Task2-The four secret ingredients that can turn good schools into great ones

https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/the-four-secret-ingredients-that-can-turn-good-schools-into-great-ones-20190328-p518e2.html

The four secret ingredients that can turn good schools into great ones 

• every school strives to boost student results, the key ingredients that drive this improvement are difficult to pinpoint.

Main ideas:

1.  Good relationships:

• Best schools go out of their way to forge strong ties between teachers, students, and parents. 
• Good relationships encourage students to achieve top marks and to attend the state's most prestigious universities.
• Schools rolled out student voices emerge as crowned schools.
• Dispute resolution is great and healthy with good partnerships. 

2.High Expectations:

• The culture of high expectations permeates these schools.
• Right exposure to a variety of careers and further education opportunities are provided to the students.
• Students are given the confidence to achieve their dreams.
• Experts from Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne iterates that “best schools don’t stream students according to their ability”.  

3.Flexibility:

•  Best schools don’t promote one, narrow idea of success. They encourage students to pursue their interests and tailor their education accordingly.
• Mentone Grammar School principal Mal Cater said: “Schools should not assume that all students want to attend university”.
• Schools that offer flexibility let students enroll in rigorous VCAL programs as a vocational alternative to the VCE.

4. Clear Expectations and Goals.

• Students have a clear idea of what is expected of them in every class and work towards goals.
• During structured lessons, the teacher demonstrates the skills that students need to learn and constantly check their understanding of key concepts. In education circles, this is called “explicit instruction”.

• The Grattan Institute's school education director Peter Goss said: “the schools that have won awards have done it the hard way by improving their teaching, conversations with the school community and boosting students' confidence”.