20 Mar 2014
There's nothing like an informal barbecue to bring a school community together and embed an educational message at the same time.
That's what the new Executive Principal of Taree Public School did to quickly establish her local knowledge bank.
Executive Principal Karen Clark said she was keen to implement policies that would address the unique educational needs of her students but needed to get to know the community since many of her staff were also new appointees.
She organised an introduction barbecue and invited the local community for a meet and greet.
"The idea was to meet informally as most of the staff were new," Mrs Clark said. "It was a chance to introduce our staff to the community and for us to meet the families.
"We had a fantastic turnout with a lot of families, and members of the community there."
Mrs Clark was able to use the opportunity to reinforce the message that a Personalised Learning Plan (PLP) would greatly improve the students' learning experience.
"The barbecue enabled us to arrange for all students to have a PLP session with their parents and our staff. This was really important as it's something I wanted to do for each student and being a Connected Communities school it was essential that we did so," she said.
"Having the community all there at the barbecue, our local Elders, scripture teachers, AECG [Aboriginal Education Consultative Group] local branch president Jaycent Davis, community organisations, parents, Allison Alliston [Executive Principal] from the high school, meant we were able to get the message across that a PLP was important and the educational needs of the students are best met when everyone works together."
PLP sessions were held at the school and also at the students' homes, which Mrs Clark said were very rewarding.
"The home visits enabled us to find out a lot of information about the students that we would not have learnt otherwise and that will help us provide better learning plans for them.
"The staff know where we want the school to go. It's a shared vision, from attendance to health, cultural recognition, and academic achievement in all areas. Getting the community on board further strengthens our efforts in the classroom."