Transforming Education with Clarity: Fostering a Culture of Excellence with Loreta Kocovska

Discover the transformation journey of Windang Public School. Public education advocate with our guest, the dynamic and inspiring leader, Loreta Kocovska. This episode shines a light on Loretta's unique leadership style, her commitment to fostering a nurturing and collaborative school environment, and the importance she places on core values like respect, integrity, and excellence. Over the course of three years, Loretta has redefined the school, from the front gate to the last classroom.

We then venture into Loretta's strategic planning approach, highlighting the significance of clarity and alignment. She divulges how tools like the Clarity Learning Suite and the school's excellence framework have been instrumental in guiding the school toward its strategic goals. Don't miss out on her insights from the PL session with DEL Karen Brown and PSL Dahlia Fibs, and the exciting transformation of the school's plan into a visually engaging infographic!

Finally, we take a deep look at Loretta's innovative introduction of data walls to stimulate professional conversations about each student's needs. Learn about her emphasis on the importance of knowledge of others in supporting students and the significant cultural transformation she has driven at Windang Public School. Let's celebrate and learn from Loretta's passion and determination in fostering a culture where every child is valued, and each staff member feels engaged and appreciated. So, tune in, because this is an episode you won't want to miss!

Loretta mentioned the following authors during this podcast they are below:
Theory of action by Vivian Robinson,
https://www.amazon.com.au/Reduce-Increase-Improvement-Viviane-Robinson/dp/1506325378

John Gordon's book set:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Jon-Gordon-Box-Set/dp/1118293320/ref=sr_1_10?crid=7SBAFJWJ6PWG&keywords=John+Gordon&qid=1700262819&sprefix=john+gordon%2Caps%2C279&sr=8-10

Clarity Learning Suite: Exclusive to the NSWPPA.

https://www.nswppa.org.au/clarity-learning-suite

To view our Professional Learning Offerings visit:
https://www.nswppa.org.au/professional-learning

Transcript

Loreta: 0:00

When you work in a school and all my school colleagues and principals will absolutely appreciate this you actually watch the kids learn, you watch them grow, you watch them achieve. So all the time and effort you actually invest in these absolute, precious human beings. You see the end result when they go from year six to year seven.

Drew: 0:27

Welcome to today's podcast. Great to have you all company. Well, it gives me absolute pleasure to introduce Loretta Chovoska, who is the principal, proud principal of Wodang Public School and she is unpacking today the Clarity Learning Suite and all of the facets that goes into leading such a successful school. So I really enjoy this conversation where she unpacks all of the work of Clarity Learning Suite but also underneath that is, the foundations that she's established, particularly with school culture. So so many great takeaways. I hope you have that time to be able to really take in the learnings that Loretta and the journey that she is currently undertaking at Wodang Public School. So enjoy today's podcast.

Loreta: 1:23

Good morning Drew. My name is Loretta Chovoska.

Drew: 1:31

Fantastic Loretta Chovoska. So, Loretta, can you give us a brief understanding of when you started at Wodang Public School as the principal?

Loreta: 1:46

Early 2019, I applied for the permanent position at Wendang Public School and the rest is history, as they say, and my plan is to retire from Wendang Public School.

Drew: 2:01

Quite unquote.

Loreta: 2:05

But not in the near future.

Drew: 2:07

Of course Loretta, of course right through, and public education is such a special place for us both. What do you feel is such a strength of public education?

Loreta: 2:23

Oh, absolutely. Those of us that work in public schools know that we have our nine core values. The core values starting with respect, integrity, excellence, responsibility, cooperation, participation, care, fairness and democracy. Now, I absolutely respect and know that a lot of different systems have very similar values, but what is special about public education is it's not reliant on parents postcode for a child to be successful, it's not reliant on parents income for a child to be successful, and I think the most powerful thing about public education is we, public schools, are always on the human side. We are always advocating on the human side. We do not discriminate. It's equal opportunity for every student in every class and every child accessing quality teaching and learning, and that is absolutely what we strive here at Having a quality teacher in the classroom every day.

