From the ALL team

We celebrate the South Australian Council of Education (SACE) decision to introduce learner profiles for school leavers as an alternative to the ranking system ATAR next year is to be applauded.

It shows it is possible to change hearts and minds with well-argued solutions.  The Learner Profile will provide a broader picture of a student’s range of skills and qualities than a score can provide.

Learner profiles were a major recommendation of a 2020 federal government report into secondary school pathways by Peter Shergold, who is chairman of the NSW Education Standards Authority and chancellor of Western Sydney University.

The Shergold report drew on the arguments for a learner profile put forward in the Australian Learning Lecture’s publication Beyond ATAR: Proposal for Change.

The Beyond ATAR impact program and the current The Future School: Seeing is Believing work demonstrate that transformation is possible, and that we should strive for that rather than modification around the edges, particularly now,

We were delighted to learn that Megan O’Connell received a Medal of the Order of Australia for her contribution to secondary education in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Megan was a co-author of the Beyond ATAR publication, along with Dr Sandra Milligan and Tom Bentley.

The gong is well-deserved: Megan’s ability to combine data, evidence, provide a compelling narrative to reveal problems in our education system and push for pragmatic policy change.

Two recent insightful publications worth a read are Australia’s Youth and 2021 Future of Education. Both reveal that young people want a changed education system, that they appreciate their education and the positive role that teachers have had in their lives.

Australia’s Youth, produced by the Institute of Health and Welfare, is the first national report on young Australians in a decade. It details how 12- to 24-year-olds are faring in their health, education, housing, employment prospects, finances and well-being. It reveals much about the importance of education and the part it plays in laying the foundation for future work, health and wellbeing,

The ideal learning for almost seven in ten students interviewed is a hybrid one, according to findings from the mccrindle 2021 Future of Education report. Those surveyed also want more open plan learning, collaborative classrooms and inquiry based learning with less teacher directed learning in the future.

These publications, now on our online Resources Hub, reflect the three design principles that Valerie Hannon outlined in the third Australian Learning Lecture: The Future School: Seeing is Believing. These are the values that future schools should manifest; The operational philosophy that demonstrate those values in practice; and the learners’ experience.

In this newsletter you may also be interested to watch a video Nga Tapuwae in Auckland New Zealand, one of the future schools selected from by Valerie Hannon to show that transformation is happening around the  world, in this school  by focussing on identity.

We hope you enjoy the read, share it with others and join in the conversation on social media.

The ALL team.