St Clement of Rome Catholic Primary School

- published, October 2009

School profile

St Clement of Rome Catholic Primary School is located in Bulleen, a north-eastern suburb of Melbourne. The 350 students are organised into 14 class groups. Twenty-five per cent of the students are from a Chinese background.

The school vision statement states that ‘We are a welcoming community who lives in harmony and celebrates our multicultural and multifaith dimensions’.

School website: www.clement.melb.catholic.edu.au

Principal, Annette Broadfoot

As a school principal I am responsible for ensuring that students learn about Asia and Australia’s connections to it. At our school we are committed to systematic, coherent and collaborative approaches to curriculum planning and the incorporation of studies of Asia into our teaching and learning programs across the school. We want our students to engage in activities which generate deep learning.

View video of an interview with Annette Broadfoot at the 2009 L21CS Forum

A commitment to action

We strongly believe in preparing children for their place in the world and developing their knowledge and understanding of the Asian region and Australia’s connections to it.

I have for many years held the view that schools must provide significant opportunities for students to engage with Asia. I have encouraged and supported teachers to include studies of Asia in their classroom programs. My participation in the Leading 21st Century Schools: Engage with Asia (L21CS) project has enabled me to reflect on our achievements. It has reinforced my commitment to providing dynamic and well-planned Asia-focused learning activities for our teachers and students. It has also made me aware that we should celebrate our achievements and share them in our own school community and beyond.

Our beginnings

I was appointed as Principal 12 years ago. The school was already strong in studies of Asia. Annual grants through the former National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian Schools project enabled teachers to design activities and projects with an Asian focus. In the main, these were discrete projects. One teacher had participated in a study tour to China and some teachers had participated in a range of professional development activities organised by the Catholic Education Office and led by the State Studies of Asia Advisor. I could see that there was a need to take a more holistic approach to the studies of Asia. It was a fertile environment for me to take the school further.

In the late 1990s, I participated in a Consortium for Teaching Asia and the Pacific in the Schools (CTAPS) leadership training program in Hawaii. This intensive two-week summer institute opened my eyes to the richness and beauty of Asia. It also helped me realise just how much I didn’t know and I can say now that my understandings of Asia and of approaches to studies of Asia in schools have grown significantly. I do know that I want our students to be provided with a systematic approach to learning about Asia. This view was shared by the school’s leadership team.

We were clearly ready to move beyond a discrete project approach to one incorporating whole-school planning and the engagement of all staff in developing units of work based on an inquiry approach to learning.

Leading from the front

Shared responsibility for leadership

I believe that a strong, committed and energetic leadership team is essential for leading and sustaining change in the school. I used the 2020 Schools Engage with Asia DVD with the leadership team and staff to stimulate discussion about the continuing importance for us to engage students with Asia through focused learning programs. The school’s leadership team ensures that studies of Asia are an integral part of our school programs and practices. I value the skills and expertise of members of the leadership team and work closely with them in sustaining a school culture of sharing, continuous professional learning and team planning of school and classroom programs and activities.

The Curriculum Coordinator has been a key driver in the development of the school’s studies of Asia program. Her knowledge and understanding of curriculum, pedagogy and contemporary learning practices made her the obvious choice to lead the studies of Asia agenda. This has resulted in the development of high-quality curriculum documents that teachers use to plan activities for engaging students with Asia. We want things to happen in a dynamic and engaging way and, accordingly, we have acted to ensure that teachers are continuously engaged in the design and implementation of effective classroom programs.

Teaching of Chinese

For many years Chinese was taught in the school as a mother-tongue language. Four years ago we decided to embrace the teaching of Chinese for all students. We believed that this would provide them with a further opportunity to engage with Asia. Now, each year, students receive six months of Chinese language learning. The teacher of Chinese has been at the school for eight years and is the network leader for teachers of Chinese in the Catholic Education system. Although the connection between the Chinese LOTE program and studies of Asia program undertaken in classrooms is continuously being strengthened, we recognise that further work in this area is needed.

Engaging staff

Collective ownership of the curriculum development process and its outcomes is paramount. The leadership team plays a key role in motivating teachers to develop their understandings of Asia. Teachers are encouraged to share and draw upon their Asian travel experiences and it is common for teachers to talk with one another about contemporary Chinese movies such as Not One Less and books such as Mao's Last Dancer.

Mandating studies of Asia and supporting teachers

We took the important decision to incorporate Asia-focused studies in all classrooms in Term 3, every year. The leadership team oversees the planning and implementation of units of work used by teachers at all year levels. We know that teachers require support in their planning. Accordingly, we have established procedures to enable teachers to regularly plan together, share ideas, resources and strategies. The Curriculum Coordinator acts a ‘consultant’ to all planning teams and individual teachers.

