Annual Report 2015

St Leonards Primary School

Annual Report

2015

Annual Report 2015

Page 1

1. CONTEXT

School Name: St Leonards Primary School School Number: 0391

Principal: Linda Richardson/ Dave Henty-Smith

Partnership Holdfast

School Overview and Vision

St Leonards Primary School is a fast growing school located 11 kms from Adelaide and is close to the

beach and excellent family orientated facilities. St Leonards Primary School has become ‘zoned’ due

to the pressure of increasing enrolments. Only families living within Glenelg North and Novar Gardens

can have guaranteed placements in the future. St Leonards Primary School has a strong and proud

history of success. As educators, we are committed to the educational and social development of our

students, aiming for each child to reach their full potential. Rich opportunities are provided to our

students to grow as individuals and to excel in a range of extra curricula activities including sports,

performing arts, community activities, student leadership and the ‘Children’s University’ program. St

Leonards takes pride in its reputation as a welcoming, friendly, child-centred learning community. Our

school values are; Respect, Encouragement, Cooperation, Responsibility and Integrity. The school

priorities for 2015 have been in the areas of Literacy and Wellbeing, whilst maintaining Numeracy and

Information, Communication & Technology (ICT). We have continued to implement the Australian

Curriculum and Teaching for Effective Learning (TfEL). Student reports were aligned with other

partnership schools to reflect assessment of the Australian Curriculum.

Demographic Data

St Leonards Primary School is a Category 6 school and has seen tremendous growth since 2010 with

enrolments of 197 students to 341 students at the end of 2015. Our students are from a wide

demographic area and data shows that:

20% of students are eligible for School Card.

14.1% of students are from Non-English Speaking Backgrounds (NESB).

23.8% qualify for English as a Second Language (ESL) support.

2% of our students identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders.

5% of our students are identified as being a student with a disability.

Our student attendance rates have remained stable with most absences related to family holidays

and illness. Our attendance rate is above the DECD target of 93%.

2. REPORT FROM GOVERNING COUNCIL

2015 has been another eventful year with numerous highlights and accomplishments.

Governing Council Membership

The formal positions for 2015 SLPS Governing Council (GC) were held by: Chairperson: Belinda Tredwell Deputy Chairperson: Leanne Denneny Treasurer: Heather Pronk Secretary: Paula Lowe It consisted of: 13 parent members

3 staff members (Principal, Deputy Principal and one class teacher)

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Sub-Committees The following sub-committees of the Governing Council are formed at the AGM in Term 1 and are

made up of staff, Governing Council members and other parents or community members:

Finance Grounds OSHC Sports

Canteen Education Fundraising Uniform

Parents who cannot commit to being on the Governing Council are more than welcome to become a

member of a sub-committee.

Meetings

Frequency Governing Council meetings are held twice a term (usually in Weeks 3 and 8), which equals eight

meetings per year. In addition, the AGM is held in Term 1. Sub-committee meetings are held usually

twice per term.

Attendance Governing Council meeting attendance levels are good with usually 10 members or more. Guests are

also invited to speak at meetings.

Agenda

The meetings have a formal agenda including a review of previous minutes, actions, Principal’s

report, staff report and reports from all sub-committees. Additional (new business) topics from

meetings this year include:

Volunteer Training – Responding to abuse and neglect

Children’s University

Emu Crossing Negotiations – Holdfast Bay Council

Fundraising – A Night in June

Class Parent Representatives

Bring your own Devices (BYOD) Agreement

Meetings are formally minuted and distributed to all Governing Council members.

Challenges

The Emu Crossing negotiations between the Holdfast Bay Council, St Leonards Primary School and

the community.

Successes

The Governing Council and sub-committees have achieved in a number of areas this year, as

highlighted below.

