Australia’s 10 Most Influential Educational Leaders, 2019

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N O W L E DEducation.

G E RInnovation.

E V I ESuccess W VOL 7 2019 ISSUE-7

10

AUSTRALIA’S MOST

INFLUENTIAL EDUCATIONAL LEADERS 2019

Karen Spiller OAM Principal

Karen Spiller Personifying Academic Expertise, Advocating Holistic Excellence

From the

EDITOR The Alliance of Education and Leadership

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ooking back at our history one couldn’t have thought that from where we are now, it would have been hard to arrive at this time. The obstacles we have faced in formidable situations, the dangers that humanity has faced, there were less signs that we would have thrived and become the important species that we are now.

Thanks to our curiosity, intelligence, and sedulous nature, we’ve become something close to the most thriving organisms on this planet. But following these values with utmost sincerity can only be found in people who don’t compromise on the things that matter. The people who are an embodiment of the above values, who face the challenges head-on are bestowed with the position of leadership.

A strong leadership has always lea humanity towards something greater which at first seemed unimaginable. In education, a teacher assumes the position of teaching its pupils, igniting their minds. Tutors empower their students to thrive, and lead them towards something that would make a difference in their lives.

Whenever a strong leadership goes hand-in-hand with education it creates a positive impact in the scholastic sphere. Their eminence relies on their outlook towards education and how it could transform everything around them. This further results in the foundation of better schools and thereby nurturing the young minds who will shape the future with infinite potential and possibilities. T R

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Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Anish Miller Managing Editor Abhishaj Sajeev

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JULY, 2019

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Cover Stroy

Karen Spiller

Personifying Academic Expertise, Advocating Holistic Excellence

26 ARTICLE First Steps

The Perks of Early Childhood Education

40 CXO

48 Expertise Lessons

Modern Outlook

Envisioning Education What does the future hold?

An Australian Principal’s thoughts

A Reformative Unison Where Chalkboards and Digital Screens Coexist

Contents

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James Kozlowski

Kelly Gervasoni

Mark Robertson

An Educationist Leading the Young Minds

At the Forefront of an Educational Reformation

At the Helm of a Voyage towards Progressive Education

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Narelle Nies

Steve Francis

Timothy Barlow

An Enthusiastic Educator Focused on Academic and Community Development

Empowering Schools and Educators Globally

Voyaging for Excellence, Reforming Education

The Guiadance that Emancipates from Ignorance

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ducation plays a vital role in everyone’ everyone’s life. We are being taught since childhood to do our homework, to participate in different extracurricular activities such as sports, acting, singing, dancing and so much more. The ultimate purpose of these activities to mold us in the best way possible. Understanding ourselves, about our likes and dislikes, strengths and weakness eventually lead us to become what we are meant to be.

For some people, the education that has been imparted on them helps to foster essential skills and take on the leadership roles. The leadership role has its importance beyond our imagination.

Every organization needs an individual to look up to as a torchbearer; someone who will lead the way even in the toughest situations; who would like to take on the challenges and embrace the uncertainty. And the minds who are responsible for creating such people are visionary educational leaders. Their dedication to the constant improvement, discipline, and will, help them to prepare the best educational institutions that will be responsible for nurturing and developing the students who will make a difference in the world.

In this edition, we at The Knowledge Review, emphasize on our intent of finding the few profound educationists who take on the responsibility of catering to the necessity in upholding the value of education, and the edition Australia’s 10 Most Influential Educational Leaders, 2019 epitomizes such significant individuals for the better.

Featuring on our cover story is Karen Spiller, the Principal of John Paul College, Brisbane.

Karen has been teaching and leading in Queensland Schools for almost forty years following a traditional career pathway of Secondary Teacher, Head of Department, Deputy Principal and Principal. Her journey as a Principal is twenty years young. She has held national and state leadership roles as National Chair of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools Australia and National President of the Alliance of Girls Schools, Australasia.

She is currently the State Chair of Independent Schools Queensland, a member of the national body Independent Schools Council Australia, the Australian Boarding Schools’ Association and Yalari which is an organisation which supports the education of indigenous young people. Karen is also a member of the International Education and Training Advisory Group to the Queensland Government and a member of advisory bodies for the Business Faculty of QUT and the Health Faculty at Bond University.

The edition also features, James Kozlowski, the Principal of Endeavour Sports High School; Kelly Gervasoni, the Year 9 Coordinator at St Andrews Lutheran College; Mark Robertson, the Principal and CEO of Oakleigh Grammar; Narelle Nies, the Principal of Revesby Public School; Steve Francis, a Certified Speaking Professional and the Managing Director of the Happy School Program; and Timothy Barlow, the Director of Technology Innovation at St. Leonard’s College.

The magazine also features articles by emerging educational leaders, who have contributed immensely to the discipline of education in Australia, and also articles written by our in-house editorial team.

Bon Apetite!

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Karen Spiller OAM Principal

tralia’s Aus

10

MOST

INFLUENTIAL

EDUCATION

LEADERS

-2019

Karen Spiller

Personifying Academic Expertise, Advocating Holistic Excellence

Cover Story

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word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach their potential.”

– John C. Maxwell If one is to study the persona of an educational leader, the most evident factor unveiled is their exhibition of aspects such as determination, passion, expertise and erudition.

Through this edition titled, Australia’s 10 Most Influential Educational Leaders to watch, 2019, we at The Knowledge Review, present to you a list of such exceptional educational reformers, wherein featuring on the cover is Karen Spiller OAM, the Principal of John Paul College, Brisbane.

Karen has been teaching and leading in Queensland Schools for almost forty years following a traditional career pathway of Secondary Teacher, Head of Department, Deputy Principal and Principal. Her journey as a Principal is twenty years young. She has held national and state leadership roles as National Chair of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools Australia and National President of the Alliance of Girls Schools, Australasia.

She is currently the State Chair of Independent Schools Queensland, a member of the national body Independent Schools Council Australia, the Australian Boarding Schools’ Association and Yalari which is an organisation which supports the education of indigenous young people. Karen is also a member of the International Education and Training Advisory Group to the Queensland Government and a member of advisory bodies for the Business Faculty of QUT and the Health Faculty at Bond University.

Through her career, Karen has held roles through the Anglican Schools Commission and the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority. She was Principal at St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School in Brisbane for 18 years and led it to becoming one of the most successful schools in Australia.

On the Trophy Shelf All along her voyage, Karen has been adorning her hat with a number of feathers.

For her, a medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Day honours list was very special.

Other highlights of her successful career include a Churchill Fellowship in 2011, which allowed her to travel and undertake further research into strategies for better equipping women for the role of Principalship in Australian schools.

The International Rotary Award – the Paul Harris Fellowship is also a valuable one for Karen as it was an award made by her local branch to recognise leadership in the community as well as at a national level.

Karen has also received awards nationally by the Federal Government agency EOWA for Leading CEO for the Advancement of Women and for Excellence in Music Education and from the Modern Languages Teachers Association for Excellence in School Leadership. Karen feels honoured by all of these accolades and awards, as all she wants to do is help others as she has been assisted and mentored, and give back to the profession.

Karen emphasizes on the necessity of each student being in classrooms with highly qualified, passionate and successful teachers who can genuinely support each student to achieve their best and make them feel good about themselves. This has been achieved through setting high expectations of Karen herself, the leadership team and all the staff of the school. Each change and teaching strategy has been grounded in educational research.

She is also a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators, the Australian Council of Educational Leaders, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Australian Institute of Managers, the CEO Institute and the Australian Marketing Association.

In addition, Karen also enjoys presenting research papers at international and national conferences on a variety of topics including educational improvement and change.

Enlightening the World

John Paul College was established in 1982 as Queensland’s first Christian Ecumenical College. It is an independent, co-educational K-12 College with an Early Learning Centre, a small Boarding house and an English Language College. JPC’s purpose is; To Educate, To Inspire, To Make a Difference.

