St Thomas Aquinas Primary school have evolved their teaching instruction, resulting in positive changes in student learning and overall behaviour. Teachers at St Thomas Aquinas have been using Explicit Instruction (EI) in their classrooms since mid-2020, starting with the implementation of InitiaLit in Kindergarten classes and then Years 1 and 2 at the beginning of 2021. InitiaLit uses systematic and direct practices to teach reading.
Principal Leah Taylor and her teaching team, whilst initially apprehensive of this approach, have now seen the impact that this method of teaching can have on student achievement, behaviour and engagement.
“We have completely changed the way we teach at St Thomas Aquinas, essentially moving from an inquiry-based approach to predominantly Explicit Instruction,” said Mrs Taylor.
This year, St Thomas Aquinas have turned their attention to introducing elements of EI into the way they teach Mathematics. Selected Kindergarten, Year 3 and Year 5 teachers are currently working through the High Impact Teaching Practice program. A key practice that they have learnt and begun implementing is a Daily Review in the Mathematics block.
“All staff members that have used the Daily Review, have noticed changes in student performance, particularly knowledge retention, student behaviour and student’s attitudes to learning,” said Mrs Taylor.
Mrs Taylor also expressed that several teachers had received positive feedback from their students, who favoured the new approach.
Jessica Betterton teaching her Year 2 students
As part of the new methodology, teachers from St Thomas Aquinas have been using whiteboards in the classroom instead of just workbooks and worksheets, which has been positive. However, this change is not without its challenges, by predominantly using whiteboards the ability to capture evidence of student learning needed to be rethought.
“To solve this concern, we came together and looked for other ways we could check for understanding, provide feedback and collect evidence and data, for our own school and to also ensure we complied with the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD).”
Through the HITP program, teachers are supported by an educational instructor who provides learning opportunities, resources and coaching. Teachers at St Thomas Aquinas have found the provided resources very helpful in assisting them to transfer what they have learnt during the program into the classroom.
The new teaching methodology has gained momentum at St Thomas Aquinas, with a high level of enthusiasm from participating teachers and an eagerness to complete the training by those not yet trained.
“We are starting to notice a change in the way our Classroom Support Assistants (CSA) operate too. I have seen some very high-quality EI teaching from our CSAs when implementing our intervention programs,” Mrs Taylor said.
When asked why she believes this program is truly making an impact at her school, Mrs Taylor said – “Everyone across the school is developing a deeper understanding of how students learn and how we can best support them.”
The Facilitator of Pedagogy at Lumen Christi College, Wendy Mockler is constantly pursuing evidence-based pedagogy to improve student outcomes. Supported by Catholic Education, Mrs Mockler became an early adopter of The Writing Revolution (TWR).
The Writing Revolution provides teachers with an evidence-based and proven instructional methodology, the Hochman Method, an explicit writing instruction program which aims to transform teaching instruction by enabling students to develop the literacy and critical thinking skills to engage in the classroom.
The Writing Revolution in action with Katherine Walker from Lumen Christi College
The TWR methodology and resources work across year groups and curriculum areas, which provides a whole school approach supporting targeted literacy interventions.
Since completing the training, Mrs Mockler has shared her new knowledge with her colleagues and formed an innovative working group at Lumen Christi to deliver TWR through the integrated humanities (iHUM) program for Year 7 students.
As a result of implementing TWR, new consistent engagement norms are being used in the classroom in a more coordinated and supported environment. Teachers report students are developing the skills to become competent readers and writers. Teachers and students have begun to use the “Show-me Boards” to check for understanding and provide immediate feedback.
“This way of teaching has helped our students by providing a framework for class discussion, it has also improved in their ability to explain their points, and their punctuation is improving.”
Mrs Mockler encourages schools who are thinking about implementing The Writing Revolution in their classes to take the time to plan out their implementation approach to ensure they are maximising impact for staff and students. Schools need to understand their data and apply evaluative thinking, applying reflective practices to help make good judgements on sound evidence.
