Develop a supported vision for school change and define what 21st-century learning means within our local context

The process of innovative school design and the leadership needed to deliver the changes

A collaborative process to establish pedagogy, curriculum, culture and project benchmarks, as well as human resources to support the process

How School Systems ensure inclusion and representation of everyone’s aspirations, engage stakeholders within and beyond the school on developing a shared vision for change

Build trust and provide structural support for transformation of teaching and learning.

Focusing on:

Developing and implementing a comprehensive Signature School Taster Programme for Year 7 and 8, and Middle School Students that will provide them with career related exploration and exposure activities and experiences. These activities and experiences aim to assist students with making informed decisions as it pertains to applying to a senior signature school. Advocating for a senior signature school admissions policy that is inclusive and culturally responsive.

Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment are the three essential pillars that drive the work of teaching and learning. When these pillars are learner-focused and intentionally aligned, we can produce outstanding outcomes for students.

The Curriculum - provides the framework of required knowledge, essential understandings, and skills each student should know. Using a collaborative approach to designing the curriculum will ensure learning experiences that are relevant to our learners’ lives and futures.

Assessment - is the process, tools and methods used by educators to reveal what students know. Assessment is an integral part of the learning process, driving instructional decisions and allowing students to monitor their own progress. Providing students with varied ways to demonstrate learning allows for a more robust understanding of the skills and knowledge gained.

Pedagogy - is the process of implementing teaching methods and strategies based on student needs and interests, with the overall goal to improve both academic and social outcomes. Planning for instruction will begin with learners at the focus, and understanding the best approach to meet the various needs of the individual students.

Using best practices, Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment combine to ensure that students not only advance through increasingly complex material, but also demonstrate the attainment of key learning outcomes, leading to a comprehensive, equitable and effective learning experience.

Focusing on:

Building upon the Inclusive and Cultural Responsiveness Report and Strategy (September 2022), this workstream will establish frameworks, procedures and policies that support students feeling seen and heard and their academic, career, personal and social needs being clearly identified and addressed. Each and every student deserves to have an inclusive and culturally responsive education system that removes barriers to engagement in teaching and learning.

An essential part of the Education team dedicated to:

-Communicating key messaging of the Education Reform Unit to

The public; Stakeholders/Business Partners; Teachers/Staff; Parents; Wider Community

-To set up and facilitate opportunities for information and communication to take place through engagement with

School boards; PTAs; Community Events; Staff Meetings

-To create media opportunities with the Minister, guests and relevant team members on various media platforms

Online (Education Connection); Radio (Education Matters) Additional media outlets and engagement opportunities

Work is required to align the professional learning of teachers, paraeducators, counselors and others. This includes supporting principals and leaders of professional learning in school to continue to scale the agreed models of professional learning across the system including supporting the design of system wide professional learning and the shift to site based delivery/Schools as Professional Learning Communities.

This will focus on growing the confidence and capability of principals and other leaders of professional learning to develop in their school some or all of the four evidence-based models of collaborative professional learning identified in Learning First: peer coaching, learning walks, action learning and lesson study. And move towards schools working together on shared learning and development, enabled by the consistent use of these models of professional learning across the BPSS.

Each of the four models of collaborative professional learning involves educators evaluating teaching practice and student learning, using observation and feedback to improve their own practice and to help others to do the same.

Assessment of the school environments/physical plant infrastructure to determine its suitability to meet the needs of students and teachers as per the education reform plan.

With inputs from all stakeholders, develop plans to address the following:

Physical Access

Classroom size and space

Air quality and control

Lighting

Acoustics

IT requirements

Future state transportation needs

Creation of master plan for delivery of Parish Primary and Signature Schools

Being tasked with consulting with relevant stakeholders, in order to provide recommendations and proposals to the Minister on establishing and operationalizing the Education Authority. The Education Authority will take full responsibility for Public Education thereby minimizing the politicization of Public Education. The Authority will have a Board and each school will have a School Board accountable to the main Authority Board. The Authority will replace the Department of Education, with all of the Department’s responsibilities transfering to the Authority.

A team that supports the Government of Bermuda to begin measuring progress and performance of Education Reform using an initial small set of metrics, to support the initial implementation phase. Over time, the metrics, methods of collection, and reporting should be reviewed, updated and expanded to meet the changing needs of schools and stakeholders.

