Get Connected

Felicity Roux wins 2020 Fogarty WAIER Prize

Congratulations to Felicity Roux, winner of the 2020 Fogarty Western Australian Institute for Educational Research (WAIER) Prize.

Felicity is a PhD student at the school of Public Health at Curtin University. She is developing a program to equip 13 to 16-year-old females with the skills to understand their ovulatory-menstrual cycles from a whole-person perspective (physically, intellectually, spiritually, socially and emotionally.)

“Research has found that over 90% of teenage girls have period cramps, and up to 26% of girls regularly miss school because of this. Abnormal bleeding patterns and premenstrual tension can also start happening. All of these difficulties impact their quality of life,” Ms Roux said.

“Other research has found that the natural increase in body weight needed for a girl’s first bleed is linked to some girls worrying about eating, body image and trying to lose weight.It is important for a girl to understand her cycles so that she knows if she is healthy and can accurately explain difficulties about her ovulatory-menstrual health to health care providers,” she said.

The project aim is to develop and trial an ovulatory-menstrual health literacy program for teenage girls. The program has been informed by a contingent of specialists in health care, education and public health and women’s advocacy.

Ms Roux will use the $5000 in prize money for the implementation of her thesis: A formative intervention research study to develop and trial a school-based whole person ovulatory-menstrual (OM) health literacy program for 13-16 year old (Year 9-10) females in Perth WA.

“This prize money will assist girls to remain connected and engaged with their schooling through the provision of teaching resources and a web based learning platform that help positively reframe ovulatory and menstrual health as not just a biological but also a psychosocial phenomenon,” she said.

The Western Australian Institute for Educational Research (WAIER) was established in the 1980s for the purpose of promoting and disseminating new educational research generated, for the most part, here in Western Australia.

Their aim is to support educational researchers conducting research directly relevant to early childhood, primary, secondary or tertiary education. Sponsored by the Fogarty Foundation, the prize supports educational researchers studying at an approved higher education institution who do not have ready access to funds or resources for research.

“Our aim at the Fogarty Foundation is to invest in education to provide opportunities for individuals to realise their potential,” said Caitlyn Fogarty, Executive Officer at the Fogarty Foundation.

“Felicity is a very worthy recipient of this prize and we look forward to seeing how her research can change and enrich the lives of many young women.”

Successful conversations and organisational health were the topics of conversation at the Fogarty EDvance School Improvement Program workshop this week.

In order to improve educational outcomes at schools, particularly over a sustained period time, it is important that the school has a healthy culture. Organisations need a healthy culture in order to have long term, sustained improvements. When school leaders know how to focus on their organisational health, they can positively impact student performance. With a solid understanding of their school culture they can address issues and continue to improve areas of strength. At times, this includes having constructive conversations with staff, which is why these topics are important elements of the EDvance program.

Dr Renu Burr, Director at Burr Consulting and UWA Lecturer, facilitated a very informative workshop about the role of successful conversations to lead effective teams and organisations. School leaders were encouraged to reflect upon the power of well-formed conversations to create a high performance-high engagement culture in their schools while implementing change.  They then used a practise framework to conduct learning conversations that set high expectations, built trust and influenced others.

Rachel Howard, Chief of Staff at the Minderoo Group and engaged by McKinsey & Company, encouraged participants to develop a deeper understanding of how organisational health can drive better performance outcomes. Rachel worked with the school leaders as they examined Frame 2 (Assessing underlying mindsets) and 3 (Architect responses to improve Organisational Health) of the McKinsey Organisational Health Framework.  By implementing actions from the Influence model, leaders can get staff actions aligned in the direction of the overall strategic plan.  They also began drafting a ‘Change Story’ for effectively communicating their school’s change agenda.

The Fogarty EDvance School Improvement Program focuses on building the capacity of school leadership teams to make informed evidence-based decisions, strategically plan and ultimately, improve student outcomes.

To find out more, visit the Fogarty EDvance website or contact the team at info@fogartyedvance.au or +61 8 6316 1600.

We live in a rapidly changing and increasingly digital world. Technology dominates many industries and coding literacy is gradually becoming one of the most important skills for current and future generations to learn. 

What is coding?

Coding is a tool that lets you write your story with technology. It’s how we talk to the machines that are increasingly woven into our lives. If you can code, you can communicate your ideas with a computer or a program so they can be brought to life in bigger, brighter and more creative ways. It allows you to create things like software, apps, websites and tools to analyse the world around us. 

Why should I learn to code?

WA is risking a workforce that is under skilled and under-prepared for the future. The number of jobs available in digital industries is on the increase and a shortfall in skilled and ready for work graduates is predicted to create a ‘digital innovation bottleneck’ in Australian businesses. With a significant use of computer and tablet technologies in schools, particularly in Australia, it is important to make the distinction between technology consumers and technology creators. Rather than focusing exclusively on the use of available technology, WA needs people who can create new technologies using code.

How can CoderDojo WA help?

CoderDojo WA aims to provide young people with more opportunities to develop their digital literacy skills across the board, becoming creators and not just consumers of technology. By giving people the time to explore, design and create in a digital landscape, CoderDojo WA acts to overcome the challenges of engaging more youth in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), ensuring that Western Australia can take a leading role in the digital economy.

Whether you choose to pursue a career in technology or not, it is clear that in the digital economy every young person will benefit from some knowledge of coding.

CoderDojo is a world-wide social education movement oriented around running free computer coding clubs (Dojos) for young people aged 7-17 (Ninjas).

