Katrina SextonMarcello Bronzin15th February 2019

Cowandillla Primary School and Children's Centre is located between Adelaide's airport and the city; just 4km from the GPO. We provide a wide range of services for families; Antenatal Care, Occasional Care, Parent Groups, Playgroups, Preschool, Out of School Hours Care, Intensive English Language Program and a choice of three languages. Mainstream classes average 25 in size, and children benefit from HASS, languages, PE and IT specialist teachers. Cowandilla is a Climate Change Specialist school where staff are knowledgeable about the scientific data around the issue. A portion of our science and HASS topics relate to the complex factors influencing climate change and its impact on our ecosystems. In the primary years of schooling we focus on involving children in experiences which connect them to the natural world. The students go on excursions that teach them about various habitats and the conditions needed to sustain those diverse habitats. In 2018 research contuing to be undertaken by teachers is looking at the best way to teach science. We believe that science concepts are tied up in the related technical language and that a sharp focus on the language of any topic is going to give us the best student learning outcomes. Scientists speak and write differently and our job is to teach children those differences so they can assume the role of scientists when they communicate. Literacy and language across the curriculum is a major focus for us. In 2018 the outcomes of the science teaching research was published in the PETA magazine and filmed as part of the "24 Hours of Climate Reality" show. In 2019 we will continue to support students to assume the role of scientists through explicit teaching of concepts and technical language and opportunities to apply this knowledge and understanding through STEM inquiry and investigations. The new STEM Works building completed during Term 4 2017 was officially opened in Term 1 2018. The space offers us wonderful new opportunities to experiment, make and test things, use robotics and examine creatures under microscopes. In addition to the new space the STEM project resulted in all the classrooms in the rest of the building being re-carpeted and painted. Two teachers engaged in the Department for Education 3D printing project. This provided an opportunity for students to become familiar with the learning design process and to strengthen cross age tutoring across the school. In Term 4 our Year 6 students worked closely with our preschoolers to design Magical Garden elements using the 3D Maker's Empire program. This project strenghtened student connections across the site and transition for the preschool children. These students in 2019 are now our Reception and Year 7 students. In 2019 our priority will be to to strengthen the continuity of learning for students from Birth through to Year 7.

Cowandilla Primary and Children's Centre's Governing Council is an active, thoughtful supportive group of parents who constantly seek to provide useful and targeted feedback to the school's leadership team. They think deeply about the priorities and question the staff to make sure we are providing the best education for the cohorts of students and families that we serve. They are fair minded, knowledgeable, inclusive, ambitious and reflective, and seek only to make the school the best it can possibly be. In 2018 the Governing Council have overseen some significant initiatives which include: The design, completion and installation of the stobie pole art work, that has been designed by students and our artist in residence to make motorists using Jenkins Street more aware that children are present. Overseeing the completion and opening of the STEM works renovations and yard playground upgrades. Supporting the introduction of an electronic student attendance monitoring and alert sytem and an electronic sign in and out system in the front office. Deciding to introduce the Kelly Sports program one afternoon a week in Term 1 2019 for R-2 students. During term 4 the Governing Council supported the reintroduction of the End of Year Concert as a whole school celebration at the end of the year. Positive feedback was received and this event will continue in Term 4 each year. Information was provided to the Governing Council about the new School Improvement Model. Consultation also occurred in regard to restructuring the preschool sessions to enable stronger relationships between children, staff and their families and to also ensure consistency in the learning design and the monitoring of children's learning. Throughout 2018, the Governing Council have guided the planning for the Multipurpose room that is desperately needed at the school. This will fill the role as OSHC facility after hours but during school hours will accommodate cooking, science and music classes. It will also provide a flexible space for visiting speakers, groups of students working on projects and meetings with parents. The building work has been delayed in 2018 due to ongoing challenges with our power supply. The school is currently working with the Department for Education and Spotless Facilities Management to introduce power monitoring and control sytems in order to manage the enrgy usage and to prevent the school reaching the maximum energy load. Once this issue is resolved retendering can occur and the building of the new multi-purpose room can commence. In 2019 we will be seeking the support of Governing Council to improve the way we communicate with parents. Initially we will be requesting email addresses from parents who would like to receive school information via email. This will enable us to contact parents via email, and allow teachers to communicate with their class families. Several classes are successfully using this already, but we would like to formalise the process so that this permission is school-wide and can occur on enrolment.