Finance

Keeping financial records that are correct, true and reliable

Introduction of the $50 excursion levy

OSHC

Receiving National Accreditation

Positive funding status

Less debtors

Healthy numbers for vacation care

Canteen

Conducted a food survey

Canteen Champions

Additional menu items

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Fundraising

Inaugural Ladies Night

Positive committee with shared responsibilities

Excellent financial tally

Grounds

New 6/7 Learning space

Continued upkeep and upgrade of school grounds

School Pride Days

Sports

Coordination of teams in out-of-school sport

o Soccer

o Netball

o T-ball

o Volleyball

Education

Homework Policy

Class Representatives

KidsMatter/wellbeing

Uniform

Securing of another supplier

Greater student numbers in uniform

Additional items, umbrellas and socks

Belinda Tredwell, Chairperson of Governing Council

3. 2015 HIGHLIGHTS

A major achievement of this year has been the continued partnership between staff, students, parents

and the community. This has been evident through the increased number of parents and community

members involved in committees, sports, whole school projects, excursions, helping in the classroom

and around the school. The number of parents and community members running Children’s University

workshops has been instrumental in the success of this new project. Governing Council and their sub-

committees have worked tirelessly to make improvements at our school and have had many

successes.

Other highlights of 2015 have included:

Continued involvement in the new Children’s University for Year 3 - 5 students.

Strengthening of Parent Class Representatives for building school to home relationships and

developing links with the community.

Establishment of class and school Facebook pages, increasing communication throughout the

school.

Professional learning by staff in the priority areas including Literacy, Numeracy and ICT.

Implementation of ICT initiatives including the use of Sentral.

Continuation of a reading program (Reading Eggs) and continuing the intervention program

(MiniLit) to support reading in Junior Primary.

The work of Student Engagement & Wellbeing Coordinator Graeme Smith. On-going professional

development of ‘KidsMatter’, review of student behaviour code and student bullying surveys.

Student leadership in SRC, Tech Team, Canteen Champions, Library Monitors, Performing Arts

Leaders, Sports Captains, Handy Helpers, Safe Buddies and School Ambassadors.

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Pupil Free Days included Australian Curriculum, KidsMatter, Restorative Practice, Mindfulness

and ICT.

Release time for staff to work with School Support Officers (SSOs) to plan intervention programs

and assessment eg SPA tests, and ICT Leader Dennis Moyle to lead innovation.

Sport participation including Sports Day, swimming lessons, Beach Volleyball, SAPSASA

Athletics, Cross Country, Basketball, Soccer, Hockey, Football, T-ball and Netball.

PE Week including dance workshops, lunch time skipping, basketball and games.

Wakakirri.

Senior Choir with students performing at the Festival Theatre and at school events.

Harmony Day celebrations.

Instrumental Music opportunities and student led Music Night.

Excursions to Adelaide Zoo, Road Safety Centre, and Adelaide Museum.

St Leonards identified nationally for its work in mathematics

Students Attending Ethnic Schools 2015

Camille Kornmeier German

Manjaap Kaur Punjabi

Aariz Farzad Bangla

Thomas Glass Russian

Sophie Fischer German

Karnvarveer Jhangra Punjabi

Zi Yan Lian Mandarin

Zi Qian Lian Mandarin

Xinran Shu Mandarin

Patrick Anderson German

Anika Anderson German

School Of Languages

Haysan Morris French

4. SITE IMPROVEMENT PLANNING AND TARGETS

St Leonards Primary School has four priorities which underpin our Site Learning Plan. These are

Literacy, Numeracy, Wellbeing and ICT.

Literacy

‘Demonstrated continuous growth in literacy for each learner’ has been a strategic priority on the 2015

School Improvement Plan. High quality teaching and learning programs with a focus on individual

student achievement have been developed through:

Targeted professional learning for staff

The continuation of the ‘Mini-Lit’ reading intervention program

Year level team collaborative planning

Effective data management and tracking systems using Sentral and Scorelink

Greater consistency and transparency of Guided Reading programs

ICT to support children learning to read through ‘Reading Eggs’

A common literacy agreement

Ellen Barr, our Reading Support teacher, worked with all JP staff on improving reading for our

students

In addition to whole class reading teaching, St Leonards has targeted programs to support all

learners.

