Professional Learnings NSWPPA Educational Leadership

"The Why" of the CLARITY Essentials with the CLS Team :The Clarity Essential Suite Makes Professional Learning Flexible, Accessible, and Impactful

• NSW PPA Professional Learning • Season 3 • Episode 14

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The Clarity Learning Suite team introduces their newest initiative, the Clarity Essential Suite, designed to distill powerful professional learning into 12 flexible hours to support school improvement across New South Wales.

• Three core components: explicit leading, explicit teaching, and explicit learning
• Designed for 55-minute sessions, aligning with NSW Department of Education guidelines
• Complete flexibility for schools to implement according to their specific context and needs
• Based on Lynn Sharratt's research on the 14 parameters for school improvement
• Inclusive pricing model ensures all teaching staff can access the professional learning
• Supports schools to develop common language and consistent practice across classrooms
• Includes comprehensive resources, case studies and learning leader notes
• Directly supports implementation of the NSW School Excellence Framework
• Practical tools that can be implemented immediately following professional learning
• Designed to build leadership capacity while supporting teachers to meet all students' needs

To explore the Clarity Essential Suite and register your team, 

Visit: https://www.nswppa.org.au/clarity-learning-suite

 and get started on your professional learning journey today.

Visit:

https://claritylearningsuite.com/clarity/drew-janetzki-nsw-ppa-discusses-the-essentials-suite-with-the-cls-team/

Links and References:

To view our Professional Learning Offerings, visit:
https://www.nswppa.org.au/professional-learning

To view our latest offerings, visit: https://www.nswppa.org.au/catalogue






Drew Janetzki:

Welcome back to Professional Learning's, the New South Wales PPA Educational Leadership Podcast. It's great to have your company. This podcast aligns to the values of the New South Wales Primary Principals Association, that is, the values of principal wellbeing, principals as lead learners, as well as supporting principals to lead school operations. If you enjoy this podcast, don't forget to subscribe for further updates. Now let's get into today's latest episode.

Drew Janetzki:

In this episode, it was a real privilege to sit down with the Clarity Learning Suite team and unpack their newest initiative, the Clarity Essential Suite. As someone who is deeply committed to school improvement across New South Wales, I'm excited how this offering distills the core of the Clarity Learning Suite into 12 hours of powerful, flexible professional learning. The three essentials explicit leading, explicit teaching and explicit learning equip schools with the tools to lift to practice and drive improvement, From the gap analysis strategies and data walls to developing assessment, capable learners and building a strong parent and community partnership. The Clarity Essential Suite is so rich with practical guidance. Each session runs for 55 minutes, aligning with the latest latest NSW Department of Education and Teachers Federation guidelines. The Essential Suite directly supports the implementation of the NSW or the alignment to the NSW School Excellence Framework, as well as the Public Education Plan education plan. It offers practical tools to strengthen explicit teaching and leadership practices across schools.

Drew Janetzki:

This conversation is available not only as a podcast format, but also in a webinar format, and if you'd like to watch the full discussion, simply follow the links in the episode description below. In the episode description below. So are you leading a school? Are you teaching a class? You deserve a professional learning that's practical, flexible and built to support you right when and where you need it. So let's dive in. You're about to hear a powerful conversation with the Clarity Learning Suite team as we unpack Clarity Essentials and explore how it can help you lead with purpose and teach with impact.

Drew Janetzki:

Well, welcome colleagues. It's great for you to be with us today. Before we do start, I'd like to acknowledge Country and we are meeting here today at Acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation in our beautiful office in Sydney, and with that it's a special occasion. We have some special guests with us today. It's fantastic for you to join us, sue. Welcome Great to be here, drew, fantastic. And welcome Lynne. Thanks so much, drew, and welcome Maggie to join us, Sue. Welcome. Great to be here, drew, fantastic and welcome Lynne. Thanks so much, drew, and welcome Maggie. Thank you, drew.