Pertaining to her profound experience, Karen ceaselessly contributes to uplifting the value of education. For her, one of the most significant contributions has been encouraging the leadership of others.

“Seven staff who worked with me directly – are now Principals of other Independent Schools around Australia – and I have mentored at least another ten into senior leadership roles,” says Karen.

Additionally, through the Aspiring Women’s leadership conference which she launched in 2006 with her colleague Ros Curtis, she has positively motivated and influenced the career of hundreds of female leaders. This conference has been offered in both Brisbane and Perth annually since its inception in 2006.

“Research says that quality educational leaders make an evident difference to the academic outcomes of students and their experience of school life as well as to the success of a school. When we have an ageing workforce and evidence of declining interest in school leadership roles, it is vital that we have strong and motivated teachers in the leadership pipeline,” Karen expresses.

The Bridge towards Success

As a relatively young school, the calibre of its alumni is a great testimony to the success of the school. This list of alumni includes Dami Im, Mitchell Larkin, David Baxby, Luke Trouchet, William Liu, Clare Ferguson, Lachlan Power and Paul Olds.

Known in the 80s and 90s for its Marching Band on the international stage at the opening of the Sydney Olympics, the Calvary Stampede and Expo ‘88, as well as being one of the first schools in Australia to introduce 1-1 laptops, JPC is especially proud that ACARA identified it as one of the few schools in Australia that demonstrated significant improvements in their writing and numeracy progression based on the 2018 NAPLAN results.

Describing the work culture at John Paul College, Karen says, “We are all here for one reason - our students.” She expresses that it is the reason she and other educational

leaders get out of bed every morning; not just to pay the mortgage. “To Educate, To Inspire, To Make a Difference – this is why they come to school every day. To ensure that every child we are privileged to teach, receives the very best we can give.”

“Do I need to say more about a passionate and positive school culture? The schools I have worked in and now lead, all have had a genuine commitment to broad educational opportunities. This means a focus on leadership development, community service and extensive extra and co- curricular activities that often include exchange opportunities, and local and international travel for students,” She adds.

Beyond Challenges lies Wisdom When asked about the challenges that she came across in

her career, Karen says, “Change is always difficult. There have been times both in my previous schools and at JPC when some people have been resistant to change. I guess this is human nature. Quite often people think they or the school is perfect the way that it is. My view is that if you are not moving forward, you are stagnant or moving backwards.”

One of the books that changed Karen’s life is ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins. “I read this in 2005 and have been a different leader ever since. It gave me the language and thinking capabilities to be more confident in what I felt needed to be done. I am more passionate and more focussed since embracing Collin’s work,” Karen express.

When it comes to staying motivated and instilling the same upon her students, Karen believes that it is easy to keep motivated when one thinks of the awesome responsibility

she and other leaders have, to influence positively the lives of their students, in whichever school they are privileged to lead.

For Karen, it is not only about giving students the best education possible to allow post school options, but to also giving them choices in their future career and within the world of work. More importantly, it is about them feeling confident and capable, feeling that they can make a difference in this world and local community.

“As a Principal, you have so much ability to change people’s lives for the better, and that includes our staff.

Inspiring students to make a difference is such an important responsibility. Our young people have a privileged education that millions in the world do not have access to.

In some cases, they are the most educated in their family.

They too, have an awesome responsibility to reach forward

and make a difference to others and our community,” says Karen.

Karen expresses her pride in being the Principal of John Paul College, and together with the passionate, professional staff and dedicated school board, she wants to ensure that JPC provides an outstanding education to all young people, who in turn, go into the world continuing to make a difference. T R

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James Kozlowski An Educationist Leading the Young Minds

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ducation plays the most crucial role in a person’s life, of which the high school plays the most important part in moulding the character and personality of a student. High schools are thus those small footsteps that help students take the giant leap to conquer the world. High schools these days are geared to give the student the best education by offering various programs and facilities.

Students in high school are generally of the age where sports and games play an important role. It is imperative for schools to balance studies and sports. For students and their parents, it is then important to choose a high school that perfectly fits their needs and requirements. A student could be good at sports or studies or both. What is expected of the school is to develop the student’s abilities in those areas where they are hindered and produce a person with all round abilities and skills.

James Kozlowski, Principal of Endeavour Sports High School is a dedicated educationist with requisite skills and experience. He has a Bachelor of Economics, and holds a Diploma in Education besides a Masters in Educational Leadership and Management from the world’s prestigious University of Sydney. Completing his education, he started off by teaching at Sarah Redfern High School. With his exceptional skills, a few years down the road, he was to become the Deputy Principal at Belmore Boys High School. His next assignment saw him take over from the outgoing Principal at Endeavour Sports High School.

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James Kozlowski Principal

James believes in enhancing the abilities of others and seeing them grow as an individual. To this end, he has and shall always be happy to guide the young generation on the path of success.

About Endeavour Sports High School Endeavour Sports High School is that one place which provides the best of everything be it education or sports.

Once you join the institution, there is no looking back, other than in happiness! The aim of the school has always been to provide a teaching and learning environment that enhances the abilities of its students be it in studies or sports and sets benchmarks on what to expect from its students, which its students have always bettered year after year. Students are the school’s biggest ambassadors with the faculty and the administration leaving no stones unturned to help develop them into responsible citizens who also are successful in their chosen endeavours.

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As a sports high school, Endeavour aims to be the best junior talent development program in Australia.

It calls for huge encouragement, outstanding coaching and mentoring, and exceptional facilities, unique sporting partnerships and the deliver the best in sports science. At the core of the school’s culture are academic excellence, personal best, commitment and respect. Every student is shaped by the staff & faculty members who take personal responsibility for the former’s behaviour and development while providing a supportive environment. It has helped create a culture that values every student of the school and has helped create some of the most gifted academic and sporting individuals out of them.

Core Values, Mission and Vision.

Calling themselves the Endeavour Family, they have developed a strong sense of community across the school which values the success and achievement of all its students and demonstrates the same through public recognition of such acts and events. The aim in doing so is to instill the right qualities in the students besides creating in them an interest in learning while inculcating compassion for others and a desire to always do their best.

of Sydney and the University of Technology.

Overcoming challenges In the year 2014, the school went through a low phase, and James as its Principal, had to face tough times. Enrolment rates had gone critically low which a survey of the staff, parents, students and the local community revealed was partly due to low morale, widespread student apathy and poor community perception. To overcome the situation, James engaged a research organization to conduct a survey of the various stakeholders in the community to derive data to analyse the community’s needs and ways to address them. Person to person interactions and meetings with the staff and the students were conducted besides the thorough examination of available external and internal data which lead to the formulation of a comprehensive plan.

Achievements James has led an enthusiastic and dedicated staff who have delivered an amazing turnaround for the school.

Personal Achievements: ➢

Due to its “high expectations policy”, the school has successfully established academic achievement as its top priority and “extension classes” have been established under the guidance and coordination of an expert. In addition, the school employs a PhD who mentors the school’s high school students and helps them do their best in academics by various means including holding one-to-one meetings with individual students throughout the latter’s time in the school.

The above besides, Endeavour Sports High School has a high-quality study skills program for all years, a fully funded science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) program, and partnerships with the University JULY 2019 |

Recipient of the Harvard Club of Australia leadership scholarship, Harvard University, 2018 Elected as the President of the Sutherland Secondary Principals Council in the year 2018.

NSW Department of Education’s Ultimo Operational Directorate Award for ‘Significant Achievement as a Principal’ in the year 2016.

Elected as the Vice President of the NSW Sports High School Association in the year 2015.

Professional Awards: ➢

Government Secondary School of the Year at the

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Australian Education Awards in the year 2018 NSW Department of Education’s Ultimo Operational Directorate Award for ‘Significant Achievement’ in the year 2017.

