Maria Iemma is the Principal at Beverly Hills Girls High School, a comprehensive high school of approximately 900 female students. The school is a vibrant, dynamic and inclusive learning community that sets high expectations for students and staff.
Creatable empowers teachers with high-impact professional learning
The school recently used Creatable as a professional learning tool to equip teachers with the skills required to teach a Stage 5 high potential and gifted unit. Teachers from Science, Technology, English, Technology, Mathematics and Arts undertook Creatable professional learning. They then developed a cross-curricular program on the theme of domestic violence, incorporating the skills through the unit content.
“The unit we’ve created appeals to the social justice of women and engages our students,” Maria explains. “We're using the Stage 5 syllabus, along with the Creatable Skills Framework to teach students future-focused skills - creative thinking, collaboration, problem-solving and data analysis.”
Supporting teachers to learn - and transfer - critical skills
The Creatable Skills Framework includes skills that are vital today, and that young people need to learn. “By embedding them into the curriculum, students learn how to collaborate, problem-solve and think creatively,” says Maria. “It's actually teaching them the skills required to get by in today's world. They're as important as literacy and numeracy. Even when analysing a piece of text, for instance, they need to have those skills behind them.
”While there is a major project at the end, “the unit is about learning to work with each other, to problem solve, to think, to look at and analyse data. All these important skills come straight from the Creatable courses. It's not the content so much as the skills they're learning and their engagement that’s important.”
Creatable supports all the strategic directions at Beverly Hills Girls High School. It also aligns with the quality learning framework, which is based on critical thinking, engagement and connection with the outside world. Finally, Creatable aligns with the Department of Education's high potential and gifted education policy. The high-impact professional learning helps staff deliver high-impact teaching in the classroom.
Enhancing student engagement and future-ready skills
Maria is committed to maximising Creatable courses within her school. “I really see the relevance of this kind of PL in the classroom, of learning how to collaborate with others or solve problems. And I love being given something like this to try and get it working within the school environment. Our school vision is ‘Women can do anything.’ Our girls think critically, engage with learning and connect with the outside world to one day be somebody. Creatable aligns well with that. Each school context will be different, but that’s how we've delivered it.”