RECENT EMPLOYMENT HISTORY 2009-2010 Teacher, Angle Vale Preschool April 2010-Current Acting Director, Angle Vale Preschool

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS Bachelor Of Arts (English Major) Adelaide University 2006 Bachelor of Early Childhood Education (Graduate Entry) UniSA 2008 Currently Undertaking a Graduate Certificate UniSA, estimated completion July 2011 RECENT RELEVANT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DECS Improvement and Accountability (DIAF) Aspiring Leaders Program (DECS) Primary Maths Association (Preschool) Respect Reflect Relate Training Finance (FABSNET) Training Aspiring Leaders Program 2010

As Director of Craigmore CS I will continue to focus the Preschools energy and commitment to develop students who possess the skills, attitudes, confidence and abilities to achieve to their full potential and become life-long learners in a safe, inclusive environment where trusting relationships and a sense of pride and belonging are nurtured. I will also work in a complementary manner with staff, students, parents and the wider community to continue to provide all students with a quality, balanced, relevant and inclusive curriculum that will enable them to participate as creative, enterprising, resilient, socially aware citizens in a world where change is occurring at an ever increasing rate. Effective Leadership of, and collaborative work, with a range of people The knowledge, skills and qualities of leaders are clearly some of the most important factors in influencing student learning outcomes. As a transformational leader I reflect a concern for accomplishing the goals of a learning organization and a concern for relationships among people in that organization. I recognize, utilize and build on others strengths to maximize outcomes for students. I build and maintain morale, encourage growth and creativity and involve people in decision making. I believe that effective, inclusive communication is essential to functioning of a successful environment that is responsive to the needs of all members of its community so that optimum wellbeing and learning is achieved. I believe, that even before I was appointed as Acting Director at AVPS, I was working as part of the collaborative leadership team. Our site leadership was structured to be an open, unique forum which enabled me to share in the decision making and direction setting. During 2009 & 2010 thus far, I have continued to move AVPS forward to achieve the goals and targets of the Site Learning Plan. Open, honest communication, trust and mutual respect and sharing of expertise enabled this to happen successfully. This success was and is acknowledged, recognized and celebrated amongst our peers, and district office leadership. As an effective leader I involve staff, students and parents by developing goals together, communicating, empathic listening, sharing information, sharing responsibilities by using peoples strengths to encourage task-role responsibility, empowering by delegating responsibility, by problem solving, mediating and using conflict resolution and by using a positive, proactive style of working. I give recognition by acting on peoples ideas, acknowledging contributions and achievements and encouraging individual and team reflection and evaluation. To draw the best from members within our Preschool community I seek to inspire motivation from within by building a sense of belonging, by encouraging people to become powerful through being empowered. By empowered, I mean allowing members of our staff and community to have some freedom of choice and enjoying meaningful work. When I commenced at AVPS, I recognized very quickly that a Preschool staff team needs to be a tightknit, condensed team of individuals who need to work together to achieve successful outcomes. With 3 full time staff Janet Gifford

members, 2 part time staff members and an Occasional Care worker, communication & shared belief is paramount. With only 2 out of 6 staff who had Tertiary Early Childhood qualifications, it soon became clear that a wholesome, shared belief was not fully existent at the site. Being somewhat of an idealist, I found this hard to deal with and started to develop ways in which I believe we could all work together, as a collaborative team to achieve more successful learning outcomes at AVPS. I believe that the breakdown in our staff team was mostly due to a breakdown in shared belief systems about how children learn best, as well as up to date knowledge about current research and theory pertaining to Preschoolers learning. I encouraged staff to critically evaluate and reflect on their practices and together we discussed and acknowledged what was working well and identified any areas where we felt professional learning was needed. Together we planned how the learning would happen, and agreed actions were followed up. As a graduate teacher at AVPS last year, I was active in providing this information to all staff (especially ECWs and un-trained staff) at staff meetings, and incidentally throughout the year. I also enabled staff to attend professional development related to Early Childhood Education, including ECHO, Numeracy & Literacy and a workshop that trained all staff in being familiar with and using the Reflect, Respect, Reflect document. I believe that leadership is a skill that involves motivating and enabling others to feel that they too have an important role, as well as a duty of care to the children whom they interact with. By providing training and development to all staff members (already trained of untrained), I was able to motivate and refresh their passion for Early Childhood Education. Of course, I acknowledge that this is an ongoing process, one that continues to evolve as the site evolves. Under my leadership at AVPS, the Governing Council has had a true voice in decision making. As we prepare to roll out COAGs Universal Access to 15 hours of Preschool, I have consulted with Governing Council on how best we can make this transition. Discussions regarding this change have resulted in a shared set direction which ideally suits both staff members as well as the whole AVPS community. Governing Council are paramount in discussions related to setting direction and moving forward. Last term, Governing Council consulted and made a decision to use our own resources to paint the internal walls of the Preschool. As a collaborative team, lead by myself, we were able to save approximately $4000 by carrying out the works ourselves. This led to improved student outcomes, as we now have extra funding available to resource our curriculum. Our Governing Council meets regularly to plan and make decisions about improvement. Ultimately, all decisions made support improved learning outcomes for children under our care. It is of paramount importance to develop positive links with new parents whose children are staring Preschool for the first time, and to continue to nurture these relationships as the child progresses through their Preschool year. I believe that, this type of leadership creates a positive and meaningful environment for children to learn in. Mutual trust between a child, their caregiver and education provider is crucial. Many parents have commented to me and other staff about the positive welcome experience they have received and continue to receive at AVPS. In only a short period of time as leader, I have demonstrated my strength as a leader in mentoring and coaching staff to ensue sustainability and continuous improvement in high quality teaching practice. Leadership in the provision and continuous development of early childhood curriculum and teaching strategies which are implemented through education and care programs that meet the needs of all children and families. I believe that quality teaching practices are based on the following: all students learn best when they are actively involved; they are able to progress at their own rate; they are given opportunities to explore and question; they are in a positive and secure environment; they are challenged; they recognise that what they are learning is relevant and related to previous experiences; they are able to make mistakes and see Page 1 / 2

them as part of the learning process; they are encouraged to take risks; continuity between preschool, primary school and secondary school occurs; parents are involved in their childrens education and students have a positive self concept. Each person must be seen as a unique individual with their own set of experiences and talents. I led the continued development of AVPSs Site Learning Plan this year. Our site goals include collecting a more meaningful scope of Numeracy data. Prior to 2009, AVPS numeracy data collection consisted of rote counting, 1:1 correspondence and recognition of numerals. I undertook Primary Maths Association training, and shared my newfound understanding with the site community including staff. We all became very clear that Numeracy involves much more than being able to count to 10, and recognize numerals. I went ahead and designed a site specific Numeracy matrix that has enabled us to gather a greater and more meaningful context of childrens use and understanding of numeracy concepts at AVPS. Just this term, we have decided to focus all Learning Journeys around Numeracy, a change I have led to further our staff understanding of Numeracy, as well as trialing a different and unorthodox data collection method. I strongly believe that I have the skills and abilities to lead a staff team in the continuous development of Early Childhood Education. In my current role as Director at AVPS I have demonstrated commitment to the use of the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) National Australian Curriculum, Belonging, Being & Becoming. This framework is embedded in a constructivist pedagogy, whereby children build knowledge from their existing understandings through play based experiences.

Janet Gifford

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