“You don’t have to embark on this journey alone. You can pair up with someone who has done this before, or shares your ambition and work through it together. I would also encourage you to reach out and seek assistance where you need it.”
The approach to implement TWR at Lumen Christi was a phased one, where elements of the program were learnt, demonstrated and then practiced in the classroom. Adding more and more elements and resources as teachers became more confident with the program.
Mrs Mockler said some teachers were concerned their creativity could be impacted by using an explicit learning program, however now they have experienced the program, they have found plenty of opportunities to deliver creative and innovative lessons within the framework. The Writing Revolution program starts at the sentence level and builds student capacity to develop a comprehensive piece of writing.
Teachers are working together to determine the level of impact this program is having on student learning. On implementation of TWR, there have been noticeable improvements in the pedagogical practices of the teachers involved, including lesson planning, setting learning intentions, defining success criteria, and implementing new formative assessment strategies.
Lumen teachers have been amazed at the enthusiasm of some of their students who are noticing the impact this program is having on their learning. As more teachers come on board, that enthusiasm is likely to grow.
Teachers at St Joseph’s Bombala have been using InitiaLit to teach literacy in the classroom this year, resulting in improved reading outcomes for their youngest learners.
InitiaLit is an evidence-based whole-class literacy program providing all children with the essential core knowledge and strong foundations to become successful readers and writers. InitiaLit is a three-year program, covering the first three years of school (Foundation to Year 2). It provides teachers with the methodology, resources, and lessons to teach literacy effectively.
Miss Lily Sato using InitiaLit with Kinder students
This has resulted in an increase in students applying phonic knowledge to decode words when reading which has improved student motivation and their ability to grasp literacy concepts.
Principal Susan Tighe said St Joseph’s K-2 teachers had built a shared understanding of how to teach systematic and effective reading and writing skills since employing the InitiaLit program.
Using InitiaLit in all K-2 classes has helped St Joseph’s measure and track student performance data, which has helped target specific students to support further using small group intervention lessons.
Mrs Tighe said children who participated in the small group intervention program were having more success picking up core literacy skills which would equip them to become great readers.
Miss Dannielle Kelley using InitiaLit with Year 1/2 students
“We are also helping parents guide student learning at home by providing instructions to ensure consistency between what the child is learning in the classroom and how they are practicing at home”.
The benefits of explicit instruction and an evidence-based program such as InitiaLit, are already clear with improvements in motivation, recall and engagement in the classroom.
To learn more about the success of InitiaLit at St Joseph’s Bombala, contact Susan Tighe at susan.tighe@cg.catholic.edu.au.
Merici College hosted 35 secondary teachers from across the Archdiocese, participating in the High Impact Teaching Practice (HITP) In Action Masterclass session two. Colleges across the Archdiocese have multiple teachers participating in participating in the first wave rollout of HITP In Action, a Catalyst program.
All participating teachers have now completed two of the five practical sessions with Ingrid Sealey from TeachWell and are actively implementing learnt key teaching methodologies in their classrooms.
Teachers participating in HITP in Action Masterclass session 2
Renee Taylor, Deputy Principal Learning at Merici College, said she was incredibly proud of the eight Merici teachers participating in the program.
“I am blessed to work with some phenomenal teachers who make Merici what it is – a dynamic, effective and caring community. We are excited as a teaching community about what Catalyst can do to help us improve as educators.”
Masterclass facilitators, Ingrid Sealey and Amy McDermott
A key concept that was taught and demonstrated during the Masterclass was the Daily Review – a teaching practice where students recall information learned in the previous class in a short session (3-5 minutes).
Natalie Fairfax, a teacher, and Head of International Baccalaureate at Merici College, has successfully started to implement the Daily Review in her senior Sociology class.
“I was super excited about the lesson and my students were positive too from their experience of the daily routines,”
The HITP In Action Masterclass series is comprised of five professional learning master classes for secondary teachers in the Archdiocese. This professional learning series is founded in the Science of Learning and Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction.
Principal, Johanna Wain, said the teaching approach has already delivered improved learning outcomes and active participation in the classroom, with noticeable uplift in student engagement.
