2023

Richmond State School

Literate Learners – a whole-school approach to high quality teaching of reading from Prep to Year 10

Richmond State School is a diverse and inclusive school that strives to deliver the Australian Curriculum in a way that supports, challenges and engages students. Ensuring students start strong for lifelong learning, the school has a sharp focus on literacy, providing students opportunities to engage in rich and contextualised learning experiences.

Their whole-school approach to high quality teaching of reading through the Australian Curriculum is to be commended. They are implementing pedagogical practices to teach the reading demands of the curriculum, monitor student literacy progress and target teaching through quality differentiation. This includes ensuring Prep to Year 2 students who are at risk of not achieving a ‘C’ or better in English receive focused and intensive teaching and personalised learning plans, with all students having termly personalised learning goals for reading.

Gladstone West State School

Implementing the Buraligim Weiber – ‘A Place of Learning’ project

Gladstone West State School teamed up with Central Queensland University and local community and industry partners to deliver the Buraligim Weiber ‘A Place of Learning’ Project.

The original intent of the project was to enable First Nations students to connect to their culture, work with input from local First Nations community members and to connect with experts from industry partners in the community and university, and to broaden their horizons of life and careers beyond school. Each year, the program has evolved with critical review from stakeholders including valuable input from local First Nations community members including Trisha Coleman, a local Byellee woman and artist.

Mossman State School

Locally relevant curriculum development to consolidate strong foundations for lifelong learning

Mossman State School has a priority on constructing learning experiences that are accessible, engaging and challenging for all students. The school draws curriculum planning and assessment practices directly from the P–12 Curriculum and Assessment Framework and uses the department’s process for developing marking guides. The Head of Department – Curriculum works extensively to upskill teaching staff in this practice and helps teachers co-plan contextualised units of work. The marking guides are quality assured by aligning them to the Assessment and Moderation Hub resources and through cluster moderation practices. School leaders and teachers articulate a desire to build upon this knowledge and to embed the development of quality marking guides in all eight learning areas across the school.

The school places a strong focus on incorporating the cross-curriculum priority Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures across all learning areas. The curriculum is responsive to local needs and prioritises the embedding of the Kuku Yalanji Language Program throughout all learning areas. The school has a focus on making the curriculum engaging to the students in adopting a strengths-based approach to recognising, valuing and building upon student interest, knowledge, culture and skills.

Emerald State High School

An innovative approach to positive transitions to junior secondary

Emerald State High School approaches the transition to junior secondary in an exciting and innovative way.

Using the supporting successful transitions: school decision-making tool as a starting point, the leadership team has developed a thoughtful, inclusive and strategic transition program that recognises and supports the changing needs of students in junior secondary.

Emerald State High School’s approach is truly collaborative with all staff across the high school and all feeder schools heavily invested in ensuring students are on track for success.

This innovative approach to positive transitions to junior secondary has led to significantly increased academic achievement across Years 7, 8 and 9.

Corinda State High School

Improved teaching practice – supporting the needs of diverse learners and delivering meaningful pathways for every student

Corinda State High School’s dedicated staff members are driving a focus on improved teaching practices. There is a focus on increased student agency with teachers employing a variety of ways to seek and implement feedback on pedagogy from students and use this feedback to adjust their teaching practice to increase engagement and meet individual needs.

The school has a consistent approach to support the individual learning needs of its diverse students. Differentiated teaching is provided to support all students to successfully access the curriculum with teachers purposefully planning a variety of ways to provide:

• student support
• case management and advocacy when required
• targeted Individual curriculum plans
• flying squad models to support classroom learning
• master teaching model in senior school.
  

Students are offered an extensive range of senior schooling offerings and a personalised tutoring program which caters for a vast range of pathway options. The school is also looking to establish and implement a micro credentials program to enable students’ skill development. This will allow students to achieve high-level credentials in addition to their academic programs, making students more competitive and ready for the future.

Heatley Secondary College

Heatley Proud Learners where ‘Our Future is Our Focus’ – a whole-school approach to nurturing and maximising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students’ social, emotional and physical wellbeing

Heatley Secondary College has developed an integrated, whole-school approach to learning, wellbeing and behaviour in response to the complex and diverse needs of students enrolled at the school. The program is focused on nurturing learners who are aspirational, inclusive, responsible, respectful and resilient. The school has a range of effective practices to support students at risk of disengaging from learning, a co-teaching model to support students with disability, disaggregation of data to inform interventions and comprehensive case management to support engagement, wellbeing and academic outcomes.

The school has also established an extensive range of partnerships with community organisations, businesses and local schools. These are of great benefit to student wellbeing, academic success and transitions to post-school destinations. Students describe feeling valued and heard and welcome the opportunities the school provides to build their identity, connect with their culture and language, and strengthen their engagement in their learning.

As a result, safe, supportive and inclusive environments have been created to improve transition and retention outcomes, and the school continues to build a positive and inclusive reputation within the wider community.

Koolkan Aurukun State School

Creating safe, supportive and inclusive environments that enhance engagement

Koolkan Aurukun State School’s work to enhance student engagement and nurture social, emotional and physical wellbeing has demonstrated positive outcomes with children/youth and families who experience barriers to engaging with school life. Through their Family Champions initiative, the school approaches case management of students in need through the lens of family groups. Each identified student has a Family Champion who helps to connect the school and family to enact support strategies.

The initiative is grounded in strengths-based methods that acknowledge the resources that exist within family and community. The Family Champion initiative is a powerful way of strengthening and deepening community partnerships and privileging understanding and respect. The Family Champion can assist in helping the lived experiences of family members to become visible to school staff. The Family Champions are community members, endorsed by the family of the child or young person who has been identified for case management support. Family Champions are instrumental in assisting students to re-engage with school or other options and they have been integral to linking families and schools to external agencies. Overall, the capacity of families and school staff to engage with each other and form community in culturally meaningful and safe ways has been enhanced by the role of the Family Champions.

Kenmore State School

Building an expert teaching team through teacher capability in curriculum, assessment and pedagogy alignment

Kenmore State School is committed to building an expert teaching team through developing teacher capability in curriculum, assessment and pedagogy. Structures that support this work include induction for new staff, year level planning days, staff meetings to guide data analysis across the school and an instructional rounds process to provide feedback on pedagogy and sharing of practice.

Kenmore has also established a number of external networks over time with strong links forged with the University of Queensland, the University of Sydney and the Kenmore Alliance of State Schools. The principal takes a leading role in organising the cluster’s leadership program, and the sharing and growing of practice amongst network schools.

Benowa State School

A leadership team which promotes professional learning amongst staff leading to increased student results

Benowa State School shares their confidence and support for the leadership team’s role within the school. Staff speak of alignment of the strategic documentation, clear understanding of their role in delivering the school agenda and a clarity of the vision and direction.

Staff describe a caring and personal leadership approach which engenders a sense of mutual trust and support. Teachers are empowered in their ongoing professional learning and appreciate the investment leaders provide to enhance their capabilities and support their professional aspirations. The leadership team is strongly invested in creating a culture of teacher professional learning informed by research. Teachers share how the annual performance and development process (APDP) demonstrates a differentiated approach, respecting adult learners and reflects the absolute trust leaders place in teacher professionalism. Staff express appreciation for the autonomy which allows them to identify personal goals relating to their class characteristics.