Supporting schools to improve student learning by effectively engaging parents, carers and community.
A learning ecosystem consists of the people, groups, and organisations that effectively collaborate to support student learning. School leaders have an important role in developing a whole school approach to engaging with parents/carers and community. When engagement is planned, purposeful and collaborative, it has significant potential to improve student achievement.
The Learning Ecosystem Model depicts the network of people and partners surrounding a student that support their learning. This includes parents, carers, teachers, executives, other school staff, members of the wider community, the NSW Department of Education and other agencies or organisations. These partnerships have significant potential to generate improvements in student learning outcomes.
Learn more about how a Learning Ecosystem approach can improve student learning in the following video.
The Learning Ecosystems research will provide school leaders with a deeper understanding of how to establish and enhance effective partnerships to improve student learning.
The academic research report summary offers contemporary research within the NSW education context and can be referred to anytime throughout the School Excellence Cycle. It is a useful resource to consult with during the school planning phase to support schools in making decisions related to embedding whole-school approaches to partnerships to improve student learning. Referring to the research base that establishes ‘what effective partnerships look like’ while completing the SEF-SaS will assist school leaders in identifying areas of strength and areas for improvement regarding parent and community engagement for student learning.
School leaders and aspiring leaders, including those initiating and/or leading whole-school partnership initiatives aligned to the school’s Strategic Improvement Plan.
This resource supports school leaders to implement the department’s commitment to parent, community engagement and continuous improvement within the School Excellence Framework.
This resource aligns with the following elements and themes:
This resource aligns with the following goals:
These resources provide examples from NSW public schools of evidence-based practices for effective parent and community partnerships that improve student learning. School leaders can use these resources to inform the strategic planning of whole-school initiatives that enhance or sustain partnerships within their school for improved student learning and equity outcomes.
Examples of practice can be used anytime throughout the School Excellence Cycle. School leaders can refer to the contextualised examples when considering planned approaches to improve student learning through engagement with partners. They are useful resources that support the strategic planning and implementation of parent and community engagement initiatives to improve student learning.
School leaders and aspiring leaders, including those initiating and/or leading whole-school partnership initiatives aligned to the school’s Strategic Improvement Plan.
This resource supports school leaders to implement the department’s commitment to parent and community engagement within the School Excellence Framework.
This resource aligns with the following elements and themes:
This resource aligns with the following goals:
This tool is designed to support school leaders and their teams to:
These activities guide school leaders and their teams to consider appropriate and contextualised partnership initiatives to improve student learning. It is a valuable tool to consult anytime throughout the School Excellence Cycle.
School leaders and their teams.
School leaders can guide their teams through the practical, collaborative activities to:
This resource supports school leaders to implement the department’s commitment to parent and community engagement within the School Excellence Framework.
This resource aligns with the following elements and themes:
This resource aligns with the following goals:
These modules are designed to provide practical resources, illustrations of practice, and evidence-based strategies for effective engagement with partners to improve student learning outcomes.
The modules can be accessed as standalone courses or as a comprehensive pathway, guiding school leaders and their teams to plan, implement and evaluate partnerships to improve student learning outcomes.
School leaders and their teams.
Each module has been explicitly linked to the School Excellence Framework to support school planning, implementation, and evaluation. They include reflection question templates and materials that school leaders can use to facilitate professional learning activities with their teams within their context. Using the module summaries listed below can help school leaders determine which one would best support the planning, implementation and evaluation of a partnership.
These online modules support school leaders to implement the department’s commitment to parent and community engagement within the School Excellence Framework.
These online modules support school leaders to implement the department’s commitment to parent and community engagement within the School Excellence Framework.
This resource aligns with the following goals:
Understand how to strategically plan for effective partnerships between schools, families and the community. Use this module as a starting point to identify student learning needs to be supported through partnerships.
Assess leadership characteristics and processes needed to strengthen partnerships within your context to drive effective partnerships. Use this module to assist leaders at your school to reflect and improve approaches to support partnerships within your context.
Understand the enabling conditions needed within a school’s learning ecosystem to establish effective partnerships. Use this module to examine evidence-based strategies that enhance and sustain effective partnerships aligned to your School Excellence Plan (formally known as the Strategic Improvement Plan).
Establish a robust evaluation question and explore relevant and reliable data sources to understand the impact of partnerships on student learning. Use the tools, resources and examples of evaluation plans to enable you to establish an effective evaluation plan for use in your context.
