Highfield High 1 school 2019 plan to improve the pass rate

By A Kuwodza, 2019.
Our pass rate at Highfield High 1 School has been on the upward trend and in 2018 we recorded
the highest ever pass rate at 83% O-level and a slight decrease in A-level. But we believe there
is still more room to surpass this mark and reach 100%. Below is our plan of how we hope to
improve it both in quality and quantity.

The teachers/facilitators.
As Highfield High 1 leadership we want all our staff to be great teachers. Great teachers make
a school leader’s job easier. Realistically, not every one of our teachers is a great teacher.
Greatness takes time to develop. A major component of school leadership is to improve teacher
quality. As effective school leaders, we have the ability to help any teacher take it to the next
level. Good school leadership will help bad teachers to become effective, effective teachers
become good, and good teachers become great. They understand that this is a process that takes
time, patience, and a lot of work. Quality teachers produce quality results and responsible
learners.
By improving teacher quality, they will naturally improve the learner’s learning outcomes.
Improved input equals improved output. This is an essential component of our school’s success.
Continuous growth and improvement are necessary. There are many that we can improve
teacher quality within their building. Here, we examine seven ways that can help individual
teachers grow and improve in 2019.
1. Conduct Meaningful Evaluations
We are going to routinely observe and evaluate our teacher’s classroom facilitation to
identify areas of need and weakness and to create an individual plan for that teacher to
improve in those areas. Our evaluations are going to be thorough, especially for those
teachers we have identified as needing significant improvement. These evaluations will
be created after a substantial number of observations that allow us as the school
leadership to see the entire picture of what a teacher is doing in the classroom. These
evaluations should drive us to plan the resources, suggestions, and professional
development that is required to improve individual teacher quality.

2. Offer Constructive Feedback/Suggestions

We are going to offer a list that includes any weaknesses which they find during the
evaluation - give detailed suggestions to guide teacher improvement.

3. Provide Meaningful Professional Development

We will also engage in professional development which can foster dynamic changes
for our teachers. We hope to bring in the outside source as it can motivate, provide
innovative ideas and gives a fresh perspective. There are professional development
opportunities that cover just about any weakness a teacher has. We believe Continuous
growth and improvement is essential for all our teachers and even more valuable for
those who have gaps that need to be closed.
4. Provide Adequate Resources
 All our teachers need the appropriate tools to do their job effectively. In 2019 we must
be able to give our teachers the resources they need. This can be challenging as we
currently live in an era where educational funding is a significant issue and our
economy is on a meltdown. However, in the age of the Internet, there are more tools
available to teachers than ever before. Teachers must be taught to use the Internet and
other technologies as an educational resource in their classroom. Great teachers will
find a way to cope without having all the resources they would like to have. However,
we are going to do everything we can to provide our teachers with the best resources or
provide professional development to use the resources they do have effectively.

5. Provide a Mentor
As we have Great veteran teachers who can provide tremendous insight and
encouragement to an inexperienced or struggling teacher. This year we must develop
veteran teachers who want to share best practices with other teachers. They must also
build a trusting, encouraging atmosphere in which their entire department
communicates, collaborates, and shares with each other. We must make mentor
connections in which both sides have similar personalities, or the connection may be
counterproductive. A solid mentor connection can be a positive, learning venture for
both the mentor and the mentee. These interactions will be most effective if they
become daily and ongoing.

Teachers discipline
Indiscipline among teachers is their acts of behaviour that affect effective teaching, learning
and administration of the school. Common indiscipline behaviour by teachers include;
absenteeism from school and lesson, lateness, non-preparation of lesson notes, failure to mark
students exercise books, non-completion of school records such as records of marks, registers,
student results, involvement in examination malpractices, illegal collection from parent and
students, drinking, drug taking and sexual immorality.
These are a serious threat to all level of our educational system because teachers are the
expected professionals, entrusted with the responsibility to conserve the future and destiny of
the nation. (Okeke, 2004:10) “the teacher belongs to a special class (sub-group) saddled with”
the responsibility of moulding the child into a functional adult that will contribute to national
development with the following qualities; knowledge of the subject matter being taught far
ahead of that of the pupils; professional skill or know-how to awaken a child’s interest in what
is being taught and to enkindle in his pupils a love of learning and a good moral character
(Anyamebo, 2005:41-42)
Ways of Enforcing Teachers Discipline
The following points will be emphasized when forcing indiscipline
1. Relevance: Disciplinary action must be relevant to the behaviour. Most importantly the
teacher must know the reason for meting out punishment for him or her and the
punishment must follow immediately.
2. Fairness: The school head will be fair in his punishment. He must establish the reason
for punishing an offender. If teachers are punished for offence or behaviour, they do
not exhibit, the teachers usually become more aggressive and antagonistic.
 3. Consistency: The school head will be consistent in enforcing discipline if a school head
is not consistent at the aim of the discipline is defeated.

