SACRED HEART CATHOLIC SCHOOLBEAGLE BAY

2015ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT

1. Contextual Information

A FAITH COMMUNI

TY EDUCATIN

G STRONG, SPIRITUAL, HIGH

ACHIEVING, LIFE-LONG

LEARNER

Sacred Heart School is a Catholic co-educational composite school, catering for children from Kindergarten to Year 10 and comprising of approximately 110 children. The school is located in Beagle Bay, a remote Aboriginal community. It was a bi-lingual school where instruction was given in French and Nyul Nyul, the language of the traditional owners of the land around Beagle Bay. They also learnt to speak and sing in English and were taught Latin hymns. The school offers a holistic education, embracing the spiritual, religious, intellectual, physical, social and emotional development of all students that is developmentally appropriate. At our school, relationships and learning are both important. Our Vision underpins school life. We provide a variety of religious experiences which embrace and enhance Faith, Life and Culture.

The school focuses on literacy and numeracy across all years. Vocational pathways are offered in the senior school. As a futures oriented school, we are committed to developing independent learning skills amongst students and strongly encourage the use of learning technologies in the classroom. A broad range of extra-curricular activities enhance the pastoral and educational programs offered. Inter-house sporting competitions, broad student leadership experiences, both highlight the quality of pastoral care provided to students. Our Secondary children are involved in Bush Cadets and the school seeks a variety of opportunities to enhance senior leadership in school and in the wider community. The model of schooling offered at Sacred Heart School is underpinned by Gospel values. We strive to promote excellence and support the children to reach their God-given full potential.

We place a huge emphasis on student needs, styles of learning, data analysis and teaching strategies. We promote a whole school collaborative approach to ongoing reflection and analysis of data to direct future goal-setting for teaching and learning. This approach provides successful monitoring of student learning and implementation of best teaching practices.

Due to a high percentage of indigenous students, there is a major focus on Literacy and Numeracy which caters for the needs of all students. We implement ongoing assessment and data gathering to direct the teaching and learning experience. Support is provided through Reading Recovery, Extending Mathematical Understanding, Literacy Intervention and support as well as Computer Programs. From 2015 – 2017, the school will be participating in the EDI (Explicit Direct Instruction) initiative which has been adopted for many Indigenous Community Schools. Our school promotes excellence in pedagogy through a Coaching and Mentoring Model, with a focus on a ‘whole school’ approach to teaching and learning.

The school provides a balanced curriculum including Cultural Education, involving community members, Music, Dance, Physical Education, Sports, Rock & Water, IT, Library and Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies. The school has an ICT Centre, as well as a bank of computers, iPads and Apple TVs in every classroom. The school community works together to create an environment where diversity is valued and everyone is treated with dignity and respect.

1. Teacher standards and qualifications

A FAITH COMMUNI

TY EDUCATIN

G STRONG, SPIRITUAL, HIGH

ACHIEVING, LIFE-LONG

LEARNER

All teaching staff is registered with the Teacher Registration Board of Western Australia (TRBWA).

All staff members hold Working With Children Checks. Nine teachers hold a Bachelor of Education Degree. Nine teachers hold a Diploma of Teaching Degree. One teacher holds a Masters of Education Degree. One teacher holds a Diploma in Religious Education. All staff members are accreditated to work and/or teach in a Catholic school

2. Workforce composition

Staffing is as follows: 9 Full time teachers – 4 males and 5 females. 9 full time Aboriginal Educational Assistants – 1 male and 8 females. 1 full time indigenous female clerical officer, 1 part time non-indigenous male grounds/maintenance person, 1 part time indigenous male gardener/cleaner In total – 5 males and 14 females.

3. Student attendance at school

Sacred Heart School is open forty weeks of the year. The school day commences at 8.20am and finishes at 2.20pm each day. Recess is 10.30 - 10.50am. Lunch is 12.50 - 1.20pm.

The following days have been nominated as pupil-free days for Professional Development:

27-29 January 2016 EDI Training 1 February 2016 Pupil-Free Day – School Policies 26 April 2016 Behaviour Escalation Profile training/Complex Trauma 18 July 2016 Faith Development (ongoing accreditation) 21 November 2016 Data Analysis 28 November 2016 Catholic Day

Attendance 2015

Pre Primary 73.78%Y01 66.08%Y02 68.04%Y03 69.97%Y04 74.72%Y05 79.11%Y06 72.08%Y07 65.32%Y08 71.02%Y09 59.49%Y10 66.49%

Whole school percentage for 2015 69.64%

Non-attendance is being addressed through a variety of ways.

1. Employment of an Aboriginal community liaison officer to work in partnership with families to improve attendance daily.

2. 2016, through IAS funding, engagement of a community Attendance officer. The Beagle Bay Community has employed two Community School Attendance Officer who have recently commenced contributing to school attendance through home visits and assistance.

3. Daily home visits to promote school attendance.4. Weekly, monthly and term rewards promoting attendance.5. Publicising in the community the positive elements of schooling.6. Development of a Community / School Partnership Agreement.7. Promoting school attendance through the weekly Newsletter.8. Accessing external agencies for support e.g. Youth at Risk.9. Seeking community support to improve attendance.10. Community meetings to address issues11. Beach days as rewards for children over 85% attendance12. Movies for children with 95-100% attendance

4. Senior Secondary Outcomes

Sacred Heart School caters for children from Kindergarten to year 10. The school seeks to assist children from Year 7-10 to attain scholarships for boarding schools across Australia.

