Para Hills High School in northern Adelaide has always placed a strong emphasis on opening classroom doors.
Former principal, Alina Page implemented leadership walkthroughs and encouraged informal observations, creating opportunities for teachers and leaders to regularly see teaching and learning in action. Teachers were even offered release time to observe one another’s classrooms. But without a clear structure in place, few took up the opportunity.
That is, until they discovered Quality Teaching Rounds (QTR).
QTR gave the school a way to build the culture it had already started developing, giving teachers the structure, shared language and dedicated time to reflect on practice together.
‘It doesn’t force staff but gives them an opportunity to observe practice within a valuable system where staff can learn from the process,’ Assistant Principal – Teaching, Learning and Innovation, Novi Palmer says.
That focus on observation was part of a broader journey at Para Hills High to strengthen teaching practice, with a clear focus on pedagogy at the heart of its professional learning.
Defining what good teaching looks like isn’t always straightforward. For Palmer, finding a shared language to guide those conversations became a priority.
‘We’ve done a lot of work to improve pedagogy, so we were looking for something that could bring it all together,’ Palmer says. ‘The question “what is good teaching?” can be difficult to answer, and for us, we wanted a way we could work with staff and have something to frame it because it could differ from context to context.’
Finding the right approach
That commitment to evidence-informed practice led the school to the Australian Government-funded Strengthening Induction through Quality Teaching Rounds initiative.
When Page received an ACEL Award in 2023, she met fellow award recipient Laureate Professor Jenny Gore AM and was introduced to the research underpinning QTR.
‘When Alina came across QTR, she did a bit of research and then sent some of us off to have a bit more of a look and landed on the thought that this would be a good model for our school,’ Palmer says.
So, toward the end of 2024, Para Hills High sent 4 teachers to attend a face-to-face QTR workshop in Adelaide as part of the Strengthening Induction project. At the same time, Palmer completed an online workshop to better understand how other schools were implementing Rounds.
When they returned from the workshop, the 4 teachers formed the school’s first professional learning community (PLC), while Palmer established a second PLC with 3 teachers who hadn’t attended a workshop.
Those early experiences gave the leadership team confidence that the approach had value. The next challenge was scaling it across the school.
‘We started thinking about how we deliver this learning to all staff,’ Palmer says. ‘The challenge was that it is resource intensive in terms of staffing to keep the program working.’
Adapting QTR to suit the Para Hills context
Para Hills High is a vibrant, multicultural school made up of 670 students, with over half coming from an English as an additional language or dialect (EAL/D) background, and 12% identifying as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. While the school faces some challenges – it’s classified as a Category 2 under the South Australian Department of Education’s Index of Educational Disadvantage – its strengths come from its dedicated staff and their commitment to improving their practice, both for professional growth and for their students’ educational outcomes.
While the staff are committed to professional learning, their biggest challenge to implementing QTR was finding relief teachers to cover classes.
‘We had a couple of challenges,’ Palmer says when talking about kicking off their first set of Rounds. ‘We had to cancel it twice because we had no relief teachers. We couldn’t call any in, so we had to scrap that session. We realised this is not sustainable because if we were to do this every time, it wouldn’t work.’
So, instead of trying to make their schedule suit QTR, they adjusted QTR to suit their schedule. They figured out that if they adapted the process a little, they could cover classes with their own internal staff rather than bringing in relief teachers.
‘We’ve made a couple of amendments, but we’ve stuck to the rigour of the rest of the process,’ Palmer explains.
Learning beyond their own classroom
One of the biggest benefits of QTR for English teacher Grace Cummaudo has been the opportunity to step outside her own subject area.
She completed Rounds alongside a physical education teacher and 2 science teachers, exposing her to teaching strategies she otherwise may never have experienced. She also had the opportunity to observe one of her own student groups during a science lesson, giving her valuable insight into how students responded in a different learning environment.
‘It was good seeing them with a different teacher, in a different context, with different behaviour management strategies on display,’ Cummaudo says.
Beyond individual teaching strategies, the experience also gave Cummaudo a great appreciation of learning from the students’ perspective.
‘We gained an understanding of what it is to be a student, because you are sitting through an entire lesson that another teacher is giving… in a way, it gave me a student perspective as well as exposing me to different subjects and how they run around the school.’
Para Hills High has been on a journey to strengthen their teaching practice, with a clear focus on pedagogy. ©Para Hills High School
Strengthening induction through QTR
As more teachers completed Rounds, the school began working the program into its approach to inducting new staff.
New teachers are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the QT Model through online resources, including videos and coding exercises, before joining a Round alongside 3 colleagues who have already participated. The approach gives early career teachers the opportunity to learn from more experienced colleagues while contributing equally to the discussion.
‘It’s another way of ensuring that teachers feel like they’re not being judged; they’re just being supported by another teacher,’ Cummaudo says. ‘We’re all learners, and no one knows more than another person because they’re more experienced. It’s an even playing field.’
Looking ahead
For Para Hills High, the ultimate measure of success is improved outcomes for students. The school sees QTR as an investment in teacher practice and professional learning that will help achieve that over time.
‘Ideally, we want to see a shift in academic outcomes,’ says Palmer. ‘But we know that shift comes with teacher practice, professional learning, and having a professional learning community that can improve and grow, resulting in academic outcomes.’
With all permanent teachers now having participated in QTR, the school is looking at how it can continue the professional conversations between formal Rounds. ‘Our new principal, Matthew Zviedrans, is committed to continuing QTR, as it is valuable for staff to continually talk about and reflect on their practice in a structured way,’ Palmer says.
At Para Hills High, QTR is more than a professional learning program. It’s now part of how the school supports teachers to learn from one another, continually refine their practice, and ultimately, improve outcomes for every student.
Want to start Quality Teaching Rounds in your school?
Find out how your school can join the Strengthening Induction through Quality Teaching Rounds project and access evidence-based professional learning at no cost, thanks to Australian Government funding. Click here to learn more.
