PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY
At St Mary’s our learning and teaching culture is guided by a framework of practice called Professional Learning Communities. The Professional Learning Communities model is not a program but rather a process that directs the way in which teachers develop learning opportunities for our students.
Professional Learning Communities are developed around key foundational principles:
- A clear focus on student learning:
At St Mary’s we believe that children can learn at high levels and we provide targeted intervention when our data or observations indicate that a student requires additional levels of support. Every decision we make is driven by a focus on enabling every child to succeed.
- Collective responsibility:
For every student to succeed educators must work collaboratively to take responsibility for the progress of every child. At St Mary’s, no teacher ‘owns’ a class. Rather, students and staff work in Learning Communities where the needs of the students are directed by collaborative work of the teachers in that Learning Community dependent on their developmental progress at that point in time.
- Instructional Leadership:
At St Mary’s leadership focuses on learning and teaching. Each Learning Community has a designated Learning Community Leader who provides additional support to the students in that community and supports the teachers to further develop their teaching capacity.
- Collaboration & focussed discussions:
Teachers are better able to meet the needs of students and improve their teaching skills when they work collaboratively with other teachers. At St Mary’s, all our teachers plan collaboratively each week to ensure that the needs of the students in their learning community are being met. We ensure that we schedule time for teachers to discuss student progress and student learning.
- Continuous improvement informed by evidence:
Effective teams improve through analysing student learning needs and planning, implementing and evaluating appropriate learning activities to meet these needs. At St Mary’s, our teachers use at a range of data sources to identify the needs and progress of individual students. This information is then used to create purposeful and engaging learning activities in line with the Victorian Curriculum. All the decisions we make are evidence-based and focussed on enabling every student to achieve high levels of success.
At St Mary’s our learning and teaching culture is guided by a framework of practice called Professional Learning Communities. The Professional Learning Communities model is not a program but rather a process that directs the way in which teachers develop learning opportunities for our students.
Professional Learning Communities are developed around key foundational principles:
- A clear focus on student learning:
At St Mary’s we believe that children can learn at high levels and we provide targeted intervention when our data or observations indicate that a student requires additional levels of support. Every decision we make is driven by a focus on enabling every child to succeed.
- Collective responsibility:
For every student to succeed educators must work collaboratively to take responsibility for the progress of every child. At St Mary’s, no teacher ‘owns’ a class. Rather, students and staff work in Learning Communities where the needs of the students are directed by collaborative work of the teachers in that Learning Community dependent on their developmental progress at that point in time.
- Instructional Leadership:
At St Mary’s leadership focuses on learning and teaching. Each Learning Community has a designated Learning Community Leader who provides additional support to the students in that community and supports the teachers to further develop their teaching capacity.
- Collaboration & focussed discussions:
Teachers are better able to meet the needs of students and improve their teaching skills when they work collaboratively with other teachers. At St Mary’s, all our teachers plan collaboratively each week to ensure that the needs of the students in their learning community are being met. We ensure that we schedule time for teachers to discuss student progress and student learning.
- Continuous improvement informed by evidence:
Effective teams improve through analysing student learning needs and planning, implementing and evaluating appropriate learning activities to meet these needs. At St Mary’s, our teachers use at a range of data sources to identify the needs and progress of individual students. This information is then used to create purposeful and engaging learning activities in line with the Victorian Curriculum. All the decisions we make are evidence-based and focussed on enabling every student to achieve high levels of success.
‘learning for all, fairness for all, compassion for all’