THE AGE Newspaper article of Monday May 15th 2006.

Teamwork award buoys school's spirit
(re printed with permission)

By Claire Halliday

WHEN Gillian Collins, principal of Carlton North's Princess Hill Primary School began exploring ways to engage males students in the educational process, she knew it would be a challenge. But she envisaged the rewards - a happier school community - and believed it was worth it.

The schools efforts have been recognised with the Best National Achievement in School Improvement award from Teaching Australia - Australian Institute for Teaching School Leadership, in Canberra. Princess Hill primary has previously won awards for its commitment to sustainability, but Ms Collins says that this award is particularly special because it was won for educational success as a team. "To me that was gold," she says. "For a long time I knew we could engage boys and make it more enjoyable for them - and then the learning would come. The reality is that schools are better suited to girls."

Ms Colllins and her 2005 prep team- educational consultant Kathy Walker and teachers Hanah Roth Gelder , Inge Kearney Rita Jokubaitis - devised a better way to teach boys through play and project work, based on the premise that development and learning are intertwined. The results so far have shown a marked increase in literacy levels.

The major aims were to actively interest boys in the learning process as soon as they enter the school environment, to implement a curriculum that is truly responsive to the children, and to promote a more seamless curriculum between the preschool and school. Little boys need space and need to construct  and don't need to be sitting for long periods of time , " Ms Collins says. Most boys need space, need to construct, to build and to be outside. That was a big challenge for us. Teaching Australia handed out 18 awards to Victorian schools, including a $15,000 prize for Outstanding National Achievement by a principal to Bella Irlicht at Port Phillip Specialist school, $20,000 for Outstanding Special Achievement in School Improvement to Melrose Primary School, Wodonga for improving literacy in the early years, and $20,000 to Spensley Street Primary School, Clifton Hill, for its improved student engagement by responding to the needs of the whole child. Victorian schools received $280,000 in prize money from a total of $1.09 million.

Teaching Australia was launched as a permanent body in December with the aim of supporting and advancing the effectiveness and standing of the teaching profession. For Ms Collins and her team the $65,000 prize will be used to help keep the school on its path and enable the work to flow onto future preps and grade 1 and 2 classes.

"It will be a great help to see our work continue", she says.