Dedicated to providing quality education to all students, Growing Up Greatness is equipping teachers for dynamic learning that meets students where they’re at.
Growing Up Greatness strives to improve educational provision for students of all abilities. Working with schools, educators, and school leaders, its team of education consultants specialises in implementing high-quality and research-based policy, processes, and pedagogy through targeted consultancy, coaching and collaborative strategic planning.
Collaborating in all learning environments and across all learning areas, from primary to tertiary, Growing Up Greatness has experience in government, Independent, and Catholic sectors, both locally and across Australia. Growing Up Greatness works with schools and teachers across the full range of grades and subjects, in regional, remote and metropolitan areas. It offers one, two and three day courses in gifted education, differentiation and understanding behaviour, as well as online gifted education professional learning modules. It provides professional learning both online and in-person and can tailor pre-recorded professional learning with workshop guidelines for schools to facilitate their own professional conversations with staff.
“As passionate educators ourselves, we understand the complex – and often demanding – nature of schools and teaching,” explains Ms Kylie Bice, the company’s owner and Principal Education Consultant.
“We’re here to support schools in their crucial role of growing up greatness in young people and we believe that, when school leaders and educators are equipped and supported to be effective, compassionate, and evidence-based in their practice, all things are possible for every young person.”
Through consultancy, training, and coaching, the company aims to build teacher capacity and confidence in the areas of inclusion, differentiation, assessment, gifted and talented education, disability, behaviour and educating diverse student groups. It also aims to increase awareness and acceptance of diverse-ability learners by working with school leaders to practically build staff skills, capacity, and wellbeing, and to equip educators for intentional, transparent, data-informed and research-based teaching in every classroom.
To this end, all Growing Up Greatness’s training and coaching opportunities can be tailored to the context, needs, and goals of each school and teams within each school, and Ms Bice prides herself on offering bespoke and context-specific options for each school, team and teacher. The company is also highly adaptable to the budget, time, and resource limitations often faced by schools. Ms Bice’s practical experience and expertise as an educator gives her and her team an understanding of the importance of flexible and creative solutions to meet the strategic, professional learning and real time practice needs of schools.
One of Growing Up Greatness’ clients is a small government primary school in the Perth hills which identified a need for its young staff to better understand the WA Curriculum and Judging Standards in order to improve student engagement and results. The school’s Deputy Principal specifically identified literacy as an area of focus and worked closely with Ms Bice to build rapport with teachers and provide a combination of professional learning, coaching meetings and classroom observations over a period of two years. The Deputy Principal noted that not only were the staff now compliant and confident with their programming, assessment design and teaching, she had incidentally been coached and realised the growth in her own understanding and capacity to lead others.
“Our aim is to work directly with school leaders and teachers to act as a bridge between academia and practice, and to provide professional learning and coaching to individuals and teams and guidance to school leaders. We keep a clear focus on catering for diversity within classrooms, with practice strategies that are specific and articulated,” Ms Bice says.
With a clear increase in understanding and diagnosis of various physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional conditions, the diversity of students is vast with teachers expected to provide an adaptive and personalised education experience, often without clear direction as to what this looks like or how to implement this. There is also often a divide between research and practice, and too often high-quality research does not make its way into practice or is applied as a ‘one size fits all’ strategy.
“This work is both exciting and rewarding, and through our tailored coaching model we see teachers and school leaders develop a strong understanding of what inclusive, data-informed and differentiated practice looks like in the classroom, assessment design, and programming.”
Another client – a large regional Catholic K-12 school – identified a need to better cater for its gifted and talented learners. It had tried a number of approaches in the past but was not seeing any change and wanted a fresh perspective. After an initial series of fact-finding conversations with staff, Ms Bice worked with the leadership team to design a tailor-made series of professional learning and coaching sessions with teaching teams across one year.
“This approach was highly valued by the teachers who felt the practical coaching sessions were invaluable in building their understanding and confidence to achieve actual planning and practice goals with hands-on support,” Ms Bice says.
The Deputy Principal at the school has since engaged Ms Bice to work in a similar way with staff at another school where she has won a Principal position.
Ms Bice says Growing Up Greatness promotes three key concepts within the organisation, which are:
- Students of all abilities deserve a quality education, and the opportunity to learn and receive feedback on their learning every day.
- Teachers are a valuable resource who achieve their best when they’re professionally supported and able to maintain their wellbeing.
- With compassionate and strategic support, teachers and school leaders have the capacity to improve practice and thereby the learning outcomes for diverse-ability students.
With these principles in mind, Growing Up Greatness has a deliberate culture of compassion, evidence-based practice, and an enduring belief in the importance of educators as a key resource in society.
To learn more about the company, visit www.growingupgreatness.com