Kylee Owen, C4E Highly Accomplished Teacher (HAT)
At the end of Term 3, the Minister for Education, Verity Firth announced that Chatham High School was to become a Centre for Excellence to improve the quality of teaching in schools. Our school was one of only 35 schools in the state and one of only two secondary schools in the North Coast Region selected to be one of the Centres for Excellence as part of the Smarter Schools National Partnership on Improving Teacher Quality.
The inclusion of our school in this initiative recognises the sustained quality teaching practices that have led to the continued improvement in student learning we have witnessed over time. It is also recognition of our ability to share our learning with other schools and we will work with a cluster group of schools as part of this initiative. The goal of the Centres for Excellence initiative is to demonstrate, develop and share high quality teaching, leading to improved learning outcomes for students. We will do this by combining resources and expertise we already have to provide quality teaching for our students with new resources and additional expertise that we will access through the initiative. The new resources include additional staffing and funds to support the operation of the program.
We will also form a partnership with a university to further support quality teaching and learning. This partnership will focus on professional experience placement and supervision of teaching students; support for early career teachers and reciprocal professional learning opportunities for staff from both the university and our school. I will be negotiating this partnership with the university over the next few months.
We will operate as a Centre for Excellence for two years. It is a great opportunity to combine our understanding of teaching and learning with additional support and resources for continued strong outcomes for our school communities.
Congratulations to all! This is a huge achievement and challenge for Chatham High School. The selection of our school reflects the consistent work and support over the years by our students, teachers, parents and community.
Below is the news story shown in October 2010, compliments of Prime Television Taree.