What next?
Success breeds success. Claire and her staff work hard to maintain the momentum created by the Beacon project, and Claire anticipates the whole-school programme will gain a momentum of its own as students make their way through the years equipped with increasingly deep levels of understanding about Technology.
One of the challenges they will face will be preparing for and coping with inevitable changes in staff. Claire has future-proofed the department to a certain extent by ensuring the programme is embedded so thoroughly that it won't disappear if its instigators move on. By so doing, the programme is formalised and the institutional knowledge of the department is preserved.
Less formally, the momentum of the programme will be protected by hiring new staff with the understanding, attitude and willingness to commit to the programme and its underlying philosophy.
New staff are not subject to a formal period of PD about how the department works but instead are embraced as members of the department's professional learning community immediately. Learning is by immersion. The culture of the department – of openness and sharing at all levels – facilitates this.
The plan is a work in progress, subject to constant refinement as circumstances dictate, Claire says. "It's a working document, a work in progress. If you think you've finished something like this then it's time to go."
Change can be accommodated because the strategic plan is process-based rather than context-based, which gives it an inherent flexibility.
At present, the department is reviewing the plan with an eye to the introduction of the two new strands of the Technology curriculum – Technological Knowledge and Nature of Technology. This isn't as onerous a job as might be expected, Claire says, and involves to a great extent formalising what often is present within the teaching programme, accounting for it within the strategic plan and where gaps are identified ensuring that they are addressed.
Terry Wood stresses that review of the strategic plan is an ongoing process that involves the whole department constantly reflecting on their teaching and the students' progress, rather than an intermittent process.
"We are evaluating our units of work regularly and the new strands now form part of our units and are constantly being referred to. An audit has been carried out and discussions will evolve about any gaps.
"The programme is developed by using a combination of the strengths the teachers have and the curriculum objectives. The curriculum is flexible enough to enable this to happen."
The development of the strategic plan was followed with interest by other departments at the school. At least one of them – Physical Education – is starting to move in the same direction. Claudia Wysocki was particularly keen on this aspect of the programme: she recognised that it was a fine and readily transferable model for in-house professional development.
Work continues on the glossary. All the teachers have a hard copy and are trialling the use of definitions with their classes throughout the year. This will be discussed again at the end of the year to check on its usefulness.
"We are still learning a lot from the discussions. I'm not sure that it's in the right format yet."
Claire believes the process of developing the strategic plan has taken the Technology Department at St Margaret's from "strength to strength" and has prepared it to cope with the challenges of the future.
And what advice does she offer for HODs contemplating a similar journey? "Be open in your discussions."