Teacher motivation
Teachers are arguably the most important group of professionals for our nation’s future.
Therefore, it is disturbing to find that many of today’s teachers are dissatisfied with their jobs.
True job satisfaction is derived from the gratification of higher-order needs, “social relations,
esteem, and actualization” rather than lower-order needs.

Given the state of school budgets, it is extremely difficult for most heads to do substantial
things to motivate and inspire teachers. But sometimes even little things can make a big
difference. School leaders need to serve teachers. We as Highfield High 1 school leadership
we need to:
 show teachers every day that we care in many ways.
 to put aside our own issues and do what is best for the staff in a caring and sensitive
way.
 treat everyone as a professional and celebrate whenever we can. Our job is to make the
teacher's job easier, better, so they can teach and learners can learn.
 Foster a positive school-teacher relationship. We will not be strangers to our teachers.
By making ourselves approachable, the teachers will not hesitate to come to us with
grievances or ideas for improvement. We will develop a positive school climate which
is critical to an effective school to produce quality results.
 show reassurance that they are doing a good job. We will recognize teachers' efforts
by offering positive feedback, both publicly and privately. Weekly memos or e-mails
and regular staff meetings will be the perfect forums for recognizing special
contributions that teachers or other staff members make. special recognition
encourages others to work hard.
 leave a little extra money in the budget to recognize outstanding efforts with small
personal gifts such as prepaid air time, handsets or laptops.
 Plan morning tea and snacks and noon-hour lunches for all staff members daily
Monday to Friday. Some lunches can be "roving lunches" in which people eat during
their regularly scheduled lunch period, or they can be whole-staff lunches that kick off
professional development sessions scheduled for the p.m. part of the day.
 encourage teachers to seek out professional development courses or workshops.
Approve all reasonable requests. We will set aside time during each staff meeting, or
arrange a special professional development day, so teachers can share with their peers
the main ideas they learned from each session they attended.
 make sure our teachers have access to resources that enable them to grow
professionally, to make them feel motivated.
 encourage teachers to ask for the instructional supplies they require to facilitate
teaching and learning through their HODs. Provide reasonable requests from the
budget, or enlist local politicians or businesspeople to sponsor or help us track down
other needed supplies.
  send cards to teachers to welcome them back after an illness, celebrate a birthday or
another important event, or recognize a special achievement... Add a copy of those
"special achievements" cards to teachers' personnel files.
 Feed the teachers! Celebrate the end of a busy week by arranging to have the kitchen
staff with the help food science department prepare a special continental breakfast --
beverages and muffins, rolls, or coffee cake -- every Friday morning.
 appoint a teacher to be "acting head, deputy, senior master/woman and HOD" when
any are out of the school. (This usually convinces them that they love being a teacher!)
 make sure that everyone is on a committee that meets regularly and that they have real
tasks and opportunities for real input in school-level decision making.
 organize the end of term parties and end of year get together parties to reflect on our
up and downs. If the Zimsec result improves from the previous year we will give our
teacher a token of appreciation or take them out to a five-star hotel for a meal.

Learner motivation
Learner motivation is an essential element that is necessary for quality results and education.
How are we going to know when our students are motivated? They start paying attention, they
begin working on tasks immediately, they ask questions and volunteer answers, and they appear
to be happy and eager (Palmer, 2007). We at Highfield High 1 School have seen that very little
if any learning can occur unless learners are motivated on a consistent basis.
There are five key ingredients that we have to identify that impact student motivation which
are:
 Learner;
 Teacher;
 Content;
 method/process and;
 environment.

