Stories

This Guide is designed to offer practical advice and guidance to schools and school leaders. The authors have been determined to keep that advice grounded in the experiences, learning and reflections of actual school practice. Accordingly the Guide offers dozens of illustrative ‘stories’ from real school situations from across Australia and in many different school contexts.

Where the stories appear

The stories appear throughout the Guide in two different ways:

• short stories from individual schools/clusters appear in the  In practice section of each theme, available in the left hand navigation menu

• fuller more elaborate stories from individual schools/clusters appear in the Key Resources, available from the right hand navigation menu. They are also provided as PDF documents in the Stories menu available in the top menu bar.

All the stories offer authentic accounts from principals or other school leaders about their experiences in implementing or developing values-centred school cultures. Often they are success stories. Other times they are war stories. They are always learning stories.

Sources of the stories

The stories have been gathered from four main sources:

• the 50 school projects and final report of the 2002–03 Values Education Study (VES)

• the 26 cluster projects (166 schools) and final report of the 2005–06 Values Education Good Practice Schools Project – Stage 1 (VEGPSP Report – Stage1)

• the 25 cluster projects (143 schools) and final report of the 2006–08 Values Education Good Practice Schools Project – Stage 2 (VEGPSP Report – Stage 2)

• research interviews with other school leaders who have led values education work in their schools with or without grant funding.

Identifying the story source

All the stories have basic identifiers but some are more detailed than others. Where stories have been gathered in interview confidentiality agreements require that school personnel and schools themselves are not named or identified.

Accordingly users should note that:

• the short stories often only provide a general identifier about the speaker, the school type and State/Territory location

• full stories gathered by interview have an ‘alias school’ name but a true jurisdictional identifier 

• stories (short and full-length) gathered from the VES or VEGPSP Reports – Stage1 and Stage 2 provide actual speaker names, school/cluster name and locations.

• Developing a shared vision

  The Alton College case study illustrates one way of driving a whole school approach to values education and having values education underpin the school ethos. It highlights a strong, unified leadership team (or, in the case of small schools, a strong leader whose vision is appropriately communicated), a systems approach and usually an external 'catalyst'. The time taken for making the change as described in the case study is also echoed by other principals and school leaders relating their experiences.

• Conducting a school values audit

  The Lynwood Heights Primary School case study illustrates one approach to conducting a school values audit. In this instance the principal herself led the staff in conducting the audit and adapted strategies and tools from the suite of materials developed by David Langford in relation to quality teaching. While there are many approaches to conducting an audit, the elements common to all which describe their engagement with this process include a systematic and systemic process, either using tools already developed by others, external consultants who conduct the audit, or skilling up specific staff within the school through professional development and a time allocation to carry out the task. Every school can conduct a systematic audit, even though not all schools are in the position either to hire a consultant or send staff on a four-day course.

• Engaging teaching staff

  The Seer High School case study describes how one school leader approached the task of engaging teachers and supporting the development of skills to enable them to become effective values educators. This case study is typical of many schools around Australia that have successfully adopted a whole-school values education approach to the organisation, curriculum, life and ethos of their school community. They have not all had the same resources: some schools have leadership teams and a large staff while others may be a small one- or two-teacher school. Your school may not fit the profile of Seer High School, but you will still find that the basic principles and processes outlined in the case study can be adapted to your needs.

• Engaging parent community

  Bronton Catholic Primary School explicitly teaches values in the classroom and across all aspects of the school. The program has a strong focus on student action teams as a form of student leadership. Over the past 18 months, the program has been broadened to extend the student focus work to values action teams, which entail stronger parental involvement in the life of the school and the way in which teachers work with students to develop their understanding of the underpinning values of the Catholic education system. It is part of that culture to view parents as an integral part of the school community. The coordinator relates her experience of getting parents on board.