Breakout Sessions

Presenters: Mitcham Girls’ High School

Description: The journey of establishing on-site TL provisions for up to 45 students across Years 9-11. What worked. What didn’t. Where to next.

Presenters: Para Hills High School Aboriginal Education Team and Leaders

Description: Join the Para Hills High School Aboriginal Education Team and Leaders for an engaging breakout session that delves into the innovative approach that the school employs to achieve equitable excellence. As a leading public high school in attendance, wellbeing and academic outcomes, Para Hills High School is committed to fostering an inclusive environment where every student, no matter on background or capability, has the opportunity to excel. This session will explore the school’s strategies for promoting and practicing equity in education, including high quality teaching practices, culturally responsive frameworks and support and stretch systems tailored to diverse learning needs. Participants will gain insights into how Para Hills High School empowers students to reach their full potential ensuring that excellence is accessible to all. Furthermore, they will be encouraged to consider their own site, and current strategies they employ to create equity for all students, while considering some proven strategies that are working within the public education sector.

Presenters: Underdale High School

Description: Discover how small, intentional, and data-informed changes have led to both incremental and transformative shifts in our school culture. Join us to explore our story of improvement and hear firsthand from staff and students about initiatives and strategies we’ve trialled. Engage in an open dialogue to connect and share insights on our learning journey for both staff and students. Be part of a conversation that could inspire change in your own school community.

Presenters: Peterborough High School

Description: “So what, now what?” This session will explore how Peterborough High School transformed its cultures, systems, and student outcomes through bold, relational leadership and a relentless focus on wellbeing and belonging. Grounded in the words of Linda Cliatt-Wayman, we set out to “Lead Fearlessly and Love Hard” in the face of complex trauma, attendance concerns, and disengagement. We’ll unpack how we co-created structures for relational learning, prioritised agency over apathy, and embedded a culture of visibility, safety, and care across every layer of the school. From whole-school mentoring, the joy of ‘Sunshine Gatherings’, to co-teaching, block-timetables and experiential learning, this is our story of equity-in-action—honouring student voice and community connections. This is not a silver bullet story- it’s a story of rolling up sleeves, working together, and asking “So what, now what?” at every turn.

Presenters: Warriappendi Secondary School

Description: Creating optimal learning conditions to ‘hook’ students, through collaborative and responsive approaches to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education.

This breakout session unpacks what’s been working at Warriappendi Secondary School to enact the Aboriginal Education Strategy’s goals:
Aboriginal young people excel at school
Aboriginal young people are on pathways to success

Presenters: Data 4 Impact Team

Description: In an era of abundant data, the challenge lies in unpacking it without bias to enhance student outcomes. This session introduces a thinking tool designed to assist leadership teams in analysing any data set effectively, facilitating informed decision-making for future actions. Participants are encouraged to attend with a colleague from their school to maximise collaborative learning and application.

This will be a hands on workshop, with time to explore your own data sets available through DfE PowerBi, and how these can be workshopped with leadership teams and staff alike.

Presenters: Wirreanda Secondary School

Description: Over the last 3 years, Wirreanda Secondary School has been on a journey to change our support structures across our school to support the needs of all students. These changes have seen a significant impact on our students and school culture. This session will tell the story of this change process. It has not been one thing that has driven this change but change at a range of levels including how we service our Inclusive Learning Students, Wellbeing structures, how we service our students through Tailored Learning, structures we have implemented for students that aren’t eligible for Tailored Learning but need additional support, what we do to support our students that have low literacy and numeracy skills and other whole school structures.

Presenters: Parafield Gardens High School

Description: At PGHS, we are in the 3rd year of a focus on cultural inclusion and safety, which has included professional learning, deep listening to and within our community, developing and implementing a responding to racism process/policy, and learning/practising skills for engaging in difficult conversations across difference. We would share the process for whole school culture change that we followed, some voices of people involved (students and staff), with a focus on why this work is important, how it can make a difference to the experience of culturally diverse young people in our schools, and some of what we have learned along the way.

Presenters: Data 4 Impact team

Description: Join us as we collaborate with the department’s data team to explore the concept of pulse checks and their role in driving strategic improvement aligned with our overarching strategy. With a focus on Equity and Excellence, this session demonstrates how you can effectively collect and engage with data without relying on complex tools like Power BI. With time to explore your own context, you will discover how pulse checks can be a powerful yet simple measurement tool to support your strategic goals.

Presenters: Reconciliation SA

Description: How we can do the work on anti-racism in education