We establish strong partnerships with an increasing number of schools across Sydney. We’re committed to developing sustained, long-term partnerships where a school’s strategic objectives can be supported. This is achieved through a program of professional learning, consultancy and/or action research in the UNSW School of Education’s areas of expertise, including gifted education, special education, teacher development, educational policy, TELT, TESOL and assessment for learning.
Our partnership schools run innovative programs that provide a model of excellence for our pre-service teachers. The experience of working in and observing innovative programs inspires students to realise the potential of educational initiatives. Our students see first-hand, the best, most exciting things that are happening in schools.
We use flexible modes of teacher education where there is a genuine partnership between the school and the university in developing and delivering the program.
To find out more about being a UNSW Partnership School, please contact our professional experience team in the Work Integrated Learning office.
E: professionalexperience@unsw.edu.au, opens in a new window
T: +61 2 9385 9388
UNSW department of education partnership
Formal agreements between universities that provide many professional experience placements in schools in NSW aims to create higher benchmarks and more consistent quality teaching experiences for schools and universities in our region.
Professional Experience Hub schools demonstrate, develop and share high-quality professional experiences in conjunction with a partner university. Beverly Hills Girls High School (BHGHS) is partnered with the UNSW School of Education as its hub school. It's an important partner in teacher education for the School of Education at UNSW, as a Centre of Excellence.
This partnership creates transformative experiences for our teacher education students who undertake professional experience at BHGHS. The goal is to scale up these transformations to 148 metropolitan and rural partner secondary schools in our professional experience network through networking and relationship building.
The specific goals set by the NSW Department of Education for the hub school partnerships are:
Fostering strong links between BHGHS and the UNSW School of Education staff, including with tertiary supervisors and supervising teachers, to investigate innovative practices in teacher education, student supervision and support.
The UNSW School of Education working closely with the hub school to deliver the highest quality support and supervision to teacher education students including reviewing aspects of the initial teacher education course provision.
The UNSW School of Education to provide quality professional learning in aspects of professional experience provision including mentoring and enhancing expertise in the APST at graduate level.
The UNSW School of Education working with the hub school to develop and deliver additional professional learning focused on supporting professional experience with other schools.
Providing opportunities for collaborative school-based research around professional experience.
The creation of hub schools with the School of Education’s strong community engagement continually builds a new level of collaboration between the university and the teaching profession. Our leading Teacher Professional Learning, applied research, public lecture and accredited courses lead the study and practice of education in Australia.
Our twin strategies – UNSW School of Education and BHGHS:
Enhancing practising teacher/supervisor mentoring/professional learning side.
Enhancing student engagement and the practical experience of student teachers, using our student engagement program in MTeach.
The Hub School was launched on Friday, 11 December at BHGHS. The Hon. Adrian Piccoli, Minister of Education, spoke of the importance of ensuring that the best-quality teachers graduate and are available to teach our greatest capital, our children. Associate Professor Tony Loughland, Director of the UNSW MENTOR strategic initiative in Teacher Professional Learning at UNSW School of Education, initiated the provision of quality professional learning for the partnership through the presentation of a NESA-accredited workshop on Mentoring for Adaptability to all BHGHS staff. Teacher adaptability is a key disposition in the complex working environment of schools and classrooms, and a key selection criterion for future teachers. As a vital component of its activity, this partnership plans to trial an adaptability scale that allows teacher adaptability to become part of the professional learning repertoire for teachers across their career span.
Partnership with the Association of Independent Schools
The School of Education and UNSW’s partnership with the Association of Independent Schools (AIS) works on extending and strengthening the following activities:
exemplary education for pre-service teachers
teachers’ professional learning
professional learning for leaders and aspiring leaders
collaborative, sustainable research in areas of mutual interest.
The university and the schools collaborate to enhance professional experience for preservice teachers, cooperative seminars, symposiums, workshops and conferences for teachers and aspiring leaders and joint hosting of high-profile international visitors in key areas of educational innovation.
The first joint research project for 2012 and 2013, funded through the Smarter Schools National Partnership on Improving Teacher Quality, titled “Improving the Quality of the Teacher Education Practicum Experiences” aimed to strengthen the quality of the UNSW practicum experience and enhance schoolteacher expertise and professional leadership in practicum supervision.
The research team worked closely with teachers from five independent schools and Julie Sheridan, National Partnerships Consultant from the AIS. The project culminated in a report including mentoring protocols, feedback tools and best practice case studies.