Learner: Our learners must have access, ability, interest, and must value education.
Teacher: Our teachers must be well trained, must focus and monitor the educational process,
be dedicated and responsive to his or her learners, and be inspirational.
Our teachers will be empowered to exercise professional judgment in the classroom to attain
clearly expressed goals. We will give our teacher the latitude to test individual approaches
based on strategic goals and incentive systems. Also, our teachers will be provided with
training to support them in this expanded role including more time for peer interaction to share
views on what is effective. Overall, our teachers should do unto the learners as they would
want to be done unto themselves.
Content: The content provided by our teachers must be accurate, timely, stimulating, and
pertinent to the learner’s current and future needs. However, content also should be relevant
and useful to the learner in his or her life. Olson (1997) notes that learner motivation depends
on the extent to which the teacher is able to satisfy the learner’s need for (1) feeling in control
of their learning, (2) feeling competent, and (3) feeling connected to others. As such, content
also must be included to satisfy each of these student needs.
Method or process: The methods or processes must be inventive, encouraging, interesting,
beneficial, and provide tools that can be applied to the learners’ real life.
The method or process is the way in which content is presented, that is, the approach used for
instruction. Two basic approaches for supporting and cultivating motivation in the classroom
are (1) creating a classroom structure and institutional method that provides the environment
for optimal motivation, engagement, and learning; and (2) helping the learner to develop tools
that will enable him or her to be self-regulated.
Environment: we must create an environment that is accessible, safe, positive, personalized
as much as possible, and empowering.
We believe that Motivation is optimized when students are exposed to a large number of these
motivating experiences and variables on a regular basis. That is, learners ideally should have
many sources of motivation in their learning experience in each class.
Reinforcement
Reinforcement is a consequence following a behaviour that increases the probability that the
behaviour will increase in the future.
In addition to keeping behaviour under control, reinforcement in the classroom will be used to
keep students engaged and motivated to learn. Our teachers should use reinforcement often in
order to maintain a positive learning environment and to promote appropriate classroom
behaviours.
Examples of reinforcers that can be used in the classroom include the following:
• Teacher praise
• Earning privileges
• Teacher attention
• Taking away a homework assignment
• Extra recess time
• Extending a deadline

Communication
The success of any knowledge and education depends upon communication. Teaching is a two-
way process where there is one receiver (learner) and the giver (teacher). The personality of
any learner depends upon the teacher how he communicates his knowledge. The main objective
of effective communication is to motivate, inform, suggest, warn, order to change behaviour,
establish a better relationship with others to make learning meaningful and understood
At Highfield High 1 school in 2019, we must know the following things about communication.
1. Classrooms are set up for the purpose of communicating and not for imposing teacher's
ideas on young and growing minds.
 2. Developing communication skills among children should be the basic concern of the
school and hence, we must provide ways and means of developing and improving their
skills
3. Communication in the classroom can occur only when we and the learners share
common meaning and experiences. Learners with widely different backgrounds,
different abilities and interests attend our school. Further, we have to manage with the
vast explosion in knowledge and the fact that learners have too little time to explore the
vast subject matter included in the curriculum. To meet these challenges, we must make
use of new and improved communication devices in classroom-like films, projector,
internet, etc

How we will Ensure Effective Communication in the 2019 calendar year.

