2018 Cudgegong Valley Public School Annual Report€¦ · Cudgegong Valley PS Kitchen Garden Report 2018 was a deliberately quiet year for the CVPS Kitchen Garden crew, so after several

Cudgegong Valley Public SchoolAnnual Report

2018

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Printed on: 29 May, 2019Page 1 of 26 Cudgegong Valley Public School 4555 (2018)

Introduction

The Annual Report for 2018 is provided to the community of Cudgegong Valley Public School as an account of theschool's operations and achievements throughout the year.

2018 has been a year full of success and achievements for the students at Cudgegong Valley Public School. From theclassroom, to the sporting field, to the stage, students at our school have excelled. I hope that this Annual Report helpsto highlight the wonderful achievements of our school this year. It provides a detailed account of the progress the schoolhas made to provide high quality educational opportunities for all students, as set out in the school plan. It outlines thefindings from self–assessment that reflect the impact of key school strategies for improved learning and the benefit to allstudents from the expenditure of resources, including equity funding.

We couldn't have a great school and offer our students all that we do, without the hard work and dedication of ourteaching team. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the work of our School Leadership Team comprisingof our; Deputy Principal Mrs Wendy Hogben, our Assistant Principals, Mrs Sandra Huntly–Nott, Mr Joel Wilson, Mr SteveArmstrong, Ms Bronwyn da Roza and Mrs Gill Armstrong and our School Admin Manager Mrs Leanne Hasaart. Yourleadership and support for our teachers has been instrumental in ensuring that our school works towards, and achieves,everything it sets out to do.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the dedication and hard work of our teachers and thank you all for allthat you do in supporting each and every one of our students to succeed, connect, thrive and learn. I would like toacknowledge you for not only the work that you put into supporting the children in the classroom, but for all of the extratime and effort you put into offering our students things like: debating and public speaking, chess club, photography club,crocheting, the many and varied sporting teams, dance groups, choir, recorder groups, garden club, kindness crew. Thelist goes on. It's this dedication to supporting the development of the whole child that makes our school the wonderfulplace that it is!

I would also like to thank our support teachers along with our School Learning Support Officers, who have workedtirelessly in the classroom and playground to support our students in their pursuit of success.

I would like to acknowledge the wonderful work of our Office Team led by our School Admin Manager Mrs LeanneHasaart. This hard working team are really the heart of our school and keep the place running. I thank each of the ladiesin this team for their hard work and dedication to ensuring that we do the very best we can for our students, staff, parentsand community.

To our parents and carers I would like to thank you for the wonderful support you provide the school and for working inpartnership with the teachers in the education of your children.

I would like to acknowledge the hard work of our P and C, in particular Mrs Jenni Buckley our P&C President, and theexecutive, for your tireless support of our school. Your feedback and contributions to school decision–making is definitelyvalued.

Most importantly to our students, I want to thank you all for your efforts this year. I want to thank you for embracing ourschool motto, "In All Our Best" and ensuring that each day you come to school you try that little bit harder.

It has been a wonderful year and I have enjoyed the challenge of leading our school.

Michelle Neaverson–Smith

Principal

School contact details

Cudgegong Valley Public SchoolMadeira RdMudgee, 2850www.cudgegongv-p.schools.nsw.edu.aucudgegongv-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au6372 3466


Message from the school community

Cudgegong Valley PS Parents and Citizens Report

The 2018 school year has proven to be another busy and profitable period for the P&C.

We started the year with some change to our executive at the March AGM. Hali Lonergan stood down as Vice presidentand Rebecca Redfern stood down as Secretary. Both contributed hugely during their 2 years in the roles, and the P&Cthank them very much. Kristie Cavanagh generously agreed to step into the Vice President role for a 1 year term. Thesecretary role has remained vacant, with other committee members taking turns to record meeting minutes.

Our fundraising focus for the year has been on our all–weather sport court. This project began in 2016 after aquestionnaire completed by the children indicated this is what they would like for their school. A 3 year timeline wasplaced on the project. In March we placed our Thermometer showing our $70 000 target up on the front of the schoolhall. Our starting amount was $35 000, and it climbed steadily to reach $53 000 by December.

Our regular events raised; • School discos x 2 – $4069 • Mother Day stall – $667 • Athletics carnival – $1010 • Father day stall – $2283 • Xmas raffle – $2443

They have all been hugely successful, contributing approx. $10470 to our funds. The exception to that list was theMother's day stall where a record number of 800 gifts were purchased – catching us out and necessitating a last minuteshopping trip.

As well as these regular events we added 3 more fundraisers to our year.

NRL Pie Van. We tendered to be a food vendor at the NRL game at Glen Willow on 20th May. From this tender MWRCinvited us to man the Villi Pie Van on their behalf. As well as giving us a donation for our time, we were able to sell drinksand lollies to increase our profits. A very busy but fun day was had by our volunteers with a profit of $1049 being made.

