St Raphael's School Blog

St Raphael's School was invited to speak at the 2023 Catholic Education South Australia (CESA) symposium 'A Day with Lyn Sharratt' at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Dr Lyn Sharratt has been working closely with CESA on their 'Blueprint for Step Change' school and system improvement strategy.

St Raphael's School staff have been working with Lyn Sharratt's Clarity Learning Suite and were honoured to be chosen to share their school's achievements in teaching and learning with all Catholic schools in South Australia. This is a credit to all the hard working staff at St Raphael’s school.

The symposium was spent engaging in the 14 principles of school improvement and further ensuring these core principles are embedded into everything that St Raphael's School does.

The key principles that have had the most significant impact for St Raphael's School include:

Parameter #1: Shared Beliefs and Understandings

Parameter #3: Quality Assessment informs instruction

Parameter #5: Early and Ongoing Intervention

Parameter #6: Case Management Approach

Parameter #7: Focused Professional Learning at Staff Meetings

Parameter #14: Shared Responsibility and Accountability

The key elements the school has adopted as a result of this engagement include:

• Learning Intentions and Success Criteria
• Bump It Up
• Walls Case Management Meetings
• Data Walls
• Assessment to inform instruction
• Learning Walks and Talks
• Early and ongoing intervention

The St Raphael's School leadership team conducts weekly learning walks and talks with each class.

During these sessions they ask the children these five questions:

1. What are they learning and why?

2. How are you doing?

3. How do you know?

4. How can you improve?

5. Where can you go to for help?

These five essential questions inform staff of the impact the above principles have had in the classroom, help them to know what the student knows, and how the teachers are tracking with their professional learning and implementation in the classroom.

St Raphael's School encourages their learners to know how to take charge of their own learning and to 'know what to do when they don't know what to do'.