The Red Earth Cluster, formed under the Schools for Innovation and Excellence Initiative in 2004, has focussed on implementing radical change within the cluster schools in the areas of pedagogy, school organization, curriculum and assessment. The negotiated cluster proposal aims to deliver intended outcome of raising student achievement through high level engagement by linking innovative curriculum and developing community connectedness.
Projects aim to develop the following student competencies:
• responsibility to our community and environment
• understanding and engagement within the local community
• student leadership through organized community based activities, pathways
and projects.
Projects have been developed and implemented by cross-school teams to support student learning within the physical, personal and social learning and interdisciplinary learning strands.
| Strand | Domain | Dimension |
| Physical, Personal and Social Learning | Interpersonal Development | Building social relationships Working in teams |
|
Personal Learning | The individual learner |
| Civics and Citizenship | Civics knowledge and understanding Community engagement |
|
| Interdisciplinary Learning | Communication | Listening, viewing and responding Presenting |
| Thinking Processes | Reasoning, processing and inquiry Creativity Reflection, evaluation and metacognition |
As part of the PoLT process, schools aligned their projects with Principle 6, undertaking professional development as a cluster to examine the integration of a learning environment which encourages interaction between local and school communities through technology, use of community mentors and mutual support systems.
Principle 6 Learning connects strongly with communities and practice beyond the classroom.
In learning environments that reflect this principle the teacher:
6.1 supports students to engage with contemporary knowledge and practice
6.2 plans for students to interact with local and broader communities
6.3 uses technologies in ways that reflect professional and community practices.
Online information collected from: Victorian
Department of Education (DoE)