 Showing sincere enthusiasm or humour: The first lesson content that the teacher
communicates to learners is his level of interest or passion to have them before him.
 By Building Friendship: Learners gain better comportment when the instructor
provides an atmosphere of friendliness.
 Making learners the focus: This has to do with the teacher making the class work
learners-centred instead of teacher-centred.
 By Ensuring that there is trust: The first time of meeting a set of students is very
important in the life of the teacher. At first contact, there is usually some element of
doubt and suspicion. If this is not tactfully handled, the relationship will be built on
anxiety and uncertainty. The teacher must prove to the learners that he trusts them by
incorporating themselves to their affairs. Sincere smiles and handshake from the teacher
communicate trust to the students.
 Creating an atmosphere of interdependence: This involves teachers building in
learners the consciousness of interdependence by making them know that they need
each other’s support so as to achieve their set goals.
 By Probing into learners’ intellectual aptitude at the onset of a class: It is pertinent
for a teacher to ascertain the intellectual capacity of his learners especially when they
are meeting for the first time.
 Making learners feel challenged: Learners’ interest is better aroused when they are
challenged by the task before them. Solving a problem is usually a motivation for
individual learners.
 Being a master of the subject matter: This is a concern with teachers proving their
high level of proficiency in their subject area. After the formal teacher training, the
personnel are expected to continue reading and engaging in training for professional
development.
 Understanding different learning styles and being generic: In every learning
environment, there are different kinds of learners who maintain different learning
styles. A teacher is expected to be resourceful to accommodate the diverse
characteristics of learners.
 By Being accommodative and tolerating learners’ mistakes: Every human is subject
to making mistakes. When learners make mistakes, it is the duty of the teacher to
encourage the person by correcting with interest. Learners should not be mocked,
 criticized negatively or condemned for the mere mistake. The mistake should rather be
exploited as a learning experience.

Learner discipline
We will have rules that are fair and cover all types of learning areas. Our set of rules will
include, “Students will follow instructions given by teachers, support staff, or any other
employee of the district.” Our rules will be in writing and will provide copies for learners
and parents. Have them signed by both. Keep copies of signed rules on file. We will
enforce the rules fairly and consistently.

To our teachers

1. Be warm, kind, and friendly–but never familiar. Do not tell learners about your
troubles or too much about your family life. Do not tell off-colour jokes. You are a
professional.
2. Stay in charge. Be alert and observant. Use that “teacher look” whenever possible.
Maintain eye contact with students. Never look down when disciplining a student. A
walk around the room will solve many potential problems. Remember that you are
the only one who has the right to walk around the room anytime you wish. Besides, a
moving target is harder to hit!
3. Raise your eyebrow–never your voice. Never argue with a student. If the problem
continues, lower your voice and keep repeating your instructions. Understand that
silence is an important tool. The madder you get, the lower and lower your voice
should become. If the student continues to argue, simply say, “We will discuss this
later.” Then walk away.
4. Meet students one at a time. Stand at the door when students arrive. Greet each by
name. Never scold a student in front of the class. If a student cannot be corrected by
looking at him or standing next to him or through simple instructions, ask the student
to step outside or to see you after class. Don’t over-react if the student says something
under his/her breath. Your time will come.
5. Count to five. Learn to set limits. Many students need deadlines. Counting to five after
instructions have been given is a good way to reinforce instructions or to get students
on task quickly
6. Keep students busy and involved. Students get bored when they have to do the same
thing for too long or if they are required to do the same things over and over. The
greater the variety of activities, the better. Make learning fun. Involve students with
hands-on activities or short group work sessions. Remember, learners learn best by
doing. Even a few minutes with nothing to do can lead to student misbehaviour.
7. Work at discipline as hard as you work at teaching. Teaching good discipline is just as
important as teaching the subject matter. In addition, poor discipline in your
classroom can ruin your day, your job, and even your career.
8. Have the attitude that violations of school rules will not be tolerated. No student
should be allowed to continually disrupt the education of others. A strong, consistent
attitude is more important than what sex you are, how tall you may be, or how many
muscles you have. Discipline is a state of mind.
Punishment
Punishment is a consequence following a behaviour that decreases the probability that a
particular behaviour will occur in the future
Examples of punishments to be used include the following:
 Loss of recess time
 suspension
 Extra homework
 Loss of other privileges
 Detention

Methods of teaching
The curriculum framework stresses learner-centred approaches. The focus on learning revolves
around learners as they engage in the search and discovery of new knowledge. The teacher acts
as a co-explorer and facilitator in knowledge discovery in order to arrive at an objective
understanding of content and demonstration of skills so acquired.
In light of the fact that learning is a process that involves investigating, formulating, reasoning
and using appropriate strategies to solve problems, teachers should realise that it becomes more
effective if the learners are tasked to perform rather than just asked to remember some
information. A typical learning environment with a presentation from the course teacher
accompanied by a lecture neither promotes learners’ participation nor build the required level
of reasoning among students. Students build a better understanding of the main concepts more
effectively when they are engaged to solve problems during class activities.
At Highfield high 1 school we will continue to encourage our facilitators to use the following
teaching methods
1. Learner-Centred Method
With the advent of the concept of discovery learning, many scholars today widely adopt
suppler student-centred methods to enhance active learning (Greitzer, 2002). Most
teachers today apply the learner-centred approach to promote interest, analytical
research, critical thinking and enjoyment among students (Hesson & Shad, 2007). The
teaching method is regarded as more effective since it does not centralize the flow of
knowledge from the lecturer to the learner (Lindquist, 1995). The approach also
motivates goal-orientated behaviour among learners; hence the method is very effective
in improving student achievement (Slavin, 1996).