Public Schools NSW Vocational Education and Training School of the Year Award in the year 2017 Selected by the Public Education Foundation for the filming of a video promoting excellence in public education in the year 2017.

environment. Information derived from the Higher School Certificate results, NAPLAN and VALID results have been extensively scoured and extrapolated with the outcome of various interviews and surveys of students, staff and parents’ responses. Information thus gathered has been analysed in the light of the best and most comprehensive of researches worldwide on best practices in the field to develop and implement strategies relevant to the context.

How to stay motivated James says, “I am motivated every day by my students and staff.” He loves his job and thinks it’s a privilege to be the Principal of such a prestigious Institution that is known for its educational environment which helps develop leaders and achievers of the future. He hopes to inspire others by performing his role in a way that supports others to be the best they can.

Roadmap to Future

Friendly Work Culture At Endeavour, every activity is geared towards helping students pursue excellence.

The bedrock of the school is to value people irrespective of backgrounds and provide opportunities that help them reach their potential. In doing so, it aims to engage and motivate staff and students to achieve their best.

“We try to ensure that not only do our students succeed academically, but they become good citizens who want to make positive contributions to our society,” said James.

Currently, James is happy with the success he has achieved through his work. He believes the best reward lies in observing the success of others and their happiness on achieving their goal(s). He never plans a path for the future, he rather embraces opportunities coming his way and makes the most of them. James as a person is one who firmly believes in establishing structures that guarantee long term success.

His aim is to implement the core values of the school and progress upon them over the years.

“Everything we have implemented at Endeavour over the past few years has contributed to a culture that is built for longevity,” says James. T R

Contributions Towards the Society and the Education System The school uses a multipronged approach to know how best to create the right teaching and learning

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At the Forefront of an Educational Reformation

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he course of mankind’s evolution and the norms and methodologies of education have evidently been treading on the same roads, hand in hand, leveraging the opportunities provided by technology. This correlational evolution has birthed a certain sect of people, who uphold the prominence of contemporary education and the resultant profundity of its acknowledgment, and who can be safely assumed to be designated as educational leaders. To simply exhibit an example, while not stereotyping, of how and what an educational leader should be, we wish to place the spotlight on Kelly Gervasoni, the Year 9 Coordinator at St Andrews Lutheran College.

Kelly’s teaching career began in 2012 when she was granted ‘special provision’ with the Victorian Institute of Teaching to start teaching in her 4th year of university study for Bachelor of Mathematical Sciences/Bachelor of Education. During her first few years, she developed mentor relationships with the Head of Mathematics and School Principal and admired their strong leadership characteristics. These relationships enabled her growth as an educational leader through their support and encouragement of reflective practices. Kelly remembers her Principal saying, “Get comfortable being uncomfortable.”

She made the conscious effort to say yes to all opportunities within reason and made multi-level action goals with these mentors. Kelly strongly believes that self-awareness is a crucial element of an effective leader (Goleman, 2013) and thus, regularly reviewed her strengths and weaknesses and incorporated these into her action goals.

Kelly began working at St Andrews Lutheran College as a

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Kelly Gervasoni Year 9 Coordinator

Middle/Senior School teacher and made the conscious effort to develop authentic relationships with her colleagues, which were based on trust and authenticity.

During this process, she developed a new Mentor – the Deputy Principal, Mrs. Virginia Warner, and admired her passion, dedication and having relationships at the core of her practice. Kelly longed to have those excellent relational skills and patience with colleagues and thus knew Mrs. Warner was the next mentor who could enhance her leadership skills.

In 2019, Kelly was offered further opportunities at St Andrews, including the role of Year 9 Coordinator. She was excited to lead and empower another team in the area of Student Wellbeing, where she could use her knowledge and skills learnt from her postgraduate studies. Her career aspirations as an educational leader are to become an effective leader in the area of student wellbeing, where she hopes to initiate productive collaboration amongst staff and students to facilitate quality practices that are reflective and model life-long learning amongst staff and students. | JULY 2019

At the Helm of Innovation On a local level, Kelly collaboratively undertook an Action Research project with the School Psychologist, Mrs. Robyn Rudd on their interest area – enhancing engagement of middleschool female students. They utilized current resources and existing research to modify pre-existing programs and mesh them to address their desired outcomes for students at St Andrews. While there were limitations in the research project including a small sample size and a short timeframe, the duo has added insight into previous research on the impact of facilitator training for Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs, specifically the role of the teacher compared to a trained psychologist.

Pertaining to the St Andrews motto in 2019, ‘Learners leading learning,’ Kelly has been leading the learning way while also encouraging students and staff to be the leaders in their education. In other words, students understand the teacher’s role of being a learning facilitator, rather than the expert. As within the 21st century, students have access to a multitude of educational resources and Kelly encourages them to embrace learning from differing platforms.

Furthermore, she emphasizes that positive self-efficacy beliefs, motivation and effort are the key indicators for future success.

Delivering Distinction Kelly states that St Andrews Lutheran College’s mission statement: ‘Celebrating the Gospel, Nurturing the Individual, Empowering Lifelong Learners’ stands as a firm statement about what St Andrews is, and has been at the heart of the College since its inception. The school strives to provide a high quality education in a Christian context.

“We value a holistic approach, and encourage students to develop values that enrich the intellect, nurture the spirit, develop social responsibility and create healthy lifestyles,” Kelly expresses.

St Andrews is widely regarded as a caring school and places a high priority on pastoral care. The school has adopted Positive Psychology as their wellbeing focus with the aim JULY 2019 |

of proactively building wellbeing and resilience of students. The staff works hard at developing nurturing relationships with students because encouraging and affirming relationships lie at the heart of effective learning. A strong sense of community and belonging can be found at St Andrews.

The staff enjoy strong parental support and involvement, and seeks to work in partnership with their local community.

The school is at the forefront of innovation regarding technology and classroom design in Australia. All staff and students use Microsoft OneNote for their teaching and learning, as well as the professional development of staff. Furthermore, it has updated its classroom design in line with current research. As a result, the teaching methods are moving away from ‘traditional’ teaching with no central front of room, rather an integrated learning environment that is ‘learner centered.’ Wherever a student sits in the classroom, they should feel at the center of their learning experience and the classroom setup is similar to future collaborative workplace environments. All students and staff can access classroom resources and lesson plans at school or externally, which are displayed via interactive whiteboards and multiple television screens in each classroom.

Competing with the one in the Mirror Juggling the work-life balance has been an ongoing challenge for Kelly since the beginning of her teaching career. “I have high expectations for myself and I am passionate about education, so sometimes this love for teaching can intertwine with my personal life,” says Kelly.

Since she advocates healthy wellbeing with her students and staff, she feels it is important that she role-models such wellbeing. Thus, teacher wellbeing has been an area of focus for her over the last few years, especially with the increased workload and innovation of technology which enables people to work from home.

Kelly has set rules in place to ensure she maintains a healthy work-life balance and this includes turning off emails from 6pm-6am, avoiding work on weekends if possible and scheduling her fitness routine a week ahead.

While reflective practice has significantly enhanced her

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leadership skills, it was challenging for Kelly to allow herself to be analyzed by others in her initial years of teaching. “Once I got ‘comfortable being uncomfortable,’ as my Principal says, I began to seek and embrace the feedback I received and used it to further develop my leadership skills. Reflective practice has been a key element to my success as a leader,” Kelly expresses.

The Light of Inspiration When asked about how she manages to both, stay inspired and also inspire others around her, Kelly says, “It all boils down to passion. I absolutely love teaching! It is my dream career and I enjoy having a positive impact on my students daily. Teaching is such a rewarding career and it gives me butterflies every time a student has the “AH-HUH, I get it!” moment.’ That, for Kelly, is the light bulb moment for a student who understands a new skill or knowledge. Kelly describes herself as one of those overly excited math teachers. Sometimes her students laugh about how excited she gets, explaining new concepts, especially when she teaches mathematical proofs like the Pythagoras theorem.