Mudgee Running Festival. We were invited to provide the BBQ at the town's premier running event, the MudgeeRunning Festival, on 19th August. The event attracted a large number of runners resulting in record entries, butunfortunately the cold weather sent most competitors straight home after the event and kept the spectator numbers welldown. However, thanks to the hard work of our BBQ crew and the support of the Running Festival committee we made aprofit of $1110.

CVPS Golf Day. Our major fundraiser this year was the Golf Day held on 18th November 2018 at the Mudgee Golf Club.24 teams of 4 players came out to enjoy a perfect day of Ambrose competition followed by an auction and raffle draw.Thank you to our generous sponsors and school community. This year we made a profit of $8100. The committee weredelighted with this result as the 2016 CVPS Golf Day made $5500. A huge thank you to our P&C committee for all theirtime and effort.

In total $20 700 profit has been raised by P&C volunteers this year. Of that figure $18 000 has been directed to theSports Court project. The difference has been spent on fixed costs such as insurance and accounting fees.

The P&C executive and committee look forward to another enjoyable and profitable year in 2019.

Mrs Jenni Buckley

P&C President

Cudgegong Valley PS Kitchen Garden Report

2018 was a deliberately quiet year for the CVPS Kitchen Garden crew, so after several years of fundraising and grantwriting we chose to focus on the patch and the students. The start of the year saw us winning a joint Australia Day awardwith the CVPS P&C for the Garden Fair held in 217. The award for Community Event of the year was confirmation thatwe do know how to throw a party.

We once again entered produce into the Mudgee Show, this year sharing our giant pumpkins with the local community.Thanks to the excellent care these plants received from our students and volunteers, we took home two firsts and asecond. Well done students!


Our AGM was held early in the year and this resulted in no one taking on the coordinator position. It was decided at themeeting that followed that the Kitchen Garden would be managed by a small group of parents who came to most weeklysessions. The organising committee for 2018 are Leigh Goodlet, Thea Spencer, Beth Greenfield, Ross Mayberry andmyself. This has worked very well this year with delegation of jobs around the patch running very smoothly.

In winter we celebrated NAIDOC week by inviting local community members to join us in the patch. Fibre artist MichelleMcFarlane joined students in teaching them eco dyeing using leaves and plant material to make paints. Students thenpainted their own picture in the patch and took their new found knowledge back to share with their families. We alsohosted the Mudgee Second Wednesday Weavers group who are local woman who weave baskets, artworks and muchmore using plant materials. When they joined us in the patch we all made lovely bracelets woven to a special pattern andmade from Lomandra leaves from our own school grounds. It was a very special day with lots of positive feedback fromstudents. We hope that we can participate again in 2019.

Throughout winter we were able to harvest huge amounts of food from the patch, all sent home with students. Veggiesgrown and harvested included cauliflower, leeks, celery, kale, lettuces, herbs and much more. We are happy to reportthat some students tried eating a herb or veg that they had never tasted before so to us, this is a big win!

We continued to use online resources such as the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program activity sheets. Theseare a valuable resource to us, enabling the volunteers to diversify the students experiences in the patch and also beingcurriculum linked across all KLA's.

This year we kept challenging our students with an extensive array of garden based activities. These included soil testinga variety of areas within the garden, tracking and understanding the irrigation, monitoring temperature and rainfall, seedgermination, the importance of mulching the garden, composting, seedling planting how to, composting and wormhusbandry and our new focus, reducing plastics within the garden and especially in the compost. We were veryimpressed that each child rose to each challenge they were presented with.

It was a tough year weather wise with very little rain falling through winter and the warmer months. These kinds ofseasons only make us thankful for the irrigation that we installed in 2015 but we do recognise that we do need to extendthis watering to the schools portable citrus orchard in 2019.

I would like to take this chance to thank CVPS teacher, Mrs Rebecca Daniell for her tireless and important work with theGarden Interest group. These students went a long way supporting the kitchen garden crew and the school at largethrough their gardening practices. This group weeded and watered their way around our school through 2018 and madea huge impact on many students, volunteers and garden beds. Thank you Rebecca. We also recognise the schoolexecutive and staff who have continued to support the kitchen garden vision for our school.

Thanks must go to our ever present and small volunteer core group who managed and maintained the CVPS KitchenGarden through 2018. We look forward to and anticipate that the kitchen garden at CVPS is about to come into its ownand is destined for bigger and bolder visions incorporating the school as a whole.

Kristie Cavanagh

On behalf of the Cudgee School Kitchen Garden Committee.


School background

School vision statement

Our students are engaged and successful learners who thrive in a culture of high expectations and collaboration.

School context

Set amongst a spacious playground, Cudgegong Valley Public School was established in the town of Mudgee in 1984.The school focuses on providing a well–rounded education with a strong focus on the teaching of an engaging studentfocused curriculum, student wellbeing, learning and support, cultural activities and leadership opportunities. Staffcollaborate to develop and deliver quality teaching and learning experiences for a range of student abilities. The schoolscurrent enrolment is 552 students forming 22 mainstream classes. The school also caters for Gifted and Talentedstudents across Mudgee with the District Opportunity Class in Years 5 and 6 being housed at our school.