“Both teachers and Leaders have benefited from this program and are highly motivated to continue implementing high impact teaching strategies in all classrooms to improve student outcomes.”
Over the past 18 months, teachers from St Bernard’s Primary School have been using instructional teaching practices, to improve the literacy outcomes of their K-6 students via programs including Spelling Mastery and Let’s Decode.
As early adopters in the Archdiocese, teachers have been delivering evidence-based reading and spelling instruction to help their students learn specific language and grow their knowledge and understanding of phonics and spelling.
Since participating in training with Associate Professor Dr Lorraine Hammond, teachers have begun collaborating and sharing resources to ensure all classrooms at St Bernard’s are working from the same knowledge base.
Teachers have also begun using a specific technique to check for student understanding known as TAPPLE, where they –
Teach First
Ask A Question
Pause, then Pair-Share
Pick a Non-Volunteer
Listen
Effective Feedback
TAPPLE, combined with the Daily Review process (the high Impact practice of retrieving previously learned content), has seen students further develop their literacy skills.
Teachers have also begun filming their lessons so they can receive coaching advice and feedback from instructional coaches.
St Bernard’s Teacher using TAPPLE
Mrs Davis
Mrs Sarah Davis planned an interactive noun lesson that involved using tone and connecting body gestures to the definition of nouns to aid student’s memory and recall. She applied TAPPLE by teaching the concept first, then asking her students to name the nouns without instruction.
Mr Tony Ward implemented a syllable lesson, instructing his students to sound out the syllables of each word in a fun and interactive way. He used the TAPPLE model to teach first, then picked a volunteer to speak out loud in the class, listening to their responses and giving them feedback.
Mrs Jane Hardman used TAPPLE to teach compound words. She instructed her students to sound out the sentences before testing students individually on the definition of compound words.
Mrs Claire Campbell conducted a spelling exercise with her class, using the same teachnique-teaching first before picking a volunteer, listening and giving feedback.
The first week of Term 2 for 2021 saw all 56 schools in the Archdiocese participate in collective professional learning. Schools engaged in one of five professional learning initiatives where over 1,000 teachers and leaders immersed themselves in Catalyst Professional Learning to better understand how they could embed evidence-based teaching in their schools.
In line with our NSW schools, ACT schools had a student free day which was entirely dedicated to teacher professional learning and planning. Each school elected to participate in the sessions based on where they are in their Catalyst journey, and in the format that best suited them.
Teachers from Merici College participating in the HITP Theory and Practice Professional Learning Session
HITP Theory and Practice Launch
On the first day of Term 2, more than half of our schools launched High Impact Teaching Practice (HITP) Theory and Practice, led by education expert Dr Tim McDonald.
The session clarified the theories underpinning the HITP program, including a deep dive into research papers, notably the Deans for Impact The Science of Learning and Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction.
Julie Wiley, Principal of St Thomas More’s, Campbell said the session was a great opportunity to revisit the knowledge acquired at Catalyst System Day and reinforced the importance and application of Cognitive Load Theory.
“The discussion points were a valuable exercise to clarify our thinking as a staff and to talk about what the theory and practice means for our school community.”
Dr McDonald was on the ground to see exactly how teachers and Principals interacted with the Catalyst learning materials.
“It was wonderful to be welcomed by Julie and her staff. The staff engagement and questions on Catalyst were positive and challenging.”
Dearne Bassett, Assistant Principal from St Francis Xavier College said the session helped her school’s staff understand why implementing HITP in every classroom was a critical goal for the system.
“It makes sense. As teachers, we have a professional obligation to improve classroom practice adopting high-quality teaching strategies. The HITP session highlighted that evidence-based practice has the greatest impact on student learning.”
During the day, Catholic Education (CE) Leadership members visited various schools across the system to participate, alongside school staff. CE office staff also worked through the session, to better understand the evidence-based teaching practices and how their service areas could contribute to and support the implementation of Catalyst.
