‘Shout it from the roof top’

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Earlier this year Roy Lilley, the Principal of Bruce McLaren Intermediate School, climbed onto the school roof with a megaphone. Why? Let him explain: “We set challenging progress targets for our pupils and staff for this year, with mid-year benchmarking. I said that if they reached our mid-year targets, I would shout it from the roof top. They did ... and I did!”
In January 2011, the school was approached by the Ministry to become a lead school in the new Student Achievement Function (SAF). As a first time Principal, coming from the secondary sector, Roy says he was impressed by the aims of the initiative as outlined to him and he fully committed his school to be a part of it.
“Our goal was accelerated learning and achievement. We started with a Change Committee, comprised of senior management, two Board members, a member of staff, ERO and the SAF Facilitator, Madeline Armstrong. We devised our Action Plan and put it in place, with additional support from a Leadership and Assessment grant”. The school also agreed to be part of an Auckland University three year programme, “Raising Teachers’ Expectations”.
“Our results have been remarkable,” says Roy, “and the testing by Auckland University shows even greater progress then our own assessments.”
Both initiatives are in place for a three year period and the school’s vision is that by the end of 2012, they can proudly boast to be showing the best progress in the country.