Barunga CEC School Improvement Through and Evolutionary process

Thomas Sergiovanni in 1990 coined the term Value-Added Leadership. He believed that American schools were too concerned with student achievement as a measure of success. He believed that this leads to mediocre schools. Sergiovanni believed that it is important for schools to add value to their students rather than just achieve results. For him the true measure of a teacher and a school is whether their students are achieving better than was thought possible.

Currently Barunga is adding value to the students. Our teachers are achieving results better than was thought possible, better than has been done here in the past. This has come about because the changes to our structures and our incentives have allowed these achievements to occur.

This article will outline our approach to change management, some examples of this in action in three locations within the school and the incentives packages which have contributed to the performance.

Background

Barunga CEC is a small comprehensive school located on the Barunga community 90 km SE of Katherine in the Northern Territory. Barunga community has a population of 300 which swells to 5000 each Queen’s Birthday weekend when the Barunga Festival occurs.

The school has an enrolment of 140 from preschool to senior secondary. Community schools in the NT have the lowest educational record in Australia and Barunga is no exception. The community has never had any student complete Year 12 (NTCE) and the best that anyone can remember (over the 50 year history of the community) is year 10. To achieve that students had to go away to boarding school.

Over the past three years the school has focused its attention on achievement through a process of evolutionary change. Below is a comparison of 1998 and 2000 results which show that these changes are starting to have an effect.

1998	2000
Primary 7% reached the national grade three benchmark	Primary 29 % reached the national grade 3 benchmark
Secondary 9% enrolled in Year 8 level 3 courses through NORTHERN TERRITORY OPEN EDUCATION CENTRE	Secondary 36% enrolled in Year 8 level 2 or high courses through NORTHERN TERRITORY OPEN EDUCATION CENTRE
No Preschool	Preschool enrolment of 18
Secondary enrolment 36	Secondary enrolment 46

In addition there are now 5 students studying the NTCE with the possibility of one student who could complete the NTCE this year. This would be a first Barunga and possibly for community schools in the NT.

Evolution Change Management Process

The process that we have used to bring about the changes has been an evolutionary process. This is only clear to us now, some three years into the process. Traditional change management involves the following:

Under this process the major effort is the development and implementation of the plan. Usually little effort is undertaken to see whether the outcome of the plan is moving you towards the goal until after the plan is implemented.

The process we use does not entail developing a plan, but it does involve constant checking to see whether what we are doing is moving us further towards our goal. The process is outlined below:

Another way to look at this is outlined below:

The goal is like the windward mark in a yacht race, it does move around to suit the changing nature of the students and the increasing expectations of the community. You start from where the students are now and move along a course which will take you closer to your goal. You are constantly checking to see whether you are moving in the right direction and are prepared to change direction whenever you think that you can see another way to get to your goal faster.

The outcome of this process is that we are constantly evaluating what we are doing against what we are trying to achieve. Thus everything we do is a means to an end, not an end in itself. We have dropped some very worthy initiatives, not because they are no longer working, but because there are other things which we see as more important.

Early Childhood and Primary (Elizabeth Dunkley)

Neil talks of shifting the goal posts – and shift them he does.

By shifting the goal posts we know we are always moving ultimately in the direction of our end goal - Grade for age.

Had we however started off with such a high-minded theme we would have doomed our children and ourselves to failure, instead, by breaking our goals down into manageable bits we are able to bask in the glory - even though it is fleeting - of success. And we all recognise:

SUCCESS BREEDS SUCCESS.

Two years ago the teachers in the Early Childhood set as their goal that all children in Year One (Six year olds) would be at or better than level one on the National Profile Benchmarks for Oral English. We obtained an extra teacher just to teach Oral English and we thought we were set.

Challenge No. 1.

Traditionally Early Childhood aged children are considered by their parents as babies and as not needing school. Our argument was – if children don’t start attending school until seven or older and then erratically we can not hope to have them at the National Grade Three Benchmarks by the time they turn 8 (which is the objective of the Department). The goal posts are shifting.

What we needed was some sort of program that would convince the parents and children that school was the place to be and that regular attendance was essential for achievement. Logic told us we needed to do the work before school entry age or we would fall further and further behind our goals.

