Overnewton Anglican Community College

Story recorded in 2001

Overnewton Anglican Community College has grown steadily since its establishment in 1987. Since 1996, the Gatehouse Project has been complementary to the aims the school community wanted to achieve. It has provided impetus and information in the change process. In particular, the data gathering process helped underscore the importance of staff getting to know students better, providing a general heightening of awareness among staff about individual students and their needs. It helped to support the development of a problem solving approach centred on the challenge of engaging students in learning. Teachers have described the project as contributing to the growing realisation that a holistic approach to change is required: "you just can't tamper with the curriculum but need to use what we know about students as learners and people to move kids forward."

Background

Overnewton Anglican Community College is a coeducational multi-campus P-12 school in the north-west of Melbourne. Its student population has reached almost 2000, with the original Keilor campus opening in 1987 and the Taylors Lakes campus opening in 1996. The College has developed a structure designed to develop each student as an individual and foster small 'communities within community'. The College comprises Junior Schools (Prep - Year 4) and Middle Schools (Years 5-8) on each campus, Canowindra (a purpose built year 9 Centre) and the Senior School (Years 10-12). Recognising that education is a partnership, the College seeks high parental involvement and each family contributes 18 hours of service to the College per term.

When invited by the Centre for Adolescent Health to be involved in the Gatehouse Project, Overnewton Anglican Community College saw that the work of the Project fitted neatly with the College's projected development and was seen as complementary to many aims of the college community. With the expansion of the College to two campuses and the establishment of the Middle School in 1996, including the development of the Year 9 Centre, Canowindra, there was much discussion, reflection and planning about the sorts of environments and learning experiences suitable for students at each stage of development. The school already had a strong pastoral approach to schooling from Prep to Year 12 and wished to enhance this. The preventive approach of the Gatehouse Project was seen as an opportunity to do something empowering for students in terms of emotional health and well-being, rather than picking up the pieces after things went wrong.

How was a team established?

Initially, the work of the Gatehouse Project centred around implementing the Gatehouse Project curriculum materials in Year 8. The core team in 1997 consisted of the Year 8 English teachers and the Director of Student Services. In 1998, as the focus moved more to consideration of whole school issues, the core team for exploring and responding to these issues was the pastoral care committee. As data from the student surveys was fed back to the management team, a broader group of senior staff became involved in reflecting upon and responding to issues raised by the data. At the same time, the multidisciplinary team of teachers at the newly established Year 9 Centre, Canowindra, drew on the Gatehouse Project approach in developing curriculum, classroom climate and teaching and learning strategies. The Project has also informed the development of the Middle Schools and the Heads of the Middle Schools have been involved in the ongoing exploration of issues arising from the student data.

How did the school use the data from the survey and school audit processes to inform planning and determine priorities?

The data has been used by a range of teams within the school, to prompt discussion and question directions, processes and practices. These have included teams focussing on specific year levels, pastoral care, Middle Years, curriculum development and senior students. Data has been used to confirm or adjust priorities and directions. For example, it was used to inform thinking about who the pastoral care teachers should be. It was used as a set of lenses through which to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the bullying policy. In the Middle School, the student survey data helped to inform discussions about student management and discipline processes. It contributed to the growing focus on problem solving rather than punishment and on the links between students' experiences of the curriculum and their behaviour. This in turn led to a focus on learning styles and flexible delivery of curriculum.

What strategies were used to address these priorities?

Throughout the period that it has been associated with the Gatehouse Project, OACC has been steadily developing and refining the structure and programs to better meet the needs of students at each stage of development. The College has taken a systematic approach to introducing change, with support from targeted professional development. Wherever possible, this has been provided in-house to the teams of staff involved in implementing the changes, rather than having one or two staff attend PD sessions outside the school and trying to disseminate learnings to the rest of the staff.

