Jess's Story

Cultivate

Lean in, I’m going to tell you a story. My story.

I endured many years of fitting in before I was able to begin returning to myself. My transformation was ignited by the very place that initially quietened me - school.

I am an educator at Griffin State School. It's a transformational school. It's a special place.

Opening a bright, shiny, new school with state-of-the-art facilities and a budding community to shape was no easy feat but Vicki set out the way she intended to finish, with strong relationships and by putting the people first.

A phrase that reminds us of our culture, commitments and accountability in a snapshot.

Language has played a significant role in the Griffin State School story. From very early on in our journey, we recognised the power that language had in creating a different school environment and its role in cultivating school culture.

Ron Ritchhart describes enculturation as the process of gradually internalising the messages and values that we repeatedly experience through our interaction with the social environment. It is said that this internalisation takes time as we identify the messages and values that are consistent and reoccurring in our environment.

In a sense, our mantras, artefacts, rituals and traditions ‘brand’ us. They allow others to see, hear and feel what we stand for. They communicate our strong sense of identity and create a sense of belonging.

Culture is contagious. It catches on, both positively and negatively, spreading like wildfire. Elements that individuals let in or let go of spread, easily creeping in and fading away in the blink of an eye. This understanding is why we talk about being Keepers of the Culture at Griffin. We know it’s all too easy for a culture to shift negatively or to lose parts that you hold dearly if you’re slack on the upkeep.

Create

In 2016 when Griffin opened, I was a confident teacher, self-assured in my practice but with a yearning for something, a perturbation rumbling. Sounds a bit cheesy but it’s true. Perhaps that’s why I was intrigued by Vicki’s mention of Inquiry-Based Learning in the early days of Griffin. I had been experimenting with more ‘Fun Friday’ in my day for a few years at this point, recognising that I was on the verge of becoming stagnant and endeavouring to shun that fate. I just hadn’t quite found the alternate – or realised that I needed to shift my minds

Classrooms are interesting habitats. Twenty-five (or more!), little humans and one adult growing and learning together for over twenty hours a week. They construct a micro-culture of their own. Each with their own daily actioned routines, accepted ways of interacting, and upheld beliefs carried out, consciously or not.

My first classroom was beautiful. Colourful and labelled and matching and themed. A place for everything and everything in its right place. Resources I managed, displayed and protected.

Inquiry is a ubiquitous approach at Griffin. It is our unwavering vision for learning. We recognise that in order to authentically harness Inquiry-Based Learning, we must become inquirers ourselves, we must take an inquiry stance in everything we do. An inquiry stance is consciously woven into every aspect of our culture, a truly ubiquitous approach.

During our preparation to open Griffin State School in 2015, Vicki connected us to the Curiosity and Powerful Learning (CPL) Brisbane network. Authored by Wayne Craig and Professor David Hopkins and published by McRel International, CPL is a school improvement process with curiosity at its core. Our continued work with Wayne Craig and the network has broadened our understanding about the nature of curiosity and how we might best harness it as a powerful tool for learning.

During the peak of our 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, the staff at Griffin were hooked by a new journey. One that awakened our wonder in ourselves, in each other and in the way learning could be further transformed for our learners.

Thompson says, as we awaken wonder in ourselves, we awaken it in others; as we research, we become inspired; as we journey we are empowered as meaning-makers; once you feel the power of a DiG, you can’t un-feel it.

With our dominant themes defined, we set off to design and conduct experiments in our Year Four, Five and Six classrooms. Guided by our intention, 'to awaken wonder and harness the dominant themes', our teachers employed their own creative genius to weave in elements of the DiG that they thought they could manage or wanted to tinker with first. They were united in their desire to embrace the Designed InGenuity Learning Framework in their classrooms yet experimented differently.

Hunter was a learner in a Year 5 class that was experimenting with Designed inGenuity. She was a wallflower – a compliant learner who worked diligently on set tasks with little teacher guidance. Hunter learnt with ease in her co-taught classroom of around 50 learners.

During a DIG learning journey, the focus is on intention and process, allowing the learning to have real purpose and meaning. Emphasis on the intention and the process, challenges how we usually construct learning opportunities, with a particular product in mind. Thompson uses the words of Lao Tzu to further define this notion- "If you tell me, I will listen. If you show me, I will see. But if you let me experience, I will learn."

Lucas was a learner in a Year 4 class in 2021 who, along with his classmates, undertook a DiG where learners were encouraged to build upon their HASS curriculum learning around the ‘base word’ of Culture. Lucas was assigned the scrambler word ‘ethics’. He tapped into his interests and set off down Rabbit Holes researching ANZAC Day – a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand.

Intriguing artefacts are emerging out of our experimenting. We’re gauging an impact on class culture, learning through a DiG is changing the way learners interact with each other. Our teachers speak of learning communities empowered by higher levels of trust and connection. They’re noticing that their learners are more willing to take risks, to be vulnerable and uncomfortable in their learning. There’s a shift in their courage and confidence. Levels of engagement are changing profoundly for individuals.

One of the most profound impacts of the DiG learning framework that many of our teachers are noting is the shifting identity of learners. They are morphing into active learners who are empowered to reveal their hidden potential. This 'DiG thing' is changing how our learners see themselves and how our teachers see them, too.

Capturing the narrative identity of our learners has been an intriguing experiment. It has surprised us and delighted us but mostly led us to wonder. We used this data to initiate conversations with our learners about their potential with the hope of inspiring change, a shift in narrative identity.

In the words of George Bernard Shaw, “What we want to see is the child in pursuit of knowledge, not knowledge in pursuit of the child.” Unleashing curiosity and valuing it as a crucial ingredient in engaged, purposeful learning is the beginning and end of our work at Griffin. We believe that without curiosity there is no joyful or deeply engaged learning. Curiosity is our linchpin; it drives learning, both for our learners and for ourselves.

Celebrate

The power of storytelling is understood in many cultures. For us at Griffin, we too value it's power. We repeatedly tell our stories in an effort to keep our culture thriving, speaking of the seeds that sprouted the trees we dwell under. If you have a willing ear, we'll tell you the stories of our manifestation, there are many.

Our Bold Vision is just a 'bold vision' without our commitment to learning and action. In ambitiously striving to produce learners, not students, we too must transform. We too must be learners.

Ben was a parent of a Prep learner when Griffin State School opened in 2016. I was his daughter’s teacher for her first two years of schooling. During this time, Ben was an involved parent, active in all school events, a helper in the classroom, and the best dressed on dress-up days. Ben lived and breathed the emerging Griffin State School culture.

There is no recipe for innovation, no pathway illuminated, little guidance but mantras like the old ‘think outside the box’. Not always helpful in inspiring action. At Griffin we’ve been consciously noticing what is helpful, observing the conditions that inspire and support innovation in our staff. Interestingly, we are learning powerful lessons from the behaviour of schools of fish that are guiding us as we stimulate innovation; a new meaning for our mantra, ‘We all swim together’.

Change requires us to hover between order and chaos. To journey into that uncomfortable space where there’s unknown and uncertainty and often a lot of unanswered questions. It requires us to surrender somewhat. Surrender to the knowledge that chaos will enter our lives, hopefully only momentarily and in a way that we can manage, in order for growth to occur.

We all have particular educators we remember fondly. We likely have the privilege of being those people for many children, too. We remember those who were kind and funny and others who championed us and celebrated us as we journeyed.

Our stories are powerful. They are our wisdom that often lies hidden within us. When we are called to reveal our stories by others, we are challenged to find our voice. We truly find our voice when we are empowered by others.