Drew Janetzki:

I'm really looking forward to our discussion today, unpacking clarity, unpacking the essentials and the why behind. We are moving into the essentials and there's a lot of change, as we know, in the New South Wales education landscape with, obviously, those provisions, so it'd be really good to unpack what our discussion is today and the why behind the essentials and how that can be implemented into schools. Lynne, if we could start with you first, I guess we start with. I said the why why would schools engage with the essentials suite of professional learning?

Dr Lyn Sharratt:

Oh, thanks, drew. You know we've really been on this journey alongside New South Wales and the learning environment that they're creating for quite a long time, and as we listened and walked alongside senior leaders, school leaders and teachers, we realized that there was something that needed to be unveiled, unpacked that would be 24-7 learning for staff, all staff. And then we've listened again. We're really intent on getting feedback, listening to how it's being used, and we felt, given the environment in New South Wales, there needed to be something that I call short, sharp and shiny, and what I really mean is that teachers' ongoing professional learning needs to be efficient in terms of time and also given time to think about the learning, embed, the learning. So we created Clarity Essentials, and for me, that captures not only 55 minutes of professional learning each week, which is such a precious commodity, but it also really allows all staff to be involved. It's effective in terms of cost as well as time, so that all teachers are on the journey together, alongside leaders.

Drew Janetzki:

Yeah, yeah. So there's a lot of. There's clearly a lot of thinking, and what I heard was listening to leaders, listening from the changes which really it took when we think about this landscape that changed in October 2024. And the ability as a team to listen to what educators need, what leaders need, and then be able to put together high quality professional learning on demand. So it can be done within those parameters as well. But it can also have that flexibility where it can be accessed, as you said, Lyn 24-7 as well. But it can also have that flexibility where it can be accessed, as you,Lyn said, 24-7 as well. Yeah, so many advantages.

Maggie Ogram:

And, as well, it's about having that awareness of what is the climate that we're working in and, as you said, drew, the ability to adapt and to pivot accordingly so that people really are getting what they need.

Drew Janetzki:

Yeah, absolutely. Well,Maggie said,. So if I go to you, Sue, what are the benefits of the clarity learning essentials?

Sue Walsh:

It's all about the response to the schools and what the schools have been telling us and listening to the schools and leaders, and they've been giving us feedback that they needed more control over their professional learning.

Sue Walsh:

The essentials are actually designed in such a way that teachers and leaders can say this is what we want to do, this is what we want to focus on, this is what's important for our school. So it's been designed in such a way that, whilst there's the three different components the teaching, leading and learning you don't have to start in just one area. You could say this is important at this time and we're going to focus on this. Also, it really gives schools the opportunity to say this is our context, they're our professional learning, this is how we want to do it. We may want to do it in 55 minutes, which it has been designed for 55 minutes, but they could extend it over the time. So it's about schools taking the content which has been from Lynn's research the importance that it's based on that research and really working with it to make it their own. So what is important for your staff, what's her focus, and you make the decisions about how you're going to do it. Your professional learning.

Drew Janetzki:

So essentially I'm hearing lots of trust in the profession. We know the research does show that leaders do can lead the best in their particular context. This particular piece is flexible for leaders to be able to do that.

Sue Walsh:

Very flexible, and that's probably one of the key components of it. It's not lockstep. You can look at the whole suite, the essentials, and say this is what's important for us this time. This is what we're going to focus on and we're really going to make our mark in this area of professional learning.

Drew Janetzki:

Yeah, yeah. So if we go to you, Lynn, what do you see? The benefits in the essentials?

Dr Lyn Sharratt:

Well, I really appreciate how the essentials really include our research around the 14 parameters and when we're thinking about, as Stu said, what we need to focus on, given our content, also, given our data what is our data saying? And then taking a look at the essentials and marrying the context the data with the professional learning, the context, the data with the professional learning, so that flexibility and I would say responsiveness to need is really important and the essentials.

Drew Janetzki:

Yeah, and also the thinking around. What we're seeing in the system as such is the schools that also have staff turnover, which occurs, and so here's an opportunity for for schools who don't have all of their staff understanding the context of what clarity is to be able to. There's another benefit that could occur.

