Ashdale Secondary College WA

The School

• Secondary school with years 7-12

• Over 130 participating educators

• Located in the City of Wanneroo, Western Australia

• Pivot Program: Student Survey on Teaching

The Opportunity

The Ashdale Secondary College Executive Team is focused on promoting student voice and using evidence in decision-making that supports students’ best educational opportunities. They sought to prioritise and embed data-driven initiatives to strengthen their teaching and learning approach, and build an inclusive and supportive culture for all students. 

The Approach

The College Executive Team emphasises the importance of assessing data and other evidence of impact of initiatives across the College. The focus on data analysis on student performance and the effectiveness of College processes are discussed and reviewed at every level, from the Executive Team to the classroom teacher. These findings inform their planning and provide targets for the school improvement areas they enact. 

The Executive Team: Embedding the review of whole school survey data regularly with senior leadership, focussing on areas of strength and improvement, and using the data to support the College’s Business Plan. The Executive Team is committed to embedding conversations about the trends identified in the survey data across the College. The focus is on the evidence and embracing reflective practice conversations in each classroom, learning area, and across the College. 

The Heads of Departments: To ensure the highest levels of engagement and participation and to manage survey fatigue, the survey is administered to half of the learning areas alternately each year. The Learning Area Operational Plans centre around continuous involvement with both surveying and non-surveying learning areas engaging in data reviews and ongoing professional learning communities conversations.

For surveying Learning Area leaders, their focus is on triangulating the data and spotting strengths, opportunities and areas for improvement. This enables deeper conversations that examine what are the elements of a good lesson and what it might look like. Collaborating within and between Learning Areas has seen positive results. 

The Teachers: The emphasis for teachers is on strengthening and developing feedback conversations with students, and incorporating the review of survey data into their classrooms. Teachers are encouraged to draw insights from each survey cycle, and compare feedback from previous cycles. A suite of comprehensive communication and professional development resources from the Pivot Educator Platform are used to support teachers with implementation of the surveys, and they are supported at each stage by their Pivot administrator.

Following a survey cycle, results from a school year level and/or Learning Area are discussed with teachers and help inform professional development sessions run in areas of opportunity. This initiative is accompanied by professional development planning documentation with tips and targeted support recommendations to guide progress and provide encouragement. Teachers are provided with additional Pivot resources to support feedback conversations and effectively incorporate survey findings into their own classroom and professional practices.

The Impact

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The focus at Ashdale Secondary College is on enhancing student voice and agency, and this is where the biggest impact has occurred. Students appreciate being heard, and in seeing their views incorporated into feedback conversations in the classroom and across the school.  When teachers involve students in planning discussions about learning engagement and incorporate their suggestions in teaching approaches, huge gains are made as students feel a sense of ownership of their learning. 

Teachers also display a significant increase in engagement with their reflective practice and professional development. The initiative encourages a proactive approach to continuously reviewing and reflecting on improving their practices based on real, data-driven insights, and professional learning communities conversations across the school.

Across the College, there is an observable improvement in key areas of focus—student voice, teacher practice, and positive school improvement. The strategic use of data is an integral aspect of school self-assessment and maintaining and improving the performance of the College as per their Business Plan goals.