Term 3, 2025: Wrap Up
We are one week into the September school holidays here in Victoria, which has given me enough time to catch my breath after the whirlwind that was Term 3. To say I had a ball is an understatement. My first term as a sole trading consultant proved to be busy and constantly required me to think about implementation in ways that suited the contexts of the schools I was working with. This is where the rubber hits the road in my role and I absolutely love this work.
There are aspects of this sole trading shtick that I am a huge fan of: setting my own hours, being my own boss, getting to make all the big decisions… but other areas I find really challenging: setting my own hours, being my own boss, having to make all the big decisions… you get the point. A lot depends on the choices I make, and the risk of failure is always close by. Starting something new carries a constant undercurrent of uncertainty, but for now I’m moving forward with focus, knowing there will be time enough to panic if the moment truly demands it.. (!)
This term I have worked with four schools in an ongoing capacity. This is my preferred way of working with schools because having impact does not come from a one hour “FIFO” professional development session, it comes from building relationships with staff, listening to them, and understanding what is happening in their classrooms. Quite often this means we develop slides or lessons, then I ask to have a go at implementing them, then teachers have a go, then we tweak, reteach, look at data, and the cycle goes on.
The most common question I get asked is “What do you actually do?” so I thought I would give some examples of what I have been up to this term, below.
School 1
I have been working with this school since Term 2, and we have been looking at what best practice writing looks like from Prep to Year 6. We started with some staff professional learning days that included learning about the writing models (for example Joan Sedita’s Writing Rope), discussing the role of genre and looking at what explicit writing instruction looks like in the classroom. We then included observations, coaching and me going into every classroom and modelling explicit writing lessons from Prep to Year 6. This culminated in teachers providing me with feedback (I have an observation sheet) and discussions about next steps in their classrooms.
School 2
I began work with this school at the end of last year. The initial focus was to upskill staff about what explicit direct instruction looks like in the classroom, as well as what the first two hours of a literacy block could look like in the Year 3 to 6 space when based on evidence. This involved many meetings with the Year 3 to 6 teachers, coaching, observations and a dedicated, unified focus on fluency pairs.
School 3
I began working with this school in 2024. We have been focusing on supporting students who have diagnosed learning difficulties such as dyslexia, dysgraphia and developmental language disorders. My work with this school has propelled me into the world of speech therapy and makes me wish I had a degree in this space. Thankfully, I have many friends who are qualified speech therapists who are able to support me with resources and research. We have set up accommodations in the classroom that support both the teacher and student (remembering most teachers get about an hour covering these topics in their initial teacher education, which is woeful) and discussed how to empower these learners by removing the soft bigotry of low expectations, which is rife in education.
School 4
I have been at this school two days a week this term, and will continue in this capacity next term too. The leadership at this school are unlike leadership I have ever encountered before (in the best possible way) and they are healing the unavoidable wounds I carry after 14 years with the education department. The work I am able to do at this school is vast: develop literacy intervention based on data, support teachers to make instructional decisions based on data, model lessons, develop scope and sequences, sit in on planning, run whole day professional learning, the list goes on. I am thoroughly enjoying my time at this school and looking forward to another term of work with them.
This is why it is so hard to sum up what I have been doing in one swift sentence. Each school has such different needs. In saying that, after three days at the Teaching Matters Summit in Tasmania, I have landed on “I support schools with science of learning implementation…” as my one liner response.
Professional Highlights of my Term 3 include:
Visiting Marsden Rd Primary School in Liverpool, Sydney and spending time with Manisha Gazula (this will get its own blog post)
Attending the Sharon Vaughn Professional Development on Reading Comprehension at Bentleigh West Primary School
Attending the Teaching Matters Summit in Tasmania, hosted by their Catholic Education Department and hearing from Lyn Stone, Pam Snow, Bruno Reddy, Jordana Hunter, Glenn Fahey, Nate Swain, Lorraine Hammond, Tom Sherrington, Tom Bennett and Anna Taylor plus many more incredible educators and policy minds in this country.
Presenting for Spellcaster about supporting EAL students in the primary classrooms (You can catch the recording here)
Attending the UFLI training through SPELD Victoria (I highly recommend this training - I’m looking forward to seeing UFLI in action next term at a friend’s school)
Visiting a friend’s school in Geelong and seeing the Phonics Plus lessons in action (shout out to Lou Buxton & Emma Glenny who kindly welcomed me into their classroom)
Hosting my first webinar on how to set up fluency routines – I have had quite a few requests for this recording so keep your eyes peeled here for something coming
Finally launching my new website which you can access here
Thanks to everyone who has supported me along the way. Your kind words mean so much to me as I navigate my way through this new space.
I hope you are reading this with your feet up, sipping on a strong red cordial ready to indulge in another week of blessed holiday time.