To inspire her students, she uses her passion for teaching and her high expectations. Through setting high expectations, she is providing courage to her students by

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saying “yes, I believe in you! I’ve set the bar high because I know you can master these skills.”

Beholding New Horizons At 28 years of age with seven years teaching experience, Kelly believes she still has much more to learn and offer to the world of education. Within the next 5 years, she aims to further enhance her leadership skills within her passion area – Student Wellbeing. Eventually, she would like to be in a role of greater influence on student wellbeing, such as Head of School or Head of Wellbeing, where she could have a greater impact and influence on the students of the college.

All the while, Kelly firmly emphasizes on the fact that it takes a team to educate a child.

“St Andrews Lutheran College is one of the leading Positive Education Schools in Queensland, embedding restorative practices within its culture,” Kelly asserts. “We are leaders in innovation and technology, with new classroom designs in line with current research and all students and staff use Microsoft OneNote for all teaching purposes,” she adds. The school’s aim is to further research and enhance its practices to ensure it remains at the forefront of positive education, innovation and technology. T R

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The Perks of Early

Childhood Education

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First Steps

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he education sector is growing continuously with the help of technology, advance syllabus models, and the on-going momentum of eective alternations. This continuous growth is meticulously working towards making education a more feasible and friendly act.

With each passing year, the word of education is transforming and is setting benchmarks, which are helping the citizens for the longer run.

As every year, there are thousands and millions of parents who are enrolling their children in schools, but this has seen a considerable change as parents are now enrolling into early childhood education/preschool. There are one too many reasons why these parents are doing so, but so keep it on a general note, it is just a head start for their educational journey. Many times, the kids are frightened when they are going to start school, they tend to be anxious and sometimes fussy, hence early childhood education is an excellent idea to start with a routine of letting the kids feel more at ease.

By doing so, the kids develop a habit for spending some time in one place, make friends, learn good deeds, and gain some conďŹ dence for schooling.

Contemplating its Need The question arises, why is there a need for young kids to go to preschool. Sometimes, parents doubt the need for this, as they think that kids only learn numbers, letters, and easy concepts, which can be thought nearly at

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home also. However, this is not completely true, even though kids only learn the basics at preschool, a recent survey says during preschool, which is between the age of 2 to 4, there is a high level of grasping power and learning. The kids at this age are extremely active and have an enormous amount of energy, which needs to be chased in the right manner. Channelizing this energy to productivity gains is what the teacher at the preschool aims for, understanding their places of likes and dislikes they are able to help the kids learn better.

As every student is one of its kinds, the skills, and talents every student has been nurtured through the early development curricula. Through preschool, the students are exposed to a plethora of opportunities and are prepared to tackle the hurdles effectively, which will be presented to them in kindergarten. With their strong basics and foundation, they are ready to put their best foot forward and rise up to their maximum potential.

Profits of Early Childhood Education Graduation is a dream in itself; every student envisions of graduating in their respective career field and further achieve their professional excellence. Graduation is not the only advantage of enrolling children in preschool.

The National Education Association (NEA) lists various studies that show the major reasons of early childhood education results in higher levels of employment and greater incomes in adulthood, no repetition during the grades, and exceptional scores in tests, a lower rate of teenage spasms, and many more. With such breakthrough results, it is clearly evident that early childhood education is an investment for a lifetime.

With immense opportunities, exposures, placements, these students are able to mark their identity in the coming times and become responsible citizens of their country. The parents looking to enroll their students in preschool should definitely do so without any doubt as this is an essential and remarkable step in life.

Also, with the help of government authorities, society should take initiatives and give emphasis on programs for preschool. The students who are not fortunate enough with such resources should also be helped and given preschool education.

The Momentous Strides of the Educators Helping the students on the go are the early childhood educators/ preschool teachers who play a crucial role in the upliftment of the student’s development. They tend to inspire, motivate, and train the students to push their limits and perform to their abilities. The teachers bring forth student joyful activities and embrace them with utmost guidance to learn more and more with each passing day.

They teach the kids to explore, learn from what the world has to offer them and discover their dreams and paths. At this tender age, the students should be molded responsibly and with the perfect blend of teaching and values. As the child’s brain development happens in these initial three to four years, it is important to understand their mindsets so they will reach the developmental milestones in their futures. T R

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At the Helm of a Voyage towards Progressive Education

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he landscape of education, across the globe, is constantly in a state of evolution. Leveraging technology, understanding the shifting learning needs of different age groups and delivering the best quality holistic education are the aspects that have become a USP for a number of schools. One of the many factors playing a crucial role in spearheading the transformation of schools and the educational sector, for the better, are prominent educational leaders like Mark Robertson, the Principal and CEO of Oakleigh Grammar, Melbourne.

“I have been blessed and honoured in my career in Education to have been involved in the leadership of Schools in a wide variety of educational styles and settings,” Mark expresses. He states that this exposure has allowed him to develop a flexible mind-set, with regard to approaches to educational policy and practice, and to allow him to mould within a team context environments which best cater for students within the cultural context of that particular community.

Mark says that he is immensely enjoying his role as CEO and Principal of Oakleigh Grammar and has concrete relationships with the Board of Management and undoubtedly with the entire community. A characteristic of Mark's leadership has been the ease with which he is able to interact with the various personalities which make up a school community. He draws energy and deep satisfaction through connecting with others and understanding their life stories. Mark’s role as CEO is essentially important to his role as Educational Leader. He believes that strong business decisions based on accurate data and reliable forecasting is

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Mark Robertson Principal and CEO

essential as a leader of a multi-million dollar turnover business.

Mark regularly involves with wider educational bodies and often participates and attends international conferences during school holiday periods to ensure contemporary pedagogical practices are at the fore-front of pedagogical discussion within his current School. Mark strongly believes that quality teaching and learning essentially means appropriate investment in developing quality teaching, and learning practices and investment from the annual budget in this area is very important. Mark’s membership of the AHISA Vic Executive, CSE Board and associations with ACEL and the IB continue to allow him to contribute to and to learn from others on a macro level of educational policy and reform.

Overcoming Adversities Mark states that leading an Independent School in 2019 is much more complex than it has ever been. He says that | JULY 2019

strong and healthy relationships and support are critical to ensuring not only stability in the role but, indeed relates to all aspects of this privileged role. “In reality, I love the role of Head due to the variety and complexity inherent in it,” Mark expresses. He comprehends the various responsibilities he has to cater to, such as understanding that compliance is extremely onerous but essential, financial diligence in a multi-million dollar business is critical, working with key stakeholders with differing agendas presents its challenges. Hence, he’s able to draw a conclusion that managing the affairs of a large and Independent School is a mammoth task but also an extremely rewarding one.

Mark has had the experience of managing both multi-campus and single campus schools and has known first-hand that challenges are always present in a variety of forms – the key to managing those challenges rests with calm, objective and value laden processes to arrive at the best outcomes for all parties consistent with what is in the best interest of his school’s reputation.

A Comprehensive Learning Culture Mark is of the opinion that modelling by staff of the Christian values of the School is essential to student success within that value system. He believes creativity is often stifled in students at an early age due to poor culture and structures evident in many schools. The solution to this in Mark’s opinion is inquiry based learning, balanced with explicit teaching which allows students to strengthen fundamental skills and to access high-order thinking, thus propelling them to reach their potential in their learning journey. “The love of learning emanates from curiosity,” Mark emphasizes.

He states that the learning culture of a School is directly influenced by the inherent values system therein. Mark believes that a Christian doctrine leads to harmony, respect and importantly to social responsibility within a multicultural context and in a sense the moral fabric of a School Community is underpinned by faith, courage and trust in everyone’s intrinsic beliefs. Personifying Christian life has been and continues to be important in Mark’s leadership, JULY 2019 |

allowing him to exemplify the inherent values into everyday School life.

