The aim of Pinelands High School’s professional growth is to change teacher behaviour and in doing so improve student’s learning. In order to ensure that this happens effectively we offer a programme that varies term by term. Our professional growth combines whole staff professional growth as well as small group professional growth.

During the first and the third terms we dedicate five consecutive Wednesday morning meetings to small group professional growth sessions. There are approximately ten professional growth module options organised for this period. Teachers will sign up for one module out of all of the options; each module is run over the course of these five weeks. This allows for sustained learning and allows teachers to put what they are learning into practice and then to analyse it further and feedback during the professional growth sessions in the weeks that follow. We realise that different teachers have different abilities and needs and so teachers will sign up for the option that interests them and will best assist their needs.

The module facilitators are a mixture of our teachers and external experts. We recognise the importance of new and current ideas but at the same time we have a number of excellent staff with specialist skills and knowledge within our school. We encourage our staff to assist wherever possible and to disseminate their knowledge and expertise through this system.