Page 5205 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 27 October 2010
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12 literacy and numeracy field officers who are supporting teachers, parents and principals to implement the ACT literacy and numeracy strategy 2009-13 and each school’s literacy and numeracy plan.
Field officers are implementing programs and practices to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes for all primary students. They are mentoring teachers and providing educational leadership. And these field officers are working collaboratively with school leadership teams, coaching and modelling effective strategies.
Literacy field officers have also been appointed to five high schools, and NAPLAN was used to identify these schools and provide additional literacy and numeracy assistance. All field officers are providing professional learning to the staff and are leading teams to strengthen the learning community within their school. Many field officers have been involved in working with teams of teachers on term planning.
I now turn to the reinforcement of our education system’s success. Stories of the successful implementation of the strategies implemented by schools are celebrated in a range of ways, one of which is through the ACT smarter schools newsletter. The newsletter is a cross-sectoral celebration of school achievements sent to all ACT schools to highlight examples of best practice under the smarter schools national partnerships. These stories acknowledge that ACT schools are using national partnership funding to implement a variety of innovative strategies which will boost literacy and numeracy and raise achievement and expectations in school communities.
Literacy and numeracy field officers have already been appointed to the participating public schools. Literacy and numeracy professional development has been identified for teachers in all education sectors.
Many schools have engaged their school community through information nights, open days and parent presentations. Taylor primary school was one of these schools and in March this year held a special community evening. Teachers were keen to share with the community the different approaches and models used in the teaching of literacy. In particular, teachers shared the methods and models used to teach reading and spelling.
Over 40 parents and carers attended the evening, with teachers volunteering their time to run a kids club for the night. As it was World International Maths Day, teachers guided children through numeracy activities while adults joined in the literacy workshops. Parents were provided with a goodie bag for use at home to support their child in the development of fundamental literacy skills.
Good Shepherd primary school in Amaroo has been immersed in numeracy for the last year. Their involvement with the national partnership was a great opportunity to continue that journey and the extra Australian government funding has been greatly valued by the teachers. It has allowed grade teams to focus in on professional learning and conversations about teaching practices.
Another positive has been the opportunity to support some students in years 3 and 5 through the numeracy intervention program. This intensive program has allowed
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