Qu 3: Building an accurate profile of students' learning - tools, measures and approaches...

Students who have achieved at a level considered to be 'below' the level they should be, are approximately a year behind the level they need to be at to make sense of the new learning. These are the students who with encouragement, scaffolding and explicit teaching will often make the gains needed to reach expectation.

Professional development empowers teachers with the skills to improve classroom practises, by introducing them to new learning which can make the changes needed in their practice to help strengthen the connections their students have to the learning. On occasions PLD is something that is simply attended so that a box can be ticked, but when embraced, can make a real difference. Sometimes despite having all the I's dotted and all the T's crossed shift does not take place. 

The conversations that often follow these results tend to apportion blame towards the student.... We have all at one stage or another heard phrases like '...did not connect to the test...'didn't read the questions carefully'... 'ran out of time'... 'was having a bad day...' It is only in recent times that we have been hearing teachers truly reflecting on their practice. What excites me as a team leader is hearing teachers identify where the gaps are in their own practice, then actively explore ways to try and fill these gaps. It the teachers who see student shift as a collaborative journey who make the most difference.

After the beginning of year data was collected and analysed at class level, this data was then shared at team level. As a group we celebrated our successes and looked at what teachers were doing in their classrooms to achieve these results. These strategies were then shared with examples that helped people see what it looked like in practise. Collectively we identified the support we would need to make both big and small changes in our practices, that would help to accelerate shift in all our learners, and together we formulated a plan that will help us get there.

The tools/measures/approaches:

• Planning 
• Long term
• Site DLOs
• Shared format
• Sharing time at syndicate meetings
• 10 minute quick tips that can be used in literacy
• Feedback from PLD and resources shared
• Classroom observations 
• linked to literacy
• Peer observations
• linked to literacy
• noticing ideas that are working and are embedded in the program
• Surveys
• Teachers
• Students - target group
• Time point 1/2 data analysis

Qu. #2 - Why we judge this to be the most important and catalytic issue of learning for this group of learners this year...

Achieving accelerated shift in Literacy was identified as being one of the most important and catalytic issues of learning facing our students in Y4 - 8, this year, when the time point one data was analysed. Exploring how learning gained from professional development is helping to strengthen teacher practice and achievement in literacy is something I haven't looked at before so I am looking forward to sharing my findings.

As I am not looking specifically into my own practice it is important to maintain anonymity. This inquiry is a syndicate wide focus and therefore not a focus on individual teachers. Our starting point with professional development linked to Literacy undertaken by the senior syndicate (Y4-Y8) in the 2023/24 period consists of:

• In Class Support (ICS) 2023
• Reading Program Intensive 2023 teacher/mentor meetings and observations 2023
• T Shaped Literacy 2023
• The Code 2024
• In Class Support (ICS) 2024
• PRT Y1/2 teacher/mentor meetings and observations 2023/24

To measure the shift I needed clear picture of where our student's starting points were. What to collect for baseline data was something I struggled with as I couldn't decide on the best way to do this. Like many faced with a direction conundrum, the task ahead found its way to the 'I'll do it later basket'. My problem was 'later' became a hard time to find. I knew I needed help and today that help came in the form of Amy Tofa and Matt Goodwin. 

I explained my inquiry focus and together we came up with a way forward that made sense to me. A really useful piece of advice here is to talk to your colleagues as saying things out loud and getting a 2nd opinion, or 3rd in my case, is one of the most valuable resources we can tap into. Amy pointed out to me that the picture I was trying to capture was huge and suggested I focus on one group of students. I am 100% taking her advice to focus on our students who scored 'Below' on our beginning of year literacy assessments.

The data above shows the percentage of our Year 4 -8 students who scored Below expectation on the PAT Reading Comprehension and e-asTTle assessments. I will be using this data to measure the shift made between the two cluster wide assessment timepoints in my target group.