Redbank Plains - case study

Tara Bailey – Head of Curriculum, Redbank Plains State Primary School: In terms of best practice teaching and learning, our capability framework really supports that. So there is a really clear repetitive process of observation and feedback in the school. Evan Willis – Substantive Principal, Redbank Plains State Primary School: One of the key pieces of work around the development of our leadership team was a very clear roles and responsibilities document. That document outlined what the strategic responsibilities were for members of the school leadership team, and also what their operational duties were. Leanne Stewart – Acting Principal, Redbank Plains State Primary School: It is really clear who in the leadership team is responsible for strategic priorities and who is responsible for operational priorities. Having those really clear processes carves out a space where we are free to deliver the explicit improvement agenda at the school. Steve Massey – Deputy Principal, Redbank Plains State Primary School: When introducing any agenda one of the significant challenges is around how we best collaborate and communicate that with the staff to ensure that they feel a sense of being on board with what's happening. And that's not just with our teaching staff, with our support staff as well. It's really important for us that we, the initiatives that we are driving are directly linked to improved student outcomes. Leanne Stewart – Acting Principal, Redbank Plains State Primary School: We are continually critiquing our work and looking for the impact of it. And if we are not seeing the impact on a particular piece of work then we question why isn't that happening, we look for different direction. Tara Bailey – Head of Curriculum, Redbank Plains State Primary School: Each term we have data conversations with teachers. Moderation was a huge part of, of the journey here since 2017. Nicole King – Associate Principal, Redbank Plains State Primary School: I think one of the responsibilities of a leader is to spend time developing your own leadership capacity. If we are the best leader we can be, then we can lead change more effectively. So we set about making systems, or developing systems, to enable teachers to grow their capabilities. The ways that we did this was developing a professional learning and capability framework. It's all about bringing people along with us, and collaborating with them, but then giving everybody a chance to shine. Leanne Stewart – Acting Principal, Redbank Plains State Primary School: We have an aspiring leaders program here. The participants within that program are given responsibility to lead parts of our explicit improvement agenda. And we look at it as a gradual release, so there is a lot of support for those leaders initially, but there will be a time when I can peel away my support and they can independently lead a piece of work in a school. May not even be in our school. Evan Willis – Substantive Principal, Redbank Plains State Primary School: We had a P and C that was probably supportive, yet lacked a little bit of direction, and once we started to work alongside and align their efforts with where the school was going, in terms of its explicit improvement agenda, we started to see some wonderful results, and the myths around school and school operations were debunked. Tara Bailey – Head of Curriculum, Redbank Plains State Primary School: It's been a really exciting journey to be a part of. Not only has the, the data improved from where we've started, but certainly the culture when you walk through the school or even talk to teachers in our year level meeting is, is completely different to two years ago.