Blairmount Public School

Key features

Changing the school’s focus from welfare to learning

The PAS program in 2004-6 has allowed the whole school to change the focus away from welfare to quality teaching and learning as the key to improved student learning outcomes.

School Context

Blairmount Public School is on the southern end of Campbelltown. There are currently 560 students enrolled and there is generally high student mobility. Sixty per cent of the student population is drawn from the public housing estate of Claymore with the remaining forty per cent coming from the surrounding suburbs of Eagle Vale, Woodbine, Blairmount and the new housing estate of Blair Athol. Forty per cent of the families living in the private housing are living in rental accommodation.

The school has a strong and diverse multicultural profile.

-top-

What was the school aiming to achieve?

Student behaviour was a significant ongoing problem for all staff. In 2003 there were several students supported by integration funding, Itinerant Support Teacher Behaviour (ISTB) support and many students received support through flexible behaviour funding. Literacy and numeracy levels across the school were low.

Teaching time was being lost in every classroom due to some inappropriate and violent student behaviours. Bullying was evident and there were some negative perceptions of the school in the community. Early in 2003 all of the staff were asked to identify “What do we do well at Blairmount?” and every response related to welfare and the way the school cared for the students and kept them safe and happy. No staff member mentioned teaching or learning.

The school decided to:

eliminate the loss of teaching time due to inappropriate student behaviour
move from behaviour intervention to a prevention focus
improve student attendance
create a learning environment based on calm and routine in which every student knew that they came to school to learn
ensure that the students were engaged in their learning, that there were high expectations of learning and that the teaching was focused. The school used the Quality Teaching framework (QTF) as the basis of professional learning
support the classroom teacher with focused learning assistance from the Support Teacher Learning Assistance (STLA), mentoring and quality professional learning.

While the school acknowledged that there were external factors influencing the students’ lives, the staff wanted to prevent this from being used as an excuse for poor student achievement.

-top-

The improvement process

The school developed and implemented an individualised approach to whole school student welfare, behaviour management and modification.

Staff Support	a proactive and preventative approach to student welfare from K-6 implementation of the You Can Do It! Program based on building resilience, getting along, persistence, confidence and organisation skills in all students whole school implementation of the Say No To Bullying program early intervention utilising outside agencies, interagency liaison, case conferences pastoral care, morning visit to all at risk students in class support by the welfare support teacher
Professional Learning	10 staff members trained in Professional Assault Response Training (PART) professional support for all early career teachers and teachers experiencing difficulty in managing a student ongoing professional learning around individual needs e.g. autism, conduct disorder
Organisation	implemented the reflection room reviewed and revised the school?s welfare policy developed individual risk assessments and behaviour management plans implemented a proactive approach to ensure that all students were in the most appropriate academic setting used structured play for students needing support to cope in the playground
Community Expectations	clear articulation to the whole school community that disruption of learning would not be tolerated and if a class had to be evacuated there would be automatic suspension of the student(s) involved parent complaint procedure which ensured that every complaint no matter how small was thoroughly investigated with feedback provided on results and follow-up orientation of new students and their families to the school daily monitoring and follow-up of student attendance

By providing welfare teacher support, classroom teachers realised that they were able to focus on teaching and that very little learning time was lost through the disruption of students. This also allowed teachers to view behaviour modification as a more manageable task than it had previously been. Individual behaviour management plans were negotiated with all stakeholders for students identified as being at risk.

-top-

Whole school approach to the development of teacher understanding of quality teaching and student demonstration of quality learning

Staff Support

2003 - established a beginning teachers mentoring program
2004 - employed an education consultant to facilitate and sustain this inquiry process
2005 - utilised curriculum consultants to embed the framework into the specific key learning areas of English and mathematics
2006 - used a facilitator to guide Stage Three through a science unit ensuring all aspects of the framework were considered

	Action research (SIPA) into quality teaching and learning investigating:
	the link between the QTF and improved student learning outcomes the equity implications of the QTF the forms of professional development that are associated with teachers meeting the standards of the QTF.

Professional Learning

focused on the QTF
developed a common language to talk about teaching and learning to enhance practice
engaged teachers in meaningful discussions focused on enhancing their own teaching and learning and assessment practices
supported teachers to plan, observe and analyse classroom lessons
supported teachers to plan, implement and evaluate units of work

Organisation

consultants worked with teachers in stage teams and in classrooms. Each team determined the direction and focus for meetings
in class support, planning, observing and coding classroom lessons
backward mapping from the assessment task process for planning units of work
planning, coding and analysing classroom lesson plans
innovative teaching strategies such as reciprocal numeracy
planning and programming to reflect QTF

Teachers were provided with substantial professional learning time, enabling them to work with their colleagues to become familiar with the QTF. This ensured that quality teaching was reflected in their teaching practice. As a result students have become more engaged in their learning and learning outcomes are improving.

-top-

Provision of additional learning assistance teachers, enhanced delivery and co-ordination of the learning assistance program

Focus

to improve communication between teachers and STLA
to change stage mathematics groups to in-class groups
to increase the allocation of STLA time within each year or stage
to identify specific learning needs of each student
to target students who were performing slightly above the lowest achieving students

Strategies

establishment of a learning support team to identify, monitor and co-ordinate programs for students at risk
STLA regularly attend stage meetings to increase communication and knowledge of students? achievement and programs with classroom teachers
increased STLA allocation to two or three hours per day, per year. The learning assistance team was able to concentrate on a greater range of students and shift the focus away from the lowest achieving students
learning assistance team identified an area of need and targeted students who were below stage expectations. An intensive five week program was then developed and implemented with pre and post data collected. This process was then repeated for various identified needs

An increase in the number of quality STLA staff has ensured that every student identified as being at risk by the class teacher undergoes a focused program to support their learning needs.

By implementing a rigorous and systematic reading program initially in Kindergarten and more recently in Years 1 and 2, expectations have been raised and there is a greater emphasis on moving students more quickly by explicitly teaching skills and sequencing learning.

-top-

What were the results?

click to enlarge

Professional learning and classroom support

The processes and procedures over the past four years have become more refined and accessible, with a heavy emphasis on a proactive and preventative approach. The staff now sees behaviour management, modification and welfare issues as more manageable tasks than they had previously been.

The tone of the school and the morale among students, teachers and parents has continued to become more positive. In addition to raising school expectations, there is a clear understanding of the school?s expectations and of the rewards and consequences. This has been accomplished largely through a slow and deliberate process of identifying student needs, acknowledging and celebrating all positive steps and developing teacher understanding.

click to enlarge

-top-

School based data indicate an increasing number of students achieving stage benchmarks, which were raised in 2004 and again in 2006. In the Basic Skills Test, growth between Years 3 and 5 is consistently above state mean.

Essential resources

a quality teaching and learning framework to focus whole school professional learning
class free student welfare teacher
skilled STLA team

Reflections

The school spent more time developing exit strategies than strategically planning for the achievement of long term goals because of the annual allocation of the PAS program funding. In 2007 PAS program funding is no longer allocated to professional learning because structures are now in place to ensure that continuity can be maintained within the school’s global budget.

Future directions

Increased STLA and reduced class sizes in Years 3 to 6 in 2007 will help the school to capitalise on the significant gains already made. The class free student welfare position has had a profound impact on the entire culture of the school.

Contact: Contact: Sue Aitken, Principal