Aiding the Community’s Progress Mark believes that consistent leadership presence is very important in providing confidence and familiarity to the community. He cherishes the regular opportunities to interact with his community in both a meaningful and significant fashion. Certainly, most days he endeavours to be circulating around the school, greeting parents and students and genuinely interacting with them as they enter and exit the school.

Opportunities to be actively engaged and involved in school life are something he strongly values.

Mark considers that it is very important to preserve key traditions of a well-established and reputable school as students look forward to these embedded cultural norms as they progress through their school. He ensures these traditions are protected in line with respectful and sensitive character and behaviour. “We learn for life and in life we learn – every member of my School Community is encouraged to adopt a mind-set of being a leader and a learner – for that is the culture I have developed and continue to develop at my current School,” Mark expresses.

Imparting Inspiration According to Mark, the importance of establishing open and authentic relationships in the workplace cannot be understated. In a values driven Christian organisation, genuine connections between key stakeholders through the embodiment of the School’s mission is integral to its success as an institution that is seeking to bring out the best in each student as they discover their own passions and interests. Accessibility and approachability of a school leadership team and indeed all staff is of enormous importance to the quality of relationships developed.

Mark believes that educational leaders should be intentional and genuine in their approach to collaboration while enabling growth and development through outlining clear expectations and boundaries whilst enabling growth for engagement, creativity and personal flair. In turn, trust is developed and the resulting engagement sets a path for the care and wellbeing of all. Mark also states, “Fundamentally, in 2019 we must always put the welfare of our students at

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the fore of any decisions undertaken and be open, transparent and strongly committed to all elements of Child Safety.” To this end, Mark’s Leadership at Oakleigh Grammar is strong yet compassionate, leaving no one in doubt that the school’s commitment to every student in providing a safe learning environment is of paramount importance.

Leadership Philosophy Mark emphasizes upon the fact that educational leadership must be authentic. He believes that objective assessments via the identification, collection and analysis of data, is essential to ensure students’ learning journey is providing the stimulus for maximum development. Mark is a big fan of Carol Dweck’s mind-set framework, as it relates to the application of everyday life. At his current School Mark and his team initiate new projects as trials and have had great success in particular with neuroscience based programs; to that end the team has nourished many young people to achieve at their highest possible level.

According to Mark, a holistic development of each student is one that is the very essence of an enduring and worthwhile education. The growth of international and national movements such as ‘R u okay?’ and ‘Me too’ suggest that there is scope to more explicitly cultivate the importance of further open and respectful relationships involving males in the community. Increased awareness about students’ emotional and mental health has grown JULY 2019 |

significantly and community figures such as sporting identities in part have contributed to increasing this community awareness through their admissions that they too are struggling to navigate an emotional terrain that has any pitfalls along the way.

Mark holds a personal passion to assist students in understanding their place and what it really means to be a responsible community citizen. One area of achievement that he is very proud of at his current school is the implementation of a highly recognised, yet unique (to Australia) character development program which has obtained the highest level of quality assurance.

Mark expresses that at Oakleigh Grammar the VCE median study score has increased by 5 to 6 increments in the time he has been Principal and takes pride in this achievement too. However, he states that the welfare of each and every child at Oakleigh Grammar must always be at the forefront; every student requires nurturing and needs to feel valued within their school community and to this end both academia and welfare must be developed ‘hand in hand’.

“A key factor in realising success in any area of School Improvement is the dynamic of the executive leadership team,” says Mark. “Action plans developed within a strong consultative culture modelled by the leadership team empowers staff to innovate and achieve outcomes that must be shared within the Oakleigh Grammar community,” he adds. T R

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An Enthusiastic Educator Focused on Academic and Community Development

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dedicated educational leader spearheads educational innovation with a moral purpose. They have strong faith in themselves and possess a forever-learning attitude. Such leaders ceaselessly guide and support their colleagues and students towards growth and betterment and they are driven by the motive of refurbishing the benchmarks of education.

One such erudite leader with a passion to learn and educate others is Narelle Nies, the Principal of Revesby Public School, NSW, Australia. Being a proud frontrunner, she enthusiastically involves in activities of the school community and the broader learning community as a part of a systematic scholarship.

Narelle Nies Principal

and the community, and seeks opportunities for all stakeholders to improve.

A Steadfast Leader

She upholds the values of the NSW Department of Education in every decision, action, and plan. Narelle’s prime objective is to prepare young students for rewarding lives as ethical citizens of the community and as global citizens of the future. She leads by example and is always prepared to take steps for the betterment of the students.

Narelle takes the initiative to know every student and their family and works to ensure that they are cared and valued for in the school. Forming meaningful relationships is at the heart of her philosophy and as such, she invests heavily in them resulting in their school community being one of the most engaged communities in the area. She is a firm believer in team effort and puts in a lot of effort on building a positive school culture where everyone belongs, celebrates strengths, and strives for growth. She has immense faith and high expectations of the staff, students,

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Narelle always focuses on the development of the students, the community, and achieving academic excellence. She has collaborated with many institutions to develop a strategic plan for the community of schools, where she invites the best ideas from within and beyond the department.

Implementing her leadership skills, Narelle uses evidence-based programs such as Learning Sprints and Educhange Leaders to have a significant impact on both teaching practices and student learning outcomes. She not only focuses on collaborating with the staff and community, but also with colleagues in the wider profession.

Narelle’s primary attention remains on ensuring that the staff and students are providing and receiving the absolute highest standard of education. As a result of her dedicated endeavors, the school received an “Excelling” rating in the | JULY 2019

School Excellence Framework through the External Validation Process. Narelle works to ensure that all stakeholders are accountable for the role they play in properly educating the students. She constantly strives to regularly improve the school’s performance and prepare for a bright future.

She is a dynamic and sensitive leader, who aims at achieving meaningful outcomes through her dedicated endeavors. Her honesty, expertise, and commitment speak for her excellent leadership skills.

Narelle is often called upon by leaders of the local community, media, and other educational groups, which portrays her abilities as an excellent leader. She is a passionate, transparent and professional leader whose service to staff, students, community, and the NSW Department of Education is exemplary. The school culture at Revesby Public School can be directly attributed to outstanding leadership and a common belief that its values enable all opportunities for the community to connect in meaningful ways.

An Accomplished Educator Throughout her illustrious journey of imparting education to the youth, Narelle has achieved much recognition. Some of her accolades have been mentioned below: • Narelle was nominated for Principal of the Year, 2019 and named as a finalist in the Australian Education Awards.

• She was identified to present at the NSW Principals Conference 2018, regarding the school initiatives to over 600 principals to share programs, future focused learning, innovation, and project based learning.

• As principal, Narelle was named Innovative School Leader of the Year, 2017. During her first year as principal, Revesby Public School, presented an innovative project to the Inclusive Communities Youth Summit, involving students presenting their own initiative at NSW Parliament House to politicians and religious and cultural leaders, as well as the media. As part of this innovation, students worked with community members, religious leaders in the JULY 2019 |

community and Aboriginal elders to develop a plan to ensure cultural inclusivity within Revesby Public School. The project was recognized by way of a Secretary’s commendation.

• She has also received a Secretary’s Award for the Growth Mindset as a part of The Faces of Education.

This was produced as a video to represent the Department of Education related to the Growth Mindset and shared widely through social media.

Collaborating for Excellence Under the astute leadership of Narelle, Revesby Public School demonstrates strong links between the learning and curriculum enhanced by partnerships between other schools and inter agencies, where it works collaboratively to focus on improving student outcomes. The school prides itself on highly valued relationships between students, staff, and the broader community seeing a greater input from all areas in the school’s directions.

Narelle is proud of the productive relationships that the school has developed with a range of external agencies such as Beechwood Nursing Home, local high schools, Filmpond, Film By the Banks, Learning Links, and Together for Humanity. This provides the opportunity to enrich the learning experiences and add great value in education. She leads the school to take the learning beyond the classroom where it has developed many close partnerships with the local community.