Drew: 3:45

Couldn't agree with you more. Well said, Loretta. Fantastic public education advocate there. That's terrific. Now tell us further. Your school's been recognised for your work in the Clarity Learning Suite. Could you give give, I guess some background into how you got into the Clarity Learning Suite and could you share some initiatives or what you've implemented to enhance a learning experience for your staff and students?

Loreta: 4:15

Sure. So in terms of Clarity, which the title is, leading, a Collaborative Learning Culture in what Matters Most in Teaching and Learning. Before I could even do that, I had a job to do as the principal of the school, and my job was to make sure that all staff, students and families had a clear understanding of the vision, that we all agreed on our vision, we all agreed on our purpose and we all agreed on our goals and, importantly, I wanted to create a culture of when you walk into Wendang Public School, I want every single person to leave with a smile, with a feeling of this is just something special here. You know, everybody seems to be happy. So I started with that notion.

Loreta: 5:15

I did as a lot of educators do, did lots of reading, spoke to an enormous amount of colleagues, and I actually started with schools that were recognised across the state and also in Victoria, who were achieving extraordinary results in terms of their culture and also their academics with their kids. So, for example, I'm referring to Blue Haven School, marston Road Public School, yates Public School and then last year, this school down in Victoria that was recognised and the principal down there was Greg Clement, who's recently published a book as well. So I guess, drew, I ask lots of different questions. I do bring the perspective from K to 12, and my conversations with principals always starts with tell me about your school, what areas in your school are you experiencing success and what are you doing that's so special? So I leverage from a lot of educators and principals who are doing extraordinary work in their schools as well. But sorry, I now digress Back to the vision, the purpose and the goals, the other thing I want to no, I wanted to go into that.

Drew: 6:47

That's great because that gives us an understanding of your leadership style. So you got background. The key message you were saying was about the culture and culture really is important and the fact. You said about people. You wanted the vision of everyone smiling as they left and come into your school. So all of that, what did you learn from speaking to the principals of those schools? Was it a similar passion and theme that you have at leading your school, or were there different versions of different schools that you could take away and implement at Windang Public School?

Loreta: 7:29

But it all came back to respect in all these schools in terms of respectful relationships between staff, between the students, between the parents, and also having respect for your environment. So children actually being respectful towards the school and the resources and the facilities they have. So, in terms of the culture, creating that culture, what I actually did drew is I started from the front gate and as I walked through the school, anything that was at Windang Public School that I thought wasn't good enough for my children, anything that wasn't good enough that I would not want in my house or my organization, it all went. Everything was then strategically planned, refurbished or rebuilt. So I am extremely proud that, working very closely with the department, the AMU department, so the assets officer that Windang Public School has been refurbished or rebuilt from outside inside in three years. So if you come and visit Windang Public School you will see everything's been done, from roofs to brand new toilets for the kids, for staff, new carpet, new blinds, new painting, new furniture. We run a one to one device program from kindergarten to year six. All the classrooms have got brand new interactive whiteboards and every classroom has a bank of devices. So I guess my message there drew is and with my staff and they know this.

Loreta: 9:18

I lead with no excuses. So if a teacher comes up and says, loretta, I need X, y and Z because it will actually help me in the classroom to teach the kids a certain way where they will actually be able to achieve what they're working towards, I will work really hard to make sure that happens. So I'm really am a no excuses principle. That's the way I like to lead the other one. In terms of culture, Drew.

Loreta: 9:48

What was really important to me is, as you know, teaching is exhausting because teachers, along with all educators, we are making lots and lots of decisions almost every second, and it's the exhaustion in terms of the depth and the breath that we're expected to know all the time and every single day, and that applies to the principal position as well. So I guess that's where the complexity is kick in. So, in terms of culture then, of course, as you know, my goal was to lead with. Lots of people have heard about flying the plane, while everybody's trying to build the plane. So I took a different strategy. I read a lot of John Gordon's books and I love his messages, and one particular message is associated to the energy bus. So what?

