Case Studies

In relation to the partnering approach, there is  a dynamic continuum that can help the school and partners to understand what level of support and care is needed:

• Networking – connecting at events, exchanging information and accessing as needed. The school’s relationship with key professional organisations and with WSBC (Western Sydney Business Connection) are examples of where networking is valuable.

• Cooperating – sharing resources around a common area of interest or need. The school’s long standing partnering relationship with the local Public Schools (the Learning Neighborhood) is a good example.

• Collaborating – shaping and sharing the partnering purposes, principles and processes to address key student needs. The school’s partnering relationships with the Origin Foundation, Social Ventures Australia and WSU Diversity programs are examples of this level of partnering.

• Embedding – there are visible demonstrations of evidence of the partnering relationship becoming part of the organisation’s cultural habits of sharing information, taking mutual risks, driving trust and cooperation and telling stories of why partners, students, staff and families value the ongoing relationship and continue to commit to its impact. The school’s partnering relationship with key health agencies and Sydney University  through the SALSA (Students as Lifestyle Activists) program, the LEAP (Lawyers Engaging Adolescents Program) relationship and the Apprenticeship Engagement Forum (co-designing the Trade Maths course) are examples of deeply embedded partnering relationships that add significant value to student learning, improvement and outcomes.

What difference? What were the big shifts? 

• There is little value to the school in changing its work and partnering practices unless the changes create improvement for students. The level of commitment and resourcing this school has made to being innovative in exploring “next practice” in partnering with business, not-for-profit, university and educational organisations was driven by evidence and research that partnering in expansive educational opportunities is of particular benefit to those students whose families cannot create privately funded opportunities.

• In a range of case studies (conducted by ACARA, NSW DoE and Social ventures Australia) there is evidence of impact and of how the shifts in practice and partnering have sustained an “appetite” for innovation, expansive education, adaptability, responsiveness and creativity in the school’s culture.

• Emerging evidence that the alignment of school agency, teacher agency and student agency was fundamental to the school’s recognition as “excelling” in all 14 elements of the School Excellence Framework at external validation in August 2019 was one of the major shifts achieved and that, a new approach to “partnering” was building the capacity of the school, its leaders and the staff.

• By changing school and staff work practice in relation to partnering and working with partners in an equitable relationship, the school now holds evidence of considerable shift for students who, by participating in more expansive curricular (Trade Maths), co-curricular (SALSA, Entrepreneurial Learning) and extra-curricular (Origin Foundation, ABCN and WSU Diversity) partnerships, have developed their own capabilities, have work samples for their learning portfolios, better understand their strengths and their own planned learning journeys and a greater confidence in taking agency for their learning and life choices.

• At the end of this project, the school has operationalised its new approaches to partnering into identifying, selecting, working with and tracking the progress of partnering relationships. The school, staff and students have moved from thinking “partners” only deliver the partner’s program to a point where partnering is an ongoing interaction, collaboration and two-way communication to design and implement only those initiatives that will add value through the relationship, not just the program.