Seeking and using resources

We value resources and expertise from outside the school. We have used a Chinese artist in residence to work with teachers and students in using the visual arts as a vehicle for exploring cultural connections with Asia. As a result, we now have permanent works of art on display. Other resources include teacher networks, curriculum consultants and Asia-focused teaching and learning materials. These have promoted new thinking and have challenged us to new levels of achievement. In addition, we have actively sought and obtained grants to support our projects.

Induction of new staff

Our leadership team has remained stable for ten years, but over the past three years there has been a 60% turnover in teaching staff. Our immediate challenge is to ensure that new staff members are immersed in Asia-focused approaches to teaching and learning. The resources available through the L21CS project are proving to be important vehicles for this. For me, the project has given us the impetus to draw together our achievements, to capture the story of how we have embedded studies of Asia into school practice and to generate enriching new programs and activities for students. New members of staff, therefore, are actively involved in the learning process alongside their colleagues and through regular team planning.

Quality curriculum and a focus on deep learning

Inquiry-focused learning

We have worked hard to create an inquiry-focused learning framework across the school. With excellent leadership, training and support from the Curriculum Coordinator, teachers spend time defining the expected learning outcomes (deep understandings) for the Asia-focused units of work. This paves the way for selecting engaging content and learning sequences for students. It has taken a number of years for this approach to curriculum design to become a routine, natural way of working in the school.

Team planning

Team planning is a key feature of this approach and has led to students participating in creative and engaging projects. Units of work on the theme, From the Yarra to the Yangtze, were developed in 2008 for use across the whole school. In planning this work we were determined to move beyond the Beijing Olympics and expand our children's comparative understandings of varying aspects of Chinese and Australian life and culture.

Expectations of teachers

It is expected that teachers at all levels incorporate local and global perspectives into their teaching and learning programs. To plan and implement units of work, teachers use the Asia Scope and Sequence curriculum planning documents for English, SOSE and The Arts, in conjunction with the Victorian Essential Learning Standards statewide curriculum framework. Asia-focused integrated unit planners are developed collaboratively and then published. These planners include a conceptual framework and a range of student learning activities designed to develop specified student knowledge, values and skills. They also outline assessment strategies and resources for teacher and student use. Classroom resources such as the big books in the Snapshots of Asia series are used in the planning of activities for students. Teachers are challenged to build contemporary learning tools into their classroom practice. The use of ‘wiki’ spaces, interactive whiteboards and digital cameras is encouraged.

Celebrating student achievement and community involvement

Last year we celebrated the achievements of teachers and students following the From the Yarra to the Yangtze project by holding an open night for the school community. Over 600 parents and friends attended this event, which showcased students’ work. One Prep classroom was transformed into a Chinese restaurant. Dance, poetry, singing and audiovisual presentations were key components of the event. Parents were encouraged to interact with teachers and students and to participate in a range of activities. We wanted to show parents what their children had learned. This public celebration came out of the work of teachers and students.

Next steps

Sustaining effective practice

Our journey so far has been rich and rewarding. But we don't want anything to slip. We enjoy new challenges and we strive collectively to broaden our understanding of the complexities of Asia. We intend to use the L21CS Tool Kit Modules to extend further our understandings of how we can engage our students with Asia, and to help promote new and engaging teaching and learning practices in all classrooms.

Our focus to date has been more often, but not exclusively, on China. I realise the need for us to go beyond China. I'm looking forward to being part of an AEF-sponsored delegation to Korea later in 2009. I see this as a stimulus for me to think of further ways to expand teachers’ knowledge and understanding. We want new members of staff to embrace the school’s ‘Asia story’ as their story too.

Key tasks

Two major tasks now arise from my participation in the L21CS project and for our school. Firstly, we want to document the outcomes of the From the Yarra to the Yangtze project and to make them public through a strong web presence. We will provide opportunities for our students to be involved in this process.

Secondly, we want to build on our current achievements. We are committed to entrenching studies of Asia in our school. We want to strengthen the systematic approach to curriculum design and school and classroom programs that we have adopted. We see our Asia-focused curriculum planning approach as a model for curriculum development across the school. We will continue to provide time for teachers to work in teams to plan their units of work, identify resources and share teaching strategies.

This year we are going to take advantage of the International Year of Astronomy. We see this as an opportunity to draw on local and global perspectives in the areas of science, history, the arts and cultural studies. Staff professional learning will take place at Scienceworks and the National Gallery of Victoria. This will provide the energy and stimulus for teachers to develop creative learning opportunities for our children within the school’s Asia-focused curriculum framework.