In term 1, the Leadership teams at Auburn North Public School and Auburn Girls' High School decided that it was important to build upon the relationship between our schools and develop a stronger partnership to learn from and with one another and develop a ‘Community of Practice' that will enable teachers to share their expertise across both schools to further improve K-12 student learning outcomes in both schools.
On the first day of this program, we welcomed 20 Auburn Girls' High School teachers to Auburn North Public School for an exciting day of teaching, learning and professional development. These 20 teachers observed Auburn North teachers and students ‘in action' in many different classrooms across our K-6 school in the morning, and then met to reflect on these excellent lessons and think about how the effective, research-based teaching and learning strategies utilised by teachers and students at Auburn North with such success could be transferred to the Auburn Girls' setting.
The 20 Auburn Girls' High School teachers then joined with their new Auburn North colleagues to teach a lesson of their own! For many teachers, this was their first experience teaching in a primary school setting. Auburn North teachers had the opportunity to observe their new high school colleagues ‘in action', and then meet with them to discuss the teaching and learning that took place.
Feedback from Auburn North and Auburn Girls' teachers was extraordinarily positive and reflects that the first day of the ‘Pedagogical Partnerships' program was very successful, and has laid the foundation for powerful and productive professional relationships to continue to be strengthened and for this innovative program to continue to evolve throughout 2014 and beyond so that our K-12 learning outcomes continue to develop.
We would like to thank all of the staff members from Auburn North Public School and Auburn Girls' High School for making the first session of the ‘Pedagogical Partnerships' program so successful. Our teachers are now looking forward to the next step in this program, where they will have the opportunity to teach at Auburn Girls' High School, as well as engage in some exciting and innovative Creative and Performing Arts Professional Development led by Auburn Girls' High School staff.