Collaborative school planning and consultation with community partners is of utmost importance to our school leadershipteam. Enabling all partners to be aware of, and to subscribe to, the school's vision, "Our children are engaged andsuccessful learners who thrive in a culture of high expectations and collaboration" is an over–arching aim for our schooland the future success of our children. Our current strategic directions; Engaged Successful Learners, A Culture ofExcellence in Practice and Collaborative Partnerships all sit at the core of what we do.

Cudgegong Valley Public School provides a variety of support to students including two School Counsellors, a strongLearning and Support Team, a Student Wellbeing Support Officer and a number of School Learning Support Officers.There is a strong focus on whole school wellbeing with the Bounce Back program currently being implemented acrossK–6 as our social and emotional learning curriculum. Our Positive Behaviour for Learning vision,"At CVPS we do our best by being responsible learners, who are safe and respectful"underpins all that we do. Our student leaders, including our newly formed Student Representative Council, are workingclosely with the teachers and parents on the strengthening of our whole school behaviour systems.

Technology is used to enhance learning across the school with each classroom having an interactive panel and laptopsfor students to use. Thirty two iPads are accessible and a dedicated computer room has thirty two desktop computerswhere classes can go to have specialized lessons. The school provides a range of sporting and cultural activitiesincluding Band, Choir, Garden Club, Public Speaking and Debating. Cudgegong Valley Public School has achievedsuccess at regional and state level in a range of events.

CVPS is a welcoming school where positive relationships exist between the families, students and our teachers. Theschool is an active member of the Cudgegong Learning Community and a small but enthusiastic Parent and Citizenscommittee works tirelessly to raise money for the school, whilst actively participating in the planning of future directionsfor the school. Parent voice is embraced on our; PBL, School Improvement, Aboriginal Education and Communicationand Engagement Teams. The Cudgee School Garden Club is run by a dedicated group of volunteers who assist infurther beautifying the school and working with teachers and students to develop an awareness and appreciation ofgardening and growing food for healthy eating. They are instrumental in our current work around sustainability and areactive participants in our Environmental Education Team.

Self-assessment and school achievement

Self-assessment using the School Excellence Framework

This section of the Annual Report outlines the findings from self–assessment using the School Excellence Framework,school achievements and the next steps to be pursued.

This year, our school undertook self–assessment using the School Excellence Framework. The framework supportspublic schools throughout NSW in the pursuit of excellence by providing a clear description of high quality practiceacross the three domains of Learning, Teaching and Leading.

Significant progress has been made in 2018 with the school, in particular the School Leadership and SchoolImprovement Teams, developing a much deeper understanding of the Schools Excellence Framework. Each teammember now understands the importance of the Excellence Framework being a statement of what is valued asexcellence for New South Wales Public Schools. The capacity of these teams to identify quality practices across thethree key domains of education– Learning, Teaching and Leading has grown significantly and we are now better able touse this in identifying directions for the School Plan and monitor strategies for ongoing improvement. Our team is betterable to identify practices that evidence shows are most directly related to continuous, school wide improvement andbetter student outcomes.


The School Improvement Team understand that school self–assessment is pivotal to school excellence. We now engagemore readily in processes that identify impact and growth, providing information that assists us in decision–making. TheSchool Improvement Team has worked throughout 2018 to develop reflective practices that facilitate the development ofmeaningful milestones and the continuous monitoring of their achievement. These practices have enabled us to assessthe effectiveness of the implementation of planned activities. Our practices in the sourcing and use of evidence is nowunderpinning our self–assessment processes. Our team is able to make judgements about what we have achieved, howwell we're doing and what to do next, guided by the information that we have analysed and evaluated. We now integrateand interpret evidence from a wide variety of sources to support our decisions. This process of ongoing, formativeevaluation, where teachers and leaders engage in evaluative thinking, is now at the core of our decision–making.

Learning

Much of the progress achieved in the Learning Domain in 2018 has been in the element of Wellbeing, where both theLearning and Support Team and the PBL Team have worked hard to ensure there is a strategic, planned approach toWellbeing. Systems have been strengthened where both these teams collect, analyse and use data, including valid andreliable student, parent and staff feedback to monitor and refine our whole school approach to wellbeing andengagement in order to improve learning.

Teaching

In the Teaching Domain much of our focus in 2018 was on the elements of Professional Standards and Learning andDevelopment. Strengthening our practices around supporting teachers to reflect on their strengths and areas fordevelopment to inform their Professional Development Plans, has been a major focus. Ensuring that teachers aresupported by a coordinated whole school approach to developing professional practice, informed by research, was a keyfeature of 2018.

A system to ensure that professional learning is aligned with the school plan and that its impact on the quality of teachingand student learning outcomes is evaluated has been established. Teachers are now more inclined to actively evaluate,share and discuss their learning from targeted professional development with other staff, in order to improve wholeschool practice.

Leading

The most significant progress in regards to the Schools Excellence Framework in 2018 has been in the Domain ofLeading. This year saw the construction of our 2018–20 school plan and this sits at the core of our continuousimprovement efforts, with our vision and strategic directions evident in all of our activities.

