Episode 1: Finding connections and making engagement visible at Mawson Primary School

Welcome to the first episode of the Talking Engagement podcast! Host Amy Berry sits down with an inspiring team of educators from Mawson Primary School in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) to explore their transformative two-year journey in reimagining learner engagement.

Mawson Primary is one of only three bilingual schools in the ACT and the only one offering a Mandarin Immersion Program (MIP), where 50% of the curriculum is taught in Mandarin and 50% in English. This unique context adds fascinating layers to their engagement work.

In this episode, you'll hear from:

• Lydia Kepich, Small Group Teacher
• Olivia Leonard, Kindergarten Teacher
• Joanne Hurley, Mandarin Teacher
• Lorah Medley, Year 5/6 Teacher
• Leanne Harrigan, Year 5/6 Executive Teacher and engagement work leader

What You'll Discover:

The team shares how they connected the Continuum of Learner Engagement with their existing Visible Learning practices, creating a powerful scaffold that gave both teachers and students the language and tools to move from knowing what learning should look like to understanding how to get there.

Hear candid stories about:

• How kindergarteners learned to recognize when they've "fallen off the continuum" and developed agency in getting back on track
• A Mandarin teacher's journey shifting from teacher-centered instruction rooted in Chinese educational culture to autonomy-supportive partnership with students
• Small group students using engagement language to accept feedback and drive their own learning, even on the playground
• Senior students annotating their own "wall of engagement" to reflect on how their understanding has evolved over two years

Key Themes:

This conversation goes beyond surface-level strategies to explore the cultural shifts required for meaningful change—the importance of curiosity over compliance, partnership over control, and creating psychologically safe environments where both teachers and students can struggle, learn, and grow.

You'll discover why decoupling behaviour from identity matters, how to connect new initiatives with existing school frameworks without forcing artificial alignment, and why giving teachers time and autonomy to implement change at their own pace leads to deeper, more sustainable impact.

Why This Matters:

With 87% of teachers seeing it as their job to promote driving learning engagement, close to 80% of students saying their teacher talks to them about learning engagement and 90% of students reporting they engage in their learning at school, Mawson's story offers practical wisdom for any school seeking to move beyond compliance-based approaches toward genuine learner agency and partnership.

Whether you're just beginning your engagement journey or looking to deepen existing work, this episode provides honest insights, practical examples, and inspiration from educators who are living this work every day

Want to learn more?

Join us in The Engagement Hub, our online community for educators interested in supporting engagement and empowering learners. You can connect with Amy and many of our guests there.

Thanks for listening!