Jade Foster
Mount Tarcoola Primary School, WA
Yamatji
Teaching Fellow
Implementing consistency in teaching and measuring results is an important part of ensuring student growth. Jade Foster, a primary school teacher and Instructional Coach at Mount Tarcoola Primary School in Geraldton WA, has implemented a range of programs that have helped achieve consistently high results.
Mount Tarcoola’s NAPLAN results had plateaued over several years and the leadership team recognised the need to embark on a change management process. Jade was instrumental in building the capacity of staff to implement high impact instruction to improve student outcomes. She attended 100 hours of TeachWell training to upskill herself on evidence-based teaching strategies. Based on what she learnt, she first implemented high impact instruction lessons in her classroom and developed an extensive bank of high quality-resources, including an instructional coaching playbook. To share her knowledge, she videoed her lessons to help upskill other teachers at her school and supported her colleagues through the instructional coaching process.
Jade achieved significant results in English and Mathematics with regular assessments confirming her class average maintained above 80% in each unit of work. To ensure that students continued their learning, Jade also developed a whole school longitudinal data spreadsheet to monitor student progress and identify students and staff who may need further support.
These initiatives have not only made an impact at Mount Tarcoola. Jade has become a high impact instruction mentor with teachers from all over the Midwest region visiting to observe her lessons. She supervises student teachers from Geraldton Universities Centre and has also implemented parent workshops focused on building early literacy and numeracy skills at home.