...Learners leave St Patrick’s self motivated and ready to make a positive impact on their world

When I commenced as principal of St Patrick's school in 2016, I worked with the staff, students and the parent community to create a succinct vision statement. The outcome of that work is our "why" ...We are engaged and motivated learners always faithful to our loving God. How did we get to this statement? You can read the back story at this link. 

Ongoing professional learning enabled our staff to develop a detailed, shared vision narrative and core values that encapsulate "how" to bring the vision to life. As I prepare to leave St Pat's, I feel assured that the shared vision and the accompanying core values are truly embedded throughout the actions of the community. 

In particular, the last sentence of the shared vision is is especially significant. It states "what" we want for our Year 6 graduates.....Learners leave St Patrick’s self motivated and ready to make a positive impact on their world..... 

Our St Pat's students start to demonstrate self motivation in Year 5. I recently went to talk to one of our Year 5 classes about the school's shared vision. They asked me if the vision narrative is a piece of persuasive writing from the staff. This is indeed an impressive observation from Year 5 students who certainly know the power of persuasive writing.

The following story clearly links the vision, the core values, the impact of purposeful teaching, the learning that followed and the outcome of the heartfelt, self motivated actions of one Year 5 learner. 

This is the story of how Elisha and her classmates show that they are already self motivated to make a positive impact on their world.....

Below is a letter from Elisha

A few weeks earlier, I received some letters from Elisha and her Year 5 classmates.. 

Elisha set the scene expressing the far-reaching effects of the pandemic.....

Darby supports her case by making reference to relevant research...

And Lily... her pom poms!

Eliza strengthens her case by referring to the school's core values....

And Tate also emphasises our core values....

Persuasive letters from the whole class proved too much for me ! How could I resist these requests written with such passion and purpose ? The Year 5C class definitely succeeded in persuading me that they should go to the swimming carnival. 

All of the efforts to support their peers at the swimming carnival planted a seed in the mind of one reflective Year 5 learner and the actions that followed definitely made an impact on her world.

With the support of Elisha's classmates and the whole school community, Elisha's persuasive letter about raising funds to Fight Parkinson's through a school bake sale became a reality. 

Elisha later told me that her Poppa cried with joy at the outcome of her actions.

Below is the response from Fight Parkinson's

Hi Elisha and classmates of 5C,

I am writing to you today to thank you for raising funds for Fight Parkinson’s at your school bake sale. I heard that your baked goods were delicious and sold out very quickly!

We appreciate the phenomenal effort you have made in helping to raise awareness and funds of $1,065.00 to help people who have Parkinson’s disease. Well done!

We would also like to thank all of your supporters and the St. Patrick’s Primary School community who helped you to achieve your goal.

Please see the attached Certificate of Appreciation; we thank you once again for your generosity and support of our organisation.

Kind regards,

Melanie Worthington Donor and Supporter Services

When we can share heartfelt stories that demonstrate the authentic and purposeful actions of our young learners, then we are gifted with the evidence of ... learners being self motivated and ready to make a positive impact on their world.....

I received a number of beautiful messages of congratulations when I announced my new position to the community early this term.

The message below from one family reiterates the difference that we can make when we listen with our hearts and believe in the immense capability of our young learners.. to make a positive impact on their world.....

.".....I just want to say thank you for everything you have done, in particular the way you have empowered little people to feel they can approach you with suggestions and ideas. I still remember my three girls wanting to do something to help Michelle Barclay when she was diagnosed. Their little idea of getting our beautiful school involved in Daffodil Day was received so well by both you and the staff. You then continued to empower the girls to speak about it and to help run the day. This day is now a day the school and our entire community acknowledges yearly. What a beautiful Legacy to be a part of....."

We are all learners no matter who we are; be it students, staff, parents or community members. We continually learn and grow, we change 2 flourish in our professional and personal lives.

Like our St Pat's graduates, I too feel self motivated and ready to make a positive impact  in my new role as Leadership Consultant for the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS). Many rich and rewarding learning experiences at St Pat's have contributed to who I am and have prepared me to be able to support, advise and and grow the leadership capability across several MACS schools.

I am truly blessed to have led the St Patrick's school community for 6 years with the support of such inspiring leaders and staff. 

Each and every staff member is open to learning to be the best that they can be and will continue to remain committed to the school's vision and values. Our staff will ensure that the young learners that they teach will have the very best opportunity to grow and flourish so that when our learners graduate in Year 6, they too will...

....leave St Patrick’s self motivated and ready to make a positive impact on their world.....

