The Willows State School

- published, October 2009

School profile

The Willows State School is located in Townsville, Queensland. It is a P–7 government primary school with 1100 students and 100 staff, a number of whom are part-time. Students are organised into 43 class groupings. Approximately 30% of students are from armed services families. Mobility of these students is relatively high. The school is committed to the provision of ‘education excellence in an information age’ and the development of students as global citizens.

Principal: Carol Buchanan cbuch18@eq.edu.au

School website: www.thewilloss.eq.edu.au

Carol Buchanan, Principal

For many years we have recognised the importance of providing students with opportunities to engage with Asia. Our Indonesian language program incorporating cultural perspectives is well-established. My engagement with colleagues and Asia- focused resources through the Leading 21st Century Schools: Engage with Asia (L21CS) initiative clarified for me the need to develop a statement of intent for student engagement with Asia at our school. In doing this we created an understanding among staff of the rationale for studies of Asia. Importantly it also provided us with a clear strategic direction and a framework for expanding studies of Asia through well-planned classroom learning programs.

Indonesian language teaching: an important starting point

The Willows has provided Indonesian language teaching for Years 5–7 students for many years. We have worked hard to make it an integral part of the curriculum by encouraging teachers, working alongside the Indonesian language teacher, to incorporate appropriate activities to broaden students’ understanding of Indonesian life and culture and to see this as a natural part of their school experience. In a school as large as ours, and in the light of the imperative to take a more systematic approach to teaching and learning about Asia, it has been important for us to reconsider the depth, breadth and range of studies of Asia across the school. Indonesian has been a catalyst for this.

Re-energising our commitment to studies of Asia

Participation in the L21CS project has provided motivation and generated energy to reopen dialogue within the school about the importance of developing a more strategic, whole-school approach to studies of Asia. The National Statement for Engaging Young Australians with Asia in Australian Schools, the 2020 Engage with Asia DVD and the teaching and learning resources developed by the Asia Education Foundation have been particularly useful for us in stimulating focused conversations among staff. Using the DVD I also engaged the members of our parents and citizens association in discussion about the importance of our students learning about Asia. Importantly I could see that, by building and expanding our current curriculum offerings, we would be able to engage staff and students with Asia in a deeper and more systematic way. The leadership team shared this view.

Developing a ‘Statement of Intent’

Meeting and networking with other Queensland Principals in the L21CS initiative has been energising. Working alongside colleagues has assisted me to commence work on developing a Statement of Intent for studies of Asia at The Willows. This has been an engaging process for staff, and has led to the adoption of a framework consistent with existing school practices. Significantly, it has opened the way for a more systematic, whole-school approach to embedding studies of Asia in teaching and learning programs across all year levels.

To assist in the development of the Statement of Intent, I established an Access Asia Team representative of staff and including the Indonesian LOTE teacher. We recognised the importance of setting directions for the whole school. We also recognised that our current curriculum framework and inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning could readily accommodate Asia-focused units of work and specific student learning activities.

The Statement of Intent has given us a reference point for development and implementation of a three-year plan. It outlines our major objectives, an implementation timeline and most importantly, a set of central organisers (key questions to stimulate inquiry-based learning and the development of units of work) for curriculum planning at all year levels within the school. In the main, the central organisers relate to the Studies of Society and Environment learning area of the curriculum.

Ensuring program coherence within the school

A commitment to expanding our approach to studies of Asia has coincided with other important national and state initiatives. The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians makes it clear that our young people will need to be ‘Asia-literate’, engaged with, and connected to, Asia. Queensland schools now have the opportunity to engage in an alternative way of providing Languages Other Than English through Intercultural Investigations (PDF: 55kb). This has given us the opportunity to consolidate and extend our Indonesian program to include students in the first five years of schooling. We see the recently established National Asian Languages and Studies in Schools Program (NALSSP) project as an opportunity to apply for funding to enable us to bring together in a more powerful way our Indonesian language program and the studies of Asia.

In addition, we saw the new Australia-Indonesia BRIDGE Project as another way to connect with Indonesia. We successfully applied for entry into this project and have already hosted an Indonesian educator who has assisted staff and students to increase their knowledge and understanding of Indonesia.

It is important for staff to understand that we are not in the business of ‘adding-on’. My role therefore has been to take a strategic approach to these important issues and opportunities and to lead and promote discussion among staff about how these new initiatives sit with our strategic directions. Involving the leadership team and the Access Asia Team has been important for the maintenance of a coherent approach to implementation.

Curriculum action planning

A key priority for us is to develop units of work directly related to the central organisers outlined in our Statement of Intent. Using the Asia Scope and Sequence documents aligned with the requirements of the Queensland P–12 Curriculum Framework we conducted a curriculum audit of our current teaching and learning programs. This identified where studies of Asia are explicitly taught, where implicit learning could be made more explicit and where there are gaps in our provision.

Now our focus is on the development of units of work across the school. Teachers at each year level meet as Learning Circles (groups established for planning, professional learning, developing effective classroom teaching and learning strategies and monitoring of outcomes) to work together on units of work for classroom implementation.

Units of work focus on essential learnings derived from our central organisers. They provide multiple pathways activities for students and include a range of inquiry-based learning activities. Learning technologies are used extensively in classrooms for access to information, student research and for communication purposes.

At the end of each term teachers assess and moderate students’ demonstrations of learnings in accordance with Queensland assessment guidelines. At least once a year, but usually at the end of each term, students publicly present their findings and research projects at special events to which parents are invited.

Teaching and learning resources

We audited the resources available to teachers and students. Because studies of Asia is a high school priority we determined that teachers should be well-resourced to effect high-quality provision of Asia-focused learning activities. Asia Education Foundation and Curriculum Corporation resources have been particularly helpful. We have also gained assistance from Dr Deborah Henderson from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Marcia Rouen from Education Queensland. They have worked with our teachers and those of Kirwan, our neighbouring high school, and have pointed us to a range of excellent resources.

Learning and sharing culture

I actively promote the view that teaching and learning are very public activities at The Willows. The sharing of knowledge and resources is a routine part of school practice. Teachers are provided with time to interact formally through year level Learning Circles and through planned professional learning programs such as those organised by the State Asia Education Advisor, and the joint planning day held in conjunction with Kirwan State High School. It is gratifying to note the many informal and highly valued interactions among staff as they discover new resources and learning activities and then share them with their colleagues.

Members of the Access Asia Team regularly model the sharing of ideas and resources, and teaching and learning practices.

I have also fostered close professional relationships between the Indonesian language teacher and classroom teachers to ensure alignment between language learning and the studies of Asia. Evidence of this can be seen in the displays of student work in classrooms. The LOTE teacher is an important member of the Access Asia Team and regularly interacts with classroom teachers to assist in bringing studies of Indonesia into classroom teaching and learning programs.

Our next steps

• We are committed to full implementation of studies of Asia over the next two years.
• We will continue to develop, implement and monitor our units of work at each year level.
• We will continue to work with Kirwan State High School to ensure curriculum continuity for our students. We will also explore ways in which our Asia-focused work can be communicated broadly through the school community.
• Professional learning will continue to be a priority for staff and we will continue to use the expertise and knowledge of Dr Deborah Henderson from QUT in support of our implementation strategy.