For the last four years Viscount School in South Auckland has focused on addressing barriers to student achievement. It seeks to build and maintain a 'culture of success' in which the school and the community have high expectations of the students and students have high expectations of themselves.

A self-review in 1998 found that, in terms of literacy achievement, half of the school's Year 3 students were achieving at 1 8 months to two years below national levels. Initially, junior teaching staff at Viscount School attributed the poor results to low skill levels upon school entry. But an assessment of school entry skills showed that teachers had seriously under-estimated their students.

It was apparent that the key to raising literacy levels was to change teacher beliefs and teaching practice. To improve literacy achievement, Viscount School set out to improve literacy teaching.

The school focused on raising teacher expectations, and equipping teachers with the necessary skills and strategies to become effective literacy teachers. Many of the staff were either beginning teachers or overseas trained teachers unfamiliar with New Zealand's particular student populations and New Zealand practices in teaching reading. The school identified a need for professional development in the content and pedagogy of the New Zealand curriculum.

A key component of Viscount School's approach, tailored to its own needs, was the establishment of an on-site development centre in which almost all professional development takes place.

'This has enabled us to control the quality of professional development offered and to more actively monitor and support the changes in teaching expected to occur. It has also provided us with a model for learning consistent with our vision of a learning community - the teachers can also be seen to be learning at Viscount!

'This has generated great respect for the teachers, and for the learning process, by demonstrating to the community and the students that Viscount School's teachers are themselves learners.'

- Keith Gayford, Principal.

The drive towards information literacy for students has involved the appointment of Viscount's own Literacy Consultant who has worked intensively with all teachers over the last three years to change the pedagogy behind literacy programmes. The consultant provided on-site observation and expert advice adapted to teachers' individual needs. Professional development tools incorporated provision and management of teaching resources, workshops, modelling teaching and assessment strategies. Consistent assessment procedures provided the school with accurate achievement data at monthly intervals.

Viscount School's new approach to professional development in literacy has made a difference to students' literacy achievement.' Even after two months, the reading level of Year 1 students had risen.

The focus on improving literacy teaching in a student's early years has contributed to the improved quality teaching of reading and writing in Year 1 and 2 classes. This literacy emphasis has been extended throughout the school to ensure continued improvement.

'The gains made through good literacy provision arising from our professional development programme have been extremely pleasing. We annually survey reading levels throughout the school and concentrate particularly on our 7 year cohort. From November 2000 to November 2001 our 7-year-old students moved from an average R/A of 7.1 to an average R/A of 8.6 (each sample group numbered more than 100 students). As the pedagogical changes embed themselves in the teaching throughout the school we are seeing similar gains being made at other levels.'

Keith Gayford, Principal.

Three years on, the literacy consultant is continuing to provide professional development for teachers at Viscount School. All teachers have now received professional development in literacy and seen for themselves the benefits of the prescriptive literacy programme and the sustainable changes in student achievement it has made. The literacy consultant is now adding a new focus of improving writing skills.

Viscount School is committed to supporting learning for the future, enhancing learning programmes through ICT. Few students have access to computers at home, so their learning at school is enhanced by the integration of ICT across the curriculum.

'It was our drive towards information literacy that led us to becoming an ICT Lead School. Our work here has centered around the shift towards establishing constructivist learning environments working in an inquiry/problem solving mode. Our students now have access to a network of 130 computers, in a variety of learning settings throughout the school.

'Increasing literacy levels school-wide has been a crucial endeavour, as students seeking to utilize technology to enhance their learning need high levels of literacy competence.

'Our staff too have developed their ICT knowledge and capabilities, sharing these within the ICT cluster.'

- Keith Gayford, Principal.

Viscount School recognised that positive changes in teachers' practices and beliefs alone could not maintain a 'culture of success'. Students themselves needed to taste success and want more, so the school capitalises on its students' sporting and musical strengths, using the best coaching and other resources available, to 'normalises their experiences of success.

'A major building block has been our shared belief that our students must taste success in order for them to develop a craving for it, and to demand it from themselves. Remember, we are a decile 1 school in South Auckland, where expectations are traditionally low, so our children rarely get the chance to view the world from the top of the pile. This belief has led us to valuing and working very hard on the strengths our Polynesian students bring with them.

'We have a full-time Music teacher whose mission is to identify, develop and extend the already extensive musical skills and abilities of students and staff. We have a full-time Physical Education teacher, who aims to do exactly the same. Our students are constantly performing, competing and taking part in forums where they are experiencing stunning successes, and we are

determined to build on these successes by planning and preparing for similar results in other forums.'

- Keith Gayford, Principal.

Sporting and musical success has encouraged students to succeed in other curriculum areas, with help from the school's programme of development and support. The culture of success is underpinned by the school-wide Pro-social Education Programme, teaching students to develop social skills such as respect for others and conflict resolution. Students have developed greater confidence, friendliness, trust and co-operation, and more positive interactions with both their teachers and peers.

The Viscount Learning Community has emerged from a total 'rebuild' of the whole school over a period of five or six years. Key building blocks have been put in place that enable the school to expect the best possible outcomes for its students across a wide range of endeavours.

Since 1995 Viscount has doubled its roll, rebuilt almost all its teaching facilities, totally re-equipped its teaching resource base, and undertaken extensive and intensive professional development with all staff. (39 of today's 40 teachers were recruited in the last six years). There has not been a great deal of staff turnover, although in the last five years, five senior teachers have moved to other schools on promotion to AP or DP positions - a situation that Principal Keith Gayford regards as a positive result of the empowerment that good quality inservice professional development can bring about.