St Agnes' Primary Learning Collaborative - a Journey for ALL staff

This term, staff engaged in professional learning focused on comparative judgement – a dynamic and insightful approach to assessing student work. Comparative judgement involves evaluating pairs of student work samples side by side to determine which one is stronger, rather than assigning an absolute score. By repeating this process across multiple pairings, a rank order is created, reflecting the relative quality of all samples. This method not only encourages consistency in assessment but also fosters reflective practice among educators. Unpacking the Process The sessions began by immersing staff in the theoretical underpinnings of comparative judgement. Teachers explored its applications and benefits, such as reducing bias, improving reliability, and promoting collaborative assessment. Staff also practiced applying the method to anonymized work samples, refining their ability to focus on criteria and evidence rather than preconceived expectations. Reflective Questions Throughout the...

  An essential phase of the development of the data wall process involved sharing the created data walls with the wider teaching staff. Each team presented their data wall, explaining the processes behind its development, what they prioritised, and why these elements were significant to their team’s goals. This sharing session also invited feedback from colleagues. During these discussions, teachers gained valuable insights. After the sharing session, each teaching team returned to their own professional learning teams to debrief. They discussed the feedback and wonderings shared by others, reflecting on how these insights could improve their own data wall. Teams collaboratively decided which changes to implement, refining their data walls to better serve their students and instructional goals.

In responding to teacher feedback from the earlier creation of a data wall, it was proposed that teachers create a simplified data wall to meet the writing needs of their students. Here, we share the journey our teaching staff undertook in developing their own data wall with a focus on sentence structure. Starting with Professional Reading Our journey began with a shared commitment to understanding the purpose and potential of data walls. Staff engaged in professional readings centered around norms and protocols for using data walls effectively. These readings provided a theoretical foundation, emphasising the importance of data walls and how best to use these as a team. This step was important to ensure that a shared understanding was developed by all teams, prior to the construction of our data wall. We explored the meaning of our watermark and how it centred us back to our core mission. We also examined the difference between independence and interdependence and how this related t...

  Developing a robust understanding of writing skills, particularly in the Creating Texts and Grammar components of the NSW English Syllabus, has been a central focus for our school. To support this endeavor, we designed a Data Wall that aligns closely with these syllabus outcomes, emphasising sentence structure and variety. The Foundation: Teaching Advice and Learning Progressions To guide the development of our Data Wall, we drew upon the Teaching Advice and Examples provided within the syllabus. This resource offered clarity on key aspects such as sentence structure, ensuring students develop competency in writing simple, compound, and complex sentences. In tandem, the Learning Progressions served as a critical alignment tool, enabling us to pinpoint the components necessary for writing correctly formulated sentences. Staff Consultation and Feedback Once the initial draft of the Data Wall was complete, it was presented to the broader staff for consultation. Their reflections...

In the pursuit of fostering continuous improvement and collaboration in education, Learning Walks and Talks have emerged as a trans-formative practice. These dedicated sessions, quarantined every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 10:30 am to 11:00 am, have provided a structured yet dynamic framework for observing, reflecting, and enhancing teaching and learning processes. Learning Walks and Talks Initially the Learning Collaborative Lead Team engaged in the Learning Walks and Talks  aimed to establish a clear purpose for future professional learning and a consistent approach. This also gave the Team an opportunity to observe the Third Teacher, and how students use this to answer the 5 questions about their learning. Professional Learning Staff Meeting and professional learning opportunities were held to support our staff members understand the underlying purpose of these walks. Discussions centered around the types of student responses anticipated and how these responses al...

  In Term 2 and Term 3 this year, our school conducted a series of Case Management Meetings (CMMs) that played a pivotal role in shaping our teaching and learning priorities. These meetings brought together teaching staff, our Principal as Lead Learner and Knowledgeable Others to collaborate on strategies to support student achievement in writing. As these discussions unfolded, a clear and recurring theme emerged: the need to prioritise sentence-level writing skills across all year levels. This realisation helped our Staff decide that there was a strong need to redevelop our Data Wall to reflect sentence construction. The CMMs in Term 2 and Term 3 continued to shape our collective commitment to improving student outcomes through targeted, evidence-based practices. By focusing on something as fundamental as the sentence, our school community is building stronger foundations for literacy and lifelong learning.