So this might be a bit of a lengthy post but I thought it would be an opportunity to get all the information to you so we can discuss at another time.  This saves us wasting time in another staff meeting when we can just get on the with the business at hand.  I have added some links to resources also that might be of interest to help with understanding some of the facts or possible resources we can use to develop our key strategies.  I have organised your points and mine for facts under the headings on our TeamSite…

Facts:

Teaching & Learning

• Opportunities to collaborate are necessary
• Review curriculum collaboratively
• Consistency of practice
• Balanced English Program (R2L an element)
• Review collaboratively the Pedagogical Framework

Assessment & Feedback

• Review assessment and develop targets (term > semester > year)
• Moderate within school and cluster
• Induction program required
• PD Plan targeted for Teachers and Teacher Aides
• Use of data for a purpose (data informed not data driven)
• Coaching and Mentoring

Differentiation & Wellbeing

• Develop or operate within a Wellbeing Framework http://workplaces.healthier.qld.gov.au/getting-started/
• Review student support services
• Collaboration between staff
• SWD Training
• How do leadership roles impact on your work

Some other facts about Payne Road State School that impacts on our work

• High level of parent involvement
• A large percentage of students with disabilities integrated into classes where possible
• A long period of change in leadership
• A significant expectation from parents for extra curricular activities
• A perceived expectation of high performance within “The Gap” cluster

Implication:

• Scheduled team/year level meetings
• Observe others teaching
• develop a model for consistency of practice to refer to
• Embed Wellbeing Framework into model
• Planning with others
• Moderating with others
• Speciality teams – (big projects | clarifying roles within teams)
  • Curriculum
  • Pedagogy
  • Professional Practice
• Time to meet
• Team teaching
• Planning and sharing of resources
• Using interesting teaching modes
• flexible teaching models
• Core skills – English (Explicit Teaching)
• Funding
• Communication between leadership and staff
• Feedback | Mentoring | Coaching
  • How
  • When
  • Which form
• TEAM WORK
• Sharing ideas and good practice
• More training in SWD
• Open to community input aligned to our priorities
• Open to new ideas and willingness to discuss these ideas
• Formalised process for coaching, mentoring and class walk-throughs
• Staff  meetings and working parties dedicated to the development of these processes
• Feedback to students designed to give them opportunities to improve
• Working differently – class make up, daily structure, teams
• Teams to work on specific projects e.g. ICT infrastructure/resourcing, R2L, Mathematics
• Staff meetings dedicated to reviewing the elements of the Pedagogical Framework and curriculum overviews
• Working in teams to plan, assess and moderate
• Review the data we use, why we use it, how we record it and what it means for our students

Application:

Early days but here are few ideas that I will try to action asap:

• Working party – Balanced English (Literacy) Program
• Review staff meeting schedule
• Determine other working parties and make time to action plan
• Set up planning teams for future units

more to come…