National Partnerships
LOW SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS (SES) SCHOOL COMMUNITIES

PROJECTS

A range of strategies have been developed in consultation with schools participating in the National Partnership Agreement on Low Socio-Economic Status School Communities. These include professional learning in:

• understanding and interpreting data; and in using this data to inform school and classroom programs
• effective and evidence- based teaching
• providing differentiation in the classroom to better target individual student needs
• managing the class and orchestrating lessons in ways that lead to improved learning
• understanding the requirements of the NAPLAN assessments, and in embedding strategies that lead to sustained improvement in student achievement.

Schools are also provided with support in:

• adopting innovative teaching practices that lead to improved performance (for example, accessing authors and artists and incorporating innovative practices into their own teaching programs)
• accessing services offered by community organizations and other service providers
• developing stronger family and community links.

In addition:

• Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) has been trialled in 2009 in a few remote communities in the Independent sector and will be offered to a larger number of Low SES school communities.
• Work is underway in remote communities in the Kimberley and Pilbara with small secondary cohorts to ensure the students are positioned to achieve recognised accredited qualifications through the Western Australian Curriculum Council. Support for the staff in these schools to deliver secondary standard education and to provide opportunities for students to access VET training will be extended.