St Kierans Catholic School, Manly Vale

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St Kierans Catholic School, Manly Vale

• Who are we?
• Principal Terri Paterson
• Assistant Principal Virginia Outred
• What are we doing here?
• Masters of Ed Leadership _at_ ACU
• LTLL school
• Shared principalship

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• About St Kierans . . . . .
• Northern Beaches of Sydney
• Middle class demographic
• Catholic systemic school- Broken Bay diocese
  of Sydney
• 385 students K-6
• 14 classes (2 per grade)
• Principal Assistant Principal
  Administrator
• 13 full time teaching staff, 2 in part time
  job share
• 6 part time teaching staff, 4 teachers
  aides,
• 1 admin assistant

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• Our School Journey
• Previous leadership set up
• Congenial staff
• Literacy and Numeracy policies with mainly
  consistent practice
• Tight structures and routines
• Model of AP as Literacy Facilitator working
  with staff
• Present Leadership
• 2004 School review process- mandate for
  change
• 2004 New mission statement
• 2005 Parent Education programs begin
• 2005 School Board formed- shared wisdom model

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• Our Mission Statement
• A welcoming co-educational K 6 parish school
  community committed to
• Excellence in Teaching Learning
• Growth in Faith
• Affirmative Pastoral Care
• Promotion of Social Justice through student
  leadership and an integrated curriculum.

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Moral Purpose of Education or What Matters
Most? Our core business Authentic and
transformational teaching and learning for the
21st century to improve learning outcomes for
all students.
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Where did that come from? Duignan
2006 Authentic learning is not just about taking
new knowledge and skills for oneself but is more
about developing the capacity to give ones
unique contribution to others. Authentic
learning makes a difference in the lives of all
those who engage in it.
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Duignan 2006 The Key Characteristics of Authentic
Learning are that Students Develop

• personal meaning from and through their learning
• awareness of the relationships between the self
  and the content of the study
• respect for the integrity of the subject/object
  of study
• an appreciation of the implications of their
  learning for their lives outside the school
• an ability to apply their rich understanding of
  their learning in practice and
• their capabilities as authentic and capable human
  beings
• (Duignan Bezzina, 2004 adapted from Starratt,
  2004b)

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• Transformational Learning
• LTLL Starratt reading 2008 Cultivating the
  Moral Character of Learning and Teaching A
  neglected dimension of educational leadership
• Each major unit of the curriculum should be
  related to the personal world of the
  learners and address the public applications of
  that learning
• Students need to feel cared for and be
  thought of as having enormous potential
  They need to be taught as though the learning
  process was their sacred right and their
  civic responsibility.

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• The Case for Integrated Units, Inquiry based
  Learning and SCLP (Student Centred Learning
  Products)
• Integrated Units established
• Inquiry based learning. Yoram Harpez
  (Israel)- The disarming question Kath
  Murdoch (Australia)- An Inquiry process of
  learning leading to So What? aspect of
  unit
• Improving it all our LTLL initiative
  SCLP student choice, student empowerment,
  taking action, changing thinking,
  sharing learning with others.

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How Can I Become a Responsible Global Citizen?
(grade 6) With all the information I have
gained over the term I have become a more aware
person. This includes the TNC companies such as
McDonalds, KFC, Coca Cola, etc I have learnt to
choose wisely in terms of these What I can do
with my knowledge is I can try and help people
live the life I live. This is so everyone has an
equal life, instead of having to live in refugee
camps or spending six years in a detention
centre. As you can see the rights of these
children are not being met.
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Teacher Reflections I love how most of the unit
was student centred and self directed by
students. It was relevant to their life. (Year
5 teacher- unit How does the media influence
our choices?) The interest and learning of
the children was amazing! They realised that
even we as kinder students can make a small
difference to our environment. (Kinder teacher.
How and why are animals important to our
environment?) The children saw that they had a
responsibility to pass onto future generations
their knowledge and stories as well as the need
to pass on a safe, sustainable future. (Year 2
teacher. What can we learn form our past?)
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Teacher Reflections The SCLP mean that the
students go home and talk with their families
about their learning and what action to take now.
Parents always say to us they cant believe how
much the children know and want to talk about
their learning (Kinder teacher) The children
start to get excited at the end of the unit and
ask when they can start their SCLPs. Once we
have researched and talked about the main
concepts theyre desperate to pursue their own
path in the unit. (Year 5 teacher)
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• Leadership
• Authentic
• Relational
• Shared
• Teacher as Leader

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• Teachers as Leaders
• (Bezzina LTLL 2009)
• Teachers who are genuine leaders will
• Have a clear and explicit understanding of
  the nature of the transformed learner
• Be skilled in the creation of authentic
  learning experiences
• Be active contributors to the educative
  leadership of the school

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• Teachers as Leaders at St Kierans
• Not a title but a development of a culture
  of trust, teacher initiative, empowerment,
  a recognition of talents and high expectations of
  all staff
• Opportunities to lead- Year 6 leadership
  teams and teacher mentors. Individual
  projects
• Teachers are now initiating their own
  professional learning between them,
  identifying needs and finding those who can help.

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• Processes
• Effective Processes that help not hinder
  authentic, transformational teaching and
  learning
• Co-operative, collaborative learning models
• Professional learning based on recent
  theories and research
• Professional reading
• Problem solving
• Collegiality
• Reflection and evaluation
• Affirmative action
• Assessment for and as learning

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• Structures for Authentic Teaching and Learning
• Changing Role of AP
• from manager to leader of learning
• AP as teacher/coach and mentor- time in
  classrooms with learner
• AP as leader of professional learning
• Leadership Team Development
• external study
• group book study
• professional learning as a team
• expanding capacity to lead
• leadership succession

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• Structures for Authentic Teaching
• and Learning
• A New professional learning model
• Structures changed- timetabling and
  professional learning meeting time and
  format
• Time to implement effective processes
• Staff professional reading
• Co-operative planning and sharing
• High quality professional learning leads to
  high quality interaction, a developing
  learning culture and improved teaching standards
• Worthwhile Teacher Conversations
• 90 minute grade meetings.
• Key Questions. Who are the learners? What
  can you do for them? What can we do for
  you?
• Half day planning each term. From
  busy work to deep understanding and planning
  authentic learning experiences.

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• Fiscal Management
• What matters most in the budget?
• Ethics of resourcing and budgets

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• Developing a Culture of a Community of Learners
• Parent Education
• School Board
• PLCCS- Peninsula Learning Community of
  Catholic Schools. Networking.
  Sustainability.
• The work of transforming schools means all
  or most schools, and this means it is a
  system change. For system change to occur on a
  larger scale, we need schools learning from
  each other and districts learning from each
  other. Fullan 2006
• Pastoral Care- Quality relationships
  authentic and respectful choice theory
  extrinsic to intrinsic motivation

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• A Process
• Identify an initiative
• What is/was the moral purpose? (why does it
  matter?)
• What processes and structures need(ed) to be
  in place for it to occur?

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Good talk about good teaching can take many forms
and involve many conversation partners and it
can transform teaching and learning. But it
will happen only if leaders expect it, invite it,
and provide hospitable space for the conversation
to occur. Leaders who work this way understand
that good leadership sometimes takes the form of
teaching. They lead from the same model we have
been exploring for teaching itself, creating a
space centered on the great thing called teaching
and learning around which a community of truth
can gather. The Courage to Teach Parker J
Palmer 1998