St Edward's Primary School

How personal learning plans can help disadvantaged students beat the odds

St Edward’s Primary School, a private Catholic institution in Tamworth, Australia - where 67% of its students hail from disadvantaged backgrounds, 16% are Indigenous, and the neighbourhood faces challenges from crime and poor health - has defied low expectations to significantly boost attainment.

St Edward’s has a focus on developing the whole child. It provides its students with a range of cultural opportunities, in particular for its Indigenous students, who are encouraged to share and celebrate their culture with the support of its Aboriginal Education Assistants.

The school became concerned by its low ICSEA score, which measures socioeconomic advantage and came up with extensive and highly detailed Personal Learning Plans (PLPs). The PLPs armed teachers with the data to track and support student progress, providing tailored instruction for their students and monitoring their growth. Over time, teachers were able to push students closer to achieving their educational goals. During COVID, the school continued with the model with a few tweaks by checking in on its students through phone calls and by monitoring them online.

Each teacher also has a professional growth plan that pushes them to become a better educator than they were yesterday. They also take a range of professional learning activities including reviewing professional journals, trying out new practices in the classroom and joining professional organisations. All that effort has paid off as not only did attainment levels increase, but some of the highest growth in improvement came from Indigenous students.

If St Edward’s Primary School were to win the World’s Best School Prize for Overcoming Adversity, it would use the funds to set up a teaching school to help develop the skills and abilities of educators in rural and regional areas who have struggled to gain access to development opportunities.