Loreta: 10:53

The energy bus is all about is strategically working and inviting everybody on the bus. So what I've done here, windang Public School, over the last couple of years is in terms of establishing the culture, is really talking to staff, about this notion of no energy vampires at Windang Public School. If there is an issue or a concern, please speak up but come with a solution. If you don't have a solution, keep thinking. But we definitely will have working towards a culture where we are changing the narrative in terms of being positive about the school, about the kids, about the community, about absolutely everything.

Loreta: 11:42

And I started with myself, because often you will hear people say I have to go to work today. Oh, it's Monday, I have to go to work. No, you don't have to. The fact of the matter is that you get to do that. So even just the narrative between me and my staff, like you know, I would send them email messages or you know, et cetera, and I would start I get to go to work on Monday morning and I'm super excited about it because this week is going to be the best week that we've had.

Loreta: 12:13

So just that idea about no energy vampires at Windang Public School, because what is the point of exhausting all your emotions, all your energy associated with something that you can't change. So, if so, what we've done now at Windang is, and what my goal is, we have a set vision, a set purpose, we know what our goals are and, as the principal, I am driving the bus. So driving the bus, but at the same time, upskilling and developing a fleet of bus drivers, which is very important to me, because if I don't have my fleet of bus drivers, what that means is, when I'm not at work, when I'm not here to lead, to drive the bus, the bus will take a different direction, won't it? Because lots of people have different agendas and what they want to see. So for me, it's really important the bus keeps on the road that we have all negotiated and set.

Drew: 13:19

It could be taken over by vampires by the sound of it. Well, hopefully not, Loretta, because you're making sure that I love that quote! That's fabulous. No energy vampires, and they need to come with a solution. What an innovative and open mind I can see you leading at your school. So that's, and also John Gordon's book, which we could put in a reference into our show course notes.

Drew: 13:49

Loretta, you come through with such passion. Can you tell us when did you discover clarity learning and can you tell our audience the steps of implementation of the clarity learning suite?

Loreta: 14:04

Sure. So I came across clarity late 2020, which is fairly late in my career really, but late 2020 and it was after speaking to a colleague principal colleague, shelly Fay, who was talking to me about clarity Because, as I said earlier, I like to ask lots of different questions from everybody. So what I did was I bought the book, I read the book and was just absolutely amazed and very impressed, because the way I also like to lead through is I like things to be clear, concise, but also achievable and, most importantly, the strategies to have been trialed and tested by colleagues where they have actually used these strategies and the school has transformed student learning. So the whole idea of our clarity was supporting me and supporting my executive so we can lead in what matters most in teaching and learning to transform the educational outcomes for our students. So what I'm trying to say is I came across clarity late 2021 and then early 2022, as you know, the department allocated all primary schools and assistant principal curriculum and instruction. So all of a sudden, my executive team grew with more people, which means the more people you have, the less. You have a set vision, the purpose, and everybody has their own agendas. So it was very important to me and I quickly realized I need to set the vision, I need to set the purpose, obviously in consultation with staff, students and community. So in fact, it actually took us approximately eight to nine months to develop our vision, our purpose and our goals. So it took quite a bit of time, but we are now set until 2026.

Loreta: 16:14

So, in terms of clarity, what we did Drew is we established a book club. All my executives were given a heart copy and that was for them, for their library, so they could put post-it notes through it, etc. What I also did was we paid for all the executives to enroll and complete the clarity learning suite online. There are 12 modules. So the way we approached that was we established meetings, regular meetings, two per term, and they were two hours each, and each person as part of that executive team needed to complete a module prior to our two hour meeting. So it was their role to come to the meeting and teach the rest of us what was involved in that module. So it was a really good way of managing workload for everybody because, as you can appreciate, all this work is happening while we're all employed full time.

Loreta: 17:17

So that strategy worked. It worked because it was the train-to-trainer model, so to speak, and we're still continuing on that journey. And where we started with the clarity was the three non-negotiable parameters, which is what I would recommend any school thinking about clarity, that you would start with the three non-negotiable parameters, parameter one being shared beliefs and understanding. Parameter six, which is a case management approach. And parameter 14, which is shared responsibility and accountability, which is putting faces on the data. Let's be worried. I didn't have Too much to talk to you about Druidbot. Now I think I might have a few hours.

