"Beachside High School"

Beachside High School is a large comprehensive high school catered for Years 7 to 12, situated in a booming beachside town between Newcastle and the Queensland border. Although the town is booming in population, enrolment numbers in the public sector have dropped in recent years, thanks to the dominant monopoly of multi-campus private, Catholic and Anglican educational settings.

With low percentages of Indigenous and Non English Speaking Background (NESB) student numbers, Beachside High School is primarily made up of student numbers from Caucasian and European backgrounds. With an 88% attendance rate, Beachside High School is quickly changing its reputation from one of the most truanted educational centres in New South Wales to a school that prides itself on achieving excellence in ‘curriculum, cultural and sporting areas’ (ACARA, 2010).

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) adds that Beachside High School is a school that ‘has a renewed focus on student outcomes, which are enhanced by its outstanding physical and technological resources. The school motto 'Learn To Live' promotes a culture of lifelong learning for responsible citizens of the 21st century. Following the departure of the Distance Education Centre, the school has developed a strategic plan to provide not only a pleasant learning environment, but one which functionally enhances student learning by developing new facilities’ (ACARA, 2010).

It was in this school setting where I would spend four weeks of my life learning to engage in Inclusive Teaching, fine tune my classroom practice using the Quality Teaching framework and reflecting on my experiences and growing knowledge of Critical Pedagogy in order to become a better teacher and classroom educator.