Hume+Central+Secondary

Hi, I'm Lisa Breen and I am a Teaching and Learning coach at Hume Central Secondary College in Broadmeadows, sixteen kilometres north of Melbourne. I began the year at Noble Park Secondary College but changed schools at the end of June.

I have been travelling on a very steep learning curve, especially as my previous school was very different. Hume Central is a part of the regeneration of Broadmeadows and as such the buildings are all new (all with open learning spaces), the teaching staff have been brought together from many schools (through the amalgamation process) and the school is spread over three campuses. I'm used to staff that have been in the same place for many years (I think the longest span is 39) and traditional classrooms. At Noble Park the longest distance to cover was probably on yard duty if stationed at the back of the oval. At Hume I travel between the campuses, although I am primarily stationed at the Dimboola Rd campus which contains Year 7-9. I teach Year 7 English, but the rest of my timetable is taking up with leadership meetings and coaching. I currently have three teachers I am working with.

Prior to this program I thought that Establishing Literacy Coaching in my school was going to be very difficult as the staff at my school were very negative about making changes to their classroom practice and most believed that teaching literacy was not their responsibility. Now I understand that Establishing Literacy Coaching is much easier when you've changed to a school where coaching is already happening and all the teachers involved in leadership (about forty) are actively taking part in a peer coaching program.  Prior to this program I thought being a literacy coach would involve me having to go into classrooms as an expert to show my colleagues how it 'should' be done. This made me feel nervous as I didn't think I had the skills or could consider myself an expert. I also did not want to distance myself from being a classroom teacher first and foremost.

Now I believe that being an effective literacy coach involves working in partnerships to collaborate and increase my capacity as a teacher as well.

Prior to this program, we had established absolutely nothing in relation to literacy coaching in my school (although my previous school has since employed a Literacy coach). Since my participation in this program, I have changed to a school where there are four trained literacy coaches (called Teaching and Learning coaches), two of which are also Assistant Principals.