A lens of improvement is now evident, where the school systematically and regularly monitors a range of indicators togauge the impact of our plan, and inform changes to the implementation, in order to support its ultimate success. It isnow common practice for our School Leadership Team to actively consider the effectiveness of resources, includingexpenditure to check that funds and resources are allocated in a realistic and timely manner and achieve their desiredresults.

Our self–assessment process assist us to refine our school plan, leading to further improvements in the delivery ofeducation to our students.

For more information about the School Excellence Framework:

https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching–and–learning/school–excellence–and–accountability/sef–evidence–guide


Strategic Direction 1

Engaged and Successful Learners

Purpose

To address individual student needs through a strategic, whole–school approach to wellbeing and engagement. Allstudents are challenged and supported to connect, succeed, thrive and learn optimising student learning and success.

Overall summary of progress

In order to work towards achievement of our practices and products where individual student needs are addressedthrough a strategic whole school approach to wellbeing and engagement we have two main processes; Process 1 –Wellbeing Systems where systems are strengthened to ensure all students connect, succeed, thrive and learn; andProcess 2 – Personalised Learning where staff are supported to build their capacity, and processes are strengthened, toensure all students are challenged and all adjustments lead to improved learning.

Wellbeing Systems

Two major strategies were implemented to drive our process around Wellbeing Systems. The first was the whole–schoolintroduction of the Bounce Back program. Implementing the Bounce Back program across the school supported us in ourendeavour to promote positive mental health, wellbeing and resilience for both students and teachers and build safe andsupportive class and school learning environments. This initiative was introduced to strengthen our school's teaching inPDHPE, specifically in interpersonal relationships and resilience. All staff participated in a whole days training in theprogram at the start of the year. Bounce Back lessons were introduced in all classes, following a stage developed scopeand sequence, with regular updates provided to parents on the learning taking place in the classroom. Some teachersreported that as a result of incorporating Bounce Back into their teaching program students in their class have and usestrategies to cope with different social/emotional situations.

The introduction of Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) as a comprehensive, integrated whole school approach tostudent wellbeing and behaviour, was the second major focus in this process. This evidence–based whole schoolprocess supports us in creating a positive learning environment that enables improvement in students learning andwellbeing. The PBL Leadership Team was established, with representation from staff and parents and the team engagedin three days of PBL Universals training. Over the course of the three days the team were supported to develop theirunderstanding that through implementing PBL at the school we will strengthen our ability in analysing data to inform ourdecision making, identify systems that support staff, and identify, implement and evaluate evidenced–based practicesthat improve the social–emotional and learning outcomes of our students.

The PBL Leadership team began the process of reviewing and developing school–wide expectations and relatedprocesses to promote our PBL expectations. Our PBL vision 'At CVPS we do our best by being responsible learners whoare safe and respectful' was developed and ratified by students, staff and parents. We held a competition for thestudents to design a new cudgesaur for each of our expectations; responsible learner, safe and respectful. The studentsvoted on the final design of our 'Cudgesaur' logos, replacing the tired 'Cudgeesaurus' of years past.

Our "all–settings" matrix, which clearly defines what it means to be a responsible learner, who is safe and respectful, wasdeveloped with staff and students and ratified by our parents, and displayed in all classrooms across the school. ThePBL Leadership team developed lessons to explicitly teach each of our expectations and these were deliveredthroughout Term 4. A whole school focus was identified each week and this was introduced at Monday Muster and alsocommunicated via Sentral, the school's newsletter and also our Facebook page. As a result of this students and teachersacross K–6 are beginning to refer to the PBL focus each week. The students have a deeper understanding of what itmeans to be a responsible learner who is safe and respectful and we now all use this common language to talk aboutwhat it means to be part of our CVPs team. We revisited our whole school acknowledgement (feedback/reinforcement)system of pink slips with both staff and students with a focus on deepening our understanding that these are designed tobe free and frequent. This focus meant that our pink slip barrel was filled more quickly and the students received 2 wholeschool reward days during the year; a crazy hair, sock day and a movie afternoon. These rewards were decided by ourstudents via a process led by the school councillors.

The PBL Leadership Team started work on developing a continuum of strategies for responding to problem behaviourswhich included identifying and classifying problem behaviours as minor behaviours and major behaviours. The teamstarted work on defining each behaviour and this will be a focus for 2019. The idea that a problem behaviour is a learningerror and that we can pre–teach and re–teach to fix this problem behaviour is something the team are currently grapplingwith. Some staff have reported that reteaching has been more beneficial than 'punishment" for most children. They havealso reported that by having a clear list of problem behaviours, with definitions for each, although currently in draft form,


they find it easier to identify, classify and explain problem behaviour to children.

Personalised Learning

Strategic resource allocation, through the provision of time, supported the development of Student Support Plans forstudents with identified disability and /or additional learning and support needs. Parents/carers were engaged in thisconsultative process to personalise and differentiate learning. Professional learning took place to build staff capacity, andstrengthen processes to ensure all students were challenged and all adjustments led to improved learning.