An opportunity to introduce and implement the role of Personalized Learning Advocates and build out the PLAs practices within the school system, with a particular focus on the Advisory programme.

The recruitment of PLAs (15) whose work will begin in 2023/24

This will then evolve into building a business case for a steady-state cohort of 25 total PLAs across the system

Funding to schools for both capital works and operational costs on a per student basis

Work is required to align professional learning, leadership development and other workforce levers (e.g. teacher and leader evaluation) to advance development of a future ready workforce. The School Leadership Strategy, which is the result of 6 months of research and development including utilising the contributions and suggestions of the forty plus diverse participants who attended the inaugural Ministerial Summit on the Quality of Teaching and School Leadership in Bermuda identifies 10 levers for addressing the current reality and realising the promise of school leaders in Bermuda.

The strategy incorporates the full leadership lifecycle of identifying, nurturing, developing and supporting aspiring, beginning, current and senior leaders and creates clear linkages between each element of leadership development. For example, the BPSS cannot leverage investments in improved leadership preparation unless selection issues are addressed.

Strategic leadership development is more than investment in developing individual school principals. A system must be built that integrates ongoing assessment of whole-system leadership needs with a leadership strategy – talent identification, skill development, individual support, and performance management – all aligned to transparent pathways for effective career progression. The most important feature of the leadership strategy, however, is that no component will work alone. The strategy is a system of moving parts that work best when executed in tandem, alongside each other.

It would be incongruent of the system, as it focuses on better preparing the future workforce for all sectors and industries across the country through Signature Learning Programmes, to not take immediate action on its own. As well as providing appropriate learning development for the existing teacher workforce, attention needs to be given to the systems and processes for recruiting, inducting and credentialing the future educational workforce.

This needs to be considered in the context of:

• A global educator workforce shortage

• The need to free up capacity within the system to undertake the essential transformation work

• Consistent feedback that the current HR function is insufficient for the current system, and our belief that it will not suffice to secure and develop the professional capital required for the future models of learning and schooling that are the route to achieving the vision for learning.

The future educational workforce includes not just ‘teachers’ as traditionally understood; within Signature Schools, the Signature Learning Programmes, foundational 21st century skills, and the new curriculum more generally will require incorporating members of partner business, public service, community and research organisations as participants in teaching and learning (see learning partnerships section above).

Within both Parish Primary Schools and Senior Signature Schools, the desire for a more holistic approach to a young person’s development will require a more diverse staffing profile to accommodate adults who fulfil the social-emotional requirements of a more inclusive and culturally responsive school system.

This workstream, aligned to broader public sector reform initiatives, is focused on building sufficient transformative leadership capability to take this work forward. This includes:

• Growing existing system leaders’ capacity and capability to lead education reform.

• Growing a pipeline of talented Bermudians with the knowledge, skills, mindsets and behaviors to be brilliant system leaders, formal and informal, in a complex and transforming education system.

• Shifting current perceptions of the culture of system leadership from hierarchy and control to one of openness and opportunity.

• The System Leadership Strategy, which is the result of a six-month research and development project involving more than thirty school and system leaders, proposes a three-part approach and five-year timeline to address:

• Challenges identified by system leaders in the existing system;

• New requirements placed on system leaders by education reform;

• Talent management and succession planning for the next generation of system leaders; and

• Gaps in formal and informal professional learning for existing and aspiring system leaders.

The strategy includes, phased over many years, the establishment of:

A System Leadership Institute, providing intensive support through workshops and 1-1 coaching to explore evidence, models and ideas about system leadership from beyond Bermuda and beyond education.

A System Leadership Action Learning Set, a closed and confidential group of 6-8 system leaders facilitated to share and solve intractable problems of practice; a safe and honest space where leaders explore challenges and failures as learning opportunities.

System Leadership Taster Programmes, opportunities for student and early career teachers to explore school and system leadership by undertaking short-term placements and internships.

A System Leadership Residency, mentoring and evaluation for leaders making a big transition in their careers e.g. from school to system leadership, before formal appointment to arrive with their mentor(s) at an honest and shared appraisal of learning and support needs in their new role.

Education Reform is the process through which the Bermuda Public School System is transforming. Although the primary focus of reform is to impact in-school factors such as teacher capability, curriculum redesign and community engagement, the impact of what young people experience in their early years (birth to age eight) is a significant factor in life outcomes.