Acknowledgements:
Miss Currenti and the Year 5C students for sharing their persuasive letters and giving me permission to publish extracts from some of the letters

Elisha for wanting to make a difference for her Poppa

All of the inspiring students, staff and families at St Patrick's school

William Martin, John Edwards, Mary & Lab Wilson for the Schools That Deliver professional learning

COVID-19 Part 1 (22 March - 17 May 2020) Fallen bicycles, Shortness of Breath & Remote Learning

It's about 8 weeks to the day on the 22 March when:

• the Victorian premier announced that schools will finish Term 1 earlier than expected due to coronavirus State of Emergency restrictions
• I lifted a fallen bicycle in the bike shed at school and sprained my chest. This action resulted in shortness of breath. With the growing anxiety around coronavirus, caring colleagues advised me to take a trip to the doctor. Fortunately the shortness of breath was only an outcome of the sprain and a reaction to some very strong hand sanitizer.

Corona virus scare in the bike shed

8 weeks later:

• Victorians can emerge from their isolation cocoon to visit friends and family – with a maximum gathering of up to ten outdoors and up to five visitors in homes.
• Our school families have completed 5 weeks of remote "home" learning from our school Learning Community Site. Here is an extract from Community Update #1

Remote Schooling / Home Learning Frequently Asked Questions 
Term 2 Community Update #1 ; Preparing for Home Learning - 5 Key Messages
As mentioned in previous updates, the staff have been working hard to support parents and families to make the transition to Home Learning for Term 2. All updates will be published here as newsletters this term. This means you can go back and access them easily. 
Go to this link and read Brooke's story - Home Learning ; One Parent Shares their Story
Frequently Asked Questions and Supervised Onsite Expectations
I have prepared a list of 15 Frequently Asked Questions FAQ in response to parent questions.
You can open the Shamrock update newsletters on any device.

• Our staff have become digitally flexible and learnt to teach in ways they would never have imagined "pre COVID -19". They supported each other to create instructional videos like this one from our Foundation team.

Prep Making Words Instructional Video
The #stpatsmbna Prep teachers prepared this video for the children during remote learning. Look out for special guest appearances from Tia and our principal Jenny Hawkins.

• Myself and 5 other staff have been working full time for 5 weeks onsite at school with the support of part time staff, supervising the 25-30 children of essential workers at school whilst 80% of families and our staff have taught and learnt in their homes.
• Zoom, the online video conference platform became the main form of communication for staff and student meetings, including staff wellbeing groups
• ZOOM IMAGE
• staff regularly telephoned parents and responded to emails. The home learning parent partnership was strengthened. Parents and carers developed a deeper understanding of the impact of dedicated teaching staff . This became evident through parent responses to the staff video "We're all in this together".

Staff Video (7 May)"We're all in this together" at St Pat's Murrrumbeena
St Pat's school staff and local community members (guest appearances include Citizen & 3 Little Bakers celebrities! ) come together to let school families know - "We miss you and can't wait until we are all back together soon @ #stpatsmbna "

• The SRC (Student Representative Council) videos provided an opportunity for our students to support the school community during the pandemic lockdown. The SRC students elected from Year 1 through to Year 6 provide a student voice and take on the role for a semester. I met with the students on a weekly bases via Zoom during their Home Learning lunch break and we began to create a series of videos. Here are some of the videos.

SRC Survival Tips #1 

The SRC focus in their first video is on our school core value - We are positive. The students offer our community survival tips for Home Learning and positive ways to survive these challenging times.

                                          Tips for the SRC as we prepare our second video

SRC Survival Tips #2 Stay fit and healthy

The SRC share some tips for staying fit and healthy with your family during Home Learning.

SRC Survival Tips #3 Indoor Activities 

SRC share some tips for fun games to play with your family. Stay safe and keep well.

• We developed our first Virtual Assembly #1 to share weekly awards and connect with the children and families. Here is the first one. I received a lovely message from a grandparent after an award recipient shared the video with them. Something to think about for the future, especially as a way to include family members who aren't able to attend assemblies

Virtual Assembly #1

We are all proud of the way our children, staff, parents and carers have flourished during #stpatsmbna Home Learning. Find out who received awards for demonstrating the core value of being positive. Listen to the SRC students share the ways that they have improved while learning at home.