2. Teacher-Learner Interactive Method/ Presentations

This teaching method applies the strategies used by both teacher-centred and learner-
centred approaches. The subject information produced by the learners is remembered
better than the same information presented to the learners by the teacher (Jacoby, 1978;
McDaniel, Friedman & Bourne, 1978; and Slamecka & Graf, 1978). The method
encourages the Learners to search for relevant knowledge rather than the teacher
monopolizing the transmission of information to the learners. As such, research
evidence on teaching approaches maintains that this teaching method is effective in
improving learners’ academic performance (Damodharan & Rengarajan, 1999). In
 these methods, learner presents their findings to their peers with the facilitator
contributing and guiding them.

Career guidance
Conduct a Yearly Business Fair
HOW – Every mid-year (June) we will invite several businesses in our city to participate in our annual
business fair. The entire school will spend a few hours learning important things about those businesses
such as what they do, how many people work there, and what skills are needed to work there.
WHY – This allows the business community the opportunity to come into the school and show kids
what all they do. It also allows the business community the opportunity to be a part of the learners’
education. It provides the learners with opportunities to see if they are interested in working a particular
business.
Presentation by Business Professionals for forms 5 and 6.
HOW – About every year guests from within the country will be invited to discuss the how’s and what’s
of their particular career. People will be chosen so that their particular career relates to a specific subject
area. For example, a geologist might speak in the science class or a news anchor might speak in a
language arts class.
WHY – This allows businessmen and women from the various industries the opportunity to share what
their career is all about with the learners. It allows the learners to see a variety of possible career choices,
asks questions, and find out interesting things about various careers.

Budget
We hope to have a termly budget that spells out expected expenditure on a termly basis. Each
department should now have termly expected expenditure based on previous allocations although this
can be reviewed based on the performance of the national economy. The budget should prioritise
teaching and learning, everything else should come second.

Infrastructure
The infrastructure at our school is not very bad, but, all the same, there is a need for improvement in
certain areas. For example, most classrooms lack power points for facilitators to connect laptops and
projectors, which is a big hindrance in this era where the use of ICT in teaching and learning is being
encouraged. We hope by the end of term one we will have them fixed.
Our sporting facilities are in the worst conditions ever and we hope to engage the SDC committee to
chip in with funds to improve them.
School library
Our school library is filled with mostly outdated books and is currently not functional. We believe in
2019 we will be able to buy new books and employ a school librarian to run it. We also hope to create
an e-library through our web site where the teacher can upload notes, exercise and homework where
learners can access them online even when at home.
Co-curricular activities
The updated curriculum has linked the academic to the hands-on work, our learners need their time
tables time for outside life that build the inner and better-prepared person. All learners must be
compulsorily involved in co-curricular life.

Departmental Autonomy
We believe that the most successful schools are those that give pedagogical and budgetary
autonomy to their departments. Departmental autonomy and accountability are key
components to ensure education quality that will improve our results. By giving our
departments autonomy means they will be accountable for the results in their respective
departments.
Although there is little formal evidence that teacher quality improves as a direct result of
departmental autonomy, there can be a compelling argument that increasing departmental
accountability is a necessary condition for improving teacher quality. Teachers will be forced
to upgrade themselves or to work hard since they will also be accountable for the results of the
classes they teach to the head of the department.
Conclusion
Having outlined how Highfield High 1 school hope to improve its pass rate both in terms of
quality and quantity from the 2019 and onwards, what left is for the plan to be implemented.
Success can only be realised only if we work as a united front. Teamwork creates tools which,
when used together, makes us teams efficient, organized, happy and good results will follow.