There has been significant coverage in the media in the last week regarding the report by David Gonski, Through Growth to Achievement: Report of the Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools. 

The report paints a troubling picture of the state of education and student outcomes in Australia. In response to the concerns raised, the report identifies three priorities and 23 recommendations across five areas for Australian Education.

The identified priorities are:

Priority one: Deliver at least one year’s growth in learning for every student every year;

Priority two: Equip every child to be a creative, connected and engaged learner in a rapidly changing world, and;

Priority three: Cultivate an adaptive, innovative and continuously improving education system.

The recommendations provide a template for Australia to respond to. Even though St Catherine’s is just one school amongst nearly 11,000 schools across Australia, we need to be mindful of the areas identified in the report, in order to remain a school of excellence, now and into the future.

Of particular relevance to St Catherine’s and our teachers are areas two and five in the Gonski Report:

1. Equipping every student to grow and succeed in a changing world; and

2. Raising and achieving aspirations through continuous improvement.

We are constantly evaluating our performance as a School and strive to develop methods for improvement. There are a number of areas in the school we are currently deliberating over. Feedback to students and parents about progress in learning is fundamental in enabling girls to grow in their learning.  Effective and accurate feedback also gives teachers more accurate information about the impact of their teaching.  Investigations undertaken this year have looked at data management software platforms for tracking of student learning, the nature of the current reporting system and how this could be improved with the goal of providing meaningful information to students and parents about individual achievement and learning growth.  This year, all of our teachers have focussed on articulating learning intentions for every class.  Students must be clear in their mind, in every class, what the purpose of the lesson is.  The intent for learning must be visible. Finally we are in the process of developing a St Catherine’s teaching charter.  The charter will articulate the behaviours and dispositions in all teachers to guarantee excellence.

The Gonski report concludes with, “we should set our ambitions high, confident that we have the resources and talent to be a world-leading school education system that enables every student and every school to achieve educational excellence.”   We believe the girls at St Catherine’s receive an excellent education.  Our intention is to continue this always.