Teachers from St Michael’s, St Bernard’s, Holy Spirit and St Thomas the Apostle Primary Schools participating in Dr Hammond’s HITP In Action Session
HITP In Action with Dr Lorraine Hammond
On the same day, Dr Lorraine Hammond facilitated a full-day HITP In Action session with 20 Leaders and teachers from St Michael’s, St Bernard’s, Holy Spirit, St Thomas the Apostle Primary Schools with CECG Director Ross Fox, Deputy Director Dr Tony Bracken, CE Leadership members and office staff in attendance.
This session provided a deep dive into teaching practices that will be implemented into classrooms and introduced the concept of Daily Review across all year levels.
Dr Hammond said she could feel a strong sense of momentum and collegiality in the room during the session.
“In my experience and research, when teachers in a school take up high impact instruction, improved student achievement follows.”
“The collective efficacy of staff when a group of schools implement this instructional model provides a greater opportunity for staff to learn from one another and work collaboratively towards a common goal.”
“I look forward to working with staff from Holy Spirit, St Bernard’s, St Michaels and St Thomas the Apostle again at our next professional learning day and providing a forum for celebrating the changes that will now follow.”
Jo Wain, Principal of St Bernard’s Primary School Batehaven, said the session was highly engaging and valuable for her staff, and enjoyed working collaboratively with the other schools.
“Today’s input was both affirming and empowering for teachers. We look forward to continuing to develop our classroom practice under the guidance of Lorraine.”
Ms Wardana demonstrating high impact teaching at St Michael’s, Kaleen
Annie Brearley, graduate teacher from Holy Spirit Primary School, said she was able to already apply the knowledge into her teaching program.
“I had some great learnings around incorporating a ‘Daily Review’ in the classroom and the power of teaching reading through Explicit Instruction.”
Brooke Wardana accompanied Dr Hammond to demonstrate how the high impact practices can be used in a classroom setting.
Cohort 2 participating in the HITP In Action online session
HITP In Action launches online with TeachWell
About 100 participants across all Secondary and Central schools commenced their HITP In Action journey in online sessions with Catalyst Presenter Ingrid Sealey from TeachWell.
The interactive online session explored the key principles of Cognitive Science, Practices of Master Teachers, Individual Teaching and Learning strategies.
Kerryn Hopkins, teacher from Carroll College Broulee said Ms Sealey was high-energy and enthusiastic, which made the session engaging and inspiring.
“We thoroughly enjoyed the day at our end – very productive, relevant and worthwhile.”
Kelly Candy, Leader of Learning and Wellbeing at St John Paul II College said the session provided valuable knowledge that helped staff at her school build a shared understanding of HITP.
“We are creating a real team focus and building a sense as a group as the people who will be leading others in the changes ahead.”
K-2 Literacy school visits
Dr Jennifer Buckingham and Alison McMurtrie from MultiLit visited St Thomas Aquinas, St Gregory’s and St Francis of Assisi to explore how the Catalyst K-2 Literacy program was being implemented in classrooms.
With 228 teachers now trained in InitiaLit across 27 schools, Dr Buckingham and Ms McMurtrie were pleased with the progress they saw in the teaching of high quality, evidence-based instruction.
They were thrilled to hear feedback from our teachers on how the Systematic Synthetic Phonics program has revolutionised the way they teach.
Dr Buckingham said “it was a great pleasure to observe the teaching and learning taking place in Canberra Goulburn Catholic schools, and to see how the use of evidence-based instruction is creating successful and happy readers.”
Leaders work with Michael Roberts from CogLearn
In the first week of Term 2, leaders across 9 schools met with Catalyst Presenter, Michael Roberts to support the planning and implementation of HITP in their school.
The leadership sessions provided understanding and context to Mr Roberts, so he can provide the support required for each school’s journey and assist with teacher selection for HITP In Action.
Earlier this year, 10 other schools had planning sessions with Mr Roberts, with five schools having commenced their HITP In Action journey in Term 1.
This term, Mr Roberts and Toni-Hatten Roberts will commence the HITP In Action journey 19 schools.
