Victorian Professional Learning Communities (PLC)

“The essence of the PLC process is captured in three big ideas: 1. The purpose of our school is to ensure all students learn at high levels. 2. Helping all students learn requires a collaborative and collective effort. 3. To assess our effectiveness in helping all students learn we must focus on results—evidence of student learning…” - Richard DuFour

The Victorian PLC initiative is part of Victoria's system architecture for school improvement, it is at the heart of our collective efforts to achieve equity and excellence for all students.

Working as a professional learning community is the preferred way of working within and across our schools. Since 2016, the Victorian PLCs initiative has helped schools strengthen their ability to meet the needs of students and improve student outcomes. The Victorian PLC initiative will provide teachers in every school across the state with the support they need to drive excellence and equity for all students. By the end of 2024, every Victorian government school will have received professional learning and ongoing guidance to implement PLCs with impact.

'It is no exaggeration to say that the PLC initiative is at the heart of our efforts to support lifting student outcomes and increasingly.... supporting wellbeing.' David Howes, Deputy Secretary, Schools and Regional Services

At their heart, working as a PLC enables schools to systematise teacher collaboration, provides opportunities for teachers to work together to investigate the best research based strategies to facilitate student and teacher learning. PLCs build teacher collective efficacy, which has a significant positive effect on student learning outcomes (DuFour and Eaker, 1998), and directly link teacher professional learning to responsive to the learning needs of students in their care.

In recent years we have seen schools embed PLCs in a way that holds true to the evidence-based PLC practices that underpin impact whilst acknowledging the school’s unique local context.

Our school is now seeing the impact that this way of working can have on the learning outcomes of students and the professional lives of teachers. Regardless of our school size, or the way we have set up our PLCs, our school has been successful in placing the learning needs of our students at the centre of all staff work.