ST Gerard s Primary School REGISTERED SCHOOL NUMBER: ANNUAL REPORT to the School Community REGISTERED SCHOOL NUMBER: 1566

Transcription

1 ST Gerard s Primary School REGISTERED SCHOOL NUMBER: ANNUAL REPORT to the School Community REGISTERED SCHOOL NUMBER: 1566

2 Contents Contact Details... 2 Minimum Standards Attestation... 2 Our School Vision... 3 School Overview... 4 Principal s Report... 5 Education in Faith... 8 Learning & Teaching Student Wellbeing Leadership & Management School Community Financial Performance Future Directions VRQA Compliance Data ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 1

3 Contact Details ADDRESS 71 Gladstone Road North Dandenong VIC 3175 PRINCIPAL PARISH PRIEST Mr Chris O Connell Fr Brendan Arthur SCHOOL BOARD CHAIR Mr Joe Torelli TELEPHONE (03) WEBSITE principal@sgdandenongnth.catholic.edu.au Minimum Standards Attestation I, Chris O Connell, attest that St Gerard s is compliant with: All of the requirements for the minimum standards and other requirements for the registration of schools as specified in the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic) and the Education and Training Reform Regulations 2007 (Vic), except where the school has been granted an exemption from any of these requirements by the VRQA Australian Government accountability requirements related to the 2015 school year under the Australian Education Act 2013 (Cth) and the Australian Education Regulations 2013 (Cth) 20 May ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 2

4 Our School Vision St. Gerard s is a Christ centred Community that believes in the Gospel values of faith and love. We endeavour to live our lives according to these values through Inclusion We are a multi-cultural school, which encourages the inclusion of all people. This inclusiveness both enriches and promotes the growth of our unique St Gerard s community Community Spirit Enlivened by the Spirit of God, we are committed to supporting with love and understanding the children in our care and their families Education We are committed to developing the potential of all students, which will empower them to achieve success, develop their self esteem and inspire them into a lifelong love of learning that will help equip them for the contemporary world Justice Inspired by Christ s message of love one another, we endeavour to foster a sense of peace, respect and equality, promoting justice for all 2015 ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 3

5 School Overview St Gerard's is the parish school of St Gerard's Parish North Dandenong, serving a vibrant multicultural community. Located on the same site as the parish church, the school is proud of the harmonious links between the school and parish. The parish priest plays an active role in school life, including teaching regular classes in religious education. Within one of the most culturally diverse localities in the state, the school has a strong community focus, characterised by inclusion and parent involvement. The school caters for students very diverse educational and social needs, influenced strongly by EAL and refugee backgrounds. In consideration of the school's intention to create more flexible learning spaces for all students, a demolition and building program has been planned, with the support of a Federal Capital Grant. In December the City of Greater Dandenong granted a permit allowing the project to go tender in the new year. In 2015, the school operated 11 classes, a combination of two Foundation year classes and nine composite classes, Years 1-6. Additional specialist classes in LOTE Italian, music and physical education are taught, as well as intervention classes for literacy, numeracy and social and emotional learning. With a staff total of 30, there is a principal, deputy principal, 18 full time and 5 part-time teaching staff and 7 non-teaching staff, including 4 teacher aides, 2 administration officers and a groundsman. Classroom teachers are either accredited to teach religious education or are undergoing accreditation training. The school community strives to be innovative and dynamic in its endeavour to create and maintain a distinctive Catholic educational environment with a curriculum that meets students at their point of need ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 4

6 Principal s Report At St Gerard s we strive to be an outward facing school that is a significant community hub for our families and neighbours. We strive to meet all the needs of our students from the spiritual, physical, social and emotional as well the academic. To achieve this in 2015 we continued to seek and develop community partnerships that help develop the capacity of our staff, students and parents in our common goal to give our students an exemplary education and begin them on a life long journey of growth and prosperity. Our significant partners in 2015 included: Cultivating Community Playgroup Victoria City of Greater Dandenong Mission Australia Berry Street Best Start Catholic Education Office Melbourne SMAG Cluster WAYSS Rowville Neighbourhood House Keysborough Learning Centre Centrelink/DHS Bunnings North Dandenong Autism Australia We were proud to win the City of Greater Dandenong Healthy Together School Award 2014, for our work in the areas of dental health and healthy eating. We were proud to back this up providing free dental service at school, with at least one third of students accessing this in St Gerard s continued to be part of a cluster of schools to work together with a focus on parent engagement. Joining with St Mary s Dandenong and St Anthony s Noble Park (SMAG) employing a Cluster Engagement Leader across the three schools, with support from a grant from Catholic Education Melbourne (CEM). The aim of the work was to improve student outcomes by building and strengthening links between parents, schools and the local community by: championing Family School Partnerships at school, community and cluster levels; building capacity of school leaders and personnel to promote partnerships and learning communities; connecting schools to community and community to schools; 2015 ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 5