School Learning Support Officers were employed to support students with identified additional learning and supportneeds. SLSO roles were clarified and communicated to all stakeholders. Data collected from teaching staff and SLSOsevaluated the impact of the expenditure of funds on this resource to support student needs. As part of this evaluationteachers reported that the support of the SLSOs was invaluable, especially by developing positive connections with atrisk students. The relationships that were built between the SLSO and those targeted students who required supportaround behavioural needs, had a significant impact on supporting these students to monitor their behaviour. Teachersalso reported that the in class support provided by the SLSO helped keep targeted students on task and engaged in theirlearning.

Analysis of wellbeing data on Sentral was used to identify students requiring playground interventions with a focus onpre–teaching of social skills and practice play. SLSO support in the playground for these targeted students wasallocated.

A Speech therapist was employed to support staff in developing and implementing a stage synthetic phonics/spellingprogram. This program worked extremely well in a number of classrooms with the Speech therapist providing modelledlessons on the explicit teaching of spelling knowledge and in some cases team teaching with the classroom teacher.

The continuation of the LaST Assistant Principal role ensured structures were developed, or continued, to improve andfacilitate efficient data collection, storage and compliance with Departmental and school–based systems. The work of theAP Learning Support in coordinating interagency support for students who have required additional support outside ofschool eg. Speech therapy, RFW was invaluable.

Progress towards achieving improvement measures

Improvement measures(to be achieved over 3 years)

Funds Expended(Resources)

Progress achieved this year

Increased proportion of studentsachieving personalised learninggoals in their PLPs.

AP Learning and Support($32 000)

Speech Therapist 1day/week ($16 000)

SLSOs ($350 000)

Developing ILPs (1/2 dayper CT) ($5 000)

Developing PLPs (7 days$3 150)

Some teachers reported that the targeted studentshad all improved their learning by achieving most oftheir targets whether it be English/Maths based,social or fine motor.

Teachers reported that the use of SLSO's toimplement Phonics Awareness and PhonicsProgram meant targets for these specific studentswere achieved.

Data for 2018 is as follows;

68% of Kindergarten students with a personalisedlearning plan achieved their goals.

73% of Year 1 students with a personalisedlearning plan achieved their goals.


16% of year 3 students with a personalised learningplan achieved their goals.


56% of stage 3 students with a personalisedlearning plan achieved their goals.

Analysis of the goals set across the school in ourstudents PLPs indicated that the goals being set






Increased proportion of studentsachieving personalised learninggoals in their PLPs.

were very broad and ambitious, hence the lowerproportion of students achieving their goals.

Increased proportion studentsreporting a sense of belonging,expectations for success andadvocacy at school.

$20 000 casual relief forPBL

Analysis of the TTFM student survey indicates thatstudents at CVPS reporting a sense of belonging atschool has remained steady at 75%. 92% of ouryear 4 students feel accepted and valued by peersand by others at the school compared to 83%across NSW Govt Norm for the same cohort.

Expectations for success, where school staffemphasise academic skills and hold highexpectations for all students to succeed, asreported in the TTFM student survey, has increasedfrom 8.3 in April 2018 to 8.6 in September.

Advocacy at school as reported by the TTFMstudents survey indicated that over the past twoyears this has slowly increased from 7.0 in April2016, 7.5 in April 2017 to 7.6 in September 2018.

Compared to the NSW Govt Norm our Year 4cohort scored significantly higher at 8.2 (7.8 NSWGovt Norm) saying that they felt they havesomeone at school who consistently providesencouragement and can be turned to for advice.

Next Steps

Wellbeing Systems

In 2019 we will continue the strategic focus of strengthening our whole school approach to student wellbeing through ourcontinued implementation of both PBL and Bounce Back. New members to the PBL Leadership Team will undertakerefresher training. The non–classroom settings matrix will be finalised. Major and minor learning errors will be definedand the process for consequences clearly articulated and accepted by all. Data collection processes will bestrengthened, with a clear system for office discipline referrals (ODR) established. The process for recording negativeincidents on Sentral will be strengthened and staff will be provided training in this system in order to ensure consistentapplication of our PBL processes across the school. Data will be effectively used to guide decision making and planningby the PBL Leadership team.

A Bounce Back and PBL scope and sequence will be developed, to align the PBL matrix with Bounce Back lessons. PBLfolders, including lessons and resources, will be developed and provided to all staff. PBL visuals will be displayed aroundthe school, reinforcing school–wide expectations for all students.

Personalised Learning

In 2019, the Cudgegong Valley Public School Learning and Support Team will develop systems to support thedevelopment, implementation and review of Student Support Plans, including Personalised Learning Plans for ATSIstudents and Behaviour Management Plans for identified students. The LaST will support staff with the development ofBehaviour Management Plans and the use of SMART goals on all Support Plans. Ongoing teacher professional learning(TPL) will be provided for the Learning Support Team on the development of SMART goals and the stagerepresentatives will lead TPL in Stage groups on developing SMART goals.Support, in the way of time, will be made available for staff to review and evaluate Student Support Plans, with a processestablished for the updating of documentation and consultation with parents at half–yearly and yearly review dates.

