What does engagement actually look like in the moment of learning — and what can a teacher do about it before the lesson ends? This showcase brings together Dr Amy Berry, classroom teachers from the Mount Gambier 2 Portfolio, and Education Director Fleur Roachock to share what a term of classroom practice with Nurture Signal has surfaced.
Recorded live on 5 August 2026, the session traces how three things fit together in daily practice: the Continuum of Engagement, the key dispositions students activate to support their learning, and regular checks for understanding. Rather than talking about the tool in the abstract, the session includes a live classroom demonstration — attendees took part as students, then saw exactly what the teacher sees on the other side.
The work has been built from the ground up with schools in the Mount Gambier 2 Portfolio, alongside Dr Amy Berry’s Continuum of Engagement and with Professor Dylan Wiliam advising on checking for understanding. The session closes with the community of practice opening across term three and term four, which other portfolios are welcome to join.
Who it is for
This session is designed for educators and leaders in South Australian public schools, including:
- Classroom teachers in primary and secondary settings
- Principals and site leaders
- Education directors and portfolio leaders
- Teaching and learning, curriculum and assessment leads
- Wellbeing and student engagement leads
What the webinar covers
Engagement is often reduced to attendance, behaviour and compliance — students who turn up and do as they are told. The research says otherwise: students can be compliant and still disengaged from their learning, and busy without making progress. This session looks at what a richer, shared language for engagement makes possible in the classroom.
Across the session, the speakers cover:
- Why compliance is not the same as engagement, and what gets missed when we conflate them
- The Continuum of Engagement — disrupting, avoiding and withdrawing through to participating, investing and driving — as a shared language for teachers and students
- How engagement check-ins build the habit of self-monitoring, and how they connect to dispositions such as being self-aware, responsible, resourceful, reflective and resilient
- How regular checks for understanding help students recognise when they need help and ask for it
- Using hinge questions well: reading the class response and deciding whether to move on, recap or reteach
- A live demonstration of Nurture Signal from both the student and teacher view, including engagement check-ins, disposition check-ins and a hinge question in action
- Classroom voices from Millicent High School and Penola Primary School on what Signal has changed in their practice
- Student voices from the classroom on what the continuum has given them
- How this work aligns with the South Australian purpose and strategy for public education — cognitive engagement, learner agency and effective learners — and with the South Australian curriculum
- What comes next: the community of practice, and the term three and four schedule
Speakers
Dr Amy Berry
Founder of EngagED Consulting and author of Reimagining Student Engagement: From Disrupting to Driving (Corwin, 2022). Dr Berry’s Continuum of Engagement, developed from in-depth research with classroom teachers, gives teachers and students a richer language for talking about engagement in learning. Her work sits within the science of learning and is firmly focused on empowering learners.
Fleur Roachock
Education Director, Mount Gambier 2 Portfolio, South East Coast and Vines partnership. Fleur leads a portfolio of schools and preschools in the Limestone Coast region and speaks to how this work aligns with the South Australian purpose and strategy for public education.
Hunter McFarlane
Teacher at Millicent High School. Hunter has been at the forefront of shaping and iterating Signal in a secondary setting, using it to surface the quieter voices in large classes and to build a record of engagement he can reflect on and share with colleagues.
Alex McKinnon
Teacher at Penola Primary School. Alex has embedded Signal across literacy and maths blocks and through a whole-class learning expedition, using disposition check-ins at the start of lessons and engagement checks to catch students before they get stuck.
Pádraic Hogan
Co-Founder and COO of Nurture. Pádraic hosts the session and leads the live classroom demonstration.
Key takeaways
- A clear, shared language for talking about engagement that keeps the focus on learning rather than compliance
- Practical ways to connect engagement, dispositions and checking for understanding in a single lesson
- How to use hinge questions to make an in-the-moment decision to move on, recap or reteach
- What changes for teachers when every student can respond, not just the loudest voices
- How to join the South Australian community of practice running across terms three and four
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