Calliope State School was founded in 1872 and has a long history of providing quality education to the community. The school has undergone significant development in recent years, focusing on creating a 21st Century Digital Learning Environment.  Sheree attended the Apple Removing Barriers to Learning: Inclusive Education with Apple event in Gladstone and connected with Sandy about how she could support the school.  Email communication was undertaken and followed up and when possible, a visit to the school for Planning Essentials was undertaken.

This challenge will take time to transform the school environment from fragmented technology initiatives to cohesive vision-driven strategies that measurably improve student learning outcomes.

• Lack of strategic vision for technology integration
• No clear implementation roadmap or timeline
• Limited budget planning for sustainable technology programs
• Inadequate professional development planning for staff
• Difficulty measuring success or ROI of technology investments
• Fragmented decision-making across departments
• Resistance to change from staff and stakeholders

Sandy visited the school and ran a ½ Day Planning Essentials Program with the school. During the workshop, teams reflect on their school’s progress, plan next steps, and share ideas with their leadership group. Facilitators help participants build a plan to realize their vision for learning with technology.

Planning Essentials involves reflecting on a series of prompt cards that address four different areas. Vision and Strategy, Teaching, Learning and Environment. Once the team has discussed the cards and sorted them into piles of Will not Do, Commenced, Done, Will Do, and Unsure, each task is allotted to a single person in charge of ensuring it is completed. They may be supported by a team, but they are responsible for ensuring the task is completed. The cards are then either digitally added to a timeline or can be added to a physical timeline. It is then the role of the APLS to continue to meet with the team and ensure that they are moving toward their vision and goal and stay on track. Supporting with Professional Development when required.

Planning Essentials offers your school community the opportunity to:

• Develop technology integration strategies aligned with unique learning vision
• Build leadership team capacity for managing complex organisational change
• Create sustainable systems for ongoing technology planning and evaluation

A sharp vision and plan for the school’s technology program for the next 2 years.  Calliope School is seeking to become an Apple Distinguished school in 2027.

The Learning Technology Survey recommended schools at the beginning of the program and then again in 6 months’ time to gauge change and growth. Other metrics such as numbers of teachers completing Apple Teacher or Apple Learning Coach may also be used as well as student surveys on class engagement.