As part of a wholescale review of the School Curriculum and Learning team, several areas were identified as needing greater investment in order to meet the School’s key strategic pillars. 

With that in mind, the School appointed three new members of the School’s Executive team during 2020. Mrs Davina McClure took on the role of Deputy Principal/Head of Senior School. Two other key senior appointments directly address the key strategic pillars: Ms Louisa Scerri was appointed the new Director of Learning and Innovation and Mrs Brett Borbely appointed into the new role of Director of Student Wellbeing. Together with Mr Rob Fuller, the Director of Curriculum (Years 7-12), these leading educators are bringing passion, experience, and insights into the Senior School at Ivanhoe Girls’, and are crafting a visionary response to some of the educational challenges of the 21st century.

Deputy Principal/Head of Senior School

While 2020 was undoubtedly challenging for the whole School community, for Davina McClure it was a once in a lifetime experience of education delivered differently. “My concern is that we will revert back to what we have always known” she says. Davina believes it’s important to “take what's happened and what was successful at that time and look at it in terms of how we move forward – it is not the continuation of how things were, but an opportunity to shape what will be”.

Despite the challenges of COVID-19 and Offsite Learning, VCE students at Ivanhoe Girls’ performed better than ever. “I was keen to ask, why? What did we do differently?” says Davina. And according to staff members, Rob Fuller and Jan Leather, students were encouraged to be resilient, teachers were less content focused and there was a greater focus for all on being self-directed during Offsite Learning. There were some great outcomes,” she says, adding, “we can’t lose sight of that.”

However, the isolation of learning from home for long periods of time was far from ideal. For Davina, wellbeing, belonging and connectedness are the most important elements to help a student thrive in a school. “If students feel understood, appreciated and equipped, they will develop their unique skills, interests and passions to be their very best self,” she says.

Davina’s background is in the Performing Arts and she teaches both Junior and Senior classroom music. She has an insight into the role passion and interest plays in student success. “You see that spark and you grow it” she says. “But it is not just limited to the Performing Arts”, she adds.

“If we can tap into the interests and passions of our students, then it’s limitless what they can do,” she says.

“If we can tap into the interests and passions of our students, then it’s limitless what they can do,” she says. “Of course, this is underpinned by hard work, dedication, skill mastery and commitment.”

“Teachers across all disciplines understand how important it is to teach students that a growth mindset, underpinned by effort and resilience, is essential for accomplishment in learning. Growth mindset language and formative instruction focuses students to apply effort and persistence to achieve their personal best. This is embedded in our learning culture, as students are encouraged to persevere with deep thinking while not shying away from the unknown or difficult," she says.

“It is encouraging that education is now beginning to focus on a broader and deeper set of metrics in terms of student achievement. Alongside the disciplines of learning, we are developing and acknowledging student competencies such as collaboration, creativity, communication, problem solving and strength of character.”

Director of Learning and Innovation

When people think of innovation they often think of technology and the latest gadget, but for Louisa Scerri, it’s all about ideas. “It’s a two-step thinking process involving idea generation and idea implementation,” she explains. “It’s about looking at what is actually happening, reflecting on why it happens like that, and then trying to articulate what improvements can be made going forward”. 

For Louisa, the power of innovation is its capacity to increase student learning outcomes, acknowledging that learning is a lifelong process. “Every decision we make in the school has to be about improving student learning,” she explains. That might mean challenging some of our assumptions about what learning looks like.

In one of her first projects as Director of Learning and Innovation, Louisa is developing what she calls a student “toolkit”. To do this, she is engaging students from Years 7-12 to find out more about their experiences of learning. By working with students in this inaugural Student Learning Forum, she hopes to refine teacher practice to ensure that student voice, agency and leadership inform the School’s Community of Practice. “We have a responsibility as educators to transform our educational model into the 21st century,” says Louisa. Above all, “teachers should design classes that allow every child to have success,” she says.  