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Common approaches to literacy teaching, timely intervention programs and consistent assessment

and data collection methods have been developed and implemented in 2015 to ensure the success of

all learners with a rigorous commitment to individual student achievement.

Numeracy

A Maths Professional Learning Team (PLT) formulated a comprehensive yearly action plan with a

number of targets centred on ‘Demonstrated continuous growth in numeracy for each learner’. High

quality teaching and learning programs with a focus on individual student achievement have been

developed through:

Professional development for staff, including Ann Baker and after school sessions.

Staff acquired new strategies to develop students’ mathematical problem solving capabilities from

Maths Consultant Tierney Kennedy.

New resources purchased to encourage ‘hands on’ maths learning in the classroom.

Dedicated time in staff meeting around Numeracy practices.

Release time provided to staff to work with Australian Curriculum Implementation Officer.

All staff involved in analysis of data, including NAPLAN through Sentral and Scorelink to direct

learning programs and intervention.

ICT

The ICT Committee continued to work collaboratively on a number of successful technological

developments including:

Improved communication to staff using Sentral.

New newsletter online distribution. The fortnightly newsletter is emailed to parents.

A Parent SMS messaging system keeps parents informed of student absences and urgent

notifications

Whole school use of social media. A school Facebook page is available for parents to access.

Each class has either a Facebook or Edmodo page to keep parents informed of classroom

activity.

The Sentral Learner Management system is being initiated for staff and students. There will be ongoing staff training.

Improved student access to hardware.

1 to 1 laptops for Year 6/7 students.

176 iPads distributed and supported.

BYOD supported for Year 6/7 students.

Improved access to online learning and resources.

New faster wireless internet service initiated.

The school’s network infrastructure has been upgraded.

Continued long term planning of effective ICT resource management.

Teacher and SSO given time to manage resources.

Staff PLT meets to discuss future directions.

Staff development.

Staff attended conferences Edutech and Future Schools.

A portion of PFD’s dedicated to ICT learning for staff.

Some Staff Meeting time has been given to ICT learning.

ICT Focus Teacher provided with time to assist staff in the transition to greater digital communication.

Student Engagement and Wellbeing at St Leonards

This year has brought a number of changes in the area of engagement and wellbeing at St Leonards.

The Wellbeing team has both grown and changed as staff have left and been appointed. Sadly we

had to farewell our Pastoral Support Worker, Jess, who had been at the school for a number of years

as she won a position at another local school. Following this Vicki Woods was appointed to her

position and has begun to make the role of PSW her own.

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Another change has been the welcome addition of Di Hannagan to the school. One aspect of her role

was to bolster the work of the wellbeing team through the use of her counseling training.

At St Leonards Primary School we are committed to educating the whole student and strive to

provide a caring, supportive environment where students can grow into healthy, inquisitive, happy and

supported people. We are an inclusive school where the student’s wellbeing is considered to be as

important as their academic development.

As a ‘You Can Do It’ school, we consistently promote the values of organisation, resilience,

persistence, confidence and getting-along. Our ‘Code of Conduct’ outlines the standard of

acceptable behaviour for all members of our community. In doing so, we follow the procedures of

‘Restorative Practice’ which is a set of guidelines to help resolve difficulties. The staff attended two

training courses in terms one and two with a focus on ‘Restorative Practice’. It is intended that we

provide similar courses for parents in the near future.

At St Leonards Primary School we are proactive in joining with local, state, and national initiatives of

wellbeing and mental health in the form of special days. We held celebrations for cultural diversity,

Remembrance Day, Anzac Day, and anti-bullying week. We celebrated our multi-cultural community

and the impact our families have on our community.

KidsMatter Matters:

KidsMatter Primary is a mental health and wellbeing framework for primary schools which is proven to

make a positive difference to the lives of Australian children. St Leonards Primary School is currently

working on Component One of the framework. This year the class parent representatives were invited

to attend training with the staff and provided a useful parental contribution to the proceedings. This

joint approach to working within the KidsMatter Framework will be continued next year linking with the

2015 class parent representatives.