The new Trade Skills Centre which is currently being built, will provide new opportunities for the youth in Beagle Bay.

5. NAPLAN DATA

Trends from NAPLAN data identify irregular patterns of student gains and losses. Importantly, identifying individual student’s story and class cohorts enables a greater depth of understanding to the data.

Reading

The Reading Recovery program recommenced in 2012 in a full capacity with all year 2 students participating in the program. This may influence positive gains in future data. EMU was also introduced in 2015.

Graph 1: Reading Results overtime compared to state mean

Graph 2: Spelling Results over time compared to state mean.

Observations:

The Year 7 cohort of children needs a lot of ongoing intervention to close the gap.

The Year 3 & 5 cohort shows steady growth and upward trends.

The Year 9 result is that of one student.

Like schools comparisons indicate Sacred Heart students perform well, however considerable gaps still exist between state and national comparions.

There is a need to work on students reading comprehension skills, especially in locating information within texts.

Spelling:

Spelling has been a consistent challenge at Sacred Heart School. As EALD users, students oral language development (vocabulary) and phonological awareness contirubutes to the challenges when completing standardised tests. There has been a positive incline in Year 5 and Year 9. As already stated, Year 3 and Year 5 need ongoing modification and intervention.

Observations:

Students in all cohorts performed below their like school comparison and well below state and national averages.

Looking at specific errors in testing it is apparent that students require additional support in developing phonological awareness. An emphisis on explicit teaching of spelling (Spelling Mastery) was introduced mid-2015 and will continue in 2016 Sound Waves are also being used as a supplementary resource.

Grammar and Punctuation

Graph 3: Grammar Results overtime compared to state mean

Observations:

Students in Year 3, 5 and 9 demonstrated steady improvements.

The Year 7 cohort needs intervention to re-engage.

Areas that will be focused on specifically in 2016 include a whole school focus on the use of specific forms of punctuation (fullstops, capital letters) and knowledge of word types (verbs, nouns, adverbs, conjunction) within EDI.

Writing:

Observations

Year 3

25% of the cohort in Year 3 are in Band 1

50% of the cohort in Year 3 are in Band 2

12.5 of the cohort in Year 3 are in Band 3 & 4

Our aim is for all children to reach Band 3 & 4

Year 5

62.5 % of the cohort in Year 5 are in Band 3

12.5 % of the cohort in Year 5 are in Band 4

25 % of the cohort in Year 5 are in Band 5

Our aim is for all children to reach Band 5 & 6

Year 7

77% of the cohort in Year 7 are in Band 4

23% of the cohort in Year 7 are in Band 5

Our aim is for all children to reach Band 6 & 7

Year 9 is one student.

Observations:

Year 3, 5 and 9 showed an increase in results as teachers and students became aware of the processes and conventions involved in pursuasive texts.

When examining the data in all year levels, students have the opportunity to further develop their understanding of paragraphing and punctuation. Students knowledge of the structure of pursuasive text was limited.

Students in all Year levels are below the national minimum standard. Data shows that students’ understanding of sentence structure and paragraphing are capable of improvement.

Numeracy:

Student achievement in numeracy has demonstrated a level of inconsistency in previous years which has continued in 2015. The graph, ‘Students over Time’ demonstrates the level of inconsistency throughout the past five years. It is evident that the need starts in the early years and concepts have failed to be addressed and consolidated. With this in mind, 3 staff members are undergoing EMU training which will target year two and year one children with intervention in the upper year. There is a whole school focus on exploring MAI data and setting priorities. The school is also involved this year in PANL (Principals as Numeracy Leaders), an action research initiative to promote numeracy learning.

Observations:

Individual students are achieving significant growth and results, however, the tail of the school can contribute to lowering the appearance of the cohort.

When looking at specific concepts, no consistent misconception exists in year levels with a range of misconceptions apparent in differing year levels.

Continuing to focus on students’ mental strategies and flexibility between operations is essential to improving undertsndings.

Differentiation is a priority across all year levels.

6. Parent, Student and Teacher Satisfaction

All members of the school community recognise the importance education plays in providing opportunities for students to grow and develop. The school and broader community are working towards a united goal to improve student attendance and ultimately educational success.

The members of our School Board are very supportive of school policies and educational programmes. The school and community embraced the ‘What Works’ project in 2014 which led to a series of community meetings to review and update the School Community Partnership Agreement in late 2014 and implemented in 2015. The School Community Partnership Agreement was formalised and presented at parent meetings in 2015.

Communication between the school and home is a high priority. Parents appreciate the fact that the school works hard to maintain a culture of inclusiveness, openness and cooperation. Staff members pay weekly visits to families. Many opportunities throughout the year is supported for family engagement.

Family members and community enthusiastically support school events.

Visitors to our school always comment that SHS has a wonderful, positive and welcoming environment.

School climate

7. Post school destinations On leaving our school, children attend the following high schools: -

Clontarf College St Mary’s College, Broome Broome Senior High School Aquinas College The Peninsula School Belmont College Aranmore College Coolgardie Esperance

8. School Income See ACARA/CEWA Website

http://www.myschool.edu.au