According to Louisa, innovation is one of the most important attributes for an organisation in the 21st century. “To be innovative, you actually need to be a problem solver, be creative, work collaboratively and most of all be curious about things”, she explains. “Students need to have the opportunity throughout their schooling to build character, collaborate with their peers, respond to adversity with resilience, and most importantly have a growth mindset that encourages adaptability,” she says. “All of these components exist when we are innovative.”

“To be innovative, you actually need to be a problem solver, be creative, work collaboratively and most of all be curious about things”

So for young people facing a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world, the future of work may look very different to today’s job landscape. “Just teaching skills and knowledge is doing our students a disservice,” says Louisa. Our graduates will leave with more than this - they will have the dispositions and character traits that (educational researcher) Michael Fullan identifies as the 6Cs (character, citizenship, communication, critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration and creative imagination). “Indeed, they will have the ability to think of the questions that have not been thought of, and solve them - as they shape the world they will lead.”

So how do you develop those attributes in the classroom? For Louisa, the answer lies in the school motto: “Our Girls Speak for Themselves”. “It’s allowing students to ask questions,” she says. “It comes back to what happens in a classroom that encourages learning.”

“Allowing students to take risks, not being grade-orientated... an ATAR will give [students] options into tertiary studies, but there is so much more than that,” she points out. “It’s that curiosity, or that creativity or being able to collaborate. It’s looking at the learning as more than the four walls of a classroom - it’s about expansive education and real-life experiences,” says Louisa. 

For Louisa, success comes down to the student experience. “It’s a child feeling secure enough to try something new or take a risk,” she says. “If we are doing our job well, every child at any moment in the class will have moments of success, moments of feeling uncomfortable and moments of feeling challenged. But most importantly every child must feel success, they must feel proud, and feel rewarded by their efforts. They must feel they belong. It is this environment that is the catalyst for learning.”

Director of Student Wellbeing

Raised in a family that lived its strong Christian values by fostering more than 350 troubled teens, Brett Borbely is a strong believer in the importance of healthy relationships. Growing up, she witnessed firsthand the damaging long term effect of non-respectful relationships on young people. 

As a teacher, she knew she wanted to find a way to empower young people to make better decisions, so she enrolled in a Master of Education with a focus on wellbeing. Today, in her role as Director of Student Wellbeing, she designs curriculum and lesson plans around topics such as respectful relationships, consent and conflict resolution, but always with an eye on the key aspects of Emotional Intelligence - self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social management.  

So why is the focus on wellbeing so important? “If we want young people to be successful we need them to have an understanding of their own wellbeing so they can put things in place to be able to flourish,” she explains. “They need the language and the skills to be able to advocate for themselves, to be able to take care of themselves, and to be able to have empathy and compassion for other people as well.”   

“I think that the whole world is realising that if we want to do well as individuals we need to do well collectively, and wellbeing is the way to do that.” 

Ivanhoe Girls’ has long enjoyed a strong tradition of delivering high quality student wellbeing. In Senior School, small tutorial groups and the nurturing presence of Year Level Coordinators can help students to feel known as individuals. Brett believes this can have a huge effect on student confidence. “We say “Our Girls Speak for Themselves” and it starts from a sense of belonging and a sense of being seen,” she says. “People don't naturally speak unless they know that when they open their mouth there is someone there to listen.”

“Every time we see a young student for who they really are and give them the space to be that person and not ask them to mould and change into someone else, I think that once people feel psychologically safe they are willing to deal with change, they are willing to deal with pain…” she explains.

“That child is more likely to ask you questions in class, is more likely to seek help if they don't understand the concept. The fact that's part of our culture here, I just think is wonderful.”

At Ivanhoe Girls’, her key aim is to embed wellbeing into the curriculum, and connect the work of the Year Level Coordinators and the Counselling team to the classroom. “We will document the wellbeing framework so we will have a through line and curriculum that matches that through line from Years 7-12,” she explains. But beyond that, success for Brett is all about the students. 

“At the end of the day you want it to be a place where the students are thriving and those that are struggling have hope and know they will get the support they need to thrive.”