At the final session facilitated by the Education Changemakers at ACLE in July 2022, participants were asked to identify ‘Insights for the system’. The findings have been collated and are below with some key areas identified in bold. ACLE has always provided insights and stimulus for initiatives in Lutheran education. The priorities identified by participants at ACLE will inform the regional and LEA projects into the future. However, the place where this matters most is at your school or early childhood service and in your local decision making and longer term planning as you determine what you will prioritise on a daily basis.
Please take this list as inspiration for your community planning.
What are the top big ideas that are relevant for the system? What should all Lutheran schools be doing? A sample of the responses
- We should be bold and brave
- Be bold and brave about transforming school structures
- Collective flourishing
- Collaboration across the system; sharing our practice fearlessly.
- We’re better together
- Indigenous perspectives
- Indigenous perspective embedded in all that we do
- Indigenous culture and real connection – new Australian history …Reconciliation – cultural awareness
- 5 Stone Framework (connection to land and history)
- The past informs and shapes the future – learn as much as you can about indigenous Australians so we can heal as a nation (good and bad bits): ‘healed people, heal people’
- Focus on educating young people about ‘the wound’ in Australia’s history and engaging them with their responsibility.
- Transformation over improvement
- Changing the way, we measure success: wellness should be the priority which is holistic and includes academics as only a portion of the whole
- Moral imperative for reform
- Economics/ecology/education (relationship)
- Build trusting teams – support each other
- Vision for learners and learning
- Learner profiles including wellbeing
- Learner profiles
- Understanding how the vision for learners and learning directly impacts our schools, ie true purpose?
- A deliberate structure to professional development of teachers and leaders to implement the vision in schools
- Lutheran Education (identity)
- Understanding who we are in our context
- Identity – school & individual – collective identity
- We should hear and see more of our system reps to feel valued and heard and part of the bigger ecosystems
- One Voice, many paths – Little Voice influences the Big Voice – transparency!
- Well being
- Maintain focus on the whole child; holistic learning
- Wellbeing – psychologically safe schools
- Widened success indicators/definition (eg including wellbeing)
- Wellbeing framework – a basis for learning success
- Student agency
- How can we create student agency?
- Student agency – staff agency – community agency
- Learner agency and voice in all areas (policy development, curriculum etc)
- Student Agency: student driver system based on needs, ideas, values etc of our learners not driven by staff or external agencies
- Connection/Relationships
- Connections: environment/country, Christ/Spiritual, others, culture, community, history
- Sense of belonging
- Place in the world
- Connection to nature/earth