Research clearly points to the fact that it is the teacher that makes the difference to student outcomes. As we know teacher turnover and facilitating the effective delivery of professional development in the Cape poses some specific challenges.

The Centre for Leadership and Teaching Excellence (CLTE) is a strategic response that has been developed as a partnership between Western Cape College and the Indigenous Schooling Support Unit (ISSU) designed to ameliorate some of the difficulties associated with delivering induction support and appropriate professional development to EQ staff in remote indigenous settings.

The Key Performance Indicators for the CLTE relate to:

• the development of a website and online materials
• face-to-face workshops for teachers
• workshops designed specifically for teacher aides and parents

Since the inception of the CLTE at the beginning of 2008 much work has already been carried out towards achieving these objectives.

To date, this website has been established and work continues on developing materials that will provide point-in-time support for teachers in key areas such as ESL teaching, behaviour management and a range of other induction support materials.

At this stage, materials are developed and trialed at Weipa and then rolled out across the Cape via the website.

The CLTE leads a Professional Learning Community at Weipa campus. We are proud to be able to state that to date  53 staff from this campus have attended a range of  professional development sessions. This is testament to the confidence that staff have in the quality and relevance of the materials delivered. This community also serves to facilitate mentoring relationships and buddy systems that promote professional sharing and best practice development.

The CLTE has developed and delivered workshops specifically designed for teaching staff based on the needs identified by campus leadership. Weipa campus staff have been involved in these sessions which have included topics such as the teaching of reading in an upper middle school or secondary context and effectively catering for diversity in the classroom. Sessions are based around practical, hands-on activities that value experiential learning and model best practice strategies in ways that encourage their adoption by teachers.

Teachers from across Cape York have participated in a weekend professional development program in Weipa which focused on the areas of ICT's, Numeracy and wellbeing and stress management. Feedback received regarding this event has been outstanding and plans continue to hold a second event of this nature this semester.

In line with the CLTE's aim to deliver induction support, the CLTE has designed and delivered materials to support the induction of probationary teachers.

The CLTE also produces materials and workshops for paraprofessional staff. The CLTE has also developed a quality 5 hour workshop for teacher aides designed to support the First Steps: Number materials. This has been trialed with teacher aides at Mapoon with excellent feedback. This workshop is now able to be accessed by schools across the Cape.

From this information it is clearly evident that the CLTE has had an extremely successful and busy start to its inaugural year. However, second semester doesn't look any less busy. The website will be significantly enhanced over the next 2 terms and the Centre will continue to facilitate workshops and professional development opportunities working with teachers, teacher-aides and parents.

We are also very excited to be co-ordinating a National Indigenous Educators' Conference in Weipa from 23 - 25 October. We have already secured some high profile keynote speakers in Dr Chris Sarra, Mr Jeff McMullen, Prof Stephen Dinham, and Mr Tony Koch and the program promises to be highly informative and thought provoking. Informing regarding this event can be found on this website. Places will be limited so we encourage you to register early for what will be a great event.