Drew: 18:11

I love it and the passion, the passion's coming through. So the journey you've had is that cultural transformation which you've done with the whole. Walk through your whole school context, make it an open environment, establishing that culture, and then you've really honed in on, well, what is the pedagogy, what is our learning environment going to look and sound and feel like, and then also the implications of having new people into your school context. Clarity actually affirmed that culture of what your vision was. Can you tell us where that fits in against the in the New South Wales context, loretta? Where does that fit in aligning with the school plan? Was it a fairly easy match and fit Does it? Where did it fit in your strategic direction, for example?

Loreta: 19:07

Oh, absolutely so. In relation to clarity and the 14 parameters, they align nicely to the school excellence framework. That also aligns nicely to the what works best documents from CC. As you know that we access and use and it it's not one or a couple of those key strategies or frameworks a school would need. In fact, what clarity does it actually shares the what and how to make things happen?

Loreta: 19:46

The school excellence framework allows us to self assess based on the 14 parameters that we are implementing. The what works best documents provide us with case studies of successful schools, which are also included in the clarity book and online modules. So it's the three key frameworks complementing each other. It's not one or the other. And, colleagues who are new to clarity, the question always is well, why do I need clarity? Why can't I just use the school excellence framework or I'm? I'm using the CC papers. What works best and that's where I share the 14 parameters compliments the other two. It's not one or the other, because the 14 parameters gives you the what and the how, which is so powerful, with clarity, in leading in what matters most, which is teaching, the learning.

Drew: 20:52

It's the what and the how which can somewhat be missing. Principles can lead through those frameworks, but just having clarity learning suite, Would you say. The reader keeps everyone on track. It keeps everyone on the same page.

Loreta: 21:11

Absolutely what clarity provides for my leadership team, for myself, it keeps me focused. It keeps us all focused in what matters most. I keep saying it, and what's really important is we are all staying the course, because what we're doing is we are consistent in terms of our expectations and then we are also persistent in ensuring that it's actually happening as planned. Another important component to all of this, drew, is our school planning. So the school planning as part of the school improvement plan Back in 2021, we also did external validation, which set us set my team and I up nicely to actually begin the journey with clarity, with the school excellence framework, with CC case studies as well. So what we did, drew, was obviously, we created our plan, and colleagues who go to any public schools' websites can download the plan. The plan is a couple of pages and it's all text. So the first thing I did was converted the school plan into an infograph. So there's nothing magical there. You know. We just took the school plan. We have an infograph for each strategic direction and each strategic direction has two initiatives with the two different infographs. They're printed on a canvas and proudly displayed in the office for you. So what that means is when you visit Winding and you want to know about Winding public school, you just look at the free canvases and that's our total plan.

Loreta: 23:03

Again, nothing magical there. Where the magic happened, drew, was late. Last year I attended a PL session with the, with my Dell Karen Brown and the PSL, dahlia Fibs, where they led us through our three strategic directions, the actual initiatives and the purpose. So we really unpacked the purpose for each strategic direction. So, all of a sudden, the text from the school plan. We had more clarity because that included, for example I'll give you an example might be a bit easier. So we started with okay, we need to collaborate and implement evidence-based teaching across literacy and numeracy. Okay, that's great, but what does that actually mean? So we unpack that.

Drew: 24:07

Yeah, they're like there can be some more tokenistic statements, can't they those things like? But then it's like, well, what does that actually look like and feel like in a New South Wales public education school? Absolutely.

Loreta: 24:20

So for strategic direction one, we need to collaborate and implement evidence-based teaching across literacy and numeracy. Well, that's great. What does that mean? So the unpacking included. If we engage teachers in high-impact professional learning, in explicit teaching and evidence-based literacy and numeracy pedagogy, then teachers are skilled at evaluating and tailoring English and mathematics units of work so that all students improve in reading, comprehension, spelling, number sense and place value. So all of a sudden, now that has been unpacked and is much, much clearer in terms of what we need to do, a winding Now, what I did drew was this was great, but it still wasn't exactly what I wanted.

