Charles Spiteri conducts a second interview with Chev. Frank Gatt, the Gozo College Co-ordinator

In the interview held last year you had spoken of the principles that underline networking in general and how these principles were being put into practice at the Gozo College. Fifteen months after the Gozo College was launched, how is the college network enhancing education in Gozo?

From the very beginning the motto of the Gozo College has been "Working, Achieving and Succeeding Together!" (Vygotsky 1978) and many other educators affirm that students learn best in collaboration with peers, teachers, parents and others when they are meaningfully engaged in meaningful activities.

It is also my firm belief that this is the fundamental, essential leitmotif behind networking. If we really want all our children to succeed and succeed holistically, we need to co-operate and collaborate more closely. In a world where change is the rule of the day, it is a sine qua non for all educators not only to produce the very best but, as importantly, to share enthusiastically and very willingly their best practices and experiences.

In every relationship, creating the right atmosphere for positive communication is indispensable. The Gozo College thrives on horizontal, distributive leadership at all levels. The college is a learning organisation. Everybody enjoys an important voice. Every opinion is encouraged, highly appreciated and valued.

This network of positive, constructive communication at both school and community levels is, day in day out, being translated into enhanced learning and teaching experiences, especially for our pupils and students in the classroom.

Indeed, after these first 15 months, we at the Gozo College are convinced more than ever that in our globalised world:

• teachers and schools need to work and learn together and that networks provide a sound, powerful tool for this purpose, and

• networks which are focused on a holistic, inclusive education and quality learning and teaching offer a foundation for genuine transformation based on the knowledge, skills, attitudes and competences embedded in teaching practice.

The synergy generated by the Gozo College network has helped to enhance learning on at least six levels - pupil learning, adult learning, leadership for learning and leadership development, school-wide learning, school-to-school learning and network to network learning. The network is indeed providing the diversity, flexibility and range of opportunities that no single school can offer; it is continuing to broaden our teacher expertise and learning opportunities available to pupils; it is a platform for sharing expert leadership and teaching practice and experiences at all levels.

More specifically, the Gozo College network

• is helping us to address common methodological issues;

• is creating more opportunities for meaningful extracurricular activities both during and after school;

• is nurturing more creativity, risk-taking and innovative practices across the board;

• is vital to share good practice, which naturally leads to all-round improved teaching and consequently better learning;

• provides a forum of constant, healthy discussion among heads, assistant heads, SMTs, teaching personnel as well as clerical and minor staff;

• facilitates, in no small measure, the organisation of on-the-spot common professional development, in-service training, information sessions and fora for all educators, parents and other members of the community;

• is helping to co-ordinate and enhance the very good services provided by peripatetic staff, social workers, facilitators and kindergarten assistants;

• is empowering heads and assistant heads to further prove their worth as vision builders, curriculum managers and educational leaders of the highest calibre;

• is helping in the sharing of resources, both human and material;

• is making it possible to initiate support groups especially for learners with special difficulties at both college and community level;

• enhances the ethos of each individual school, which, while retaining its identity and autonomy, can now boast of the added value of the collective ethos of the Gozo College;

• is enhancing the self-image and the self-esteem of the learners, as well as other personnel, who now can pride themselves of belonging to a college, the Gozo College;

• is creating more synergy and partnership between the Arts and Crafts Centre, the Drama School and the Music School, which are an extremely important and integral part of the Gozo College;

• has erected a solid bridge between the schools and important stakeholders in the community;

• is facilitating collective work with important agencies such as FES, Arka, Oasi, Health Unit, ADT and others as well;

• is addressing continuous action research at both classroom and community levels;

• is transforming schools into one whole learning community of equals;

• is teeming with enthusiasm and is making every day a day to look forward to for all of us;

• is empowering educators to become natural agents and catalysts of change and innovative practices.

This is the great advantage of "Working, Achieving and Succeeding Together"! We are creating a learning culture where everyone constantly learns with, from and on behalf of each other. For every individual child and person in the community matters to us!

