This document summarizes discussions and site visits from a group exploring different K-12 school structures. They found that: 1) Schools visited used various leadership and learning community models, with most dividing students into 2-3 subschools from P-6, 7-9, and 10-12. 2) Most schools reported positive experiences with multi-age classrooms, open learning spaces, and limited issues between younger and older students. 3) Schools emphasized the need for additional planning time and support for teachers transitioning to open learning models. 4) Assessing and reporting on students in flexible ability groupings was an ongoing challenge all schools were working to address.

1. TPL REPORT 25TH MAY 2011 Chris, Davina, Rachel and Sandy

2. OUR QUESTION How can we as a group of new colleagues build a professional learning community which enables us to work collaboratively and develop shared norms for positive teaching strategies within a K-12 setting? Actions: Investigate established schools and models Visit each other’s campuses Investigate the capability of developing shared norms within the Engage domain of E5 Facilitate substantive conversations.

3. SURVEY RESULTS Thank you to everyone who completed the survey. The results were on the whole very positive.

4. I am looking forward to working in a K-12 school Strongly Agree 60.7% Agree 32.1% Disagree 7.1% Strongly Disagree 0.0%

5. I am happy to have teachers from the other campus come to visit my classes. Strongly Agree 41.7% Agree 58.3% Disagree 0.0% Strongly Disagree 0.0%

6. SCHOOL STRUCTURES So far we have visited: Laverton P-12 Narre Warren P-12 The Knox School (ELC-12)

7. LAVERTON P-12 Two Primary Schools and one Secondary school merged to form a school with approximately 600 students.The current arrangement is 3 Learning Communities: P-4 5-8 Working in a primary style model 9-12

8. The leadership structure for each Learning community: One Principal (AP) with no teaching load. One Team Leader (LT) One Curriculum Leader (LT)

9. NARRE WARREN Narre Warren started with P-4, 5-8 and 9-12 but in 2011 changed to P-6 and 7-12. This change was driven by their data that suggested the 5&6’s were not ready for the secondary model and still needed one teacher for the core. In year 7 & 8 they minimise the number of teachers for each class and are leaning towards a more primary model.

10. Leadership Structure 5 AP’s P-2, 3-6, 7-9, 10-12 and Operations and Daily Org. Year Level Leading Teachers Leading Teachers for some KLA’s (English and Maths)

11. The Knox School Pre-prep -4 Lower Middle 5-7 Upper Middle 8-9 Senior 10-12 They have had three years with this model; previously they had 5-9 but they couldn’t drive the 5 & 6 curriculum effectively.

12. Leadership Structure Each Subschool had a Head and Deputy Head both had some teaching load. A director of curriculum for the whole school A whole school Data Analyst

13. MIDDLE SCHOOL 5-8?

14. AEU CONDITIONS Laverton: Primary trained teachers worked to the primary agreement which consists of 22.5 hours face to face teaching per week. Secondary trained teachers worked to the secondary agreement which consists of 20 hours face to face teaching per week. This was regardless of which year levels they taught. The learning communities tried to make it as equitable as possible.

15. AEU CONDITIONS Narre Warren: Both Primary and Secondary conditions in operation with teachers allocated planning time on a pro rata basis depending on their load. Knox School: Not bound by AEU conditions; all staff had 20 hours face to face. All Extra curricular duties including yard duty were set at a limit of 75 hours per year. These were publicised for all staff to see.

16. PLAYGROUND AND STUDENT INTERACTION All schools had designated areas for junior levels (P-4) but the majority of space was open to all year levels. None of the schools reported issues with bullying or older students having a poor influence on younger students. Both Laverton and Narre Warren reported more issues with Juniors annoying Seniors. Narre Warren is happy to have visitors during recess or lunch to observe student interaction.

17. TIMETABLING All schools we have visited so far work on a 5 period day. Laverton, Narre Warren and Berwick Chase had two periods, Recess, Two periods, Lunch and then one period. (BPS currently on this model) The Knox School had had two periods, Recess, one period, Lunch and then two periods. (BHC currently on this model) None of these schools had different lunchtimes or recess for different year levels.

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19. MEETINGS At all three schools staff were allocated to one learning community or year level. (eg. 5-8) This allowed for meetings to be curriculum, Teaching and Learning and learning community issues focussed rather than individuals attending numerous meeting across learning communities. In general whole school staff meetings were minimal, briefing type announcements and only 15 mins leaving time for the issues that really matter. Laverton rarely use the third hour.

20. OPEN LEARNING SPACES All three schools endorse the use of open learning spaces but only Laverton was purpose built for this style of teaching. The others have converted existing rooms and buildings. These do not appear to be as successful. Narre Warren and Laverton both stressed the need for extra planning time, PD and visits to other schools so that all staff feel supported in the transition to this style of teaching. All schools we visited had extra support staff available to assist in these open Learning spaces.

21. OPEN LEARNING SPACES It is essential that a team approach is taken by all staff members in the learning community. This is supported by a strong leadership presence and clearly defined policies, procedures and expectations for students and staff. From our observations learning appeared to be organised and positive because of this strong leadership support structure.

26. Laverton 5-8 Learning Community

27. Berwick Chase Primary School We visited Berwick Chase this week and noticed similar trends to what we have observed at the others. Large emphasis on meetings with a teaching and learning focus. Extra time for planning. Whole team meets for one full day every five weeks. Less students in the areas than they are built for with many extra adults (parents, Aides etc) to assist. Students move between the groups according to their ability in some areas. They also have their timetable operating as 2-2-1 as many other schools.

29. ABILITY GROUPINGS Laverton are aspiring to have students working in ability groups. Therefore if a student in Grade 4 is reading at a yr7 level he would work at that level with other students of the same ability. However, this has proven to be more difficult than anticipated. Students are working in ability grouping within a learning community. (5&6 or 7&8) This is an area we are still investigating.

30. ASSESSMENT We asked the question: How do you assess and write reports on students that are changing from group to group throughout the semester? All schools had some form of central database that all teachers could add to and the reports were collated and written by a “homegroup” teacher. None of the principals we have spoken to really knew how this was working but assured us that staff had their individual methods for recording assessment and were happy for us to contact them for further information.

31. BHC Yr 9 Numeracy Assessment

32. QUESTIONS Please email us with any questions, concerns or requests. Visit our BLOG at www.boroniak-12.blogspot.com