A prominent collaboration is with that of Beechwood Aged care facility. Students of the school have visited the facility on a number of occasions to share music and stories. This provides students the opportunity to interact with the local residents. Additionally, the students get to know firsthand the importance of human connection across the generations. The residents share stories related to their life experience and important parts of their local history. Such interactions bring out various qualities such as kindness, compassion, and empathy among the students. The school lays emphasis on these qualities, which will help the students to develop into responsible global citizens. It considers all the residents as a part of

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the community and wish to connect with them. It believes that teachers, parents, and the community can work together to promote learning and enhance education.

About Revesby Public School Revesby Public School aims to develop an exemplary school culture that is conducive to learning. The school’s philosophy is built upon ensuring every student is known, cared for, and valued. It works collaboratively using the expertise within the school to promote improvement for all students through providing tailored professional learning. It marches ahead to embed positive processes in order to build collective efficacy. The school intends to build successful, active, and lifelong learners where wellbeing is a clear focus. It is an inclusive and supportive community which values respectful and collaborative partnerships. The school fosters resilience and persistence through a growth mindset.

The Frontrunner’s Legacy Narelle believes that every child has equal right to quality education. Her legacy is to prepare the students beyond their school years to become independent and responsible individuals. She intends to inspire students who are

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resilient, persistent, creative and critical thinkers, reflective, and who value learning as a lifelong tool. She is of the belief that leaders are responsible for making things better.

Hence, she continually focuses on making constant improvements and how to make the institution better.

“The school’s roadmap would be one of inspiration, motivation, affirmation while challenging the practice and pedagogy in order to strive for improvement. It is all about supporting educators within and beyond the school gates to build their capacity so as to have positive impact as a system” she says.

Narelle works to ensure that every student belongs and sees themselves as a part of the broader community. She inspires students to be active global citizens who understand that they can contribute significantly to the world around them. She proceeds with the motive to build a community of practice where the focus is on how students learn, how teachers teach, and how leaders lead.

Narelle’s greatest hope is to create a lasting impact in the way they enable and empower students. She aims to promote a future that is better than the past. T R

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ENVISIONING

EDUCATION: What does the future hold?

An Australian Principal’s thoughts About the Author

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Expertise Lessons

Annette Rome Principal

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here is much in the literature that attempts to frame what it is that students in this century and beyond need to be able to think, say, and do to function effectively and compassionately in a global world. All educators aim to prepare students (and adults) for a world where the only constant is change.

Many observers will claim that little has changed regarding formal education methodologies for over 200 years. Those of us in education in Australia, however, know this not to be the case. School structures and classrooms, curriculum, pedagogies and assessments have all changed considerably.

So much so that I often hear parents comment “I wish I could have learned like that”. We know so much more about how people learn physiologically as well as psychologically that the nature of an instructional class in Australia is completely different to that of the 20th Century.

When teachers open their doors to others to share practice, which I confess happens far too rarely, these developments become obvious.

How do we know we have effective classrooms in a country such as Australia? Research has shown that the highest performing cohorts in the world are the children of first generation migrants into Australia. To me this indicates that the importance placed on the value of education, which many migrants have for their children, when combined with the Australian education framework produces outstanding results. I believe this also represents a window to the future regarding approaches to curriculum, pedagogy and assessment that Australia can share with educators globally.

Likewise models of education have also changed to meet the (perceived) needs and desires of families. Knowledge can be accessed and assessed anytime anywhere and I have no doubt that this trend will continue. There is much discussion in educational circles of micro credentialing that may or may not sit alongside traditional qualifications.

I suspect models of knowledge and skill development and their assessment will become increasingly flexible in terms of timing of delivery (global and interactive) and nature (on-line, face to face, blended). The range and nature of providers is likely to increase even more.

In Australia all providers of primary and senior secondary education academic certificates must be not-for profit. The provision of early childhood, vocational and other skill based training, however, has opened up and I suspect we will see increasing numbers of corporate/for-profit players in the education space. Globalisation is already ensuring new models of provision to meet the demand from communities as well as opportunities for providers.

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A key component of education all around the world will need to be the development of intercultural understanding.

Frequent references to 21C skills refer to global citizenship (see Council of International Schools, Partnership for 21st Century Learning, Australian Department of Foreign Affair and Trade, The International Baccalaureate however, there is little common agreement as to a definitive list of attributes that constitute these 21C skills. It is, therefore, important for schools, teachers and students to have a common understanding of these priorities. Education providers need to devise programs that recognise the importance of global citizenship education, international mindedness and intercultural and transcultural understanding if we wish, as many of us do, to make the world a better place.

Globalisation affords us both opportunity and challenge in terms of creating curricula and programs that scaffold educators and students to, in the words of Yong Zhao: “Become more aware of the global nature of societal issues, to care about people in distant places, to understand the nature of economic integration, to appreciate the interconnectedness and interdependence of peoples, to respect and protect cultural diversity, to fight for social justice for all and to protect the planet for all human beings” Zhou 2010 One thing will never change, however, and that is the teaching of skills and knowledge that relate to knowing one’s self and relating to others. We believe the cornerstones of wellbeing are having strong identity, relationships and community. Schools will always need to provide a basis to develop and nurture all 3 elements of wellbeing as well as what it means to be the best person one can be.

At St Margaret’s and Berwick Grammar we strive for our students to be their best selves, now and in the future, for the betterment of all humanity and the planet through demonstrating COURAGE: to do the right thing, CURIOSITY: to know and learn, CHARACTER: to be one’s best self and RESPECT: to live wisely and compassionately with others and the planet. I am convinced that if we can do that at St Margaret’s and Berwick Grammar, we have done our job. cheme, implemented in 2015, with a particular focus on young people with acquired brain injury. Her passion in education is for the development of young people so that they may become the best they can be – true citizens of the world. T R | JULY 2019

Empowering Schools and Educators Globally

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chools are experiencing a period of massive change.

They are endeavoring to prepare students for a rapidly changing world. Schools are complex organizations, with many competing priorities, agendas and initiatives. Research shows there is a clear connection between school effectiveness and school leadership.

Leaders make a huge impact on both the effective operation of the school and the school’s culture. According to teamwork guru Patrick Lencioni, the key to managing the complexity of schools is to identify a reasonable number of issues that will have the greatest possible impact on the success of a school, and then spend the most amount of time thinking about, talking about, and working on those issues. This needs to be the core work of school leaders.

“If everything is important, then nothing is.”

A highly functioning leadership team operates like a slick machine. They use their time extraordinarily well, hold crisp meetings, are cognizant of the big picture and sensitive to the detail that impact on staff engagement and morale. It is essential that all school leaders are highly effective (including aspiring leaders). One man on a mission to reform the education sector for the better is Steve Francis, a Certified Speaking Professional and the Managing Director of the Happy School program. Steve is an experienced leader who works to support schools to build leadership capability.

Steve works with leading educators to help them reach their potential and optimize their schools. He is an expert in leading effective change processes in schools. In a career spanning 20 years, Steve has been the Principal of a number

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Steve Francis MD

of schools in Australia from a one-teacher school in country Queensland, through to a large metropolitan school in Brisbane and an international school in Hong Kong. As a Principal at Jindalee School in Brisbane he led a large school with 800 primary and preschool students, including 50 special education students.

In Hong Kong, Steve was the Principal of Kowloon Junior School for the English Schools Foundation. The school had 900 students on two campuses. During his tenure in leading the school, it made the transition from teaching the UK National Curriculum to implementing the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Program (PYP). He also led the design process for building the new school to accommodate all 900 students on the one campus.

For the past ten years, Steve has focused his work on developing school leaders. He argues that schools often promote great teachers to positions of leadership and expect them to be great leaders. However, the skill set of being a great teacher is different to the skills required to be a great school leader. His passion in this area became evident when | JULY 2019

he was an executive of the State Principals’ Association.