Student Engagement:

Activities prompting student engagement at St Leonards have involved:

Electing School Ambassadors

Electing School Representative Council.

Participation in the Festival Choir.

Casual dress days to raise money for both the SRC and external charities such as the homeless.

Children’s University.

Use of ICT in the classrooms, including using portable devices to promote engagement in

reading, using Reading Eggs and Scholastic Lexiles.

The students have enjoyed two ‘travelling theatre’ visits this year; these promote aspects of our

school values through the medium of drama.

School excursions.

4.1 JUNIOR PRIMARY AND EARLY YEARS SCHEME FUNDING

In 2015, and with consultation with Personnel Advisory Committee, Finance Committee, Governing Council and staff, it was decided to use the funding to assist to release teachers to plan programs with SSOs and undertake SPA testing with reception students. A 0.4 Literacy support teacher was employed. The school used SSOs to provide support to students with additional learning needs and the re-organisation of the student services area for Mini-lit teaching. Resources were purchased in Literacy and intervention. Play based curriculum ‘pop up’ hands-on activities were purchased for the Junior Primary quadrangle and the sand pit and for play based programs. Within the Literacy Support Program we targeted three cohorts of children spread across JP:

Those with poor Phonemic Awareness (Receptions)

Those who were reading below the DECD Benchmarks (reluctant readers)

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Those who were struggling with writing/sight words/spelling etc. (poor literacy skills overall)

Baseline assessments were collected on each Reception child. This allowed us to see which areas

we need to focus on e.g. rime & onset, sound identification etc. At the beginning of the year none of

the identified students were able to recognise or produce any letters or sounds and none were able to

rhyme. Performing the same assessment at the end of the year, 85% of the students were able to

recognise and produce 88% of their sounds and 63% were able to produce a rhyming word/s.

The ‘reluctant readers’ Ellen worked with were all below the DECD Reading Benchmarks. She initially

spent a lot of time teaching and practising reading strategies before beginning Guided Reading with

them. Ellen liaised closely with the classroom teachers and asked them to perform a Running Record

when the child was progressing significantly. At the end of the year, 85% of identified students had

now reached the Running Records benchmark levels.

4.2 BETTER SCHOOLS FUNDING

The funding of $13,487 was used to purchase additional numeracy resources as well as ICT resources to compliment professional learning at a pupil free day. Staff was provided with opportunities to attend a range of conferences as well as being involved in Ann Baker and Tierney Kennedy Numeracy initiatives as well as ICT conferences.

5. STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

Staff work with a Literacy Agreement and Assessment and Reporting Framework which was

formulated with clear guidelines to staff on data collection requirements, together with a consistent

approach to tracking student achievement. Staff are now familiar with DECD SEA targets eg running

records, NAPLAN, Single Word Spelling Test, PAT-R and PAT-M and have aligned them to school

priorities. Analysis and goal setting takes place in regular performance support meetings with line

managers.

Through the Reading Support Teacher, Ellen Barr, Junior Primary teachers were supported in the

assessment of students who do not reach benchmarks in listening, letter recognition, dictation and

three phoneme words.

During 2015, SSO time has been allocated to assist with classroom support and students with

additional learning needs. A range of intervention programs are in place, according to individual

needs, such as Multi-Lit, Mini-Lit, Reading Doctor, Jolly Phonics, Speech Development and Fine and

Gross Motor Skills through the Grass Hoppers Program. Running Records have identified students

who have been referred to the Student Review Team for early intervention support. During 2015,

PAT-R and PAT-M data was collected to see student’s strengths and areas for development. Baseline

data will be compared with future results to measure and monitor student growth.

Running Records

In Term 3, 2015, the Running Records data showed that approximately 11% of students in Year 1

were reading between Levels 1 – 5, 15% of students in Levels 6 – 10, 19% students in Levels 11 -15,

24% in Levels 16 – 20 and 30% in the higher levels of 21 – 26.