Loreta: 25:12

It's really important for me at my school for everyone to understand what their role and responsibility is. So I then took the same strategy, which is the theory of action by Vivian Robinson, and we actually then unpacked each one at several staff meetings. So what we did drew is. So, now that we understand what we need to do, I Said to all my teachers, after putting them in groups, I said to the AK as a school, for us to achieve strategic direction one, what do I need to do as your principal? Everybody loves to tell the principal what they need to be doing. My staff told me exactly what I need to be doing. I'll read a couple of dog points. They said to achieve the above. To achieve the above, the principal needs to take this action Provide time for collaboration, professional learning and planning Gradual implementation of new initiatives, provide opportunities to see models of explicit teaching and Sure resources for implementation of explicit teaching. I'm sure, perfect, thank you. All that was written by my style. Then what I said to the groups okay, now, if I'm doing my job and I'm Actioning all these dot points, what do you need from the assistant principal to support you teachers in the classroom so that our students can achieve these outcomes? Same process.

Loreta: 26:48

The teachers then all identified what there's, what their expectation was of the assistant principals Said okay, that's great. Now Can you please tell me if the principal is doing their job, if the assistant principal is doing their job, as per what you've noted, what do you expect from the students? What would you like the students to be doing? Again, they identified several dot points of the expectations of every child hey to six. Then I came all the way around when back to the teachers said right, if I, as the principal, am doing this and the assistant principals are doing their part and the students are responding and doing what you've asked them to do. What is your job in this? What do you have to do as a teacher? To support the process for our students to be literate numerate, from when they go to year six to year seven, and they can write.

Loreta: 27:48

Then the teachers actually wrote what their role and responsibility would be as part of this strategic direction, which is absolute gold, because what we have now is we have teachers committed to the school plan With explicit instructions for every initiative, so everybody understands clearly what they need to be doing To ensure this is happening. I now have mid-year check-in points and the med year check-in points is so. For example, other teachers here have written and if teachers also take this action high expectations of student engagement, explain purpose of learning. So we're talking about learning intentions and success criteria, dynamic programming responsive to student needs. So my mid-year end of year check-ins are Aligned to those dot points and the beauty of all of this is the teachers wrote this. This is what they have Drafter that, this is what has been approved, this is what has been shared with community and these are commitments from 2022 to 2026 and we are staying our course and this is the direction of the bus starting from yourself and making yourself vulnerable in that you know, and also making yourself I want to listen and showing.

Drew: 29:12

I've now, I've done this. My assistant principals. Now they're going to implement this and then, instead of taking it, good, here you further. Now, teachers, what are you going to do? How can we support you through our students? What's the expectation of students? So you've, you've, established what a good learning culture, expectation, looks like, can you? And also not only that, you've also explored Vivianne Robinson, which I'm a bit at big advocate of her work as well, through this of the theory of action. How long was that process, loretta, until you went? Okay, now we are. We are really starting to now Drive into our school plan here, through with it, with the implementation of the clarity learning suite.

Loreta: 30:04

Absolutely so. Establishing and unpacking in relation to the school plan and then having our theory of action strategy for each initiative took close to eight months. It was it took time. It was important for that time to. It was important to invest the time, because people need time to really think about exactly what they're committing to and exactly to what's going to help us to improve student outcomes and to continue on their continuous school improvement.

Drew: 30:41

So, while this is all happening, loretta, were you and your executive working through the clarity learning suite at that time before? The teachers became part of that journey as well. Is that, is that the? Am I reading that right?