Sue Walsh:

Well, we know the impact of the churn factor in school. We know the people on long service lines returning from maternity leave, new teachers, teachers moving around the essentials actually, schools could be on a journey and you know how hard it is to catch up the teachers who have been away. So this is a resource that's available. People could have learned it on their own, they can catch up, they can meet with other groups of teachers. So it's a resource that's 24-7 for people to tap into and it's not onerous. I think that's probably one of the things that in the design and development of this, this is being made using lens words short, sharp and shiny so that teachers know that what the time commitment is, they can go into it and focus on it and catch up quite quickly.

Drew Janetzki:

Yeah.

Drew Janetzki:

So if we go to you, Maggie, what does it actually look like? What do these essentials look like for the user?

Maggie Ogram:

there are four sessions and, as we've said, each session is 55 minutes. So the first one would be explicit leading and then explicit teaching and then explicit learning. So, for example, the four sessions in Essential One for explicit leading, we begin with the 14 parameters, as Sue said, we base it on Lynn's research, and then we look at the knowledgeable other and their role in the school, working alongside teachers, and we look at data walls. We've touched briefly already on the importance of the data, always beginning our conversations with data and the case management meetings which really brings leadership and teachers together to really hone in on which students are we talking about today and they're our students and how can we support each other to really move those students on. So all these things are broken down very clearly within three essentials and we even extend towards the end of thinking about the parental involvement.

Maggie Ogram:

That comes into the last essential and then finishing with sustaining. So we're implementing this work and now how are we going to be sustaining it? So all those really the key nuggets that we don't want to lose, the key messages and the clarity work. They're all in the essentials. Yeah, um, another benefit we've talked a little bit about benefits is that it builds leadership capacity in the school and it has the benefit of everybody talking in the same language. And I'm all in this together and we all know, we all understand what we're doing here and there's a familiarity and a consistency across classrooms.

Drew Janetzki:

Yeah, yeah.

Maggie Ogram:

Yeah.

Drew Janetzki:

Yeah, so in terms of that choices, it's over 12 months. Is there guidance here for users saying do I need to do this as a 12-week module? What would you consider as a team as the best practice here for schools thinking around this journey? Should they unpack it, for example, in a term? Should they look at it as a fortnight? What's the thinking here? Or is it flexible?

Sue Walsh:

The issue is it's flexible, everything that you've just said because every school context is different and schools might say we have these amount of hours to focus on professional learning or we have this amount of time to focus. It could actually be done in a professional learning day. Some of it you could, as we've designed for 55-minute sessions, but it could be spread over three hours If the school wanted to go into it deeply. The reality is that it's really left to the school, but we provide very significant resources with all the case studies and the learning leader notes.

Maggie Ogram:

The learning leader notes To build capacity. Yes, and I suppose that's worth also mentioning here, is that schools could purchase the holes of three essentials um. Or alternatively, if they really want to concentrate first of all, let's say explicit teaching um, they can buy one essential at a time for For school leaders.

Drew Janetzki:

Then, looking at the essentials as you clarity was built around, I recall you saying this the New South Wales School Excellent Framework and that alignment. So the question is, where does this fit into that? Is there still that alignment there?

Dr Lyn Sharratt:

Yeah, absolutely, and I think it's really important that we all appreciate how there must be an alignment between the documents, the legislative documents that we're working with, so the curriculum, the systems documents that we're working with and having that translate into professional learning sessions and then apply to our teaching practices. So I always see it from the big picture school excellence framework right to change practices in the classroom, and that has been my research for a very long time. And when I look at our research that Michael Fullan and I began probably around the year 2000, and we continue to write about it 2022, we're still writing about it I'm very conscious of the fact that the 14 parameters are the how we're going to do this. So wherever I work across the globe, we have documents that say this is what we want, and very seldom are there documents that say we'll take what we're to do and expand on why we're doing it and then really morph into how are we going to do this. So the clarity tools really help with that.

Dr Lyn Sharratt:

And just recently, new South Wales has delivered the teaching and learning document and the explicit teaching and learning, and I can't say enough that those one-hour sessions are about explicit teaching and learning. They're about the framework that ensures system and school together over years certainly help our leaders unpack. Here's what we're about. And clarity supports our leaders and teachers to say what are the tools we can use to help the how. How are we going to do this?

