Collaborative Teams That Work Leadership Retreat – Hobart

Does your team lack a united focus when it meets?

Is valuable team time being wasted trying to work out what the team is meant to be doing rather than actually doing it?

Are team meetings seen as a hindrance to your work, rather than the forum for the real work to occur?

Wondering why your PLC endeavours aren’t producing the gains in student learning that research promises?

At their worst, collaborative team meetings can be yet another burden to bear – perhaps even a frustrating waste of precious time in a school day already overflowing with never-ending demands.

For school teams, one of the biggest challenges is actually knowing what to do in your time together to maximise student learning achievement. Based on the masterful book, Collaborative Teams That Work, this highly practical retreat provides definitive guidance for teams on the work they must do collaboratively, to have maximum impact on their own learning and that of their students.

A real problem can arise when team members don’t know what research proven actions they need to commit to, and are expected to work collaboratively without a united understanding of what they should be working on together. In this situation, it’s very difficult to use the power of the team to have any real impact of improving levels of student achievement.

In this retreat you’ll learn the essential evidence-based actions high-performing collaborative teams implement, and how to apply them in your individual school context.

You’ll also leave with new insights on how to overcome common challenges, measure impact and use clear processes to plan and conduct successful, high-impact collaborative team meetings.

“The process was very clearly explained, in a logical sequence with opportunities to apply to our organisation. The presenters were very knowledgeable and engaging.”
– Carolyn, Prospect High School

“The dynamic and engaging presentation, the relevant information, the opportunity to discuss and reflect with colleagues. Although this work is not new to my, I always leave your sessions with something new to take back to my school and feeling really excited about the work.”
– Sam, Youngtown Primary School

“The retreat both reaffirmed my knowledge and I also learnt new ideas and methods of running PLC’s. I enjoyed learning about how all staff can be engaged in PLC’s through either content or learning area.”
– Bec, Augusta Park Primary School

“The openness of the presenters. They were in touch with what was going on in education and believed in and passionate about helping others.”
– Lucy, Latrobe High School

THIS RETREAT WILL HELP YOU…

Build your knowledge
Scrutinise the key actions and associated tasks that become the obsession of high-impact collaborative teams, and find out how to apply them to your current work.

Discover the power of action research
Equip yourself with a clear process for planning and conducting collaborative team meetings that will lead to better results.

Superpower your team
Discover the true work and focus of high-performing collaborative teams.

Strengthen your ability to lead
Develop insights into how to overcome the common challenges of working as a collaborative team.

Uncover the true use of data
Learn how successful teams genuinely measure the impact they have on student learning, and what to do about it.

Discern the importance of the meeting agenda
Learn how successful teams structure their agenda as the catalyst for engaging team members in ongoing cycles of learning.

WHAT’S UNIQUE ABOUT THIS RETREAT

Expert-led
Learn from the expertise of renowned educators and authors Gavin Grift and Colin Sloper. They have spent their careers committed to researching, developing, applying and refining the critical role collaborative teams play as the engines of school improvement in a Professional Learning Community.

Contextualised
The retreat is contextualised with practical, real-life examples. Unlike some other retreats, we spend much less time on the ‘how’ and ‘why’. Instead, we dig deeper into the concrete actions and tasks that collaborative teams in a PLC should focus their endeavours on, so that they can be actioned immediately. Armed with the new knowledge they are gaining, participants are actively involved in considering what this means in their own context, and walk away with clear and simple actions to implement.

We’re Educators Too
We’ve worked as principals, professional learning providers, team leaders, curriculum directors, coaches and classroom teachers – and we definitely speak your language.

SOME QUESTIONS ADDRESSED IN THIS RETREAT

• What’s critical to consider when facilitating collaborative team meetings?
• What is the best meeting structure to enable collaborative teams to do this work?
• How do we ensure the work of collaborative teams makes a genuine difference to our school achievement data?
• What are the current tasks and agenda items we are working on that take time, but don’t genuinely improve student learning?
• How do you stay true to the PLC process when team members don’t share responsibility for teaching the same content?

This retreat unpacks the process described in the best-selling book Collaborative Teams that Work.

“It took me six years to figure out for myself what ‘Collaborative teams that work’ explains as a logical and effective multi-stage process. This book is a gift to anyone who wants to support the development of strong collaborative teams but simply does not have access to the insight on how to do it.”
– Anthony Muhammad – Leading PLC author, speaker and expert