “quite startling. have been minister, in terms of changing results and changing schools, this is the thing most proud of. What I like about it is every student gets the I’m benefit of the skills of the best teachers in the school, as opposed to the luck of the he said. draw,”
“student-centred learning” — which has become the focus of much modern education — into “student-centred teaching”. Shalvey Primary School near Mount Druitt in Sydney’s western suburbs is one of the 400 schools. Principal Tanya Rose said the school had been trying, unsuccessfully, for many years to improve learning outcomes. “In years gone by, I’ve seen a lot of kids go into Year 3 still learning to read and those numbers have been reduced. Now we have kids ready to read to learn,” she said. “At the end of last year, we had 60 per cent on target, and it’s quite a high target.” Ms Rose attributed the success to a more individualised teaching approach, with students taught in small groups and teachers intervening early with struggling students. Student progress is tracked on a “data wall”, which features every child’s face, and students even track their own progress, moving rockets or balloons on a vertical line as they pass each stage. The other main factor is the in-school professional development provided by Lydia Berger, so that teachers are given the skills and strategies to suit their children’s immediate needs, rather than the previous method of heading off to a day-long seminar. “We have this sense of urgency. A few years ago, kids would come into kindergarten and we’d give them a term to settle in and it was a bit slower paced,” she said. “While we still recognise they’re settling into school, there’s more a sense of urgency to get things started.” NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said the early evidence from the action plan, which started in 2012, was “quite startling. In the four years I have been minister, in terms of changing results and changing schools, this is the thing I’m most proud of. What I like about it is every student gets the benefit of the skills of the best teachers in the school, as opposed to the luck of the draw,” he said.
subdr087-education-evidence.docx