Creating change and engagement

Creating positive change and engagement for staff and community

For many schools it can be challenging to build and create environments that fully support engagement within the school and the surrounding community. For one school in the remote Inverell area, Ashford Public School, a connection was developed that resulted in an uplift in staff engagement, connection to Country and a sense of pride for students.

This was achieved by simply using his laptop connected to Microsoft Teams to introduce staff who would, in usual circumstances, not have the opportunity to cross paths. This helped with those staff who didn’t feel tech-savvy or confident enough to make these connections or use the platforms initially.

By creating a method of connection, it generated a whole school uplift in communication and collaboration, generating communication from executive staff, to students, to admin staff and SLSOs as well as encouraging community engagement.

Michael ensured that although he was making these connections and introducing staff to the technology, it was imperative that he was also upskilling and building staff confidence for them to take initiative moving forward to become comfortable with technology.

Michael supported staff to use this tool with students, and found that the program worked across all age groups and staff leading to the creation and development of a range of initiatives, from integrated executive policy agreements within the enrolment process, student cyber security awareness campaigns, digital art for in-class activities, and established digital collaborative programs to name a few! 

Michael also undertook the huge task of refreshing the whole school branding, from the website through to staff emails. This initial digitisation of the school branding led to even more digital projects being undertaken. This change helped to breakdown challenges, such as using Canva to create the newsletter, and helped the Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) program through updating the bell system to encourage positive messaging, where students can submit their requests for which song to play next.

As the school became more comfortable with online tools and platforms, the next digital initiative was the creation of the Virtual Aboriginal Art Gallery and the Interactive Indigenous Food Garden. This targeted project means that students can see up close artifacts and parts of history that would ordinarily not be available due to the delicacy of the artifact. Not only does the digital platform help students view the artifacts but it also engages them with interactive questions and reference books provided alongside the imagery.

The Interactive Indigenous Food Garden was a key component in generating community engagement. This was achieved by key stakeholders in Aboriginal education, who helped provide the information being shared which improved relationships with the Ashford Aboriginal Educational Consultative Group and the Ashford Local Lands Council. This was incorporated into the Aboriginal Identified Staff Development Day, which was found to boost the engagement of the whole community.