“It’s our job to teach them good learning behaviours. Students are critical participants in learning. We need them to be highly active in that role, and using the best strategies we can possibly give them.”
Tonia Calverley, Dilworth’s Director of Teaching and Learning
Dilworth’s core function as a school is to ensure its students receive a first-rate education that will prepare them for life and learning at, and beyond, school to enable them to succeed in any direction they choose.
To stay at the very top of the educational game, Dilworth engages three key strategies: employing superb staff and developing them to be the best teachers and leaders possible; teaching its students the most effective, evidence-based strategies for learning and developing critical thinking; and implementing a specialist curriculum that covers academic learning, student wellbeing, and Learning in the Outdoors to help develop valuable life skills and emotional resilience.
Tonia Calverley, Dilworth’s Director of Teaching and Learning, says the quality of the teachers employed by the school is the bedrock on which a student’s education will ultimately be built. “I think we can all remember the teachers we had who were really inspiring because they were passionate about their subject and passionate about learning in general. They set high expectations for us and demanded good results. Young people now have so many ways of finding and engaging with information, that we need to actually teach them what good learning looks like. To do that we need the best teachers possible - to engage them, teach them to critically evaluate information, and to inspire them to achieve their goals.”
To help ensure Dilworth’s teachers are among the best in New Zealand, the school runs an extensive professional development programme. “We determined very early on that a strong professional growth cycle for teachers was foundational. You can do some professional learning that is for everyone, but a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t really work when you’ve got teachers at multiple stages in their careers. Across the school we’ve invested a lot of time and resource developing our senior staff and Heads of Learning to be effective professional practice coaches for their teachers. We are constantly looking for ways staff can improve, whether that’s driven by student achievement data, feedback from student voice, or observations of teaching practice. Growth happens where there’s a little bit of challenge. Growth coaching identifies the next steps in learning and enables our teachers and staff to look for opportunities to constantly do better.”
Staff are also encouraged to step outside the school and observe how teachers and leadership at other schools are achieving results. “We definitely support that,” Tonia says. “Go and visit, talk to them. What are they doing? What are their challenges? What are their opportunities? What are their innovations? As well as developing our staff professionally, it can mean better results for our students, which is what we’re all after.”
For parents, Tonia believes the benefits of professional development for staff can be clearly seen through communication at parent-teacher interviews and family conferences. “They will hear about evidence-based practices in the classroom and see us using good Assessment for Learning strategies so we can identify what their rangatahi/child can do well, and what their next steps for learning are.”
Having clear insight into how their rangatahi/child is tracking is absolutely critical for parents, Tonia says. “As a parent you should expect really clear communication from teachers at Dilworth about how your son is progressing.”
The other side of Tonia’s job involves learning, and a major emphasis is placed on teaching students the best strategies to learn well and succeed academically, socially, and in themselves as young men. “We make sure our students understand what good learning looks like,” Tonia says. To help them build capability and understanding we’ve introduced a programme called ‘Learning to Learn’, which we’ve started at the Junior Campus and are introducing to the Senior Campus this year. We have partnered with Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie) in Brisbane, who have developed an evidence-based ‘Learner’s Toolkit’ for good learning practice. We also have a ‘Learning to Learn’ Teacher here at Dilworth, who works directly with me - developing modules to deliver to our students so they can understand how to engage in good learning.” This is delivered alongside teacher education so that the strategies are aligned and visible in the classroom.
Tonia says getting students to the point where they can work effectively and independently is the goal. “What are the good habits they can learn and apply here at school, and then take with them so they have the capability to succeed when they leave? We’re trying to instill habits that will ensure success well beyond Dilworth. So they’re learning resilience, good study habits, good retrieval practices, how to manage their own time effectively, which digital tools will assist them, which ones to be critical of, and how to know the difference.”
Dilworth offers a three-pronged curriculum, which focusses on academic learning, student wellbeing, and Learning in the Outdoors. The school concentrates on literacy and numeracy and performs highly, with an almost 100% pass rate for NCEA, and employs a wide range of strategies to ensure success, including a specialist culturally responsive pedagogy for Māori and Pasifika learners. The school has also developed its own bespoke wellbeing curriculum, Ako Puāwaitanga, which helps keep students connected, grounded, and living with a strong sense of community. Lastly, there’s Learning in the Outdoors, at the Mangatāwhiri campus, where students learn other life skills such as self-awareness, self-belief, positive relationships, and leadership. The outdoor curriculum has been completely reimagined, with new tasks and goals designed to stretch students and grow their confidence.
Tonia says the question most parents want answered is: has all the investment Dilworth has made in teaching and learning paid off? Are their children better learners because of it?
“The answer is yes; our investment is paying off. We are seeing improvements in teaching and professional practice, as well as greater levels of engagement from students, and better educational outcomes as a result. We’re seeing students succeeding in the programmes they’ve undertaken. Our students are benefiting and will continue to benefit into the future.”