The saying goes if Mohammad won’t go to the Mountain then the Mountain must go to Mohammad. If the children and their parents were wary of school then it seemed the logical thing for us to do was take the school out to them. The theory was good – I was all for it – but that was before I realised the boss thought I was the girl for the job, and thus the mobile pre-school was born.

Equipped with a troopie, a trailer and tarpaulin and a broad brimmed hat, I ventured forth into Sunrise camp! Gone was the brightly coloured air-conditioned room I was used to. Instead I pegged paintings and craft work up in the trees to dry as Piggy Piggy, Donkey, Chook Chook and numerous dogs vied for front row seats during story time.

Those days were difficult but when I look back they were satisfying, slowly the children began to drift towards our gypsy caravan. Their parents sat back in the distance watching but, it wasn’t too long before children were running to pre-school and their parents were joining in. Cracks were starting to appear in the barriers between the school and the community. During third term, we held the pre-school back at school a couple of times so we could partake in special events. The children and their mums enjoyed these times and requested more!

We then charged to 2 days out 2 days in! By fourth term, the pre-school was full time at school but we still needed to do a pick up and delivery service. Children would be waiting out the front of their homes as we meandered back and forth up the streets collecting our young charges. Home time was unbelievable, whole families would be waiting out the front of homes to greet the fearless adventurers and to check out what they had done for the morning. Everyone was interested and excited. Attendance was becoming more regular and children were looking forward to school.

Many parents continued to come along to pre-school and they brought with them the younger siblings. These parents showed a great deal of interest in the How What When and Where of education. They helped during class and even made suggestions about the direction and content of the program. They participated in the ordering of games, activities and equipment so that we could set up a toy library to give young children a head start for school.

This year we have had the challenge of how to wean the 5 year olds off the pre-school program and into school. I no longer take pre-school but this is handled very capably by one of our indigenous teaching staff. Transition and Pre-school children all work together until recess when the pre-schoolers are delivered home and the Trannies come into me in the Early Childhood classroom.

Initially there was a reluctance by five year olds to return to school after recess but this problem was solved by the mums who came back to help with preparations, clean up and a play group for the littlies. The mums are in one room while the five year olds are next door. The Early Childhood attendance has now crept up to an average of 72 % this term (nearly acceptable by the boss’s goal posts). This regular attendance means that we can now expect to achieve the initial Grade One goals by the end of Grade One and not in Grade Two as was happening.

The result. Teachers’ happy …………… but!

But, the mums now wanted more for themselves and so, working closely with the health clinic we have set up a parents group. We are in the process of creating a mother’s room and next term a nutrition program where the mums make healthy snacks for the Early Childhood children. We also hope to further extend the toy library. What we have though is a situation where Teacher, Mums, Community and School are all happy and working together towards a common goal.

Primary classes

We are particularly proud of the achievements in the two primary classes. Just over two years ago we split the Primary classes into two groups based on attendance. To qualify for entrance to the regular attenders class children had to attend 70% of the time or better. Children were in Years 3 through to 7 and working at 2 or more years below appropriate grade level.

The rationale behind this decision was thus:

· We believed the regular attenders were being held back by those children who had not attended regularly enough to function effectively in the classroom. The program in the classroom was structured to cope with constantly changing students and this was not fair on the ones who were there everyday and would benefit from a sequentially structured program.

· On the other hand the irregular attenders appeared to be intimidated by the achievements of their regularly attending counterparts and thus presented behaviour problems.

The two classes were placed side by side and the teachers were timetabled to teach in each other’s room for part of the day. The regular attenders received instruction in English only while the class next door were able to benefit from Kriol instruction from their Indigenous teacher. The irregular attenders were not confident or competent in Oral English so it was felt that they could be extended further in their studies, if they received instruction in their own language, while they undertook intensive oral English instruction. This type of program necessitated the use of a wide variety of school-based materials.

There was movement both ways between the two classes and a great deal of co-operation and team work by the two teachers. The priorities however were very different. The regular attenders concentrated on improving their English and working towards National Benchmarks. The irregular attenders worked towards improving their attendance and developing school skills.

