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Case Studies

Bellfield Primary School

Background

Bellfield Primary School has been described as being a unique school. Situated in Ivanhoe, it can be described as an inner suburban school which is surrounded by private schools.

Bellfield Primary falls within the 'Like Schools' Group 8/9 category and has a very high Student Family Occupation (Word - 22Kb) index. Twenty five percent of the students come from a Language Background Other Than English (LBOTE), twelve percent from a Koori background, and over 85 percent of families receive Education Maintenance Allowance.

Starting Point

The beginning for the curriculum reform at Bellfield began approximately 10 years ago; there were frequent instances of student violence, and aggressive, non-compliant behaviour together with a general student disengagement with the school teaching and learning program. Prior to 1996, whilst there was dissatisfaction displayed by the staff, they seemed content with maintaining the status quo. However, the opinion surveys and student achievement data showed a significant discrepancy in how the community viewed the school. The staff believed that they could break the student body into thirds and organise their teaching around these groups. It was soon discovered that the top third of students were also underperforming when measured against the states minimum benchmarks. Behaviour became a serious issue in the school and the staff decided that they needed to alter the curriculum and its delivery to accommodate the student's needs and teach the students effectively.

Bellfield faced declining enrolments and social issues pertaining specifically to their particular cohort of students. They service a community which has high levels of socially and economically disadvantaged family groups. As a school, they set out to write their own curriculum reform with the help of Dr John Munro from Melbourne University. He assisted staff to reflect on the current situation and to develop strategies for curriculum change. The primary focus was on literacy, especially phonics. Together they looked at the pillars that underpinned the learning and the teaching in the school. Moving knowledge from the short term memory to the long term memory became a fundamental approach to learning, especially with regard to the enhancement of literacy skills. A systematic phonics program was developed with Dr Munro. This was taught explicitly and repeated regularly (daily) to embed the learning and to move the knowledge and skills from the student's short to their long term memory.

Critical self analysis played a big part in the reform of Bellfield Primary School, staff and the leadership team looked closely at the standards of school performance and focussed on the strengths and weaknesses. Strategies for success, including how to raise the achievement of the cohort were a particular focus. Coupled with this was a focus on the health and wellbeing of the students. Substantial curriculum change saw an increase in literacy expectations across the school. The schools strategic plan saw not only a change in the management but also literacy improvement across all year levels. The curriculum underwent constant change and development to adjust to the improvement in student learning outcomes. Expectations were constantly adjusted and increased.

Bellfield Primary worked with Dr Munro to stabilise the teaching of literacy skills and to ensure that all staff were teaching the skills that were required to succeed in school and in the wider community. There was an emphasis on "time on task" and high expectations that all students can learn. Coupled with this, Bellfield utilised frequent evaluation (Word - 55Kb) of student progress through assessment. The process began with the identification of strategies for improving learning and student outcomes and then moved through a process of modelling relevant teaching procedures, support, guidance, debriefing and feedback. The school, having improved the literacy teaching and subsequently the literacy outcomes of the students, has as its next target a focus on assessment, reporting and mentoring.

Links to the Equity Guidelines

The Blueprint for Government Schools highlighted the disparity in student outcomes across the government school system, with some young people not achieving acceptable outcomes. It recognises that some schools and some regions have a high concentration of poor student outcomes. There are large variations in outcomes between students within schools and between schools with similar student populations.

The Department of Education and Training Equity Guidelines advocate that programs and strategies for students from low socio-economic backgrounds should be incorporated into whole school planning and not simply be another 'add on' to the running of the school. Utilising the Effective Schools Model, a whole school approach and addressing the needs of these students in all teaching and learning areas will assist to raise the achievement levels of students across all domains of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards.

