Australian schools are significantly richer learning environments when teachers partner with excellent teaching assistants.
By enhancing classroom teaching expertise through professional learning, coaching, and mentoring, I build the capability of teaching assistants in supporting access, participation, and engagement in high-quality inclusive school settings for all students.
Excellence in classroom practice
Schools today are under significant pressure, and our children are not doing as well as they might, and international educational analysis identifies that Australian schooling is diminishing in its effectiveness and ‘quality’…
Many factors influence student learning but what educators know and do is the most important of all.
I lead professional learning for teaching assistants so every student can succeed and receive the support they need to belong in an inclusive school community that purposefully engages them in successful learning.
-
Leanne’s capacity to be a critical friend in our design phase, an ongoing collaborator as we moved the work forward, consistently iterating our model of practice, and as our external mentor/coach who could facilitate and deliver just the right professional development to such a diverse group of teachers and teaching assistants, in such a bespoke way has been critical to what we’ve achieved. It has been a great joy to collaborate with Leanne Hillman, to increase the confidence, skills, and capacities of educators to achieve inclusive practice in classrooms with increasing efficacy.
Estelle Southall, Homebush West Public School Principal
-
Thank you so much. The SLSOs are raving about you and all they have learnt. The conversations since your session have been so rich and valuable. The session was extremely engaging and the conversations continued through into the following week as each person began to understand those around them in a new way.
Natalie Polis, Launceston Christian School
-
The project has been transformative. Every day I get feedback about new shifts in SLSO practice . I can see a new confidence and sense of self-worth in the teams, a capacity to learn through reflection and professional dialogue, it’s powerful.
Principal from Wingara school
Ways I support school communities
-
Individual Coaching
With a balance of respect, challenge, and curiosity the teaching assistant and coach work together to make sense of the complexity of teaching and learning.
-
Workshops
These professional learning sessions for classroom educators held at your school, explore high impact teaching strategies that reliably increase student learning.
-
Networking
These networked forums across school communities share ideas, show work, solve problems, and explore best practice for teaching assistants.
An inclusive educational system
The NSW Disability Strategy articulates our commitment to build a more inclusive education system, one where every student from all backgrounds, and of all identities, and all abilities can succeed, receiving the support they need to belong in an inclusive school community that purposefully engages them in successful learning.
With our coaching and mentoring, teachers and teaching assistants in mainstream and specialist settings are working to support students with complex learning profiles to achieve remarkable outcomes.