In the past year, Steve has worked with the leaders or staff of over 500 schools across Australia, New Zealand and internationally. As well as working in-house, he has presented keynotes and workshops at numerous education leader conferences including both the Australian Primary Principals’ Association and New Zealand Principals’ Federation conferences. In the past year, he followed in the footsteps of Michael Fullan, Andy Hargreaves and Sir Ken Robinson by presenting to an audience of over 2500 teachers in Qatar.

Steve’s work as a professional speaker has been accredited with the awarding of the highest worldwide designation, Certified Speaking Professional (CSP). For the past three years, Steve has also been recognized by Educator magazine as one of the top 50 most influential educators in Australia. Steve was also a member of the judging panel for the awarding of the Australian Education Awards. Steve is the author of four books including, ‘First Semester CAN MAKE OR BREAK YOU!’ and ‘Time Management For Teachers’.

Steve is passionate about staff and leader well-being and reinstating the status of the teaching profession. He completed his Master’s degree in School Leadership and wrote his thesis on teacher stress. This led him to develop the Happy School program. He argues that whilst working in schools can be very rewarding, it can also be very demanding. Many a time, the staff feels exhausted, under-valued, frustrated and unappreciated. Teacher well-being and engagement are key factors in school effectiveness. Through his Happy School program Steve provides three strategies to support school leaders to improve staff morale and well-being in their schools.

Delivering Innovative Development

being, engagement and satisfaction.

The articles are designed to be easily shared with staff and provide regular, on-going professional development in bite-sized pieces. Membership of the Happy School program includes the weekly, ready-to-use one page articles written by experts in their field. The weekly articles can be printed as part of staff news, displayed on noticeboards, emailed to staff, included in electronic staff notices, discussed at staff meetings or for professional development.

WELL Productivity Program: The year-long WELL Productivity program provides either self-paced or leader facilitated professional development covering four areas of staff well-being and productivity – Positive, Productive, Proactive and Peak Performance. The 20 engaging action-focused units each comprise a 5-minute video tutorial with accompanying handouts and resources.

The 12-month program is designed to help staff improve their productivity as well as their well-being.

Face-to-face professional development: Steve Francis also provides awesome face-to-face professional development at conferences, clusters of schools and in-school professional learning. For the past three years he has been recognized as one of the top 50 most influential educators in Australia. His keynotes and workshops at national and state conferences for Principals and teachers including APPA, NZPF, VAPP, QASSP, QSPA, INTASE, TAFE Qld and EduTech have led to him being invited to work with schools and leadership teams across Australia, New Zealand and internationally. His sessions are relevant, practical and engaging and are always well received.

Whether schools choose face-to-face professional development with Steve, the self-paced WELL Productivity program or subscribe to receive Steve’s weekly Happy School articles, the team at Happy School are dedicated to improving the well-being of staff in schools.

Happy School Membership: Emphasizing on Reputation and Attitude Schools can become a member of the highly successful Happy School program. Over 600 schools receive the weekly one page articles on important topics for staff wellJULY 2019 |

In unison with his favorite quote ‘Live the Reputation You Want to Have,’ Steve says, “We all have a reputation in the

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eyes of parents, students and our colleagues as well. If they were asked to describe us in three words, what would we like them to say?” Steve recommends working out what one would like to be known for and then act that way. He says he’d like to be known as a positive person, who gets things done and never has a bad word to say about people behind their backs and endeavors to make sure that he behaves accordingly.

“Early in my career I learnt that the most important decision you make every day is your attitude. You can either choose to be positive and enthusiastic about the challenges you face in schools or waste your energy in constantly complaining. I know where I’d prefer to put my energy and focus,” Steve adds. In his opinion, school leaders need to be constantly monitoring the ‘happiness’ of staff, students and parents. It’s like unlocking a combination lock. Fine tuning each of the factors is essential for an optimal culture.

Great staff makes a huge difference to both the outcomes achieved by a school and the school’s culture. Attracting and retaining great staff is paramount. Superstar Teachers – dedicated, hardworking, and talented staff which have a great work ethic and a terrific attitude are very much in-demand! They are highly sought after and are able to ‘pick and choose’ where they would like to work. To attract and retain such staff, it is more important than ever, that school leaders position their school to be the ‘Employer of Choice’.

Steve suggests that being an Employer of Choice means becoming recognized as a school where potential and existing employees want to work for, over and above others. He argues that positioning a school as an ‘Employer of Choice’ is important as the current education sector approaches a shortage of talented teachers. Steve has also developed a process for assessing and independently certifying schools as the ‘Employers of Choice.’

Piloting Comprehensive Progress Reaching out to Students To assist school leaders to understand and monitor their culture, Steve developed the Survey My School interactive surveys that seek input from staff, parents and students. As well as providing benchmarks, the instruments help to identify specific issues that are having a negative impact on the school culture. He argues that the fastest way to improve the school culture is to identify the barriers that are having a negative impact. School leaders need to address whatever issues they can and acknowledge that they are aware of the other issues and working towards resolving them.

Steve has also worked with schools to increase student voice and ensure teachers are receiving formative feedback from their students using the instrument he developed called, Survey My Class. Student surveys provide invaluable feedback to teachers about what is working in their classroom and what isn’t. Effective teachers utilize the feedback to improve their teaching. Regular student feedback should be an integral part of school improvement.

Formative feedback from students should be utilized to provide a clear focus for teachers to reflect on their teaching with the aim of increasing student engagement. T R

Steve believes that the existing culture in a school has a huge impact on staff. It impacts on how they behave, how they interact with co-workers, how happy and engaged they are at school, how they interact with students, how much discretionary effort is put in and how much gets done. The influence of culture can be positive and fulfilling or negative and deflating. Optimal results will only be achieved in an ideal culture. Managing culture is the most important work of the leadership team. Steve developed the Survey My School instrument to assist schools to measure and improve school culture. He believes that school leaders need to be acutely aware of their school culture. He argues that culture wins every time. If you have a bad culture, it will win – and ruin your school. If you have a great culture, it will also win and enable you to do great things.

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A REFORMATIVE UNISON WHERE CHALKBOARDS AND DIGITAL SCREENS COEXIST

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or over two decades, E-Learning has been hailed as ‘the’ solution that will drive educational reform and displace the dominance of classroom learning, as we know it. Despite the potential of E-Learning, to personalize instruction, enable scalable solutions and develop new learning skills that will be vital for the future workforce, E-Learning has not yet redefined what we understand school to be. E-Learning and classroom learning must work in coalition and not competition.

that enable complex communication, successful collaboration, enhance critical and creative thinking and a personalized learning experience. The right technology tools when combined with appropriate deployment and training for teachers can offer new opportunities for student learning and so make a valuable contribution to any classroom.

E-Learning, flipped learning, online learning, blended learning; each offers a different point of entry for teachers

Students at St Margaret’s and Berwick Grammar School experience Virtual Reality.

Bringing new experiences into our classroom environments that were not previously possible without technology

In our content rich and connected world, it is vital for young people to think critically and interrogate sources of information. Knowing how to ask good questions to discover knowledge and build an understanding, is essential to learning success in the 21st century. Put simply, learning how to learn. This can be achieved through E-Learning that is designed to purposefully leverage digital technologies

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to introduce technologies into their classroom environment.

Direct instruction, debate, brainstorming, setting learning goals, while all these are seen as traditional approaches, each can be enhanced with technology.

The following are examples of effective strategies that combine E-Learning with traditional classroom learning: | JULY 2019

Modern Outlook

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Meg Fortington is the Director of Curriculum and Innovation at St Margaret’s and Berwick Grammar School. She is passionate about the value of technology in every classroom and its potential to make a positive impact on teaching and learning.

Meg regularly presents professional learning opportunities and workshops focused on E-Learning tools and strategies to support educators to focus on the skills and outcomes made possible with technology.