7 measuring and evaluating the impact of Family Engagement on student learning. The outcomes achieved were whole staff professional learning and targeted professional learning with staff completing Community Classroom Professional Learning. The staff across the three schools met each term to share best practice and implement new strategies. We established a partnership with Deakin University to evaluate the effectiveness of our SMAG Cluster. As a beginning we received a seeding grant to have Deakin University conduct a literature review to underpin our research. In consultation with Deakin University we decided to explore the impacts of community development initiatives working with parents on learning outcomes for disadvantaged students? o What changes have been observed in parents? To what extent do these appear attributable to the CD initiatives? o What changes have been observed in children s learning outcomes? o Is there a link between CD with parents and the observed changes in children s learning outcomes? How can community development mechanisms build the capabilities of disadvantaged families and communities to achieve their aspirations for their children? o Have CD mechanisms built the capabilities of disadvantaged parents? o Have these mechanisms helped families to achieve their aspirations for their children? In what ways? Does there appear to be a correlation between the aspirations of parents, students and education professionals, and how these influence learning outcomes? o How do each of these stakeholder groups perceive good outcomes for children? To what extent do these perceptions influence learning outcomes? This research will be conducted in In partnership with the Monash University, Community Health Occupational Therapy students, we also began collecting parent engagement baseline data using the CEM Parent Engagement in Action Resource ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 6

8 In 2015 our commitment to high expectations and continued school improvement saw significant work in the in the area of faith formation, literacy and numeracy. This was recognised when Catholic Education Melbourne nominated St Gerard s to be part of the SVA Bright Spots Schools Connection. This aims to achieve great student outcomes for all students from low socio-economic and disadvantaged communities by bringing together high performing schools. This initiative is innovative in nature in that it is cross systemic, involving both primary and secondary schools working in collaboration across States and across education sectors. St Gerard s will partner with another high performing school in a low socio economic area and explore evidence based practice that is directly linked to increased student outcomes ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 7

9 Education in Faith Goals & Intended Outcomes To improve the Catholic Culture and raise awareness of social justice activities. Achievements St. Gerard s staff has participated in four workshops on Religious Education inquiry based unit planning run by the Regional School Advisor in Religious Education. These workshops ran during PLT sessions and were followed up at level planning. They gave context and confidence to enable staff to plan and teach Religious Education inquiry based learning units on topics covered in integrated studies. These include specific learning intentions being stated at the beginning of lessons with the opportunity for students to demonstrate new learning and understanding through a variety of success criteria. Teachers are developing their ability to devise rich assessment tasks and rubrics by referring to the tracking tool first to ensure that all four proficiencies are being assessed. Staff are consolidating their understanding of a variety of teaching and learning strategies within the planning of units and specific RE lessons aimed at challenging students to integrate new insights to their predominantly fundamentalist view of the Catholic faith and spirituality. Students are taken beyond lower order thinking skills of fact retention and comprehension and encouraged to make links between their faith to everyday relationships. This includes planning more open ended discussions that encourage questions aimed at synthesis of new ideas and higher order questions in Bloom s taxonomy. VALUE ADDED Liturgies and prayer services as well as preparation sessions for the Sacraments. Special feasts and events are celebrated with either a Mass or a prayer service. Celebrations include St Gerard s Day, a Welcoming Mass and End of Year Mass and an Easter Pageant. A Graduation Para liturgy is also held for year 6 students St Gerard s school choir at times presents singing for the parish Students from the school act as altar servers for the church School assemblies feature the St Gerard s Prayer Song developed by a staff member The Religious Education Co-ordinator assists the teachers in planning programs Regular PLTs and staff meeting enable staff to focus on effective teaching practice for RE 2015 ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 8

10 A range of thinking tools including Jigsaw Summary & Scriptural Think Pads are used Class prayer is prominent across the school Selected social justice activities are promoted to students and community 2015 ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 9