Reflection on COVID -19 imposed change
For the first time, everyone across the world had to adjust their lives and change their way of living to stay safe from  COVID -19. We were all in a similar position and nobody had experienced these particular challenges before.
Our default is to avoid change. We feel safe when we are in control of the known; familiar routines and environment.
Images of patients on respirators overseas and increasing deaths with no vaccine are confronting.
When we lose control, it can lead to anxiety and fear, especially when the health and well being of loved ones is compromised.
COVID -19 is an example of a necessary change imposed on each and every one of us.
Imposed change is extremely challenging. We have very little warning, not much time to prepare for what seems like the relinquishing of control.

Change2flourish is and always will be a constant reminder that we have to believe there is a silver lining associated with all change.

When the going gets tough, our core values and beliefs, the essence of a familiar way of being can help us get through.

As a school leader and teacher, others are looking to us to help them navigate the choppy seas. I had to dig deep during this period to focus on two of our school core values in particular - we are positive and we support each other.

Every minute of every day in those 8 weeks, revealed new challenges. My motto was to take one day at a time. Meeting via Zoom with the SRC students and creating positive video messages to share with the community, the support of a tremendous team of staff and the love and care of family and friends contributed to not only surviving these 8 weeks but learning to change2flourish during this "unprecedented time".

Acknowledgements:

• To the staff of St Patrick's who rose to the challenge and showed that teaching is truly a vocation and that no mountains are too high
• To the parents and carers of our children who despite hardship and challenges within their only work and family lives, supported their children with the home learning activities on the Learning Community Site
• To Bill Martin and John Edwards from the Schools That Deliver Team for emailing a thought provoking article on dealing with thunderbolts with a reminder to hold tight to our vision and our core values.

Archaeological Dig Unearths Invaluable Treasures

After returning from a trip to Rome, a city known for it's archaeological treasures,  I was astonished to discover that our school review would mirror an "archaeological dig". The"dig" was an authentic, hands on experience, where open ended questions generated rich, deep dialogue and the unearthing of layer upon layer of invaluable treasures.

An archaeological "dig" in Rome.

In April 2019, our leadership team began gathering evidence of student, staff and parent voice to inform our Specific Focus School Review (this link provides background information about the review). The evidence reflected our core value focus around respect and positivity and included records of conversations, emails, See saw posts and notes from meetings with the Student Representative Council. Preparation for the review involved completing a self-assessment of the Leadership and Management, Student Well Being and Religious School Improvement Framework (SIF) Rubrics from Catholic Education Melbourne. We also revisited our Enhancing Catholic Identity survey data and RE surveys in light of the Horizons of Hope education framework for the Archdiocese of Melbourne.

The review led by Mary Wilson (renowned international, executive coach ) took place towards the end of August 2019. The agreed focus question that drove the review was:

How could our research and inquiry culture be further developed to maximise impact for the learner?

Striving to remain loyal to the voice of staff explicitly articulated in a vision narrative developed with the Schools That Deliver Network early in 2018, meant making sure our review specifically aligned with the vision. You can read about the vision process at this link.

In the shared vision it states:

“The whole staff are involved in decisions regarding Action Research. Any research is relevant to the needs of our learners and is used to strengthen outcomes, ensuring the curriculum has a positive and meaningful impact.”

The agreed review methodology was:

1. Staff action research will inform the review and the future focus.
2. The action learning process will be utilised throughout the review period as the data is used to design action, perform the action, gather more data and design new action, perform that action and so on.
3. The review will involve all staff, students and wider community.
4. The review will be led by the leadership team.

On the second day of the review, Mary invited the leadership team to carry out an archaeological dig of the evidence. We worked in pairs to examine the evidence in depth, leading to the revelation of treasures; affirmations, commendations and recommendations. Here were some of the questions that guided the archaeological dig:

How has our research inquiry process maximised impact for our learners ?
What are the things we need to develop further ?
What are the key impacts of our action research based culture ? and What have we done really well ?

Commendations -  Based on the data, what are the key things we have embedded with great quality ?
Affirmations - What are we doing well and need to keep working on ?
Recommendations -What are the next steps going forward ?

At the end of the "dig", we met with staff and shared the process but not the treasures with them. Staff were given time to work in pairs and record their commendations, affirmations and recommendations.

SNAP !! When we matched the leadership treasures to the staff treasures - they aligned perfectly.

What are the treasures ? What are the affirmations, commendations and recommendations ?
Once we receive the formal report from Mary, we will proudly share our treasures and our next steps forward.