• Sophisticated response-ware that enables immediate feedback for both students and teachers to track progress. Allowing for differentiation and adjustment to the classroom teaching program based on the formative data that is collected.

• Flipped learning practices that support students to access learning materials independently then use social learning opportunities in class time to apply the knowledge, challenge understandings and participate in unique experiences and responses.

• Building collaborative online learning spaces that provide access to peers and shared online spaces to build knowledge and work together.

Meg Fortington Director

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• Differentiated learning paths, that allow students to access materials with greater choice and voice about the pace and mode.

• Development of digital portfolios to capture goal setting, evidence of learning, reflection and growth over time.

• Using technology to redefine the type of task we design and take advantage of simulations, real-world problems and require students to create content in response to the learning rather than simply consuming material.

• Using technology to connect and share with communities of learning across the world.

Despite these opportunities to enhance our classrooms with technology, some continue to view it as little more than a distraction for young people, already labeled as screen addicted. Recent system wide interventions that call for bans on mobile devices in schools demonstrate the fear that

tools that suit their classroom and their students just as teachers do with other teaching strategies.

Technology can encourage educators to consider the role of teacher and student differently. In classrooms we can create new learning experiences where students become creators not just consumers, teachers can become co-learners and focus on providing personalized programs and regular powerful feedback. This change demands that ICT systems are streamlined and that schools prioritize professional learning opportunities for teachers to share with each other the technology and teaching approaches that are most effective in their unique school context.

E-Learning when implemented purposefully can support a classroom learning environment that enables thinking and innovation, where students are engaged and encouraged to take meaningful risks towards connected learning outcomes, ensuring they develop the skills and capabilities they need for economic, social and cultural success in the 21st century. T R

Students and teachers at St Margaret’s and Berwick Grammar school consider the application of technology in STEM Learning.

can dominate the discussion. Such discourse limits the exploration of the potential of these technologies to enable valuable E-Learning opportunities. The success of E-Learning strategies has also been impacted by a one-size fits all approach to integrating technology. Examples include single device programs, mandated learning management systems or whole school adoption of a single tool. Instead, teachers need a bespoke collection of ICT

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Timothy Barlow Voyaging for Excellence, Reforming Education

Tim has had a profound career in Education to date. He began his professional life as a Geneticist at a cutting-edge research facility, and his inclination towards exploring, utilizing and pioneering the use of innovative solutions travelled with him magnificently into education. While Tim started his career as a Middle Years Science teacher and Senior Years Biology teacher, it wasn’t long into his career before he was tasked with diverse leadership roles.

Timothy Barlow Director

One who holds the torch of knowledge, drives away the mufing fog of ignorance, and guides the multitude towards enlightenment.

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assionate and efficient educators follow a reformative and holistic approach towards empowering their students. They comprehend students’ volatile learning interests and formulate comprehensive strategies, creative teaching methods, activities promoting inclusiveness and many other ways to match up to their students’ requirements. Such innovative, prolific and adept educators possess the potential to sculpt ambitious young learners into leaders and professionals of tomorrow. One plausible example of such educators is Timothy Barlow, the Director of Technology Innovation at St. Leonard’s College.

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As a Head of Learning, Middle Years Leader and Experiential Learning Coordinator, Tim efficiently organized all aspects of around 12 international trips involving over 400 students and staff. He also coordinated and directed a local and international based, award winning educational experiential learning program. As a Head of Year 9 he was a hugely successful and respected pastoral leader. Additionally, he spearheaded the early introduction of restorative practices. He led a team of pastoral careers in the revolution of adolescent discipline. Tim’s proficiency as an educator is evidently proven when a certain year level which historically received hundreds of detentions per annum, received zero as soon as he took over.

In the past decade, Tim has had a significant impact on the direction and implementation of a number of transitional educational innovations. In his first year as an eLearning coordinator, he personally designed and implemented a school wide, radically successful virtual learning environment while concurrently planning the complete transition to a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) model of student technology provision. Tim also conceived, built and delivered an entirely new educational faculty named DigiSTEM as the global demand for coding, robotics, STEM, design thinking, making and engineering emerged. As the Director of Technology Innovation, he also sits on the executive leadership team at one of Melbourne, and Australia’s, | JULY 2019

premier independent schools. His dynamic and innovative style inspires both his students and educational peers alike.

Blending Technology with Learning Tim’s educational leadership and innovation began in earnest when he was a full-time classroom teacher and he has been unwavering in continually improving the traditional methods of classroom teaching practice ever since. In 2007, he began implementing his pioneering mindset to work in education with conviction. In the age of the iPod, Tim was a true pioneer of the Flipped Classroom pedagogy. When smart phones emerged, he designed and developed four educational iPhone apps.

When tablet computing and eBook readers emerged, he developed eight wildly interactive and engaging electronic books. He has even gamified – introduced elements of game-based motivation – an entire year of the Australian Science curriculum. His podcasts have been downloaded almost a million times, he has over 100,000 views on YouTube, and his blog has been visited over two million times.

Tim’s innovative and creative use of ICT in the curriculum is undisputed. His personal classroom JULY 2019 |

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innovation has directly enabled a generation of students to experience and engage in higher level learning.

However, as an educational thought leader, his vision has also transformed many educational practices. His vision has assisted schools around the globe, transition from the traditional closed wall, class-based nature of online learning, to course-based collaborative teaching and learning platforms. He has pioneered and assisted many schools transition to the modern BYOD model of student technology provision. He has pushed his own, and numerous other schools down the path of continuous reporting to enhance learning outcomes and strengthen relationships between schools and parents.

The Home Ground Tim expresses his pride in working at St Leonard’s College in Melbourne, Australia. He aligns comprehensively with the vision of the school – to provide all students with An Education for Life.

Similarly, Tim draws inspiration from the college’s mission which states, ‘Through inspiring and caring teachers, and in a physically, emotionally and spiritually safe coeducational environment, St Leonard’s College provides an exemplary innovative education for its students, enriched by the traditions of its heritage.’ As a result, all of the school’s strategic directions are in line with powerful education experiences for the present landscape, which equip students for their uncertain futures. Tim’s drive to support staff in a myriad of avenues has ensured that strategic initiatives have succeeded, and staff has up-skilled in areas surrounding pedagogy, use of technology and reporting practices.

stride, and it is virtually impossible to shake him and his drive to seek improvement, it becomes evident that he can easily overcome the challenges of the roles he has undertaken.

Changing the World, One School at a Time “Education is of utmost importance to the future wellbeing of our society, and our entire planet, and this provides a continual and ample source of both, the motivation to do great work for students everywhere, and also unrest and a strong desire to continue to push education forwards and see it continually improve and evolve to better empower all students everywhere,” Tim expresses. This constant positive outlook cannot help but spread onto Tim’s colleagues and peers, and the inspiration his students gain from this approach of teaching is profound. Tim’s students are engaged and inspired to be their best and to pursue their own passions to their very best ability.

At St Leonard’s College the entire faculty continues working to be the best school in the world – a goal that every single school should aspire to. For Tim personally, the goal is always to help as much as he can and do the best work he can, whatever work that is. Tim is periodically asked if he will step into a Principal role at a school in the future, and while Tim would never say never he is happy simply being a powerful force for change and good in this world. T R

Tim states that he works at a school that helps lead the educational landscape in virtually all that it does. Its amazingly committed staff constantly pushes the boundaries of pedagogical practices to ensure the very best learning environment for all students. The academic results of his school are routinely amongst the very best in the country and the students at his school are award winning, from Swimming or Cheer Sports, through to Theatre Productions, Musical Performances and Adventure Racing.

According to Tim, when he was appointed to the role of Director of Technology Innovation at St Leonard’s College, the ICT landscape was a virtual wasteland. His futuristic vision and strategic planning ensured that his school quickly transitioned to a national leader in this regard. As with all challenges, Tim takes them in his

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| JULY 2019

JULY 2019 |

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