Underlying reasons for intergenerational disadvantage and what we can do.
Intensely focused grass roots engagement in areas of disadvantage on the Mornington Peninsula over the last five years is leading to greater clarity regarding the underlying drivers of intergenerational disadvantage and what we can do as a community to change it.
We have had great advancement in our work with kinders, primary and secondary schools, clarifying the challenges within the education system over many decades, to ensure children secure fundamental skills upon which they can build successful lives. As a result, we see generations of adults who suffer the consequences.
We see an opportunity to better understand the settings within which these circumstances sit by looking through a practical, rather than ideological lens.
Evidence strongly supports the Science of Learning, an approach which draws on cognitive science research on how students learn and connects it to practical implications for teachers. It incorporates systematic synthetic phonics, direct explicit instruction, assessment to mastery and structured knowledge acquisition and is about building a system that meets the learning needs of all children.
Through No Limits and our work in upper primary and secondary schools we are seeing the increasing adoption of these practices and whole scale transition to this model in schools. We are also seeing great momentum around the issue and within an increasing number of schools growing.
We will build on this work to support transitions in kinders and schools. While change is not easy for many reasons, our experience shows that once the impact of the new ways of teaching are seen by the teachers themselves, uptake, if supported, is eagerly embraced.