Calling upon School Leaders …
Principals’ Forum Term 2 2022
… with 2021 WA Principal of the Year Louise O’Donovan
We are excited to welcome back Principals and APs/DPs for our second Principals’ Forum of 2022, on 8th June 2022.
This term, we will hear from 2021 West Australian Primary Principal of the Year, Louise O’Donovan, and instructional coach Sarah Gasmier on their school’s Science of Reading journey.
Access the recording and resources NOW
About Beeliar Primary School
The journey to become a school of excellence for Beeliar Primary School started with an in-depth analysis of student data, where all staff engaged in a disciplined dialogue about school and student performance. We recognised that we were underperforming and coasting on average results for years, which was not good enough. We had a good look at our whole school practice and found it was inconsistent and lacked rigour: we didn’t know what we didn’t know. This sparked a commitment by staff to truly aspire to become a school of excellence by setting and achieving high expectations.
Reading was identified as the main area for focus and the leadership team systematically set out to research best practice specifically the Science of Reading. We developed a distributed leadership team and our Instructional Coaches provided professional learning for teachers, in class modelling, observation and feedback to ensure staff had the skills, knowledge and support to implement the curriculum and our instructional strategies effectively in the classroom. Whole school programs including Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI), InitiaLit, Critical Reading and Spelling Mastery were introduced to ensure consistency of practice and a systematic development of reading across the school. The results have been outstanding and Beeliar PS achieved green boxes for all literacy areas in our 2021 Year 3 NAPLAN results.
Principals & APs/DPs
Louise O’Donovan, Principal
Louise is the Principal at Beeliar Primary School Perth WA. In 2021 Louise won the West Australian Primary Principal of the Year and is dedicated to ensuring the best outcomes for students not only in her school but across the broader educational system. Louise has built a culture of excellence at Beeliar PS and implemented the Science of Learning and Reading, along with explicit instruction with success and outstanding results for her students. She is dedicated to building teacher capacity and ensuring her staff are experts in the teaching of reading. Louise is passionate about ensuring all students have the best possible opportunities in life, which she believes starts with teaching children to read and giving them access to knowledge. Louise trained with John Hollingsworth and Silvia Ybarra in Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI) in 2014 and has been instrumental in introducing and supporting EDI in WA.
Sarah is an Instructional Coach at Beeliar Primary School and has been instrumental in coaching staff in the Science of Learning and Reading. She has outstanding classroom practice and was identified and selected as a coach because of her expert knowledge and skills. Sarah has led and inspired our staff to implement our programs and instructional strategies with compassionate rigour. She models, coaches, and supports staff to be expert teachers and confident in their capacity to teach the Science of Reading. Sarah has been coached in EDI by Joe Ybarra and has trained not only our staff but teachers from other schools in EDI.
Sarah Gasmier, Instructional Coach
Would your Principal be interested?
About Our Host
HOST
Steve Capp (Bentleigh West PS)
Steven Capp is an Acting SEIL at DET, and the Principal of Bentleigh West Primary School in Melbourne, which has become recognised for its adoption of evidence- based teaching practices, particularly in the area of reading and mathematics. He has worked across the primary and secondary school sectors as an educational leader for the past 15 years. He has a Masters of School Leadership from Melbourne University and has worked with school leaders to explore bridging the gap from research to practice.