Effective schools for students from low socio-economic backgrounds, like Bellfield Primary School, are able to support students from all socio-economic backgrounds to realise their full potential. Inherent in this is a belief that students from low socio economic backgrounds do not necessarily require a different approach. Instead, all students should be supported in a similar way. At Bellfield Primary school it is argued. '... that current knowledge and abilities should be identified and new learning should be scaffolded to cater for this level of understanding. However, most importantly, goals and expectations for each student should not be related to state and national education 'standards', but rather they should be set towards a process of CONTINUOUS improvement, for none of us can gauge an individual's potential.

The following considerations for whole school planning, developed using the Effective Schools Model, offer schools advice for strategic use of Equity funding to implement programs that support students most in need of assistance.

The programs outlined and designed by Bellfield Primary School demonstrate a clear and thorough link to various components of the Equity Guidelines. Click on segments of the model to view the advice or choose from the links below.

  • Stimulating and secure learning environment -A secure environment is important if learning is to occur for any student. Bellfield has invested time and energy in ensuring that the grounds and buildings are kept neat and tidy. Coupled with this, the classrooms are decorated with work in progress to support student learning and students are welcomed to the school by friendly staff. The halls are bright and the school well maintained.
  • Professional leadership - School leaders play a crucial role in supporting students from low socio-economic backgrounds. At Bellfield, students are addressed in the manner in which teachers are expected to be addressed. Consensus is sought from the staff regarding the curriculum program and students are encouraged to use the staff as a resource and direct their own learning. This professional leadership drives the students and the staff to succeed in education. The relationships fostered through this approach to the teaching of the curriculum really solidifies the students desire to learn. It is the relationships that are found within the school that act as a catalyst and drive the learning. The former Principal John Fleming advocates that children only need three things in order to learn effectively:
    • A teacher they trust and get along with;
    • Work at their level of ability;
    • Friends
    • At Bellfield, the staff strive to provide all students with the tools for their success.
  • Focus on learning and teaching - Schools which cater for students from low socio-economic backgrounds need to ensure that teachers and the leadership team operate with the same ethical and value system; the beliefs and understandings regarding the student's ability to learn radiate outwards to all other aspects of the teaching and learning process. The passion, determination and vision of the staff lead to strategic change pertaining to the beliefs and understandings of students from low socio-economic backgrounds. At Bellfield the curriculum has been designed and written for all staff and they receive it as a package. Staff are handed this package when they start at Bellfield. In this respect, the WHAT of teaching has been removed for them and staff are asked to focus on the HOW and the WHY of raising the achievements of students.
  • Purposeful teaching - Effective schools teach with purpose. Bellfield's educative purpose is to extend the education of the students that attend this setting with a particular inference on improving literacy standards. Bellfield dedicated a full three year cycle of their triennial review to improving the standards and the teaching of literacy. The school has groupings that remain within the traditional setting and they also use ability groupings across the school. Students and parents see this school as one which will endeavour to teach them the literacy and numeracy skills they need in order to succeed in society. They utilise the teachings/ research of Ruby Payne (1996 and 2000) (http://www.ahaprocess.com/) that states the curriculum needs to be real for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Similarly, they utilise other research: USA Learning Panel, and the 1967-2005 Project Follow Through (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~adiep/ft/151toc.htm). Bellfield disciplines through the use of real life metaphor and continual reminders to the students of the hidden rules they need to use in order to succeed in a middle class school environment. Added to this is the belief that students learn from their successes, not their mistakes. Bellfield promotes the longevity of learning and to do this they use teaching strategies matched to the learning styles and needs of their students to engage them with that content. For example in 2001 the maths program was restructured into 4 locally developed 'strands' (Word - 586Kb) . These were taught weekly thus allowing different topics to be revisited each week rather than, for example, teaching 3 weeks of fractions in term 2 and then not revising the knowledge and skills developed until several months later.
