Recording

Resources

Serpentine Primary Resources

Background

We brought together Principals and APs/DPs for our fourth Principals’ Forum on 19 August 2021.

This session was open to all Principals and Assistant Principals. Come to future meetings to discuss, share, and ask our panel about their school improvement journeys.

About the Panel

Serpentine Primary School

Chelsea Primary School

Kendall Lange, Principal

Kendall Lange is an experienced educator who has taught at a range of schools across Western Australia and internationally in London. He has spent the last 5 years as principal of Serpentine Primary School and in that time gained Independent Public School status, successfully completed the Fogarty EdVance Program and overseen a dramatic improvement in student achievement and school culture. He was previously the Principal of Tambellup Primary School, a school with an excellent reputation in the field of Aboriginal Education, which was recognised an Exemplary School by the WA Education Department Expert Review Group in 2012. He is a firm believer in using evidence based practices and making effective use of the last Education research to improve outcomes for students.

Stephanie Le Lievre, Deputy Principal

Stephanie Le Lievre is a Deputy Principal & Level 3 Classroom Teacher with a background in speech pathology. She spent five years in the Kimberley region as a Literacy Coordinator with a large involvement in the Kimberley Schools Project. She is now the Deputy Principal of Serpentine Primary School and the Think Forward Educators representative for the WA branch.

Over the past five years Serpentine Primary have developed our own teaching and learning handbook detailing our whole school evidence-based approaches to classroom instruction, lesson design, planning expectations and assessment in order to ensure improved teacher knowledge and achieve a greater level of consistency between classrooms. We have developed a fine grained curriculum in literacy and numeracy and invested heavily in our performance development process, implementing a coaching model involving regular coaching sessions, lesson observations, video reflections and goal setting.

This had led to the creation of our High Quality Teaching matrix, a document outlining various levels of proficiency in all key areas of literacy and numeracy and providing teachers with a clear pathway for improvement. Across the school we have a consistent approach to data collection with assessments carefully selected, benchmarked and colour coded for teachers based on school and grade level expectations. This also informs our performance development processes allowing us to use student achievement data to inform discussions about staff strengths and areas for improvement.

Taylor Irish, Principal

Taylor Irish is an aspirational principal who is a dad of four children under the age of 9 and a sports loving fitness advocate. Balancing a role as a dad, principal and still trying to get a kick in local football. It's hectic & chaotic at times, but I wouldn't change a thing, love leading my school and being a great role model to my kids and the broader community.

Christine Hulse – Curriculum leader for year P-2 is an experienced and knowledgeable teacher who has the perfect balance of warmth and being assertive. Has been a teacher at Chelsea for 10 years.

Tanya Whiteside – Curriculum leader for 3-6 is a dynamic, approachable doer, she gets things done, she goes about her business quietly, she is knowledgeable, flexible, and open minded leader. Has been at Chelsea since mid-2020.

At Chelsea Primary, we are on a learning journey. As for all schools, COVID-19 has slowed things down with regards to implementing the practices on a consistent basis. However, the pandemic has given us the opportunities to access free professional learning and continue to build that capacity across the school for all staff, not just our teachers, but our integration aides as well.