Strengthening our processes for the collation of data sets from NCCD, Student Support Plans, PBL data and LSTreferrals will be a focus in 2019 in order to ensure strategic resourcing across the school. A process for the collation andanalysis of data around the achievement of SMART goals in Student Support Plans will also be established to ensure weare tracking the progress of all students towards their personalised learning goals and implementing strategiesthroughout the year if students are not on track for achievement. Systems will be strengthened for the monitoring ofpersonalised learning through AP supervision.



A Culture of Excellence in Practice

Purpose

To develop a culture of performance and development embedding a whole school approach to evidence–based practiceoptimising student learning and success.


In order to work towards achievement of our practices and products and develop a culture of excellence in practice wehave two main processes; Process 1 – Performance and Development Culture which includes work centred aroundreviewing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating systems to support a culture of performance and development andProcess 2 – Evidence–based Practices where staff are supported to build their understanding of and capacity to embedevidence–based practices resulting in improved learning outcomes.

Performance and Development Culture

Whole school professional learning centred around the elements of a performance and development culture and how wemight be able to build on our work in this area was a focus for us in 2018. Structured professional learning sessionssupporting teachers and leaders across the school to engage in the Performance and Development Cycle, with aparticular focus on reflection and goal setting, were implemented.

A structure to allow for Leadership catch–up sessions with the teachers they supervise was established. These sessionswere designed to support our leaders to work with teachers to ascertain what support they required and providefeedback on how well they were supporting staff in implementing their Performance and Development Plans (PDPs). Areview was also carried out to investigate possible systems/supports needed to support staff in working towards theachievement of their goals. As a result of this review, staff were provided with time "Mighty Minutes" to work towards theirgoals. Coupled with this strategy was the establishment of a system for substantive conversations between leaders andteachers, as part of a coordinated whole school approach to developing professional practice.

In an effort to establish an effective approach to improving practice, work with the Leadership Team involved consideringhow we could support our teachers to make a conscious effort to collect and reflect on evidence that provides insight intothe effectiveness of their practice. Conversations supporting teachers to consider their growth, and supporting them tomake decisions about what high quality professional learning they were going to access (when and how) was also a keyfeature of our leaders work. All staff engaged in a formal annual performance and development review including a fullreflection on their performance against all of their goals, using multiple sources of evidence gathered.

Evidence–based Practices

All teaching staff at our school engaged in ongoing whole–staff and stage–based professional learning unpacking theCentre for Statistics and Evaluation (CESE) recent research on What Works Best: Evidenced–based practices to helpimprove NSW student performance. Led by our executive staff, teachers were supported to consider the seven themesfrom the growing bank of evidence we have for what works best to improve student educational outcomes. Sessionsinvolved staff connecting educational theory and research with our own context and through the use of the What WorksBest Reflection Guide teachers examined explicit examples of what can be done to improve student engagement andachievement, to reflect on their individual teaching strategies and to evaluate their own practice. As a whole staff wereflected on what we do well, what we could do better and what we might do differently over the next year across each ofthe seven themes identified in the research.

Two teams were established, with representation across all stages, to drive our work in this process in 2018; TheLiteracy and Numeracy Team and the Future Focussed Team.

Members of our School Leadership Team attended professional learning sessions on the National Literacy andNumeracy Learning Progressions which were developed by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and ReportingAuthority (ACARA) and the NSW Department of Education. Upon attendance at this professional learning a plan forimplementation, involving ongoing professional learning to build upon teaches existing knowledge and understanding ofliteracy and numeracy, was developed. Professional learning on an Introduction to the National Literacy and NumeracyLearning Progressions was presented to staff to frame thinking and support teachers to understand how they can utilisethe progressions to target their teaching of literacy and numeracy within the syllabus. Staff were supported in looking atthe Literacy Progressions document and the theory and intent behind the use of it as a tool to support teaching of theK–10 English Syllabus. The Deputy Principal and Early Stage 1 Assistant Principal attended training in the Plan 2


tool and considered how to best support implementation of this across the school.

The Literacy and Numeracy Team developed an outline of current assessment practice across the stages and currentknowledge and use of the Assessment Folders developed in 2015. Consideration of how to utilise this resources in linewith the themes of Use of Data to inform practice and Effective Feedback from the What Works Best research was also afocus.

Whole stage curriculum planning days were implemented each term as part of an integrated approach to quality teachingand assessment, allowing for the development of assessment tasks and collaborative planning of units of work in thecurriculum areas of English, Science and Technology, History and Geography. An assessment day at the end of eachterm was also implemented, where teachers compared assessment tasks and student work samples in order to buildconsistent teacher judgement and identify 'where to from here' in each learning sequence.

The Future Focused Team worked with the School Services Directorate to explore areas of opportunity and develop anaction plan in this area. Our school became part of the Departments STEMShare community, accessing the RoboticsSTEM technology kit in Term 4. Participation in this initiative was designed to enable our teachers to understand,experience and embed STEM technologies into teaching and learning. All CVPS staff were professionally developed inthe use of the Robotics STEMshare kit and ways to incorporate this into their teaching and learning programs in Term 4.The identification of current ICT capability of CVPS staff and students was completed through an online survey. Surveyresults were evaluated to determine specific needs of staff, students and community and an action plan was developedas a result of the survey data.





