Reflection – Primary Leaders Workshop
The Primary Leaders of Teaching & Learning and Christian Studies two-day workshop was held at Immanuel Primary School – Novar Gardens. We are very grateful to Immanuel Primary School for hosting our workshop in the Year 6 learning spaces, which included their generous hospitality during this time – thank you!
The workshop days were well attended, received, and generated considerable energy and collaborative networking time with like-minded colleagues. We were fortunate to hear a variety of experiences from staff in Lutheran schools focused on:
- EYLF (Early Years Learning Framework)
- SACE: SRM (Spiritualities, Religion and Meaning)
- PYP Program of Inquiry and Christian Studies scope and sequence planning
- Hexagonal Planning
- CBI (Concept-Based Inquiry)
- Learning Intentions and Success Criteria
A Padlet was developed which now houses the PowerPoint presentations for each session above, and some additional information. If you would like to access these resources, please contact Sue Kupke at sue.kupke@lesnw.edu.au.
Over the two days, staff had time to reflect on each presentation with a colleague or another leader so they could consider ‘what might this mean for my context?’. The cross-school networking was strong and highlighted the openness by staff to learn from others in the system.
- “These two days offered valuable time to learn from other Lutheran educators. It offered different perspectives on inquiry, assessment and curriculum planning and also had time to process, unpack and plan for the future.”
- “The Christian Studies leaders workshop was valuable for sharing experiences in different learning contexts. Our discussions were rich and there were a lot of highly skilled and experienced people to draw inspiration from. A great couple of days!”
- “These two days have been an opportunity to meet with other leaders in Lutheran Schools to hear about their experiences, share approaches to pedagogy, laugh, learn, listen and take a moment to stop and take stock of where our school is and where we are wanting to go.”
- “To hear from others who are experiencing the same challenges, achieving similar successes and using similar or varied plans to achieve them has been so reassuring, challenging and rewarding. We are all teaching the same content but it can feel sometimes like our schools are so different. You couldn’t walk away today feeling like that though. We are all similar and together we are stronger”
- “Inspiring days of growing capacity and sharing.”
- “Thought provoking, informative, interesting and collaborative.”
- “It was a great opportunity to hear from a range of educators in different learning sites about using inquiry and conceptual learning to improve student engagement in Christian Studies.”
- “I heard many different perspectives on inquiry, assessment and curriculum planning and also had time to process, unpack with colleagues and plan for the future.”
- “Very helpful to hear other people sharing their experiences, especially in other contexts besides ours (ie. non-PYP schools). Great feeling of camaraderie as we walk this road together.”
- “This was a very worthwhile workshop and it was wonderful to hear from educators in different school settings, sharing about what they have been doing. There were a lot of ideas to take away.”
On the afternoon of Day 2, workshop participants had time to consider and plan actions from the two-day workshop. A wonderful example of cohesive collaboration between LESNW learning communities work together through this professional learning workshop opportunity. Better together.
Andrew Bradtke and Sue Kupke