As the teachers and their students worked on their own goals, it soon became obvious that the parents and community needed to be aware of the program and what it was trying to achieve. From this we developed the SAS squad. (School Acquaintance Scheme see later).

It was not until the two classes moved into their new classroom building that we noticed a marked change in the two groups. With the new classrooms came a new sense of identity. It became increasingly obvious that the two groups no longer worked together.

Kedron’s Kids as the regular attenders preferred to be called had finally settled into a solid working regime and started to achieve but still weren’t at all comfortable showing off their knowledge and ability however.

Anita’s mob were coming to school more regularly but the difference in achievement between the two groups was blatantly obvious to everyone.

At the last school census the average class attendance for Kedron’s Kids 92%. His new goal is now to achieve Grade 5 (or better) Benchmarks before they move on to the Secondary School. His children have developed sound working ethics and self-confidence. They are now working on self-discipline and motivation.

Anita’s mob achieved an average class attendance 75% at the last school census. Anita is now faced with the challenge of raising learning outcomes. This has necessitated an increase in English instruction and the development of more specific learning outcomes.

The teaching/learning in both classrooms is dynamic, demanding, exciting and exhausting. But we feel that by working this way we have managed to cater for all the children. Often when we work with the top group, the slower children are left behind or even forgotten. This way we believe we have left no one behind and all children have been given the opportunity to reach their potential.

Secondary (Julie Weber-O’Bryan)

Secondary School teachers are aware of the ins and outs of timetabling and the many problems encountered by High Schools as they try to include all that needs to be included plus more into a High School Timetable.

At Barunga we’ve faced those same problems but in a different a different setting/context. We have to factor into our Time Table not only the curriculum requirements but also what is culturally appropriate for our clients/students while still being challenging and exciting.

At the end of 1999 it was decided by the School Council, Neil Williams (Principal) and Secondary staff to try something different, to break away from the existing Post Primary Model for the Secondary and replace it with a Time Table with similarities to a mainstream Secondary school. A number of factors made this a possibility:

• there was an expected increase in Secondary students (15 something coming up from primary) and as a result an increase in Secondary Staff allocation from 2 to 4.
• the need to offer / incorporate some Vet options- of course their availability was dependant on successful submissions!!
• the desire to offer secondary Students something that was very different to their Primary experiences and also, to give the existing Primary Students something to aim for- look forward to.

I know that their are those of you who will be thinking, “What’s new?” “ Yes we’ve tried this!” For some of you, Yes you’ve had this experience, but for all those at Barunga it was new. We were/are trying to climb a mountain, change/challenge some minds sets within ourselves as a staff, and our students.

The first obvious challenges for the students were in being able to read a Time Table and to cope with the variety of personalities of their teachers. The latter seemed to prove less of a difficulty than the reading of a Time Table that required them to move from room to room for different subjects and keep track of books/pencils/pens etc. Of course we/were/are making a great assumption is that our students could READ. I’m pleased to say that for at least 95% that assumption was realistic, though I must qualify it by saying “READ” meant just recognising the names of subjects and NOT READING in the broader understanding of the word. For the few who weren’t able to recognise words such as English, Maths, Science etc, they soon learnt to, because they would stand in front of the Time Table posted on doors windows etc with their friends all trying to work out. “What do we have next?” - Quite a familiar question in all Secondary Schools at the start of each academic year. And slowly, slowly they began to understand and move more easily. I must add that we did try to Time Table the students into the same room as often as possible to help avoid too much confusion with finding the allocated subject rooms.

In term 1 and 2 2000 we only moved between 3 rooms. By Term 4 we’d increased to four rooms. (This year there are 6 Secondary Classrooms, plus the Tech Studies Shed, and a small tutorial room and we’re hoping to add a Skills Centre later this year!!) The students were quite compliant with the demands of the Time Table. Yes, it was new, different, “this what they do at Katherine High!!! was the comment.

In 2000 we forged links with Katherine High School in the areas of Maths and English. We sent our teachers up to Katherine High School to work with their year 8 English and Maths teachers and the Senior Teachers in these subject areas. We streamed the students. These students were selected decided after consultation with their 1999 Primary Teachers and through some placement texts from Northern Territory Open Education Centre and from the results some had already achieved in their 1999 Secondary course. We found that we had a class of about 10-12 students. The remainder of the same age students was placed into Foundation Studies or Northern Territory Open Education Centre courses.

