Student Engagement: Sacred Heart Primary School – Anecdotal Observations

Collecting data on student engagement is valuable as part of school improvement efforts. At Sacred Heart Primary School Croydon, concerns were raised by staff about student engagement, particularly in relation to data emerging from student feedback. In response, School Leadership provided an opportunity for staff to participate in a collaborative two-day intensive workshop where teachers engaged in thought provoking and interactive professional dialogue, exposing teachers’ thinking and beliefs about student engagement. When student engagement was considered alongside other student learning data, staff were concerned about the potential relationship between student disengagement and academic progress.
Staff were keen to interrogate current and accepted practices within the school to identify opportunities for improvement. Given the staff were deeply entrenched within all aspects of the school’s daily life, there was a shared belief among the staff that students, routines and learning opportunities needed to be viewed through fresh eyes. Someone from outside the setting was considered best placed to provide a different perspective on everyday events. Within this culture of collaboration, I began working as an external critical friend; a trusted person, whose observations would contribute to teachers noticing their professional practice in new ways.
I was invited to spend one day in the school and at the conclusion share the observations I made across the day. My anecdotal observations about how students were responding to the academic and social experiences presently available within the school on a particular day, aimed to assist school leadership and teaching staff to:
• identify events or times when the risk of student disengagement seemed high.
• critically interrogate their professional practice to identify what is working well and what might need to be
changed.
It was hoped that my observations would assist staff to make decisions about the professional action they believed valuable for enhancing the engagement of all students across all aspects of school experience.
The following information provides an overview of what I observed on the day and some recommendations for future considerations in relation to monitoring and understanding more about student engagement.