SA Alliance of Schools Cluster

Modelling the values we espouse

SA Alliance of Schools Cluster, South Australia

Modbury School – Preschool to Year 7
Para Vista Preschool – 7
Penola Primary School
St Augustine’s Parish School
St Columba College
Salisbury High School

Project proposal summary

This inter-systemic R–12 cluster will explore the connections between values education, resilience and higher order thinking required for responsible citizenship. The cluster will focus on developing a clear understanding of how students develop resilience and ability to reason ethically using a range of social and higher thinking skills to support them to make appropriate choices in their lives. We intend to measure the degree to which values, resilience and higher order thinking are connected and over time influence learning outcomes. It is clear that this project will investigate pedagogies that support values education in schools. The project will provide an opportunity for schools to review their policies, particularly in relation to Student Wellbeing.

Engagement with values
Lina Scalfino, Principal of Modbury School Preschool – Year 7, wrote a paper ‘Engagement with Values: A Lens for Whole School Change’, which was presented at the 10th Annual Values and Leadership Conference at Pennsylvania State University in October 2005. The paper is presented as a case study of the school’s ‘... learning journey using an integrated values approach to whole school change to transform the school’s culture within the context of major national initiatives and developments in values education’.

Penola Primary School Case Study

Penola Primary School in South Australia is part of the Modbury School R–7 cluster. Teachers at Penola are developing the key community values of trust and honesty in their students through leading by example. Students are given open access to most areas of the school and, as the principal of Penola has found: ‘By ‘giving’ children a level of trust which they can live up to, we are teaching the very essence of the values desired. Conversely, we cannot expect to teach the values of trust and honesty if we take away any opportunity that children have to learn and demonstrate these values.’

Penola has had a values education focus for a number of years, but in 2005 reviewed and aligned its values to the nine Values for Australian Schooling.

The Penola Primary School Case Study is a reflection by the Principal, Mr Dale Price, on the substantial achievements of Penola in values education. It also demonstrates case writing techniques. The case study outlines the processes the school has used to align its values with the nine values including, asking staff to reflect on their modelling of the values, student activities, and parent activities, such as a values forum. Outcomes demonstrate the positive benefits for the whole school community from the school’s values education program.

Final Report

Stage 1 Of the Values Education Good Practice Schools Project has now been completed. An extract from Implementing the National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools: Report of the Values Education Good Practice Schools Project – Stage 1: Final Report September 2006 for SA Alliance of Schools Cluster can be downloaded as a PDF document.