Goals change tact.

As Term1 progressed we discovered that the Maths from Katherine High School was easier to adapt to our students than the English. The English was based around a novel, which is the normal for Year 8 English. The novel by mainstream standards is very readable i.e. STORMBOY. However for our students it proved difficult because none of them had ever really read a novel. Yes, they could read it, but the idea of studying a “text” was extremely difficult. Also, given the transience of some students in the class, it proved to be very difficult trying to maintain continuity. At the end of semester 1 it was decided to change tact and enroll these students in the Northern Territory Open Education Centre level 3 English for the time being. We knew that a new course was being written by Northern Territory Open Education Centre teachers which was based on ESL methodology and so we agreed to trial it. So I suppose you could say that the level 3 was a stop-gap until the Northern Territory Open Education Centre course arrived in term 4.

Another major change came when later in the year it was decided to withdraw from the Foundation Studies Courses and enroll those students in Northern Territory Open Education Centre courses. One draw card for making this decision was that we were to be part of a Northern Territory Open Education Centre Literacy project.

All the Foundation Studies students did a placement test with Northern Territory Open Education Centre to determine their eligibility. The majority were eligible and so we embarked down this path.

For those who didn’t quite for this, we had no choice but include them in the project. Yes Time Table and staff constraints forced decision. After consultation with the Northern Territory Open Education Centre Literacy Project officer and their English staff we decided to purchase the Heather Harvey Intensive Reading Program, a decision we do not regret because we’ve found that this program caters more than adequately for these students as well as those whose allocation to this class had not been based of the soundest of educational reasons.

Our agreement with the Katherine High School regarding the Maths has continued. These students are progressing steadily. Our Maths Teacher only recently spent a day work shopping with Katherine High School Maths teachers regarding assessments, resources and moderation arrangements.

As 2000 progressed another “need” emerged. It was discovered that some of our older students had been placed in the wrong levels. Further placement tests were administered and these students were also encouraged to produce whatever certificates they’d acquired over the years. These procedures revealed that we had two students who should have been doing Stage 1 courses. This later grew to 3 and then 4. We now had some Seniors. At first these students continued to work in the year 8 classrooms, a most unsatisfactory arrangement for them. We eventually acquired another classroom and so moved these students into their own classroom, which was next to the staff room. A DETYA Tutor spent some time each day with these students and I worked with them during my release time.

All the students were now enrolled with Northern Territory Open Education Centre we still kept to the Time Table. All the Secondary teachers were and still are encouraged to “teach” their subjects using the Northern Territory Open Education Centre books etc as a resource.

Our links with Katherine High School have extended again this year (2001). As mentioned earlier the Maths partnership has continued. We are now in the process of arranging use of the Science labs for conducting Science Experiments. We still have another 2 groups doing a modified course based on the year 8 Northern Territory Open Education Centre Science. These students are not enrolled with Northern Territory Open Education Centre but we are adapting using their course material, hence the need for science labs to conduct relevant science experiments.

In 2001 we’ve continued with the rotation of students subjects and classrooms and teachers. However, we’ve made some specific modifications.

We’ve introduced an Activity Day on Wednesday. Wednesdays consist of

1. 3 groups of students rotating through 3 different activities- i.e. Textiles and Cooking courses through Northern Territory Open Education Centre and sport. Each of 1 ½ hr duration.

2. Community Maintenance- a Vet course from Batchelor college

3. Pre Voc courses as part of WAIKAN - the construction and education arm

of the Jawoyn Association.

This involves the following use of resources. We fund the specialist Textiles through hiring our Tech shed to Waikan for 2 days a week and charging a fee for the delivery of the literacy and numeracy component of their Pre-Voc Course, one of secondary Staff delivers this. We have a teacher on staff who delivers the Community Maintenance course on site with Batchelor College as the Registered Training Organisation.

In addition we offer 4 more VET Courses through the Northern Territory Open Education Centre. These are Cert 2 and Cert 1 Business Administration and Cert 2 Tourism with Northern Territory Open Education Centre is our Registered Training Organisation and Hairdressing with Batchelor College as our Registered Training Organisation.

