Teaching for uncertain futures - Neville Freeman Agency

50LEARNING FROM THE FUTURE“Can a good school become a great school? We can choose.”Dapto High School in southeast NewSouth Wales has for many years beena good school, providing a confident,competent and happy environment forabout a thousand students.Dapto is on the cusp of enormouschange. Developers have their eyeon the greenfield sites surroundingthe school and 20,000 home sitesare to be released over the next 20years. Coal mines are closing, andsometimes opening again, thanksto climate change, transport linksare being rejuvenated. With an influxof population and new industry,the surrounding community will betransformed. The existing schoolbuildings and infrastructure are tired,in need of refurbishment.Inspired by his participation in theOpen Book Scenarios project, AndrewFitzSimons, principal of Dapto Highsince 2004, has engaged his schoolcommunity in imagining the futureenvironment for the school and futureneeds. What will life and learning belike for Dapto High School studentsand the local community in 2030?The world will have shifted axis, thesurrounding community will havegrown and changed, connections withthe wider world will be sharpened.Hence, wwv@dhs: taking a widerworld view at Dapto High, to preparefor and shape that future.The idea is to have a direction, not adestination. The school communityis enthusiastic about looking to thefuture to inform what they do now.They welcome the opportunity tofocus on the future, to look aheadrather than rely on the past and tosee the school having a place in theglobalised environment of the next20 years.The focus on the future has becomean enriching element in the school’slearning culture. Hardworkingteachers and students are embracingthe call to work smarter and evenharder. Learning is at the heart ofeverything, and decision-makingis informed by research, evidenceand data. Information andcommunications technologies arefundamental to teaching and learningand transforming day-to-day tasks.Teachers are energised by engagingwith the future – no longer resistingor ignoring but intimately involved,articulating their teaching andlearning challenges, talking abouttheir learning and modelling highexpectations of students. Students aremobilised by being asked to articulatetheir own learning achievements andchallenges, to think about where theyare heading, what they will be doing in20 plus years time.Students, staff and the schoolcommunity work together to modelsustainability, a critical part ofengaging with the future. A focuson climate change is central to thecurriculum. Teachers and studentshave become ‘carbon cops’,monitoring and minimising water use,cooling, heating, lighting and printing.Students are encouraged to ridebikes or scooters or even roller bladeto school. These precious forms oftransport are safely housed during theschool day in a secure purpose-built‘skate shack’. The school houses aworking farm, and the growth of cropsand animals is part of the curriculum.A stressed and damaged creekrunning through the school grounds isnow receiving increased care and is asignificant curriculum focus. Ecologylessons have never been so practicalor so much fun.To prepare for the future, the teachers,students and school communityare working together to create ademocratic, inclusive, responsive andresilient environment.The future focus encapsulated inwwv@dhs is acting as a catalyst forbroadening horizons and openingnew possibilities. Dapto HighSchool graduates will have a globalperspective and will be well preparedto be citizens of the world of 2030.How does a good school become agreat school? Having a heightenedawareness of emerging influencesand the interconnecting strandsshaping the future opens the doorto opportunities and insights.Whatever form the future takes,engaging with it is fun and builds aresilient, resourceful and enterprisingcommunity.Andrew FitzSimons, scenario builderand principal of Dapto High School