Increased use of data andevidence–based pedagogy toinform classroom practice.

$40 000 Assessment days/curriculum planning days

74% of staff reported that as a result of thecurriculum planning and assessment daysconsistency of teacher judgement across the schoolhad grown significantly.

68% of staff reported that consistency of curriculumdelivery across the school had also increasedsignificantly as a result of this strategy.

100% of staff stated that they had made change totheir practice as a result of their engagement withresearch around evidenced–based practices toinform classroom practice, with 22% of our teachersstating they had made significant change to theirpractice as a result of this strategy.

78% of staff reported that the strategic engagementin the What Works Best research made a differenceto the student learning outcomes of their studentswith 28% of teachers indicating that in theirclassrooms this was a significant difference.

Increased proportion of studentsachieving a years growth for ayears learning in literacy andnumeracy.

0.8 QTSS staffing allocationused for exec release towork with staff

$3 600 casual relief to allowfor cycles of lessonobservation

67.5% of Year 5 students achieved at or aboveexpected growth in Grammar and Punctuationcompared to 56.5% of the state. This was anincrease of 13% from 2017.

The average NAPLAN growth score for our Year 5students in Grammar and Punctuation was 85.6compared to 68.3 across the state for Year 5students.

66.7 % Year 5 students achieved at or aboveexpected growth in Spelling compared to 58% ofthe state. This was an increase of 20% from 2017.

The average NAPLAN growth score for our Year 5students in Spelling was 88.6 compared to 79.7across the state for Year 5 students.

53.1% of Year 5 students achieved at or abovePrinted on: 29 May, 2019Page 11 of 26 Cudgegong Valley Public School 4555 (2018)





Increased proportion of studentsachieving a years growth for ayears learning in literacy andnumeracy.

expected growth in Reading.

46.9% Year 5 students achieved at or aboveexpected growth in Numeracy, an increase of 14%from 2016.

Increased staff engagement andownership of their performanceand development.

$30 000 Mighty minutesstrategy

100% of teachers reported that the Mighty minutesstrategy supported them to own their PDP, with80% of staff stating that this strategy had asignificant impact on the ownership of their owngrowth within the PDP process.

60% of teachers reported that their engagementwith their PDP in 2018 had grown significantlycompared to previous years.

Staff reported as a result of this strategy thefollowing occurred: they were better able to focuson a particular area of their teaching and showgrowth as a learner; they had a deeper knowledgeof aspects of their PDP goals and how to go aboutworking towards achieving them.

Next Steps

Performance and Development Culture

In 2019 our QTSS allocation will be used to release a teacher to work in a QTSS mentor positions as well as providerelease time for our executive to support teachers in the development and implementation of their Performance andDevelopment Plans. A review of our current system to support teachers in the development of their PDPS by schoolleaders will take place. This will include considering how staff are supported in the drafting of goals inline with theschools strategic directions. Additional relief will again be provided to staff to work towards the achievement of their PDPgoals (Mighty Minutes). PDP goals for all teaching staff across the school will be collated with a database of goals acrossthe school developed, in order to identify possible opportunities for communities of practice. This will also include thedesign and implementation of a strengths audit of staff in order to identify opportunities for coaching and mentoringrelationships across the school.

A Beginning Teacher Induction program will be developed by the QTSS mentor to support our new scheme teachers.This will include establishing mentoring relationships for our beginning teachers including a clear articulation of what thiscan look like for individuals. A focus on the development of our whole school professional learning community, includinga professional reading library and book club to drive professional dialogue and improve practice, will also be a major rolefor the QTSS mentor in 2019.

Evidence–based Practices

As a result of the What Works Best Reflection Tool collation of responses, a continued focus on identified themes in theresearch will need to be embedded into the Professional Learning schedule for 2019. Themes for focus in 2019 will be:Use of Data to Inform Practice, Effective Feedback and Explicit Teaching.

An action plan outlining our best approach to implementing the Learning Progressions, as part of the School Plan, will bedeveloped and implemented. Time at whole staff and stage meetings will be allocated for stages to become familiar withthe Literacy and Numeracy Progressions documents. An implementation plan for the tracking of students across aspectsof the Literacy ad Numeracy progressions, via the PLAN2 software, will be developed. The element of Creating Texts inthe aspect of Writing will be our whole school focus for professional learning in 2019.

Time for stage teams to collaboratively plan will again be provided in 2019 through the implementation of CurriculumPlanning and Assessment days. This will include stage teams considering the elements of; Curriculum, EffectiveClassroom Practice and Data Skills and Use in the Schools Excellence Framework to guide and inform their work duringthese Curriculum planning days. In 2019 we will focus on the implementation of the new Science and Technology andPD/Health/PE Syllabuses as well as the English syllabus. Whole school professional learning around unpackingTeaching and Learning Cycle in order to develop deep understanding of how it works and how it can be implemented toinform programming will also be a priority next year.