In Year 2, 3% of students were reading between Level 1 - 5, with 5% of students between Level 6 –

10, 8% were at Level 11 - 15, 15% were reading at Level 16 – 20, 69% of students were reading at

level 21 – 26.

A review of our running records identified the cohort of students who had made minimal progress.

These students were targeted for intervention.

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5.1 NAPLAN

NAPLAN data is used extensively in conjunction with other data that the school collects on a regular basis to track student progress. Figure 4: Year 3 Mean Scores

Table 4: Year 3 Mean Scores

Mean Scores

by Test

Aspect

Year 3

2013 2014 2015

Numeracy 381.3 394.0 364.1

Reading 422.3 398.3 414.8

Writing 376.9 385.3 384.9

Spelling 424.0 407.8 383.2

Grammar 419.3 407.4 396.0

Our Year 3 data indicated that the school maintained steady scores in the area of reading and writing.

There was a dip in our maths and spelling scores for 2015 and this will be addressed in our site

learning and annual operational plans in 2016. We are using Sentral to collect and analyse data

having regular discussions about improvement

Figure 5: Year 5 Mean Scores

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Our Year 5 cohort showed improvement in each area of the NAPLAN test. The progression rates

between Year 3 and Year 5 have been exceptional with 88 percent progressing at upper rate in

numeracy and 73 percent progressing in the middle to upper bands as seen in the diagram below.

NAPLAN School Growth: Year 3-5

Figure 6: Year 7 Mean Scores

NAPLAN School Growth: Year 5-7

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Table 8: Year 5-7 Growth

Growth by

Test Aspect

Year 5-7

Progress Group Site

Numeracy Lower 25% 30.8

Middle 50% 69.2

Upper 25%

Reading Lower 25% 28.6

Middle 50% 50.0

Upper 25% 21.4

Our Year 7 students’ scores were generally on par with previous years. The results in writing and spelling were slightly down on the previous year. The schools work around reading has led to an improvement in our reading data. The growth rates between 5 and 7 showed that whilst our students are progressing, we would like to have more in the upper bands of growth. This is a focus for the school.

6. STUDENT DATA

6.1 ATTENTANCE

Figure 9: Attendance by Year Level

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Table 9: Attendance by Year Level

Attendance by Year Level % Attendance

2013 2014 2015

Reception 93.9 93.1 93.9

Year 1 93.3 93.7 94.9

Year 2 93.1 92.8 94.4

Year 3 93.3 95.3 91.9

Year 4 94.8 94.6 93.4

Year 5 93.7 93.9 93.0

Year 6 93.6 93.4 91.5

Year 7 90.8 90.8 90.4

Total All Year Levels 93.3 93.5 93.4

Total ACARA 1 TO 10 93.2 93.6 93.3

Student attendance was once again above the DECD target of 93%. Staff are aware of student attendance and are proactive when an issue may present. Staff meetings are set aside to discuss attendance. The dip in our Year 6/7 attendance is of a concern and the school will look at ways to address this.

6.2 DESTINATION

Table 10: Intended Destination

Leave Reason 2014

School Index DECD

No % % %

Employment 1.9% 2.9%

Interstate/Overseas 7 11.9% 11.3% 9.5%

Other 0.7% 1.4%

Seeking Employment 1.7% 3.8%

Tertiary/TAFE/Training 5.1% 3.6%

Transfer to Non-Govt Schl 13 22.0% 12.4% 9.8%

Transfer to SA Govt Schl 38 64.4% 47.3% 48.8%

Unknown 1 1.7% 19.7% 20.3%

Unknown (TG - Not Found) 0.0%

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7. CLIENT OPINION

Student Survey - 76 Respondents

76 students from Year 5 – Year 7 took part in this on-line survey. Overall there were positive

comments around high expectations of teachers and their ability to motivate students to learn. Once

again, students stated they like being at this school and feel that this school looks at ways to improve.

Parent Survey - 28 Respondents 28 parents responded to the on-line client opinion survey, which is a little down on the previous year.