At CoderDojo, Ninjas work on their own code-related projects such as websites, apps, game development and more, with the support of volunteer Mentors.

A Dojo is not a workshop or class, it is a club – a social environment in which young people can have fun learning to code. Ninjas support each other, with the additional assistance of Mentors.

Within a school environment, your Ninjas are your students learning to code. Mentors could be more experienced or senior students who enjoy coding and your Champion could be the teacher-in-charge or an interested parent. 

CoderDojo WA provides everything you need to start your Dojo, including:

To start your Dojo or find out more about CoderDojo WA, visit https://fogartyedfutures.org.au/what_we_do/coderdojo_wa/

A huge congratulation to Brody S (age 9), Dylan K (age 10) and Charles K (age 11) for creating our winning ‘What’s Next’ coding stories.

Brody, Dylan and Charles each received a Raspberry Pi 4 for their coding genius!

Their task was to use their coding skills and innovative minds to create a digital story with the theme, ‘What’s Next.’ 

Using Scratch, the boys were able to program an interactive story and share their creations with an online community. Scratch is a fabulous, user-friendly and free programming language and online community that helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically and work collaboratively, all essential skills for life in the 21st century!

To check out their winning stories, click the links below.

Brody S (age 9)
What’s Next Zoo Story: An idea about the zoo

Dylan K (age 10)
What’s next? A Solution to stop Covid 19: Creative way to control and stop spreading Covid 19 and gain our lives back to where it was before COVID 19 

Charles K (age 11)
What’s Next?: A breaking News Report from Gobo, and showing what will happen when Covid 19 is over.

Fogarty EDvance are taking expressions of interest for the 2021 Fogarty EDvance School Improvement Program. Schools from metropolitan and regional, primary and secondary schools in Western Australia, with an ICSEA of between 990 and 1050 are encouraged to apply.

The EDvance program is a key initiative of the Fogarty Foundation, established to support schools by enhancing the capacity of school leaders to address the complex challenges in their schools. Our vision is to improve the educational outcomes of children attending schools in challenging communities.

We see a future where every child can have a great education in Western Australia, regardless of their postcode.

Through the unique three-year School Improvement Program, the EDvance team provides high quality support to build leadership capability and increase the overall effectiveness of schools. Every school that has completed the three-year program has seen improvement across the areas of academic results, student engagement, community engagement and school culture.

EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST – NOW OPEN
Call or email the EDvance team at info@fogartyedvance.au, or visit the website www.fogartyedvance.au.

REGISTER FOR THE RECRUITMENT WORKSHOP
To find out more about the program and how it works, the EDvance team will facilitate a free Transformation Framework Workshop on 26 August 2020. This pre-program workshop introduces school leadership teams to the EDvance School Transformation Framework, a foundational tool in the EDvance program. You can register for the workshop at https://fogartyedvance.au/join-the-program/.

In today’s globalised world, leadership and communication skills are not only desired, but increasingly required by employers. Workshops at the conference will give students the tools to become leaders of their communities and identify which communication strategies work most effectively for them.

Throughout the conference, students will be involved in a number of exercises that aim to challenge them to understand their own beliefs and motivations. Goal-setting activities and self-reflection will encourage students to think introspectively and realise areas in which they can improve as global citizens.

Presentations from community leaders in Western Australia will inspire Futures attendees to think outside of their comfort zone and take on a challenge to improve a social issue that resonates with them. A Politicians Panel will interview State and Federal politicians to find out how they are addressing these societal problems.

While Futures promotes attendees to think big, action on a global scale starts at a grassroots, community level. With a social issue in mind, the conference will focus on how students are able to become more involved in community-based leadership.

The Fogarty Futures Leadership Conference will be held from 29 September to 2 October 2020, for Year 10 & 11 students. The conference combines exciting workshops with incredible speakers, endeavouring to inspire WA’s youth to be leaders in their communities.

To apply, visit https://fogartyfutures.org/apply/

Email: admin@fogartyfutures.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/futuresconference
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fogartyfutures/

Charlie Singleton
2018 Futures attendee – Methodist Ladies’ College, Year 11
“The conference was a really great experience which helped me to refine my leadership skills and future goals. It was a unique opportunity to meet a group of young people who could inspire each other with their diverse perspectives.”

Eva Marsh
2017 Futures attendee – Presbyterian Ladies College, Year 11
“Futures was a great way to meet and get to know, not only other amazing people my age from all different schools and backgrounds with different goals in life, but also older UWA students who had amazing advice to give. I found the experience really valuable in helping me to discover my purpose and felt that all of the activities really flowed well into this common goal.”

FameLab is a live science communication competition that aims to discover charismatic early career scientists who can inspire people to see the world from new perspectives. It is an initiative to engage in STEM and STEAM. Run annually in Australia and in over 25 countries across the world, the Foundation for the WA Museum ran virtual finals for the 2020 National FameLabs.

The FameLab National Winner this year was Cody Frear  from The  University of Queensland. Cody’s presentation ‘Out with the old, in with the Noo-Noo’ using the the Teletubbies’ vacuum cleaner character Noo-Noo, to explain how paediatric burn injuries can heal faster and reduce scarring using a ‘vacuum’. 

If you want to check out The FameLab 2020 Online LiveZoom presentations, they are live here.


The Fogarty Foundation is FameLabs WA education network partner supporting FameLabs to connect with and run presentation and specific school workshops. These workshops will run at Cecil Andrews in Term 3, 2020.