Rest assured, feedback about the experience of the review was resoundingly positive.
Some of the words and phrases used by staff to describe the review included :
ownership, transparency, collaboration, explicit, supportive, energising, exciting, trust in the process and the facilitator, the archeological dig, the time for rich dialogue and reflection with leadership and staff, triads gave everyone a voice.
One leader said, "In the past, reviews have been academic centred. This was more about the social and emotional well being of the students"

Another leader stated, "I am proud of the progress we have made. We now have a positive staff culture where everyone is committed to our vision and the well being of all learners ".

An archaeological dig unearthed invaluable school treasures. 

The treasures align with our vision.

We can be assured that:

Learners leave St Patrick’s self motivated and ready to make a positive impact on their world.

A recent student led Daffodil Day

Special thanks to Mary Wilson, Maree Holmes (Principal Consultant, CEM), our St Patrick's leadership team and all staff, students and community members who contributed to the review. Thanks to Catholic Education Melbourne for allowing our school to take ownership of the process and enable the review to be an authentic, organic, energising and engaging action research project.

Engaged and motivated students design learning spaces with award winning architects

Engaged and motivated learners always faithful to our loving God is the vision for the St Patrick's school community. Community consultation over a year ago led to a renewed vision for teaching, learning and living. Learn more at this link. Further to this, the redevelopment of internal and external learning spaces as a stimulus for authentic engagement and motivation was one of the drivers for a school ten year masterplan. Other drivers are: student and staff well being, collaboration, security, child safe standards, sustainability and maintenance of the buildings and grounds. The Parish Education Board formed a Masterplan Committee who shortlisted and appointed the award winning architectural firm K2LD to design the masterplan.

The Student Representative Council (SRC) with two reps from thirteen of the fifteen St Pat's classes met with the team of architects and designers from K2LD for the first masterplan visioning workshop. It made perfect sense that the students were the first to be consulted in the process. K2LD will lead two more visioning workshops; one with staff and the other with the parent and parish community during the first two weeks of the 2018 school year. This extensive consultation will contribute to the development of a unique masterplan for creative change for the St Patrick's community.

You can learn more about our architects on the K2LD website at this link 

The K2LD team introduce themselves to the SRC

A slideshow presentation highlighted the role of the architects and designers and included reference to the following : perspective, plan, elevation, collaboration, details, interior design, existing spaces and benchmarking. The students were asked to draw or write three suggestions to help improve the school. They played a card game and were asked to choose one card to describe how they felt about the current school and one card for how they would like to feel in the redeveloped school. 

We look forward to seeing how the K2LD team incorporates the students ideas and suggestions into the masterplan. 

Working alongside award winning architects is certainly one way to engage and motivate our students to learn how to be connected, collaborative leaders of creative change.

Transition : Time for our graduates to speak to their future high school teachers

Staff and students from schools in our Whitestone Learning and Change Network came together to watch this prezi. This prezi encompasses the learning and change that has taken place in the schools during the past two years. It is a celebration of the innovative learning and development that has featured at all of our schools. 

Here is the link to the prezi presentation.

Then the Year 8 students from Weston school and St Joseph's school shared a slideshow that they had prepared with the high school staff. The students from both schools collaborated on a google slide show and adapted it to reflect their learning needs and their school cultures. The idea was to reflect on what worked well for their learning at primary school and share that with the high school staff. Here is our St Joseph's school presentation. The students collaborated on the design, images and text used.



Year 8 students, Trish and Mannix, can be seen shared their learning in a video with high school teachers. The high school teachers asked them questions and spoke about learning (the way they do things) at high school.

Principal of St Kevin's College, Paul Olsen, reflected and summed up the messages from the Year 8 students and what this means for transition to high school.

Here are all of the students who bravely shared their learning to the Whitestone Learning and Change network.

Our students have their say about our ELS's. Read their responses to the question: What has gone well for you with your learning in Term 1?

Here is the raw student data from the online survey that our students (Yr 5-8) completed independently at the end of nine weeks of learning in our Engaging Learning Spaces (ELS's). These are their responses to the first question on the survey. They were asked to respond as succinctly as possibly using bullet points to the following question:

What has gone well for you with your learning in term 1?

·        Projects

·        independent learning time

·        working together

·        self managing to have more responsibility

·        the hub time has helped by mixing with other people

·        I think that the inquiry was a good look at learning to experience the real thing

·        I feel that I am learning a lot of new skills for maths and I have also so enjoyed our inquiry outing (Steampunk)

·        I have improved in my reading and writing which I am very happy with

·        getting my full license so that i can work in the hall way or anywhere i want that will fit in with my learning

·        These are some positive aspects of this new learning environment:
- It enables us to work with different age groups
- It helps us understand how different people think
- introduces us into class room changes
- and many other great opportunities.