It is pleasing to see the positive results especially with “My child likes being at this school” and “I can

talk to my child’s teacher about my concerns”

We will continue to look at ways for teachers to provide children with useful feedback and working

with parents to support their child’s learning.

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Staff Survey : 16 Respondents

16 staff completed the on-line opinion survey. The survey showed that staff feel supported at St

Leonards and their opinions are taken seriously. Staff thought teachers treat students fairly. Student

behaviour management seems to be an issue and we will target strategies throughout 2016.

My School website: http://www.myschool.edu.au/

8. ACCOUNTABILITY

8.1 BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT

SLPS Bullying Preference Survey 2015

The assessment used to study this situation is the DECD Bullying Preference Questionnaire (Rigby K

& Slee PT, 1993). It was completed anonymously on-line in an attempt to gain a fair reflection of the

situation existing within the school.

The questionnaire contained 20 individual items covering three areas of concern:

The tendency of the student towards:

a) Being a bully

b) Being a victim

c) Acting in a pro-social manner in support of others.

The resulting scale provides a weighted average for each key area. (Never -1, Once in a while -2,

Pretty often -3, Very often -4)

The questions were presented in a ‘mixed manner’ and then collated together to provide an indication

of the whole school picture.

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The results for 2015 survey are quite pleasing, with a very low tendency to bully indicated. The

tendency towards ‘being a victim’ was relatively low but comparatively higher than that to bully.

The very pleasing aspect of the survey was that the pro-social tendency was high also. Earlier in

the year we conducted a whole school ‘Reflection on Recess’ where the students held discussions

in class thinking about the behaviours which were seen as positive in the playground and those

behaviours which should be discouraged.

As part of this process the students identified changes which they would like to be considered to

improve recess and lunchtime periods. These included:

Having more equipment available

Having an ideas box

Opening the library for longer (including recess)

Options to play inside or outside (e.g. OSHC, hall, etc.)

Have a “board games” activity for those who like to be inside

Make sure people don’t get left out (Buddy Bus Stop)

8.2 RELEVANT HISTORY SCREENING

Processes are in place to ensure that all personnel including volunteers meet the DECD Criminal

History Screening requirements. The SAFE Team audited our processes in 2014 and commented on

our effective record keeping and full compliancy, including the:

Sighting and recording clearance information on EDSAS or HRS system (or maintaining copies of

clearances if not connected to these systems), or

Verifying the identity of first time visiting DECD or Women’s and Children’s Health Network

employees and noting verification next to their name in the site’s sign in book, or

Establishing shared-use agreements with community groups, and

Maintaining the accuracy of screening information on EDSAS, HRS or site files

http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/docs/documents/1/RelevantHistoryScreenin-1.pdf

Weighted Average 1-4

Weighted

Average

Totals

Bully

Question 4 9 11 14 16 17 Bully

Weighted

Average 1.23 1.29 1.21 1.33 1.11 1.15 1.02

Victim

Question 3 8 12 18 19

Victim

Weighted

Average 2.06 1.89 1.90 1.92 1.64

1.88

Pro Social Scale

Question 5 10 15 20

Pro Social

Weighted

Average 3.27 3.10 3.15 3.62

3.29

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8.3 HUMAN RESOURCES - Workforce Data

8.3.1 Teacher Qualifications All teachers at this school are qualified and registered with the SA Teachers Registration Board.

Qualification Level Number of

Qualifications

Bachelor Degrees or Diplomas 33

Post Graduate Qualifications 15

Please note: Staff that have more than 1 qualification will be counted more than once in the above qualification table. Therefore the total number of staff by qualification type may be more than the total number of teaching staff.

8.3.2 Workforce Composition including Indigenous staff

Workforce Composition Teaching Staff Non-Teaching Staff

Indigenous Non Indigenous Indigenous Non Indigenous

Full-time Equivalents 17.60 4.95

Persons 19

9. FINANCIAL STATEMENT

Income by Funding Source

Funding Source Amount

1 Grants: State $20,489

2 Grants: Commonwealth $16,500

3 Parent Contributions $164,388

4 Other $70,993