Mary Tobin (Manager) John Stafford (Senior Project Coordinator) Catholic Education Office Melbourne Wellbeing & Community Partnerships

National Reform Agenda A system wide response to the implementation of the Commonwealth Government reform agenda designed to strategically drive the agenda across Catholic Education Promote student learning in literacy and numeracy, through family, community, school partnerships, particularly in low SES communities

A disruptive innovation Time Performance No single reform solution really works. Instead, it takes multiple actions to address the complex problem of low performance. (Harvard Family Research Project, 2010)

A disruptive innovation Time Performance No single reform solution really works. Instead, it takes multiple actions to address the complex problem of low performance. (Harvard Family Research Project, 2010) All schools work within a school improvement framework across 5 spheres of action Data and evidence informed

A disruptive innovation Time Performance No single reform solution really works. Instead, it takes multiple actions to address the complex problem of low performance. (Harvard Family Research Project, 2010) Innovation: Tri –level strategy implementation: central, regional, school 13 System appointed Family School Partnership Convenors School leadership formation: literacy and numeracy

Pushing the Boundaries In the context of reform: – What is the nature of learning? – Where does learning occur? Located in the growing body of internationally recognized research which provides evidence regarding the relationship between student learning and the family, community, school partnerships

Life-long and life-wide learning Source: Banks, J et al, 2007, Learning in & out of school in diverse environments

Variables influencing a child’s life chances and wellbeing Gender, disability, ethnicity FamilyResilience Social CapitalReadiness SOCIAL PERSONAL Social ClassMotivation Poverty Ability School Adapted from: John West-Burnham, Maggie Farrar and George Otero, 2007.

Building on… contemporary learning

Building on… Schools as Core Social Centres (SACSC)

Positioning families / positioning schools Behind the gate? At the gate? Inside the gate?

Positioning families / positioning schools The purpose of a school is to help a family educate a child. (Don Edgar 2001) The family–school–community connection has been, at best, on the margins of education policy. If quality education improves life chances for all, so then, why the gate?

Positioning families / positioning schools What gate, if learning is: Child centered Community centered Seamlessly integrated Partnered Personalised Collaborative

What might it look like? ‘They understood my language. They understood my culture. They encourage me to be involved. They taught me how to be involved. They taught me that I am the first teacher. They taught me that I can teach my children about education where ever I am through whatever I’m doing.’ Parent, LA County Office of Education 21 September 2010 CEOM Learning Better Together Study Tour

Longitudinal research Identifying indicative trends in links between Family School Partnerships Initiatives and student learning Capturing the stories of change and challenge as they unfold in the implementation of the reform effort What are the implications for capacity building and sustainability in the development of leaders in Catholic Education, in relation to family school partnerships and the link to learning outcomes?

“…family participation in education has been found to be twice as predictive of student academic success as family socio-economic status” Henderson & Mapp

Mary Tobin (Manager) John Stafford (Senior Project Coordinator) Catholic Education Office Melbourne Wellbeing & Community Partnerships