17 May 2024
On 14-16 May Ms Racela – Student Executive Council Coordinator and 2IC Futures Centre, Rochelle Cortez - Year 11 House Captain, Elaine Garces – Year 11 Student Executive Council and I were invited to attend the We Are More Hobart conference run by Learning Creates Australia in Hobart, Tasmania at Bellerive Oval.
Rochelle, Elaine, Ms Racela and I worked with university Vice-Chancellors, Secretaries of Education, school Principals, other students and educators and business during the conference. The driving purpose of the conference was to convene and energise innovative practitioners and systems which are working towards driving transformation and creating enabling conditions for a fit-for-purpose, 21st Century, education system including parallel pathways other than the ATAR. Plumpton High School is broadly recognised across Australia a leader in education innovation.
This requires partnering to build an adaptive, thriving, learning workforce of the future. All young people should be able to finish school with what they need to keep learning, working, and exploring their future. As you would be aware Plumpton has developed and implemented significant partnering structures with business and universities to support this notion. These are reviewed on a cyclical basis to ensure our school continues to maintain the same rate of change as that in the world outside of school.
The goals of the event included:
1. Centre youth and employer voices to unlock the shifts required for education to meet the demands of a vibrant, 21st Century economy.
2. Convene and energise innovative practitioners from education and industry around a shared vision for the purpose and promise of education, that moves us towards an ecosystemic view of education and training.
3. Cultivate a spirit of co-contribution, sharing and learning of new practice, that supports connection and collaboration by participants to shift the current system.
4. Surface a collective set of barriers and enablers to policy and practice that need a shared response, and that guide the next steps that enables narratives to be shared between diverse stakeholders.
5. Shift innovations, ideas and intentions into practical next steps and collaborations.
Ms Racela, Rochelle and Elaine were able to articulate to other school and system leaders and representatives from across Australia WHY we have implemented the innovative and strategic approach. They also detailed HOW this has been developed and implemented and WHAT specific initiatives and strategies that underpin the approach that has led to the significant successes our students and school have accomplished.
Tim Lloyd, Principal