A world-first teacher development and action research program launched by a St George school is having positive results in student achievement.
The Sydney Catholic Schools initiative aims to take a teacher's skills in flexible learning environments, to new heights.
Established in collaboration with The University of Melbourne, The Sophia Program supports principals and teachers across 147 schools to use space effectively as a teaching tool.
Program Co-Founder, St Ursula's Principal and School Design Specialist, Vivienne Awad, said the idea is to adapt teaching to where the teaching is occurring.
"It is common for teachers to move into a newly built space and then have to work out how to operate in it," Ms Awad said. "This presents a huge challenge for teachers as their voice may have been absent in the design process.
"In this project we are advocating, before we commit to a major build, let's see that we are utilising spaces well and getting the teaching practice right."
Program educators also investigate the effects of learning environments on teachers and students' well-being. A report outlining the results will be released this year.
"To have university researchers collaborating with us to gather data and give it back to us in a form that is user-friendly is fantastic," Ms Awad said.
"The data allows our system to learn about the factors that schools need for success in these spaces and to make better decisions about the future design of our schools."
Regina Coeli Catholic Primary School Beverly Hills' Year 3 students and teachers were engaged in the program in 2023. The school's Leader of Professional Practice, Tania Melfi, said co-teaching within the flexible learning spaces helped students thrive.
She said 85 per cent of students in the pilot were at or above the expected level for mathematics and benchmark reading levels when compared to national data.
"The students and teachers feel like they are collaborating better, learning from each other and playing to their strengths through working as a team," Mrs Melfi said.
Associate Professor, Learning Environments from the University of Melbourne's Graduate School of Education Marian Mahat co-leads the project with Ms Awad.
"To see a school system so supportive of advancing teachers in their learning environment and supporting those teachers in designing and using the space is exciting," Dr Mahat said. "Sydney Catholic Schools is the only school system in the world who has done this."
See a video outlining the program. It features Regina Coeli Catholic Primary School Beverly Hills' Leader of Professional Practice and the school's former principal.
