Shine Magazine, Issue 9, October 2009 - Department of Education ...

Negotiated reviews help
schools perform at their best
Every Victorian Government school is required to be formally reviewed every four years – and for schools
with student outcomes above expected levels, negotiated reviews offer a flexible and focused way to closely
examine a specific area for improvement.
Southern Metropolitan Region program
planning and development officer Jenny
Flint said a negotiated review recognises
that a school has done exceptionally well in
improving student learning outcomes over
time, and has the capacity to conduct its own
review supported by the regional network
leader, a critical friend and the region. Schools
in the region meet each term to clarify and
discuss expectations of a negotiated review,
and give feedback and challenge each other on
their investigations.
“This is an exciting opportunity to investigate
an area informed by the school self-evaluation
that will take the school to the next level
of improvement,” she said. “Schools are
encouraged to take an approach to the review
that is investigative in nature, the results of
which will inform the development of their
School Strategic Plan. It’s a way for schools to
challenge themselves to ask ‘what can we do to
enhance the students’ learning; what can we do
differently’.”
Mount Eliza North Primary School took part in a
negotiated review this year. Principal Kerry Graham
said the entire teaching staff was divided into teams
to research ways to improve student performance,
particularly focusing on literacy and numeracy.
“We’re a fairly high-performing school, but we felt
the students could achieve a lot better than what
they were achieving. We felt we weren’t getting the
best out of them that we could possibly get,” she
explains. “What we discovered was you can have all
the whizz-bang programs, but unless you improve
teachers’ instructional practices, those programs are
not going to make one iota of difference – so what
we were looking at was how to improve consistency,
by researching best instructional practice.”
And, she said, because the school undertook its
School News
Shine 43
own research, every teacher was able to provide
valuable feedback on how teaching practice could
be improved. “It’s put all of our teachers on the
same page,” says Ms Graham. “They all have an
understanding of the direction we are taking, and it
has galvanised everyone’s enthusiasm.”
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28/07/2009 10:15:50 AM