Ringwood Alliance overview

The role of the Site Director is to build collaborative and supportive educational partnerships that bring together preservice teachers, school communities and Deakin University. School communities include the principal teams in schools, preservice teacher coordinators, mentors and teachers.

Working within schools the Site Director develops relationships with school communities to provide support to all within the community. Specifically in relation to preservice teacher placements, the Site Director is a support to the preservice teacher and the mentor.

For the mentor, they never need to feel that they are on their own and have to make difficult decisions about the preservice teacher without support. Any concerns or support that is needed can be sought from the Site Director. This means the Site Director is available for conversations, site visits, observations, etc.

For the preservice teacher, the Site Director is also a support when required. The Site Director has a check-in meeting with each preservice teacher and each preservice teacher will be involved in at least one Assessment Circle with other preservice teachers. As with mentors, this support can also be conversations, site visits, observations, etc.

While there are commonalities across alliances, the Site Director within a specific alliance will do things differently to other alliances to address the needs of the schools they work with. In the Ringwood Alliance, Dr Ceridwen (CC) Owen is the Site Director (that’s me). I have adapted the structures that all alliances use to be specific to the Ringwood Alliance, based on the needs of preservice teachers, mentors and schools.

Before placement begins, I am in touch with preservice teachers to induct them into the Ringwood Alliance and set them up for success. I also ask preservice teachers for some initial information to be shared with their mentors. This means that mentors can plan for the needs of the preservice teacher prior to the first day. I then directly contact the mentor with this information, or it is passed to the mentor through the PST Coordinator in the school.

In the first week of placement each preservice teacher will have an onsite check-in with me. This is usually 15 minutes and it is a chance for the preservice teacher to:

• Get to know me

• Clarify the requirements of placement

• Set goals for the placement

• Design any support that will be needed

• Show me around their classroom and potentially introduce me to their mentor.

These are facilitated by me, and include a small group of preservice teachers. They can also include:

• The preservice teacher’s mentor

• Academic mentors from Deakin University

• A member of the leadership team within the school

Assessment Circles are a round-table discussion with preservice teachers discuss with others in the room their experience, their developing understanding of education and practice and the goals they set at the beginning of placement. The discussions are grounded in the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.

Additionally, the Ringwood Alliance in 2023 are trialling the use of Learning Walks as stimulus for the Assessment Circles. These are where a member of staff in a school walks with the Site Director and preservice teachers and there is an examination of the teaching and learning that is occurring across the school.

This becomes an opportunity for preservice teachers to consider different learning spaces from the one they have been in for placement. And, if they are coming from a different school, they also get to consider different learning contexts.

Both Learning Walks and round-table professional discussions are expected of teachers within the profession. Therefore, Assessment Circles are an excellent opportunity for preservice teachers to develop their skill in this approach to professional learning often utilised in schools.