We have learned that our schools will be better able to meet the needs of learners and the challenges of a globalised, ever-changing world if they work in partnership with one another, sharing resources and expertise and at the same time assembling the right mix and range of education for each individual learner.

You like to refer to the Gozo College as a "learner-centred, caring college". Can you elaborate on this?

At the Gozo College no child is left out. Our aim is to make sure that each individual learner works, achieves and succeeds in her or his own particular, natural way.

We are working to help each child achieve, holistically, his or her very utmost and so lead a happy, productive and proactive life as a worthy local and global citizen.

The lion's share of our professional development last year and also this year is focusing on the "diverse needs of learners" and consequently on the need to have more "differentiated teaching" in our classrooms. Also to this end, various researched material and publications are constantly being shared with heads, assistant heads and teaching personnel on multiple intelligences, well-planned group-work, respect for diversity, different learning styles and learning patterns. The rationale is to stress the uniqueness and unfathomable worth of each individual learner.

At the same time, while caring for each and every child, we are infusing and propagating a culture of co-operation among the various learners who are themselves being made aware of the contribution each can bring to the whole group and community. For it is of paramount importance that they too learn to care for and help each other. This is, in a nutshell, why the Gozo College prides itself on being a learner-centred, caring college.

What are some of the projects the Gozo College is planning for this scholastic year?

First of all, we are continuing with and fine-tuning most of the projects and experiences started last year, some of which are:

• focused council of heads meetings in different schools;

• co-ordination of half-yearly examination papers by assistant heads and SMT;

• common professional development sessions;

• discussion and elaboration of common policy documents;

• health and safety exhibitions for the whole community;

• healthy breakfast days;

• various seminars by PSD teachers and guidance unit to facilitate passage of pupils from Years 5 and 6 to Form 1 and from Form 5 to post-secondary;

• Home-Sci-Home: science hands-on exhibition for the whole community in a typical, Gozitan farmhouse;

• Projects highlighting environmental issues;

• Hands-on farming experiences;

• Meetings with parents organised by the various schools and, at College level, by the very active Gozo branch of the AKS: Assocjazzjoni Kunsilli Skolastici;

• Activities in conjunction with the various foundations and agencies for schools and the whole community;

• Synergy with other colleges and universities, both local and foreign.

Some of the new projects and initiatives we are including this year are:

• Learning Planets - a project whereby learners in schools can collaborate better on a collegial level;

• A multilingual, multicultural festival featuring all the kindergarten children in the college;

• Innovative prize-days or rather celebration days where all intelligences and positive contributions are highly appreciated and equally rewarded;

• Monthly meetings with teachers of the various year groups to help share and propagate good practice;

• An enhanced PE programme including swimming sessions in a heated swimming pool in conjunction with Arka;

• Monthly meetings with special groups such as the Down's Syndrome group;

• Unified activities of the highest quality by the three centres for arts and crafts, drama and music;

• Inauguration of the Incubation Centre at the Arts and Crafts School at Ghajnsielem;

• A whole-college Website;

• Projects with the ecclesiastical community;

• Mathematics through drama: after school activity for Year 6 pupils in conjuction with local councils;

• After-school homework-cum-activity sessions for all pupils in different centres;

• After-school ICT sessions pitched at different levels for parents;

• Customised, ICT training for the whole cohort of primary school teachers

• After school sessions in exotic languages for gifted students of languages;

• Various literacy projects, several of which are participating in the Best Language

• Practice Award;

What is the final message you would like to send to our readers?

The Gozo College is a reality, a true educational institution and community of learners. The college is proud to have pupils, students, educational leaders, parents and other stakeholders in the community who are so willing and enthusiastic to work together to provide an education of the highest quality.

For us quality means that we will never rest on our laurels but will strive every single moment of the day to give that extra value-added tinge to our practice.

I am here speaking on behalf of and expressing the views of all my partners at the Gozo College with whom I share, day in day out, my vision and mission. We are all proud that we form part of the Gozo College: a caring, learner-centred college where everyone really matters, and everyone lives up to our motto "Working, Achieving and Succeeding Together!"