Last year 3 of our students completed the first Modules of Cert 1 and will be start their Cert 2 in Hairdressing. There are 8 girls commencing their Cert 1 next term.

Batchelor College, as a result of our negotiations with them, has extended their scope to now include Hairdressing- a first for them. In 2000 Centralian College had been our Registered Training Organisation for Hairdressing. We transported the students into Katherine each week to attend the courses, which was delivered in one of the town’s salons. We now have a Service Level Agreement with Batchelor and because this is a new area for them it was left to us to find a Hairdresser to deliver the course.

We approached some individual salons in Katherine. There was quite a deal of support for us, but unfortunately none could take us at the moment. However they did circulate our needs through the bush Hairdressing Telegraph and as a result we now have a hairdresser who is prepared to teach this course. We had hoped to set up 1 possibly 2 workstations at the school. This is not possible yet as we were able to purchase only one partial workstation. We have our ears to the ground for news of hairdressing business closing so that we may purchase further equipment for the workstation. Our dream is to establish a Skills Centre at Barunga CEC and to have hairdressing as one of the work areas in this center. We’ve had 2 hairdressers express interest in coming out to Barunga to teach this course when we establish this center.

Apart from the above we also have one student enrolled with the NTU. He is studying a Cert 3 in Parks, land care and wildlife management.

Our next challenge is to find work placements for these students. Last year we had 17 students complete a weeks work experience with various workplaces in Katherine. This included 3 young women working at one of the Hairdressing Salons. We’ve attained funding from the ECEF (Enterprise and Career Education Foundation) formerly the Australian Traineeship Foundation (ASTF) to assist with the cost of transporting students to work placements around the NT.

Incentives

The school has a whole school incentive program, which is operated by the Principal. Under this scheme students earn a point for coming to a school session on time. Thus a maximum of 14 points can be earned during the week (The school closes a lunch time on Friday). These points can be saved up and cashed in for prizes at a rate of approximately 10 cents per point. Prizes include pencils, textas, footballs, basketball up to walkmans and walkie-talkies for those students prepared to wait a long time.

This program has been operating in the school for 3 years using ASSPA funding. It is popular with the students and the community. It rewards students for behaviour which the school approves of (i.e. coming to school) and has no punishment element. It allows teachers and the community to talk to the students about coming to school on time.

Recently this scheme has blossomed further (tack 2) with the introduction of percentage tables for each term. Student who achieve 80% attendance during the term are rewarded, usually with an excursion to the movies or skating. This rewards consistency of attendance. Those students with 78.12% miss out, without exceptions. Rather than feel discouraged this makes them try even harder.

The points lists are published each week at the school and students rush to see their current points and their percentage to see whether they are still eligible to go on the trip and see whether they have finally earned enough points to get the prize that they want.

School Acquaintance Scheme

One of our major problems has always been to overcome the reluctance of the community towards the school. Despite having a majority of indigenous staff, the school is still seen as separate from the community. Few community people feel comfortable in the school grounds and this affects their children’s attitude towards school.

To help break this down we have embarked on many strategies (including the mobile preschool outlined above). One of the most enduring is the School Acquaintance Scheme (SAS).

Every afternoon one of our teachers and an indigenous staff member are release from their teaching duties. Their task is to spend time in the community talking to people about school. The SAS team is collectors and disseminators of information. They take with them examples of work, forms to fill out, any problems teachers were experiencing, sometimes just sit and chat under the trees or on verandahs. The aim is to break down the barriers between the community and the school.

Although this places a burden on the rest of the staff to cover the classes, the value of this scheme is immense to the school. Many potentially major problems have been dealt with at very early stages and the regular contact with community members is starting to break down some of the barriers.

Conclusion

The school is currently adding value to the student’s education. It does this through an evolutionary approach to its structures, which grow and change to suit the goals of the community and the parents.

As our students improve the goals are set higher and the structures are adjusted to suit the new challenges. Everything is a means to an end.

We are nowhere near our goals and lay no claims to be a successful school. However we do believe that we are adding value to our students.

Reference:

Sergiovanni, Thomas J., Value-Added Leadership, How to get extraordinary performance in Schools, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, San Diego, 1990.