·        I have really enjoyed being part of the school council.

·        i have enjoyed being able to go to the gym and start to construct a project out of the experience.

·        I learned a lot about the structure in writing and about how to create similes, metaphors and personification into a piece of writing.

·        Using devices for learning.

·        Having independent learning time.

·        Having the choice of being in any room (quiet room or discussion room)

·        I like having hubs and working in different classrooms for different subjects.

·        I like working with different students and teachers because it helps a little with my confidence and I find that I work well with different students.

·        Week goals, PC work, maths, reading, writing, hub time, Leadership groups, ECB's (Early Childhood Buddies) and different teachers.

·        new learning with device

·        new learning in a new environment

·        different learning from different teachers

·        new way to learn

·        able to manage your own time table

·        more choice in choosing where you sit

·        teaching us to use responsible choices and learning in the right atmosphere

·        You know what you have to strive for

·        get to know other people from different years

·        Having three teachers

·        I enjoy the new environment

·        Having three teachers

·        Devices

·        Hubs

·        licences

·        Standers (leaners )

·        Outings for inquiry

·        I have liked our week goals and our hub time.

·        having more help with everything because we basically have 3 teachers.

·        having the licenses to know where are in our learning and its a goal to get to a higher licence and we get rewarded.

·        its great having technology because we learn new skills.

·         Working by myself without any distractions

·        Open doors

·        Outings

·         Researching

·        Maths

·        Workshops

·        Working with different people

·        Planning

·        workshop and the working space

·         you have weekly goals do within a week.

·        you get to use technology to use to type up your work that is much faster than writing in a book.

·        Silent places to learn

·        Ability to do stuff at home

·        For me Hub time has helped not only me with my learning but others too because I get to interact with the younger ones and to support them when they need it.

·        Going out for games has helped me with my learning so that I will have some energy and that when I come back from the game I will be refreshed and ready to learn and to not get derailed.

·        Looking at the timetable in the morning after prayers has helped me with my learning because it helps me know where and what time I have to go for different workshops and also shows the teacher I manage my learning

·        New environment is more like high-school

·        Having three teachers

·        Higher standards/expectations

·        Trips for inquiry time

·         Our workshops in every subject have been fun especially maths has been much different and i like that. Also i like using mathletics i know we had it last year but we didn't use it as often. 

·         I am more confident on my place value and my equal addition

·        I have learnt how to do personification in my writing so its more detailed.

·        I have learnt that i should be exercise for 60 minutes everyday.

·        working on the devices

·        helping others in maths

·        moving up to high levels in reading

·        listening to who is talking like a teacher and a friend

·        working together as a class

·        supporting others

·        working on the leaners

·        being happy at writing and reading

·        learning hubs

·        device time

·        freedom

·        more challenges

·        I have made new friends at this new school. I like the blog and technology stuff because I haven’t used technology for learning before. Everything is different such as new devices, new school and new country. What I like about this school is that we don't have a specific spot to sit, I like to sit in the corridor.

·        I have loved doing our inquiry and our research.

·        I have loved working with the bigger kids because we have been given bigger tasks so we can stretch our abilities.

·        I also have loved having the Learner licenses because it's something that you have to work at.

·        Workshops and learning from the older kids and having week goals.

·        The workshops and working upstairs. Mr McEvoy's group.

·        A new teacher, my reading, having workshops and homeroom time. Working with other classes.

·        Being able to work in different places

·        I enjoyed working with the year 8's and year 7's

·        the hub system

·        having more than 1 teacher

·        new friends

·        be able to work in different places

·        getting to work with the year 7&8

·        working with yr. 7&8

·        love how we can have work shops

·        stepping up in our roles

·        having a goal to get to the top of the license

·        using computers for work

·         learning more about Jesus and St Dominic

·        workshops (working on things I have to know)

·        using blogs

·         moving to this school

·         making new friends

·        Having the choice of working in different rooms not just one.

·        Having different teachers- you learn more, not just from one teacher.

·        having learner licenses because it helps me to work towards something

·         I like to work with different teachers

·         work shops

·        working with year 7s and 8

·        learning about St Dominic and Jesus and filming my all about me

·        math workshops

·        meeting new people

·        That we can work with the year 7s and 8s. Being on the school council and full license.

·        The workshops and having three teachers.

What conclusions can we make from these responses ? Please share your thoughts and comments.