11 Learning & Teaching Goals & Intended Outcomes To implement 21 st Century pedagogy to improve the quality of teaching and learning and enhance the holistic development of each student. To enable all students to achieve success in a contemporary and innovative environment of high expectations and continuous improvement. That Literacy outcomes will improve. That numeracy outcomes will improve. That student engagement will improve. Achievements 1n 2015 St Gerard s took part in Literacy Professional Learning - School Improvement in Literacy Coaching: known as SILC through CEM. Each week a Literacy coach visited St Gerard s and worked with 4 teachers and the Literacy Leader with a focus on Reading. The coach worked for one hour in each of these teachers classrooms. It was during this time that she either took on the role of teacher as the classroom teacher observed, or the classroom teacher taught and the coach observed. A very important part of this process was for each teacher to meet the coach and reflect on the time in the classroom and then set goals and plan for the next session. The professional learning was further developed for all staff through this team of teachers sharing their experiences with the staff at Literacy P.L.T. meetings. This occurred every term. Some of the areas that were developed were the implementation of Dialogic Teaching with the strategy of Interactive Read Aloud. This strategy assisted the students to develop their vocabulary and learn how to make inferences, make judgements, integrate higher order questioning skills and use meta-cognition strategies. Stamina reading is another strategy developed to assist students to choose the right fit text and to read for longer periods without being distracted - to develop their stamina when reading. There has been a focus on building the students comprehension skills. This has been done through ensuring students read texts that are the right fit for them and through the implementation of the CAFE reading program. The school has continued to have a major focus on the development of the students listening and speaking skills. This began in 2013 through the research project Classroom Promotion of Oral Language. This has connected very well with the focus on Dialogic Teaching and the CEM coaching which is all about student voice and expressive and receptive language. Teachers have continued to strengthen their capacity to use multiple sources of evidence over time to monitor progress, provide feedback and inform decision making about curriculum strategic planning. As part of building teacher knowledge of students individual abilities we have implemented a new reading assessment program from Grade 2 to Grade 6. This assists teachers to link assessment to instruction. In 2015, St Gerard s staff continued on the journey the School Support Mathematics (SSM) 2015 ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 10

12 left us with. Teachers continued to deepen their knowledge and understanding Mathematics led by the School Math Leader (SML). During level learning days, the SML assisted levels with planning their units of work. Team teaching with the SML also occurred with the P-4 teams. The 2015 focus was on family engagement in the learning of Mathematics at St Gerard s. Levels 1-6 invited the parents to come and observe a lesson in their class. Families took up the invitation and after the observation, spent time with the SML debriefing. They were generally impressed at how the lessons, with a dialogic and problem solving focus, developed mathematics learning. Further to this, a Family Maths Night was held to encourage those families who were interested or who could not attend the day classes to enjoy a night of games and problem solving with their children. Most of the families who attended came from the junior and middle levels. Families received grab bags at the end of the night. The most valuable part of this was engaging the parents, listening to and engaging them in learning about how maths is taught and learned. STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES Year Three Naplan testing and results are somewhat limiting, as many of the students are being tracked on the EAL Continuum and in many cases English is not even an additional language at Year Three. At Year Five growth analysis does give us opportunity to track student development using Year Three data as a baseline. Growth analysis from 2013 to 2015 continued the five year trend, where-by school mean growth was clearly above the State mean growth, in all areas. The numeracy mean growth over the past three years was above the State mean and the mean difference was increasing steadily, displaying on going increases in student performance and school improvement ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 11

13 Student Wellbeing Goals & Intended Outcomes To support and develop safe and effective learning environments that foster and develop student s social and emotional awareness and ability to self regulate their behaviour. Achievements The Give Me 5 week occurred in the first week back at school with students and staff focussing on positive relationships and setting up safe routines. Daily goal setting continued with an emphasis on the Give Me 5 values and our school rules. Professional learning on Autism and follow up learning on collecting and analysing data on student behaviours were a focus. In addition, Staff meetings focussed on Social and Emotional Learning and the curriculum. Bounce Back continued to be used each Thursday afternoon to teach explicit social skills across the school P-6. Data was collected from yard duty bags about incidents on the playground and follow up occurred with students, teachers and their families. Two Psychologists worked in our school one funded through CEM one day per week and one facilitated through the use of Mental Health Plans under Medicare. More than 12 students accessed these services. VALUE ADDED Student Wellbeing Leader is a member of the Leadership team Regular meetings with parents occur to support academic as well as behavioural needs Buddy programs continue Explicit social skills are taught and mentoring between staff occurs Bounce Back (resilience program) taught every Thursday across the school Daily goal setting across the school Playground awards ongoing Regular attendance at CEM Wellbeing cluster meetings occurs 2015 ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 12