The Quality Improvement Plan was primarily constructed to reflect the work in the Preschool, this is due in most part to the way in which the buildings comprising the Children's Centre are positioned on the school site. We offer Occasional Care services in the Childrenês Centre building which is separate to the Preschool building. The Occasional Care curriculum follows the Early Years Framework and their practice is aligned to the National Quality Standards. The Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) reflects the insights and future planning of the whole Children's Centre team, ensuring that all members of our multidisciplinary team have a voice in its implementation. We have a strong community outreach component, which is reflected in the partnerships with many non-government agencies, as well as the cohesive multi-disciplinary team in the Childrenês Centre. Offering universal and targeted programs and supports for the families in the community has been invaluable in forming strong connections and linking families into the range of services and programs offered by the centre. The Child and Family Health service (CaFHs) nurses who share our community space have been an integral part of the collaboration in supporting families in the community.

Our work on literacy and numeracy will continue as these are foundation skills upon which a great deal of learning for school and life is based. Before school begins each term our teachers design learning with a maths consultant and a literacy consultant to make sure they are familiar with the curriculum expectations for these learning areas. The consultants bring a specialist knowledge that they share so that teachers understand the scope and sequence of each year level and the topic knowledge essential to develop a rigorous cohesive curriculum. The focus for mathematics in the early years has been on building students' expertise in knowing how our number system works and the skills to calculate and to solve unfamiliar mathematical problems. Our 2018 Site improvement Priorities: Numeracy: to improve student achievement in numeracy. Our PAT Maths Years 3-7 results indicate that overall, 82.5% of students are at, or above the DECD Standard of Educational Achievement requirement for their year level. This is an overall improvement of 10.5% from 2017. Year 3 81% achieved DECD SEA Year 4 70% achieved DECD SEA Year 5 96% achieved DECD SEA Year 6 71% achieved DECD SEA Year 7 82% achieved DECD SEA Consistency in the teaching of Counting and calculating and designing learning for problem based learning will continue to be a whole school focus and be enhanced by working with our external Maths Consultant. Literacy Goal: to Increase the percentage of students achieving SEA and in the higher bands in Reading. The target for 2018 PAT-R was 80% Years 3-7. PAT R (Reading Comprehension) Year 3 87% achieved DECD SEA Year 4 79% achieved DECD SEA Year 5 87% achieved DECD SEA Year 6 87% achieved DECD SEA Year 7 69% achieved DECD SEA 82. 5% of students are at or above the DECD Standard of Educational Achievement requirement for their year level. This is an overall improvement of 0.5% from 2017. Literacy Levels All Teachers used the Literacy Levels to moderate and assess student writing in English and other curriculum areas across two pupil free days in terms 1 and 4. The Literacy Levels reflect the language and literacy students need to be able to access the Australian Curriculum across learning areas at their year level from R-10. Pupil free days were set up with a moderation focus. Teachers worked in Band Level teams to assess and moderate individual student texts across a range of genres. Student growth from Term 4 2017 to Term 4 2018 (287 students). Students who have not increased a literacy level will be identified and provided with ongoing support from EALD and classroom teachers. 1 Level 49% 2 Levels 21% 3 Levels 5.3% 4 Levels 0.7% 0 Levels 22% -1 Level 1.7%

Our 2018 Site Improvement Priority area goal was to Increase % of students in upper 25% band in NAPLAN Numeracy 2017-Yr 3 18% 2018- Yr 3 35.4% achieved Yr 5 21% 2018- Yr 5 20% not achieved Yr 7 29% 2018- Yr 7 33% achieved There has been an increase in the percentage of students achieving in the higher bands in Years 3 and 7 in NAPLAN mathematics. Progress from years 3 to 5 showed 77% achieved middle and/ or upper growth in numeracy in 2018. In the year 5-7 range, 94% of students achieved middle and/or upper growth. This may be a result of the individualised counting and calculation intervention program that has been implemented over the last 3 years. There has been an increase over the last 3 years in the percentage of students in Year 5 achieving at or above SEA. This is a result of the explicit teaching of counting and calculation strategies over the past 3 years. In 2018 he percentage of Year 3 students achieving at or above SEA increased from 2017. Our R-2 teachers have worked closely with our maths consultant to explicitly and consistently teach counting and calculating strategies. Our 2018 Site Improvement Priority area goal was to Increase the percentage of students in the upper 25% band-NAPLAN Reading Comprehension 2017-Yr 3 34% 2018 - Yr 3 49.2% achieved and increased Yr 5 24% 2018- Yr 5 35% achieved and increased Yr 7 25 2018- Yr 7 21.2% not achieved and decreased Progress from years 3-5 showed 82% achieved middle and/ or upper growth. In the year 5-7 range, 83% of students achieved middle and/ or upper growth. This is an increase in growth from 2017 data. There has been an increase over the last 3 years in the percentage of students in Year 5 achieving at or above SEA in reading. In 2018 the percentage of Year 3 students achieving at or above SEA remained the same as 2017. The percentage of Year 7 students achieving at or above SEA in reading declined in 2018 however growth in middle and upper range increased. A large percentage of our Year 7 cohort had exited from the Intensive English Language program over the last 2 years. These students have been learning English for a limited time. The growth from Year 5-7 for these students has been very positive. The explicit and consistent teaching of reading comprehension strategies will continue to be a focus for all Professional Learning teams across the whole school in 2019. Strengthening the continuity and qualiy of literacy learning from Preschool to Year 7 will be our 2019 priority.

