Broken Hill High School

Schools context

Broken Hill High School (BHHS) has approximately 750 students and 58 teaching staff. The school management plan identifies three main directions:

addressing the educational needs of Aboriginal students
development of the school curriculum to meet student needs and outcomes
quality teaching and learning.

Burke Ward Public School is located in Broken Hill, it was first established in 1895. The school caters for 400 students from kindergarten to year six in a supportive and caring learning environment. There are a high percentage of beginning and early career teachers, due to the geographical location of Broken Hill. Broken Hill is a city of decreasing population a result of the gradual downgrading of mining operations. Broken Hill has been identified by a state survey as being in the bottom five percent economically disadvantaged for rural areas. Four new scheme teachers participated in the project.

Project outline

Quality teaching of Aboriginal perspectives in teaching and learning seeks to address Aboriginal perspectives in classroom pedagogy and to evaluate current best practice strategies. It will do this by:

developing links with feeder schools
conducting lesson observations
establishing a learning team
researching pedagogical approaches to teaching Aboriginal perspectives
involving Aboriginal personnel in the project
providing time for new scheme teachers to plan, develop and implement teaching and learning programs professional growth for new scheme teachers Follow this link to view a sample unit of work
'Bush tucker meets cyber space'
Follow this link to view a sample unit of work
'The Body as a canvas' with an embedded Aboriginal perspective
team teaching the strategies then evaluating and refining and repeating the cycle.

Collegial team approach

The view of the project group was that by approaching the Institute of Teachers Teaching Standards as a collegial team, it helped to relieve the feelings of "fear" and "stress" being experienced by new scheme teachers towards having to meet all the standards. The support and sharing of different strategies and ideas has helped to improve the professional teaching practices of the new scheme teachers. The project raised awareness of the Teaching Standards, particularly Element 5, in the whole school perspective. Collegial team learning activities improved professional dialogue and discussion of the teaching standards and Aboriginal perspectives among those involved in the project.

Project outcomes

Project outcomes included:

improved professional dialogue and discussions
improved understanding of the Institute of Teachers Teaching Standards
identifying support networks i.e. School Education Officers who can be accessed by all staff for support
improved understanding of the requirements of the Institute of Teachers Teaching Standards, in particular Element 5, and the impact on the teachers' teaching and learning processes
improved and more confident understanding of implementing Aboriginal perspectives into the units of work
participants developed programs/units of work and student handouts that reflects the project's aim and Aboriginal focus and implemented them into their teaching programs. Follow this link to view Broken Hill High School final report