Forth Primary School ¿ collaborative teaming

Creating a model

The school wanted to develop a model that catered for the diverse needs of students by using teaching expertise and TA support to greatest advantage. The model's potential would be assessed with a view to the Grade 3 / 4 classes adopting it the following year.

Two of the classes in the project included students who are on the Register of Students with Severe Disabilities. Another student was identified by the school cluster as being in need of additional support. Teacher Assistant support was allocated to support the three students.

A further reason for the trial was that, due to the small size of the school, some students could be taught by the same teacher for two or three years and the restructured groupings involved in the trial offered students the opportunity to work with a different adult.

Initially, there was some resistance to the proposal as members of the team were satisfied with the usual structure and did not think that change was necessary.

Building blocks

Forth Primary began their journey by using the expertise of cluster Principal Leader to lead their professional learning at the beginning of the school year. As part of their day, they discussed the overview of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. The complete document can be accessed at: http://www.successfromwithin.com/content/5DysfunctionsofaTeam.pdf

The team also used Strength cards for team building, establishing strengths and potential areas for improvement when developing teams.

The cards were used specifically to identify individual member’s strengths and to reflect and identify other group members' strengths. After identifying the team’s strength the leftover cards were seen as areas that the team would need to be conscious of fulfilling to ensure success.

The teachers in the team found that the professional learning led by the cluster Principal Leader established a really positive culture and a collective understanding within the group.

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Using the Index for inclusion (IFI)

The Index for Inclusion: Developing Learning and Participation in Schools (IFI) was published by the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education in the UK. It is a framework for identifying practices that lead to inclusion in education. It can be used to reflect on and analyse our cultures, policies and practices and to identify the barriers to learning and participation that may exist in those areas. It is also used to build supportive communities and to foster high achievement for all staff and students. 

The school used Section A.1.3 of the IFI   (Staff collaborate with each other) to reflect on and analyse the school's collaborative culture before commencing the project. This was in line with the approach of other schools in the cluster.

The Forth Primary School staff, anyone employed at the school in any role, participated in responding to all sections of Part A of the IFI. Due to the anonymous nature of the IFI, it was not possible to isolate the responses made by teachers from other staff.

Findings

The overall results from the IFI survey clearly identified areas that required immediate attention due to the similarity in responses from all staff. Many respondents weren’t clear about specific school policies and this emphasised the importance of communication to staff. Some respondents did not answer some questions.

Further professional learning

The Forth Primary team undertook extensive professional learning on collaborative learning and produced an array of handouts to inform staff. The mid-year cluster professional learning day was shaped by the cluster schools’ results from the IFI. During the morning session, schools with common identified areas for improvement from the IFI survey worked together. The principals, who agreed they needed to be leaders in this process, led the afternoon session using material from the Department of Education publication Essential Learnings for all. Two workshops were offered across four year groupings of teachers (K–1, 2–4, 5–7, 8–10).

The workshops were:

• Workshop 1: Defining curriculum differentiation
• Workshop 2: The effect of teachers’ assumptions and beliefs on student learning

The array of literature presented to teachers cannot be reproduced here for copyright reasons.

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