At Courtenay Gardens, we have a whole school focus on improving test scores and literacy comprehension through non-fiction writing. This is probably one of the reasons why we have some of the highest scores in the state in this area. Our rationale for this is based on the most up-to-date educational research by the distinguished Dr.Douglas Reeves from Harvard University.
Classrooms across the network where students and teachers are engaged in the craft of writing is the vision for our school. A community of writers focused on the exploration of the stages of writing - planning, drafting, revising, editing, publishing, exchanging, collaborating and reflecting on writing. When children write every day, as educators we have boundless opportunities to gather information and focus instruction on areas of like needs.
Writing improvement has been a major focus at Courtenay Gardens Primary School and is a priority area in our School Strategic Plan. Teaching non-fiction writing in a targeted whole-school approach has resulted in the transformation of teaching, learning and children’s writing standards.
Our program was inspired by the work of Douglas Reeve (the founder of the Leadership and Learning Centre in the U.S.). Our Principal attended a NAESP Conference in April 2006 in San Antonio, USA. We took on the emphasis on non-fiction writing. Now we have a laser like focus on student achievement, multiple opportunities for student success and collaborative scoring of student work.
Courtenay Gardens' aim is to improve whole school data through a team approach to non-fiction writing. The results have been outstanding.
The model is based on key change elements including
Further success of this program has been evident in the sharing of the model with the Cranbourne Network. It has resulted in 19 of the 25 schools adopting the non-fiction
Writing approach. It is tremendous to observe the transfer of this model across the network and how adaptable it has become. It reaches far wider as the network comes together and develops common approaches to teaching and learning.
As each school begins their journey they are given guidance with the implementation model. Schools are given further support through mini professional development sessions, school visits and collegiate collaboration.
Some of the best practice in the state is happening in our network and is now being communicated across the network with the shared focus of non fiction writing. All schools involved are working together on the prioritised goal of improvement in Writing. This commitment has lead to rich collaboration and a buzz of excitement as leaders, teachers and students work together to improve student learning. This single improvement has led to promoting successful writers right across a network.
We will continue to focus on developing the key writing elements in our school, and on fully embedding the writing program into all network schools. We aspire to see how the secondary and specialist schools. The Network now has established a Strategic plan 2008-2010 goal to improve student outcomes in writing by 2010.
As apart of our Design Team action research we will travel to the USA to visit Norfolk, Virginia and North Carolina to observe Doug Reeves’ Schools. Our focus will be to share best practice with these schools and share how they maintain their outstanding results.