14 STUDENT SATISFACTION The overall Student Wellbeing Index was This relates to emotional wellbeing, teacher relationships and engagement in learning. The majority of students felt motivated to achieve and learn with a score of 70 out of 100. (School Improvement Survey Parent Opinion Survey) ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 13

15 Leadership & Management Goals & Intended Outcomes To improve the organisational health of the school and to build the leadership capacity of staff. To improve staff understanding of role clarity of individual and team roles. To have teachers and all teams embrace contemporary learning practices. To improve parent perceptions of the school s learning and teaching. Achievements A shared and collaborative leadership style has been aimed for. There are various teams within the school which oversee and lead school development. These teams include the Leadership Team, Unit Teams, the Specialists Team, the Student Wellbeing Team, and the Professional Learning Teams in Mathematics and English. Each Team has a designated coordinator or leader. These teams meet regularly and are able to bring various key items to the weekly whole school staff meeting. These positions and these meetings provide leadership opportunities for staff as well as planning programs for improved student learning. This structure has also focussed on giving teachers a stronger voice in planning strategies and programs. This has been enhanced by: Google docs for increased collaboration Set up staff wiki for increased communication Staff attending professional learning targeting in particular contemporary pedagogy in literacy and numeracy ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 14

16 EXPENDITURE AND TEACHER PARTICIPATION IN PROFESSIONAL LEARNING DESCRIPTION OF PL UNDERTAKEN IN 2015 Family Centred Classroom Practices- Day 2 Southern Region Student Services Network Insight Assessment Training Autism Australia Reading Recovery Ongoing PL Southern Digital Education Network Learning and Teaching Network 'Looking out Looking in' Gifted Symposium AusVELS in Catholic Schools Briefing Privacy Training for Primary Principals Women Leaders Connect Implementation Primary Mathematics: Leadership Cluster B Southern Region Religious Education Leaders Network School Improvement Literacy F-6 Literacy Leadership Cluster Deputy Principal Network Salary Packaging, beginning to end & completing 2015 FBT return Southern Region Student Services Network ABLES and SWD (previously LNSLN) Briefings 2015 South-East Student Wellbeing Leaders Seminar 1 Family School Partnership Leaders Induction and Orientation Supporting New Arrival Teachers Cluster 2015 ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 15

17 NUMBER OF TEACHERS WHO PARTICIPATED IN PL 25 AVERAGE EXPENDITURE PER TEACHER FOR PL $ 3,000 TEACHER SATISFACTION Over all the school climate is stable according to Insight SRC Staff Surveys over the past four years. Team Work, Empowerment and Supportive Leadership remain in the middle 50% of Australian schools. This does suggest there is room for improvement and a need to discuss Insight SRC data further ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 16

18 School Community Goals & Intended Outcomes That the communication with parents will be enhanced. That the community connection with the school will be strengthened. Achievements During 2015, two teachers and the newly appointed Family Engagement in Learning (FEIL) leader attended Community Classrooms. This was seven days of professional learning led by Mrs. Sue Brown, our SMAG cluster leader. Participants worked on a project that involved them increasing their level of understanding about why there is value in engaging parents in their child s learning and what this might look like. In addition, Cultivating Communities continued to work with the school to establish a community garden. Monash University Occupational Therapy students continued to develop and follow through on projects including the garden and also, looking at a tool for analysing Parent Engagement. Parent Community Conversations occurred in order to gain a better understanding of what parents know and believe about education at St. Gerard s and how they can be involved in their child s learning. In addition, two staff from the school attended a study tour in Sante Fe for 10 days with other teachers across Melbourne. During this time, staff gained insights and practical ideas of how schools can engage parents in their child s learning. The FEIL attends City of Greater Dandenong (CGD) Child and Family Partnership meetings where a wide range of services are represented from across CGD. The school also has links with many services and organisations ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 17