Dr Lyn Sharratt:

So alignment's huge how are we going to do this? So alignment's huge.

Drew Janetzki:

Yeah, and it's the how is what I heard. These are the tools in terms of the how to move towards from wherever the school is at in their school excellence journey, yep, and then using the tools of clarity to move, see where those gaps, using the gap analysis language and then referring to that and going through that process as well. So would you say it's an entry point for our colleagues For sure.

Dr Lyn Sharratt:

And I think everyone's entry point will be different, and that's why the flexibility of the essentials is so important, because if I'm leading a school, I have data to consider, I have my context to consider, I have my broader community to consider. So the entry points can be beginning with the end in mind, which is the 14 parameters, but it may be that my data is saying, oh, we really need to have detailed, specific, explicit practice in assessment that will then lead us to look at instruction. So it's understanding the big picture and how the tools and clarity are explicit and can support us.

Maggie Ogram:

Yeah.

Sue Walsh:

Could I say, drew, that one of the things about the essentials is that what you learn today together in PEEL, with your staff, can be implemented tomorrow. That's how the essentials have been designed so that it's practical. We've got the theory behind it, but also what does it mean for a teacher in a learning space with students? So what you're learning together, or what leaders are learning together, is about what you need to implement or what you need to think about. We're not telling them what to do, but these are the things that you need to think about implementing to get your PL sustained and across the whole school. And when we look at the essentials, we think about the whole school approach. This is the language that everybody shares, everybody understands, so that you're actually moving as a team together.

Drew Janetzki:

Yeah, the key features I see is this is a full FTE allocation. So that's important to mention for colleagues listening. So that includes colleagues, all of your staff, all of your teaching staff. Is there a reason behind that thinking?

Dr Lyn Sharratt:

Oh, absolutely. I think we've all learned from experience that this is an equity issue for us. We need to have this resource in the hands of all teachers, so we've made it timely, we've made it cost effective so that all teachers can have it on their computers, not just the leaders. The leaders are sharing and learning alongside the teachers, but everyone has the resource, and the resource is quite expansive in terms of journal articles that we've sourced or I've written with my colleagues like John Hattie and Michael Fullan and others. We have thought as a team what are the supports that both teachers and leaders need to implement the thinking around system and school improvement.

Dr Lyn Sharratt:

And I just probably want to close by saying that I have two goals in this research that I've been researching forever, it seems and one is that all students can learn and that every teacher knows how to teach each student. That's the first one. Second one is that explicit assessment, instruction, leading learning and teaching is well defined in all of the work that we do about, and it's defined about being precise. It's knowing each face and how to teach each one. So we have a broad repertoire of approaches that teachers can trial, can practice and then put in place because they're effective for all students, and it can't be just some students. We're talking about every student.

Drew Janetzki:

And that has been proven in the evidence and research, as you said, not just work within New South Wales, it's work across the globe, it's work with students with disabilities, it's working with students with high potential as well. So it really meets that need and, as you said, goes back to those 14 parameters, backed by evidence and research as well. Terrific, this has been a terrific conversation, as always. Going back to the why, listening to our leaders, listening to the need, the responsive piece and that's so flexible is what I've heard. So, colleagues, if you are interested in this work, it's going to our New South Wales PPA website and to the Clarity website and you'll be able to click through accordingly to find the essentials and purchase that accordingly. We'll be looking forward to further discussions and also hearing your journey in your Clarity journey through the Essential Suite. Thank you again for listening.

Dr Lyn Sharratt:

Thanks, drew, thank you.

Drew Janetzki:

Thank you. So thanks again for joining us for this inspiring deep dive into the Clarity Essential Suite. If you're ready to take the next step in your school's professional learning journey, now is the time. So visit newsouthwalesppaorgau forward slash clarity-learning-suite to explore the modules, register your team and get started today. And remember when you lead with clarity, your whole school moves forward. We'll catch you in the next episode of professional learnings. Until then, keep leading, keep learning and keep making a difference in your school.

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