December 2023 Members Newsletter

A note from Jenny

I can’t believe it’s December already. Happy holidays to our colleagues in Queensland. For everyone else, it’s not long now until we call time on the 2023 school year.

And what a year it’s been!

Some highlights for our team this month include an international visitor at our recent Armidale workshop, hosting a QT webinar for secondary music teachers and running a workshop for our friends in several Environmental Education Centres.

My personal highlights for 2023 include the launch of our Strengthening Induction through QTR project with Education Minister Jason Clare (read more about that here) and completing our massive five-year Building Capacity for Quality Teaching in Australian Schools project.

This project set out to comprehensively test what difference QTR could make to the lives of teachers and students – and the results are impressive. Our final report to the Paul Ramsay Foundation is linked below, and I encourage you all to read and share.

Thank you for all your support in 2023. We look forward to working with you again in the new year. I hope you have a happy and safe festive season with your friends and loved ones.

Laureate Professor Jenny Gore
Founder of the QT Academy & Director of the Teachers and Teaching Research Centre

Reflecting on 2023

The QT Academy has had an incredibly busy and rewarding year. The team successfully engaged with almost 1,000 participants through a series of PD workshops, both online and in-person, spanning various locations across Australia. We conducted a total of 55 workshops addressing key aspects of quality teaching, assessment, and curriculum planning.

The team also conducted eight webinars, providing a digital platform for educators to access valuable insights and strategies. Plus, we can’t forget QTiP23, a conference which drew the attendance of more than 280 dedicated educators.

A few highlights from our team this year include:

• Seeing the positive rapport and collegiality which is so quickly established at workshops between teachers from diverse contexts and stages of their careers.
• Moving from the classroom to the QT Academy and exploring the significance and power of the relationship between theory, research and practice.
• Facilitating a QTR workshop in Sweden in September and seeing how easily the QT Model and workshop can be shared across cultures and contexts.
• Hearing the wonderful experiences of a diverse range of educators at QTiP23.
• Having regular opportunities to engage and contribute to the broad scope of work being done to support students and teachers in our schools.

As we reflect on the achievements of 2023, there is a shared sense of pride and purpose, along with anticipation for the continued impact we seek to have in the coming year.

The QT Academy will be taking a break from 18 December until 5 January. From our whole team, we wish you a joyous festive season and a prosperous new year.

QT in secondary music classrooms: Banding together to enhance student learning

These past few months have seen a number of ‘firsts’ within the QT Academy. The secondary music teachers’ webinar in late November was one such event.

A small number of highly invested teachers (most of whom are the only music teacher in their school) gathered to discuss the quality of learning experiences for students in Years 7 – 12 music classrooms.

The QT Model provided a great framework for conversations about high-quality pedagogy that produces engaging, interactive learning experiences. Such was the level of interest, that these teachers plan to get together for a set of Music teachers’ Digital QTR in 2024. The teachers hailed from Western Sydney, Riverina, South Australia, Distance Education and Northern NSW.

For those who missed it, the webinar was recorded – please email us at [email protected] for details. Stay tuned for more webinars linking the QT Model to specific subject areas. Your suggestions are always welcome.

Embedding the QT Model: Next steps for a trio of unique schools

Camden Park, Wooglemai and Georges River Environmental Education Centres (EECs) are well on the way with their QT journey, having completed several QT Rounds across their Centres over the past years. Our latest workshop provided them with the chance to delve deeper into the Model as it relates to assessment and programming practice.

Given the unique nature of teaching and learning in the EEC context (where students typically visit once and for a full day program), assessing student understanding presents its own particular set of challenges. Deliberations around the important “take home” student understandings led to rich discussions about the key concepts underpinning the highly interactive and engaging learning activities.

It’s one thing to offer an unforgettable, outdoor classroom experience to students, but these passionate teachers and school leaders want to ensure learning is linked to important ideas that endure beyond the visit and school-based units of work.