  • Shared vision and goals - The school community's shared vision and goals relate directly to their education principles and educative purpose. At the beginning of each year 'key curriculum area recommendations' (Word - 40Kb) are developed and presented as consistent expectations for all staff and classrooms. These are developed from June Evaluation comments and recommendations from staff and also from areas of need identified during whole school weekly Professional Development sessions. Relationships between staff, students, parents and the wider community reflect the school's goals and pillars for success. Relationships are fundamental to the successful teaching of students from low socio-economic backgrounds and the way relationships are fostered between student and teacher have become a crucial part of the professional conversation at Bellfield Primary. One of the fundamental visions for the school and its community is that all students will increase their literacy levels whilst they attend the school. The assessment of the students is both formative and summative and links directly with the Department of Education and Training's assessment and reporting advice:
    • Assessment for learning occurs when teachers use inferences about student progress to inform their teaching.
    • Assessment as learning occurs when students reflect on and monitor their progress to inform their future learning goals.
    • Assessment of learning occurs when teachers use evidence of student learning to make judgements on student achievement against goals and standards.
    • The former Principal John Fleming advocates using assessment as a tool for success. He has instilled in the staff a few 'givens' in the way Bellfield Primary School operates:
    • All work is corrected. If a teacher sets work and then does not correct it, immediately this work is devalued.
    • Student progress is to be monitored continuously. Teachers are to use the class time as direct learning opportunities for students.
    • Specific benchmarks will be set for the students. Using the minimum benchmarks as set by the state is again devaluing the education process and the fact that all students have the ability to learn.
    • No excuses. If a student does not reach the desired outcome for the area taught, the question is on the effectiveness of the teaching, not the learning. Student progress is discussed at staff Performance and Development Reviews for each staff member and monitored by the school leadership, in area teams and at subsequent Performance and Development review meetings.
    • Slavin's success for all attitude has been adopted and it is now evident all aspects of the school.
    • Raising students' achievement is a matter of belief -responsibility for the teaching and learning is not a blame or criticism scenario but rather a shared responsibility between teachers, team members and leadership. It is always supportive.
  • High expectations for all learners - Effective schools and teachers expect that every student has the ability to learn - they endeavour to ensure that every learner is successful. At Bellfield it is expected that every student will give each task their best effort, they expect that the students will be in the right place at the right time and they expect high learning standards. It is these expectations that drive the whole school community to success. Research has shown, in Australia and around the world that high expectations that teachers have of their students actually contributes to the discipline involved in self directing learning. Schools that cater for students from low socio-economic backgrounds sometimes tend to lower the expectations they have of their students. This is not the case at Bellfield. The concept of high expectations is driven through the curriculum delivery and through the relationships teachers build with their students. High expectations and student achievement is always the focus of school based Professional Development (weekly) and team meetings. Over a period of time with gradual increases in levels of expectation for students the staff have seen results for themselves - 'success breeds success'. Staff find this very rewarding and exciting and now the level of expectation is mostly driven by the staff. The change at Bellfield has been gradual and manageable. Change in curriculum early in the process resulted in learning improvement and the beliefs followed when this progress was visible. A key to this is regular and meaningful assessment of learning and very transparent presentation of school data to the staff.
  • Learning communities - Learning communities like Bellfield share a common vision, values and objectives. They work collaboratively to enhance the curriculum delivery, teaching strategies and assessment for their students. Learning communities are comprised of individuals with diverse expertise and knowledge. The diversity is celebrated and social rules are explicitly taught in order to help the students survive in their local community. This can be seen explicitly through the development of the timetable and the program provisions. 

Visions for the future

The 'journey' for Bellfield Primary has been an exciting one. The implementation of the various policies and programs described above has seen much change to the teaching and learning at Bellfield; there is no doubt that it was a hard journey but the school is reaping the rewards now.

At present, expectations are high, learning outcomes are met, classroom behaviour issues are down, student suspensions are down and teacher stress level is down.

Further information

For further information about the programs run at Bellfield Primary School please contact the school by email bellfieldps@edumail.vic.gov.au or phone on 03 94994697.