19 VALUE ADDED FEIL Leader is a member of the Leadership team Regular attendance at SMAG FEIL meetings occurs Being an outward facing schools provides additional opportunities for our students and families eg our children featured in a CGD promotional film We have a continuous cycle of action research in our school due to the placement of Monash university OT students within our school Staff are gaining an increased understanding of how to engage parents in their child s learning and acting on this by increasing the types and forms of communication with families e.g Class Dojo, newsletters Parents are attending and responding to invitations to engage in their child s learning PARENT SATISFACTION The 2015 Community Engagement Index was This relates to leadership, relationships and engagement in learning. We are above the mean in relation to other schools in Australia in this area. (School Improvement Survey Parent Opinion Survey). The parent responses were above the mean of all primary schools for Approachability, School Improvement, Learning Focus, Teacher morale and Stimulating learning. (School Improvement Survey Parent Opinion Survey). Parent partnership and approachability was in the 95 th and 90 th percentile respectively. (School Improvement Survey Parent Opinion Survey) ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 18

20 Financial Performance REPORTING FRAMEWORK Recurrent income MODIFIED CASH $ Tuition School fees 149,217 Other fee income 82,664 Private income 14,891 State government recurrent grants 619,140 Australian government recurrent grants 2,092,301 Total recurrent income 2,958,214 Recurrent Expenditure Tuition Salaries; allowances and related expenses 2,167,032 Non salary expenses 468,263 Total recurrent expenditure 2,635,295 Capital income and expenditure Tuition Government capital grants Capital fees and levies 93,753 Other capital income Total capital income 93,753 Total capital expenditure 82,205 Loans (includes refundable enrolment deposits and recurrent, capital and bridging loans) Total opening balance 183,558 Total closing balance 130,140 The information provided above does not include system levies charged to individual schools, intra-systemic transfers and, for primary schools, the diocesan supplementary capital fund supporting primary schools capital borrowings. The information provided in this VRQA template is not comparable with other educational sectors or to ACARA school-level income reports displayed on the MySchool website. ACARA school level reporting requires system level income from Government grants and some private income to be allocated to each school resulting in a small adjustment to the total level of school resources. Currently, recurrent income from Government sources, school generated income and capital expenditure are reported by schools. When assessing the private income of the school, both recurrent and capital school fees are included ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 19

21 Future Directions Our Strategic Intent: To provide each student with a highly effective and orderly contemporary teaching and learning environment, with a priority on building teaching capacity to ensure students are taught at their point of need with high expectations. Bound by Catholic faith and tradition we do this in partnership with parents to ensure all students have equitable opportunity regardless of background. Goals: To enhance the school's Catholicity through celebration, prayer and community. To enable all students to achieve success in a contemporary and innovative environment of high expectations and continuous improvement. To support and develop safe and effective learning environments that foster and develop students social and emotional awareness and ability to self regulate their behaviour. To create and sustain a culture where learning connects strongly with families and communities beyond the classroom. To foster a culture of professional inquiry where individuals and teams collaboratively reflect on and improve their practice to improve student learning ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 20

22 VRQA Compliance Data E1199 St Gerard's School, Dandenong North PROPORTION OF STUDENTS MEETING THE MININUM STANDARDS NAPLAN TESTS 2013 % 2014 % Changes % 2015 % Changes % YR 03 Reading YR 03 Writing YR 03 Spelling YR 03 Grammar & Punctuation YR 03 Numeracy YR 05 Reading YR 05 Writing YR 05 Spelling YR 05 Grammar & Punctuation YR 05 Numeracy Year Three Naplan testing and results are somewhat limiting, as many of the students are being tracked on the EAL Continuum and in many cases English is not even an additional language at Year Three. At Year Five growth analysis does give us opportunity to track student development using Year Three data as a baseline. Growth analysis from 2013 to 2015 continued the five year trend, where-by school mean growth was clearly above the State mean growth. The numeracy mean growth over the past three years was above the State mean and the mean difference was increasing steadily, displaying on going increases in student performance and school improvement ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 21

23 AVERAGE STUDENT ATTENDANCE RATE BY YEAR LEVEL % Y Y Y Y Y Y Overall average attendance TEACHING STAFF ATTENDANCE RATE Teaching Staff Attendance Rate 92.95% STAFF RETENTION RATE Staff Retention Rate 83.33% 2015 ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 22

24 TEACHER QUALIFICATIONS Doctorate 0.00% Masters 17.65% Graduate 11.76% Certificate Graduate 5.88% Degree Bachelor 82.35% Diploma Advanced 52.94% No Qualifications Listed 5.88% STAFF COMPOSITION Principal Class 2 Teaching Staff (Head Count) 26 FTE Teaching Staff Non-Teaching Staff (Head Count) 9 FTE Non-Teaching Staff Indigenous Teaching Staff ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY 23