Loreta: 30:58

Absolutely so. The executive and I have been on the clarity journey close to two years now. So, while all of this is happening and remembering we had COVID, leading through the complexities of COVID, shortage of teachers and everything else that happens in a school. So the executive and our yes, working through clarity over the last two years and, at the same time, working towards the positive school culture within my school. So, for example, regularly doing short, sharp activities with staff, for example, in a staff meeting, just doing the 25 fabulous things about Windang Public School. So what I did was, instead of asking staff, you know what didn't work or what do you want to stop, et cetera. The conversation is write down 10 things you absolutely love and you're very happy about that you can see at Windang Public School. So that instantly changes the narrative number one. So that changes the culture and the lots of different activities, as the one I've just shared Again, strategies that I have accessed from various different books and from principals who have been extremely successful, and that's across the globe, not just New South Wales, but Drew.

Loreta: 32:31

I just want to touch one more thing in terms of culture. What was really important to me here at Windang was that every staff member was known, is known and feels valued and appreciated and part of the school culture. So this year when we did our staff photo, I ensured that that staff photo also includes Glen, our crossing supervisor. It also includes our two cleaners, also includes the GA, the Cairnt team manager. So everybody is part of the school team because everybody's job is just as important. So, for example, if Glen's not here in the mornings to supervise the crossing, then I have to go out there, or one of my executive team. But if you make people feel valued and be genuine because they know if you're genuine or not if you make people feel valued and they're part of the team, they want to come to work. They love coming to work, which is why our attendance rate, including our students we're actually for seven weeks straight with top attendance in the network.

Drew: 33:45

Fantastic work, Loretta. You should be very proud and I'm sure you are, in terms of the same. Let's move to further into can go a couple of directions here I was going to go into you did the work with your executive. Can you go into where you're at in the journey of implementation, from moving from executive into the teacher implementation of Clarity Learning Suite.

Loreta: 34:14

Absolutely. The one thing that resonated with me from the Clarity Learning Suite was knowledgeable others how important and powerful it is to have knowledgeable others, and that's in all aspects. In terms of leading a school, I feel very privileged to be the principal and to be the leader of one of our amazing public schools in New South Wales, but I cannot do this job on my own without the knowledgeable others around me. So I've had the same commitment for my staff. So what I'm trying to share is in terms of mathematics. There was a strong need to improve mathematics across the school. So not approximately 18 months, we started our journey with Anita Chin, who is a numeracy expert across the state. She became our knowledgeable other for 12 months, upskilling dem lessons with teachers, providing feedback to teachers to really invest in teachers. So we've done that.

Loreta: 35:30

At the beginning of last term we kicked off our relationship with the 24-7 training team, who are literacy experts. So we're working closely with Mel Kase from the 24-7 training team. She's actually here today and her job is to upskill all teachers so that all the teachers at Windham Public School K-6 are strong in every aspect of literacy to support our students in the classroom. So knowledgeable others extremely important and they come in the forms of other principals, other colleagues, other teachers, our corporate colleagues and then, obviously, our consultants, who have credibility because they have led transformation across different systems, different schools, across different states With the 24-7 training team. They're also global as well, so at the moment they're our knowledgeable others, but they may not be in the future, once all the teachers are at a certain level.

Drew: 36:48

Okay. So in terms of that's great, in terms of the support mechanisms you're putting in, where does the clarity learning suite fit in that transformation for teachers?

Loreta: 37:02

That's parameter number seven, drew, which is focus, professional learning at staff meetings. It's also parameter 11, collaborative inquiry in terms of whole system approach. And again, this is why I love the 14 parameters, because they explained the why and the how, and it's the how that's the most powerful. Okay, that's great. We know what we need to do, but how are we going to make it happen? So, in terms of knowledgeable others, that works side by side with our case management approach. What the case management approach is all about is there is data and teaching and learning associated with February child. So we basically wrap around every single student at Windang Public School with the learning that they need to achieve. And we can only do that through a case management approach where we have weekly meetings with key personnel. Teachers are involved, student learning support officers are involved, school counselors involved. It just depends on the need of the child. So we are really working towards every child being literate, numerate and can write from year six to year seven and being at grade level.

Drew: 38:29

Well, it's that notion that every child can succeed which is that ethos through and you can hear it in your voice of every child can succeed, through public education, just ensuring that the parameters of successor put up so that they can actually succeed. Finally, you said you've commenced the introduction of the data walls in a staff at the start of this term, 2023, and you said that it's transformed the professional conversation among teachers in the staff room. Can you go into that a little bit further of how that has happened in such a short period of time, or would you say it's that build up prior work, that it's just naturally progressed?