Teachers and Leaders across the Archdiocese have now commenced the highly anticipated High Impact Teaching Practice (HITP) In Action program, with the program growing as more staff get involved in the months ahead. Teachers have been working with experts in the field, Dr Lorraine Hammond and Michael and Toni-Hatten Roberts.
Dr Lorraine Hammond has worked closely with groups of early adopter leaders and teachers from four schools – St Bernard’s, St Thomas the Apostle, Holy Spirit and St Michael’s.
“Observing a lesson and then having time to discuss and raise questions promotes learning at a professional level,” a teacher from St Bernard’s Bateman’s Bay said.
Day one of Dr Lorraine Hammond’s HITP In Action program involved observations of Ms Brooke Wardana modelling High Impact Teaching Practice in the classroom. Participants also engaged in a practical professional learning session that involved learning about the Daily Review and how to use this practice in the classroom, along with exploring the expected level of student engagement in high impact lessons.
Teachers and Leader’s alike have found Dr Hammond to be incredibly insightful, empathetic, and knowledgeable, with all excited to continue their Catalyst journey with her by their side.
“It is reassuring to know that Lorraine will be with us for the journey. Her wealth of knowledge and experience in the reading field is much appreciated. It’s great to know that she is with us for the journey, and we have the support of the office,” a Leader from St Thomas the Apostle, Kambah said.
Michael and Toni Hatten-Roberts have begun working closely with groups of early adopter leaders and teachers at St Monica’s, St Clare of Assisi, St Thomas More’s, St John the Apostle and St Thomas Aquinas to deliver HITP In Action.
Day one with Michael and Toni saw participants learn about the big ideas of High Impact Teaching, including the use of daily review, the principles of the Science of Learning and how these translate into classroom learning.
The session provided leaders and teachers valuable strategies and techniques to try in the classroom, with participants eager to try implementing them in their lessons.
“Thank you for a fantastic, informative session. Looking forward to implementing your strategies and reflecting next session,” a teacher from St Clare of Assisi, Conder said.
Michael and Toni Hatten-Roberts will begin working with additional schools during Term 2.
To learn more about High Impact Teaching Practice (HITP) In Action and the journey at your school, speak with your Principal, PIL or the Teaching and Learning team.
On 28 January 2021, we brought everyone across the Archdiocese together virtually to learn together and discuss how Catalyst will help us transform lives through learning.
Catalyst will enable us to provide our students with the best education possible through high quality, consistent learning and teaching across all schools.
Teachers were introduced to the Science of Learning education theory by national and global presenters including well-known advocate Ollie Lovell, Tom Sherrington a high impact instruction presenter from the UK and Toni-Ann Vroom a specialist in writing instruction from the US. Rewatch the keynote presentations, Director Ross Fox’s address and the Archbishop’s address at Catalyst Resources.
We also had Michael Roberts help us understand how practice change can positively impact student outcomes and achievement. This presentation acknowledged that practice change at a whole-school can be challenging, however certainly a worthwhile endeavour – as shown in the significant improvement in assessment results.
Each school participated in the shared sessions together, with time also set aside to plan how Catalyst will be rolled out within their school, and what they hope to accomplish in the year ahead.
To find out more about about your school’s Catalyst journey, speak with your Principal or your Leadership Team.
General questions around Catalyst can be directed to the Catalyst Team by reaching out.
Feedback from participants
“I enjoyed the format of the day, allowing discussion to occur with our own staff making it more relevant to us”
“The presenters provided relevant information that can be transferred into daily teaching”
“It is positive to see a whole diocese approach to learning”
“I’m excited about the initiative. I want to see every child succeed”
“I think [Catalyst] will work. I am also a parent of students in the system and I think it is a fantastic initiative”
“I think that Catalyst is a positive initiative which will assist teachers and students throughout the teaching and learning cycle”
“It’s an exciting beginning that will improve student learning outcomes”
“It is exciting and energising to think of the positive change that we have the chance to implement”
Catholic Education Archdiocese of Canberra & Goulburn schools will implement evidence-backed phonics teaching from next year as part of a system-wide push to improve students’ literacy outcomes.
