Our poorest schools continue to get the poorest results. School leaders and teachers can make a bigger difference in our most challenging schools if they embrace some core pedagogical practices that have emanated from the most recent Australian research into best practice teaching in the middle and senior years of schooling.

Teachers, school leaders, educational consultants and systems personnel now have the opportunity to participate in a Turnaround Hub – where they will experience a teacher inquiry approach to learning. Working in research projects, they will explore effective ways to address educational disadvantage, based on the groundbreaking work that has been done in the Connecting Lives and Learning project.

The August issue of E-News reported the launch of the Connecting Lives and Learning (CLL) website, aimed at schools and systems that are seeking ways to address educational disadvantage. The CLL project developed a `turnaround pedagogy’ that works in challenging school contexts. It has now developed into the Turnaround project, with a research-based Hub and a program of workshops.

Andrew Bills, ANSN Networker in SA, has circulated a paper and a powerpoint that gives a summary of the Connecting Lives and Learning (CLL) project. As described in previous editions of E-News, CLL has developed out of the earlier Redesigning Pedagogies in the North Project and is now expanding from its South Australian base to become a national venture. To get the project happening nationally, facilitated by the ANSN, Networkers have been working together during April, and plan to keep in contact via Skype video conferences.

Snapshots are occasional papers about areas of interest for Network members.

ANSN is committed to making available quality to resources to help teachers and schools improve their work.

David Kinna, a maths Teacher at Paralowie R-12 School, in Adelaide's northern
suburbs is a participant in the Connecting Lives and Learning project. In this ANSN
Snapshot he draws on his experience in the project and describes work that he has undertaken in two schools.

At a time of greater poverty, mobility and cultural diversity (Luke et al., 2003), examples of Australian middle schools working to address the disadvantage experienced by urban fringe students are the exception rather than the rule (McInerney & Smyth, 2004; Smyth & McInerney, 2007). The need for more work in this area is made all the more imperative by early school leaving research identifying the middle years as a key site for reform to improve school retention rates (Holden & Dwyer, 1993; Marks & Fleming, 1999; Smyth & Hattam, 2004; Smyth et al., 2000).

The University of South Australia's ARC-funded project, Redesigning Pedagogies in the North (RPiN) is now in its third and final year. Since 2005, the aim has been to build a new generation of pedagogical innovation, working with 10 public schools in northern Adelaide. The university is now preparing to disseminate the results more widely.

Helping to build on the RPiN work, ANSN is forming a new project partnership with the University to host a teacher-friendly website that will offer: professional development approaches for middle schooling; teacher resources; and guidelines for conducting and doing research, incorporating the project's big ideas. It is envisaged that the website will be of interest to education systems, schools and teachers nationally and will be up and running by the end of the year. The site will be called Connecting Lives and Learning (CLL).