Curriculum

There has been a range of professional development activities for staff. As described above, curriculum has been conceived as broader than mere content, to include classroom climate and relationships between students and between staff and students and student management. The Gatehouse Project provided a range of sessions for staff to support the implementation of the Year 8 curriculum materials in English, to integrate the Gatehouse Project principles and teaching and learning strategies into the Year 9 curriculum and to explore ways of supporting students. Middle school teachers have attended many professional development sessions provided by a range of specialist providers. In particular, all middle years teachers and some other staff participated in workshops conducted by the middle years team at Deakin University. This led to an interest in better understanding student learning styles. All Middle School staff then participated in training provided by the Vibrant Learning Company around developing profiles of students' learning styles and other relevant information during Years 5-8, which could then be passed onto staff at Year 9 to better facilitate engagement with learning.

At parent information evenings and parent-teacher interviews, key messages about the goals and strategies of the change process have been delivered. The College newsletters have also been used to communicate with parents.

Transition

As students move through the College, there are several important stages of transition. The importance of maintaining a sense of connectedness through these transitions has been recognised and a number of strategies have been employed to address this. A passport system has been developed to facilitate transition from Junior School into Middle School. Students compile passports, which contain much helpful information about them and which reflect their individuality. These are carried with them into the next phase of schooling. Further attention is given to the needs of the individual in transition from Year 8 to Year 9 and again from Year 9 to Year 10. A teacher from the Year 9 Centre has moved back to the Senior School with the students to provide continuity. In 2001, a new Year 10 program has been introduced that is semester based, providing the security of more core units in the first semester and moving to more student choice in the second semester.

What role have teachers, parents and students had in developing and implementing these strategies?

Senior management staff

The senior management staff have taken a leading role in identifying areas for change to promote connectedness to school, good relationships between members of the school community and engagement with meaningful learning. In particular, the Heads of Middle School, the Head of Programs and the Head of Services have been central to promoting change in these areas.

Teachers

Teachers have been involved in continuing professional development to support the change process and in developing curriculum and teaching and learning strategies that address the identified goals

Parents

Parents have had opportunities to be involved in discussions about the various programs as they have been introduced. Parent evenings have been held to facilitate such discussion. The 18 hours of service that parents contribute per term enables parents to contribute to the various school programs, according to their skills and interest areas.

Students

Students have increasingly been encouraged to contribute to planning and development across a range of College activities. The Anti Bullying policy was developed with considerable input from students and the review of this policy in 2000 involved students from all year levels in rewriting the policy to make it more relevant and accessible to students. Peer support programs have been developed to further enhance the sense of security and social connectedness of students. The House based activity program in Years 5-8 has involved a large amount of input from students. The Year 9 integrated and practically oriented program is designed to give students a broad range of opportunities to take on roles in authentic situations, including planning, administration, leadership, arts productions, community service and business ventures.

What strategies implemented by this college might be useful for other school communities?

OACC has developed a number of programs and practices that have applicability to other schools. In particular:

• the integration of teaching and learning strategies and specific content to promote emotional well-being into the English curriculum, especially the use of text to explore personal issues in the third person
• strategies to promote positive classroom climate, including collaborative development of classroom agreements
• a dedicated Middle School structure and philosophy which places students at the centre of learning
• anti-bullying strategies, including peer support
• strategies for encouraging teachers to see themselves as learners and for providing opportunities for them to continuously build their professional skills and knowledge.

Where to from here?

The College is likely to be involved in piloting a new pastoral care initiative in Middle School during 2002. This is proactive in nature and focuses on empowering students by giving them skills that will promote positive interactions with others. It will complement the anti-bullying policy. It is likely that this program will be extended into other areas in 2003.

During 2001, Taking Responsibility, a discipline policy with a whole college community focus, was developed by a group of student leaders and staff, with significant input from a broad range of community members. All students will take a more active role in the implementation of Taking Responsibility policy into 2002 and beyond.

Programs at Year 9 which promote connectedness and positive regard will continue to feature prominently. The Rock Eisteddfod Challenge, the RACV Energy Challenge, the Monash Schools' Drama Festival, the Duke of Edinburgh Award program and the Community Art program will become more embedded into the curriculum.

Students in the Senior School will have more opportunities to develop positive relationships with peers and others in the broader community through new initiatives in the House program and the introduction of a certificate to recognise participation in voluntary service activities.

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