As part of the Catalyst program, K-2 Literacy will embed a CECG endorsed phonics program to improve literacy instruction in all schools.
Read full article written by Rebecca Urban at The Australian.
Rebecca Brady and students from St Bernard’s Primary School, Batemans Bay. Picture: Sean Davey
There are around 1,000 classrooms spanning the 56 schools operated by Catholic Education, Archdiocese of Canberra & Goulburn. Mindful of the need to ensure consistent and equitable digital access for its students across NSW and ACT, the organisation has invested significantly to ensure each school – regardless of location – enjoys modern internet connectivity. This investment has paid off with students getting reliable access to the huge variety of software applications that have been made available by the schools.
When COVID-19 struck in early 2020, schools had to pivot rapidly to implement a remote learning model due to impending school closures. School bandwidth was no longer a gating factor to digital access. What became more important was not only the teachers’ ability to adapt their teaching model but also the differences in the home technology set up and the digital literacy of their students.
Ross Fox, Director of the Catholic Education Office, says that by mid-February 2020 it was clear from the experience overseas that Australia might have to brace for a prolonged “shutdown of normal life.”
For Fox and his team, that prompted an urgent need for deep thinking about how it might be possible to guarantee continuity of curriculum delivery, whilst teachers and students remained remote from each other. Digital technologies were key – but there were some non-negotiables, he says.
The review of school-based technology they put in place identified a diverse set of classroom tools in use that were, in some cases, not up to the rigours or requirements of home learning. The team quickly realised that some changes would need to be made and an element of standardisation put in place. Whatever remote learning solution was deployed had to offer the highest level of security, be accessible on a range of platforms and devices and, in that time of deep crisis for many, would need to support student and teacher wellbeing – peer group communication and collaboration were going to be crucial.
“We would normally have taken a year to 18 months to select the appropriate systems – but it became clear that Microsoft Teams had all the attributes we wanted,” says Fox.
Microsoft Teams was deployed technically within 35 days, but equally as important, teachers were provided with expert professional development and guidance, allowing them to start to engage students from their homes quickly and easily. Teams provided a single hub through which teachers could connect to one another, access resources and engage their students. “There would not have been continuity of learning or such care in its absence,” says Fox.
Teams webinars also supported the change management associated with moving to remote learning. According to Chief Information Officer Klarissa Plimmer; “Many teachers had never delivered lessons online before and specifically not when students were outside the classroom”. Working with specialist training partner Using Technology Better, teachers were initially trained over three days via Teams webinars. Schools were then asked to identify someone tech-savvy to be trained more deeply who could then go on to teach, guide and mentor the rest of the staff.
According to Adrian Francis, digital trainer at Using Technology Better it was important to; “Move values and cultures to where they can use technology to make everything better – to make their life easier. “
The experience he said had also delivered schools with an opportunity to reflect on how technology can be integrated into learning for older students in years 10-12 preparing them for the sort of environment they might expect in university.
Equitable access
Klarissa Plimmer has been the organisation’s CIO since mid-2019. Under the mantra of “equity and access” she believes that any student or teacher in the care of the Diocese should have equal access to digital tools; “It doesn’t matter if you’re in West Wyalong or Lake Cargellico you should have the same opportunities to give or receive an awesome education as if you were in Nicholls or Red Hill in the ACT.”
During COVID-19 school closures the organisation settled on Microsoft Teams because it not only delivered the required trusted communication and collaboration capability, it was also able to complement existing tools in the individual schools. Having a common digital hub across all schools made it much easier to collaborate across the schools, sharing content, lesson plans and important school information.
Fox says that using Teams provided the opportunity to create collaborative communities across year group teachers – for example bringing together the 70 kindergarten teachers. Instead of having 70 separate lesson plans, the online collaboration afforded by Teams allows, for example, five plans to be chosen and shared easily within a Professional Learning community.
