Entrepreneurial Learning Case Studies 

CASE STUDY – Rooty Hill High School, Sydney NSW (reprinted with permission form the Senior Secondary Pathways Review report – Shergold et al)

Rooty Hill High School in Western Sydney is committed to student agency as a core platform of the school’s commitment to ensuring every student is “known, valued and cared for”. One of the key strategies by which students are encouraged to be active contributors and owners of their personalised learning experience is through the use of a Learning Portfolio called #MyLearning Hub.

Each Rooty Hill High School student uses their Learning Portfolio from Year 7 to provide work samples demonstrating their progress towards or achievement at Stage level of the ACARA and NESA capabilities.  Each individual portfolio and the uploaded documents are held electronically on the school’s Google domain. Students are responsible for identifying specific work samples (from curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular learning as well as other community, business and learning contexts), which they then upload to the Portfolio and annotate. The annotation is a key step as students have to use the language of the capabilities and explain how their work samples provides evidence of progress or achievement. Each entry is validated by a teacher, peer or community or business partner. 

By using the Learning Portfolio, students learn over time to recognise that capabilities and dispositions are learnt, demonstrated and deployed in a wide range of contexts.  Student-led curation of their own learning enables them to see and make connections between their academic and non-academic activities, and the learning transfer to and from the real world of work and further study.

The Learning Portfolio supplements the traditional academic reports for students, parents, employers and tertiary partners.  As a tool, it allows students to articulate and evidence their skills, capabilities and dispositions when making applications for scholarships, employment and tertiary entry programs. As a self-assessment task, it allows students to go beyond traditional teacher-driven assessment and feedback to a position where students can explain what they know about the ways of knowing, doing and being in each capability and in each subject.

Given the demography of the school-community at Rooty Hill High School, building the capacity of students to self-assess, self-report and articulate their knowledge and capability is fundamental to their agency at and beyond school.

Sources: Rooty Hill High School submission 108

Submission background and context paper