Loreta: 39:15

Honestly, I am very proud of our data wall as my executive and teachers, and the reason we're very proud of our data wall is it's actually now allowed us to have professional conversations about the needs of every student and really knowing every student from kindergarten to year six. We have just under 200 kids at our school and I can share with you that I know all the kids names, I know exactly where they're sitting in terms of their learning, and so do my teachers. So the data wall happened and the conversations were transformed overnight because the conversation. So I'll give you an example. So, for example, there are different sections of the data wall. Section number one is K to 2, and what we have is we use the Australian decodables K to 2. So we have our data wall that identifies every child in terms of how they are going with learning to read. They are aligned on the data wall based on their level and what happens is teachers are standing there and having conversations. Now there are nine levels associated with the Australian decodables.

Loreta: 40:43

So, as a principal and also as my executive, I often, if not every day, will go and have a look at the data. The next day I'll do the same. The next day, I'll do the same, and after a fortnight, if a child hasn't progressed, the conversation with the teacher is instant. It's okay. Well, such and such has been here. What have you done over the last fortnight? What support do you need from the learning and support team so we can support you for such and such to actually improve?

Loreta: 41:16

So what the data wall has allowed us to do is to not miss any child. No children are being lost for the net. Every child is known and the data and how they are progressing is on that wall. Because I get it like a lot of all the data is in a spreadsheet, it's in a software program somewhere, but it's not visual, it's not right there in your face and you can't hide when it's there in front of you. And the beauty of having the data wall is teachers. The conversation they are having is oh, I had such and such last year and this is what I tried and it worked really well for them. Maybe you might want to give that a go, if we have. Well, we would, because all schools do children who are not progressing for a full day of learning every day.

Drew: 42:17

Yeah, so where do the data walls? Where do they exist in your school context?

Loreta: 42:26

In the staff room. The data wall includes tracking for the Australian Decodable Readers, K-2. Then we have a data wall aligned to the learning progressions. We have understanding text and we have creating text. We also have the data wall for our NAP plan results. We also have a data wall for our phonics assessment as well, and we also have information associated with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children as well. There are 18% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children at Windang Public School and I'm absolutely proud to share that. They are on par or doing better than all the children at our school, Because at Windang we believe high expectations for every single child.

Drew: 43:22

Do the staff get overwhelmed with the amount of data that they're looking at, or how is that managed? Because it's visual, it's easy to unpack and understand and they understand the purpose.

Loreta: 43:37

Absolutely so. Every four weeks all staff have a professional data planning day and at those four weeks staff are led by an assistant principal. We have the data conversations and staff are actually teachers are creating a data action plan, so they are actually officially updating the data wall every four weeks. But I often see teachers throughout the week or when children progress. They'll quickly just go move that child's photo to where they should be. The feedback from staff has been extraordinary. The feedback from staff has been so positive that I wish I did it a few years back.

Drew: 44:25

For fellow principals or educational leaders considering clarity learning sweet. What advice would you give them?

Loreta: 44:34

Why the books. Hand out the book to the executives. Start with the three non-negotiables, even if you start with parameter number one. It's really important to have that shared belief and understanding amongst your team. If you do not have that, it makes it extremely difficult. I would strongly suggest, in terms of building the school culture and starting with the notion of are you an energy vampire? You should self assess yourself. If you are going to work and you are being negative, that is going to show in your style. So the first thing I did was I self reflected and thought, okay, if I don't want any energy vampires in my school, well, I need to not be an energy vampire myself. I need to stay positive and just lead with that passion and excitement. And really, andrew, it's all about the students. Students come first.

Drew: 45:46

You haven't been an energy vampire today. You've been full of energy, full of enthusiasm. It's been a pleasure to get to know you further through our podcast today and for our audience. Loretta, thank you very much for your time today.

Loreta: 46:04

I really appreciate it, thank you.