The Learning Agenda
As we have moved out of the immediate COVID-19 crisis the team at Canberra & Goulburn is now looking carefully at what they have learned and how they can continue to benefit from the changes that were put in place. For instance, Fox, commented that Microsoft Teams also; “Now has the potential to give us almost real time insights into what is happening in the learning environment.”
“This could support our aspirations within a new teaching and learning initiative in the Archdiocese, known as Catalyst, where we are looking to change the traditional nature of teaching by curating and sharing the best practices and then spending the energy of the teacher connecting the learner to the teaching.”
Teams could, he says;
“Supercharge collaboration – schools themselves are not the optimal organisational unit for everything, so Teams and its uniformity means you can more seamlessly integrate across schools. It makes it much more possible to get a collaborative unit, not burdened by the silos of school structures.”
The Archdiocese also hopes that information surfaced through Teams can help lift student outcomes. “The Catalyst initiative encompasses very targeted training for teachers based on research and information about student performance.”
Teams has supported rich training and enablement across the system using webinars and targeted subject level content. It’s an enduring capability says Fox, as online-delivery of professional development means that Principals, for example, will no longer face three-hour drives to and from Canberra for face-to-face training – but will be able to participate remotely, even when the pandemic abates.
Geographic reach
Teams was also the important glue binding the geographically dispersed IT project teams during the rapid Teams implementation. Due to border closures, Plimmer led from New Zealand supported by Microsoft and its partner MOQdigital in Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane, with the teaching advisor located in Western Australia.
“We were pretty pushed – delivering over a 20 hour cycle every day – coordinating those groups – and we used Teams for that,” she says.
Joe Rasmussen, business development manager for MOQdigital, says that there was fierce time pressure to get Teams up and running to mitigate the impact of COVID 19 school closures, adding that all 20,000 students and 3,000 staff were brought onto Teams in just a few weeks.
“We usually like a big discovery phase up front – with this one we had to get on the tools straight away. We needed to keep constant communications open between us and Microsoft and the diocese; we were having a standup every morning at 8.30am and the project managers had one every afternoon. Our engineers were working 18-hour weekends as well.”
To support the project MOQdigital set up a dedicated service desk so that parents and staff could call in for support as they got used to Teams.
What also stood the project in great stead was that in December 2019 a project had been undertaken to roll out unique identities to each student and staff member using Microsoft’s Azure Active Directory and Identity Management. That meant that when Teams was deployed rapidly, the access part of the puzzle had already been addressed which was critical to its success, says Fox.
While the technology infrastructure has worked well, Plimmer stresses that they learned all too well that it’s important to take into account the competency level of those being asked to adopt new digital platforms – not all are at the same level. “There are plenty of children still not able to use a keyboard because they are not able to recognise shapes or have trouble with switching on a camera, switching off mute. That can really be a struggle and that is an area we didn’t really anticipate fully.”
Fox agrees that one of the big challenges was that schools’ expectations about what learning they could deliver remotely, exceeded what was possible. “We did have some adoption challenges that were not anticipated. We set expectations very high and the schools did really well to adjust, however there were still many hurdles to overcome,” he says.
Teachers have been on a steep learning curve, striving to tweak their pedagogy to engage students online and make the connections that are critical to learning progress. As Plimmer notes though – it’s worth it because; “When do you get the sort of ‘Aha!’ moments in a digital classroom as you do in a physical classroom – that’s where the joy happens.”
Fox says that the experience has provided a series of important lessons. And whilst the traditional methods of lesson delivery are not wrong – recent experiences prove that they can be augmented using the best available technology and resources, he says.
“The way children learn has not changed – but what tools we have to assist and support that has improved exponentially with modern digital technology.”
“There is a continuing reservation about how digital forums impede social connection. Technology will never displace the importance of the relationship between the teacher and the learner,” says Fox.
“The learnings from our experience of COVID-19 remote teaching and learning is not that education needs to transform – but that we as educators need to be confident we are doing our jobs the best way we can – and what we have been able to achieve has shown us that there are new ways we can achieve
