School+-+Mornington+SC

Mornington Secondary College is situated on the Nepean Highway Mornington. The college grounds are extensive and facilities include a 4 court basketball stadium and indoor swimming pool. The college is comitted to ensuring the learning programs within the college are tailored to suit the students needs. The year 7 & 8 Core program ensures the students have a constant homegroup teacher for the majority of their classes.

I am the Literacy and Learning Support coordinator at the college. My role is to manage the Learning support prgrams nad Educational Support staff, organise PSD funding for studnets, manage the PSd budget and also coordinate a Whole School Literacy program. I also look after the Wannik & ESL programs within the college to ensure these students have individualised tutoring tailored to their learning.

Developing the whole school Literacy program is what brought me to the Bastow Literacy Leadership course, to learn, challenge and devleop my skills in leading a whole school approach to improving students literacy thoughout the college.

What have I learnt so far? ........

I've learnt that change is a challenge for all people, literacy in secondary school is complex and challenging, staff in secondary schools can be open to new ways of approaching teaching and finally my level of understanding and knowledge on literacy is growing at a fast pace.

I used to think ........

I thought I would have made a greater impact after this length of time, I used to think I was nrevous and not effective at presenting to whole staff, I used to think the staff were reluctant to try new teaching strategies.

I now think......

I can present to the whole staff without falling flat on my face, I have had some positive feedback from the whole staff PD's and also from working in the college PGT teams, the length of time to make an impact is not an important factor, its putting the framework and conversations around literacy that matters the most and that staff in general are willing to try and explore new teaching strategies and are keen to understand the differences in students learning.

Jennifer receiving positive feedback from staff and working in teams will have added to your confidence. I'm wondering if your own thinking and reflection has also contributed to the realisation of your successes? I look forward to being part of the team conversation when I meet with you and your PGT team. Joan