The challenges are how we support families whose environmental influences prevent their children from attending school and how do we better connect these families to improve attendance while acknowledging 20% of our families exempt their children to return home on family business. Attendance is monitored through daily reports produced by DUX. Individual attendance is tracked using Dashboard, EDSAS and Data Warehouse as outlined in our Cowandilla Attendance Procedure & Policy. Students identified are monitored through meetings with families,home visits and referrals to the Attendance Counsellor. A weekly class attendance award for the highest and the most improved attendance is celebrated each week at our Monday morning assemblies.

Our attendance has historically fluctuated due to in most part being a diverse group. Parents take advantage to return to home countries on a regular basis prior to children commencing their preschool year, and during their preschool year. The mid year intake of some local non-government schools has had an impact on lower enrolments in terms 3 and term 4.

At Cowandilla we encourage and expect children, with support and guidance, to make the right choice and take responsibility for their actions. Violence and Bullying behaviours account for 8% of our total behaviour data; 6% is for minor acts of violence and 2% is related to bullying. All students are explicitly taught social skills and protective behaviours. Five students contribute to 40% of the overall behaviour data; interventions for these students include formalised behaviour plans, RAAP, Behaviour Supplementary and Disability Supplementary Funding. We work closely with Regional Office Service Providers and other agencies; 30% (nine students) of our overall data is comprised of students from identified risk groups.

When asked about what the school does well, parents always comment on the integration of all the students. They clearly appreciate the multicultural nature of the school and seem not to be influenced by the anti-immigrant frenzy so often evident in the public domain these days. Parents really like that their children will be learning and making friends with other children from all over the world. They comment on the relative harmony amongst the student body in Cowandilla Primary School. A typical comment was "I love the diversity my children are exposed to here at Cowandilla Primary school and preschool. Feedback from the 2018 Parent Perception survey indicated that 86% agree and strongly agree that teachers at the school expect their child to do their best. 82% agree and strongly agree that their child is provided with useful feedback about his/her learning. 91% agree and strongly agree that their child feels safe at our school. 90% beleive their child likes being at our school. 70% agree and strongly agree that the school works with them to support their child's learning. 68% agree and strongly agree that parent's opinions are taken seriously. Providing information and strategies for parents that help support their child's learning and providing opportunities to seek feedabck from parents so their voices are heard and valued will continue to be a focus in 2019. The 2018 student feedback survey was completed by 156 students from Years 3 -7. 95% of students agree and strongly agree that teachers expect them to do thier best. 84% of students agree and strongly agree that teachers provide them with useful feedback about their learning. 82% of students agree and strogly agree that they feel safe at our school. 52% of students agree and strongly agree that student behaviour is well managed. 66% of students beleive the school takes students' opinions seriously. Our ongoing focus will be to provide opportunities for student voice and agency to be embedded in learning design and decision making. Further investigation will occur with students in regard to managing student behaviour.

Transition for our preschoolers and their families begins when they start their preschool year. Through the learning program children are provided with many opportunitites to be involved in whole school initiatives and events. As a result a large number of preschool children transition into Reception at Cowandilla Primary School. Over 65% of our families are from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds with many family members living overseas and interstate. Students also attend our IELC for 12 months and then transfer to their local school to attend mainstream classes. Many students from our IELC also remain at Cowandilla Primary.

Cowandilla Primary School is compliant with all requirements. Non teaching staff and volunteers who require screening are notified 6 mths before their due date expires. These clearances are managed by the office manager and are automatically registered when DCSI process the requests. The due dates are recorded on EDSAS or Eduportal.

$ 6,012,805.96

$ 10,400.00

$ 165,547.53

$ 103,462.16

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