Setting up for whole-school success

'What works best', the School Excellence Framework, and the new School Strategic Improvement Plan all draw from the same evidence and research base. This interrelationship ensures that when used together, they support the embedding of evidence-based practices in school plans.

The School Excellence Framework supports school leaders to ensure consistency and expectations of practice across all classrooms. 'What works best' complements the School Excellence Framework by describing those specific practices and teaching strategies which lead to improved student learning outcomes.

Example of how 'What works best' can be employed to strengthen school planning

Using the School Excellence Framework 'Hidden Creek Public School' identified 'Data skills and use' in their Situational Analysis as an element of their practice that needed to improve. They considered the options from the evidence base by completing the 'What work best in practice' online professional learning. After considering the evidence and their context, they drew upon the practical strategies identified in 'What works best in practice' in the theme 'Use of data to inform practice' because these strategies directly linked to the needs they are aiming to address. They used the identified needs and evidence-based strategies to populate Strategic direction 1: Student growth and attainment in their new school plan.

The 2021-2024 school excellence cycle

The recently launched School Excellence in Action website is a comprehensive ‘one-stop-shop’ to support the delivery of the 2021-24 school excellence cycle for schools.

As principals and school leadership teams begin preparing their 2021-2024 school plans, they are asked to consider how school improvement touches every classroom, is the work of every teacher and impacts every student.