Collaborative Partnerships

Purpose

Develop systems and practices that support genuine inclusive collaborative partnership across the school communitywhere consultation and responsiveness to feedback is valued and a culture of continuous improvement is embedded.


In order to work towards the achievement of our practices and products and develop genuine inclusive collaborativepartnership across the school community, we have two main processes; Process 1 – Evaluative Thinking where staff aresupported to build their capacity to develop evaluative thinking and the mindset and skillset that motivate and fuelevaluative activity and Process 2 – Community Engagement focussing on establishing, evaluating and embeddingsystems and processes to engage all key stakeholders in consultative decision making.

Evaluative Thinking

The establishment of our School Improvement Team, with representation of our leaders, teachers and parents allowedfor the development of our strategic plan. Professional learning on the School Excellence Framework (SEF) wasprovided to the team to support the development of a deeper understanding of what excelling looks like in each of thedomains, in order to support the drafting of the 5Ps for each strategic direction.

The School Leadership Team completed the self–assessment of the SEF identifying practices currently in place at theschool that addresses each element; opportunities that we could consider for our school to address each element andwhat we have planned in the 5Ps that aligns to each element. The team were also supported to consider our evidencebase with a focus on identifying the evidence we have that supports us in our judgements against the SEF andconsidering how accurate our judgements are.

Professional learning was provided to the School Improvement Team to develop an understanding of the milestoningprocess and how we can embed evaluative thinking at the onset of planning. Work around developing evaluationquestions for each activity within each process across the plan was also a key focus for this team.

The following operational teams were established; LST, PBL, School Improvement, Leadership, Future FocusedLearning, Literacy and Numeracy and Communication Teams and their work was driven by the plan and aligned to eachprocess. Each team, lead by members of the School Improvement Team, took responsibility for tracking their workagainst the milestones for their identified process. This involved monitoring the evaluation questions that were developedin the planning phase and their effect on supporting teams to reflect on the impact of their work.

Community Engagement

A clear communication strategy and consultation process, of the schools vision and strategic directions, was utilised withthe whole school community, ensuring all key stakeholders had the opportunity to be involved in the development of thestrategic plan. Feedback from parents was sort via the P&C. The inclusion of two parents, elected from the P&C, on theSchool Improvement Team allowed for increased parent voice in decision making. These parents were instrumental inworking with teachers and leaders on this team to milestone actions for 2018 in the area of Community Engagement.

A Communication Team was established and two members of this team attended a master class on engaging with thecommunity run by the Communication and Engagement Directorate. This led to the development of an action plan basedon our developing understanding of quality community engagement and its application within our context.

This team carried out a situational analysis around current practices used by the school to gather feedback from ourstakeholders. This included considering what we ask for, who we ask, how we ask and who responds. The Excellence inSchool Customer Service 360 Reflection tool, developed by the Department, was implemented to gather feedback on thecustomer service behaviours exhibited to both internal and external customers. This involved measuring our work in thefour key areas of; communicating effectively, our commitment to customer service, working collaboratively and our levelof consistency and vision in planning. 81 questionnaires were returned in total, with responses received from leaders,teachers, non–teaching staff and parents and carers. This response rate was extremely pleasing given historically theschool has received very low engagement in this type of feedback in the past.

A strategic plan was developed for the implementation of this years suite of Tell Them From Me surveys, including keyconsideration on effective feedback practices and how these could be used to increase response rates from our


community. As a result of our targeted communication strategy, involving student leaders handing out information on howto complete the survey at a number of school events, and notices in both the school newsletter and on the schoolFacebook page to encourage participation in the survey, our response rates have increased significantly with allstakeholders. The last time this tool was implemented, in 2015, only 7 parents responded, in 2018 there were 103responses from our parent body.





Increased community confidencein the school as a learningcommunity.

$3000 to attend CommunityEngagement Professionallearning

In 2018 the proportion on parents/carers engagingwith class teachers around learning in theclassroom via Class Dojo increased fromapproximately 9%in 2017 to 36% in 2018.

Response rates from parents/carers on survey toolsused has increased dramatically in 2018 with ourresponse rate for the TTFM Partnerships inLearning survey increasing by almost 19%.

Engagement on the school's Facebook page hasalso increased with our number of followersincreasing from 731 at the start of the year to 906 atthe end of the year. Average likes increased by 175over the course of the year.

Analysis of TTFM Parent survey results in the areaof School Support Learning at CVPS showed anincrease from 6.4 to 7.1, with every single measureincreasing. The responses to My Child isencouraged to do his or her best work increasingfrom 5.9 to 7.7. Teachers have high expectationsfor my child to succeed also increased significantlyfrom 6.3 to 7.0 in 2018.

Analysis of TTFM Parent survey results in the areaof Two–way communication with parents ;Parents are informed indicated a significantincrease from 5.1 to 6.4.

In the aspect of School supports positivebehaviour data indicated an increase from 7 to 7.8overall with a significant increase for Teachersmaintain control of their class, increasing from 5.9to 7.3.

Data analysis from the Excellence in SchoolCustomer Service 360 reflection tool showed that inall competencies, across all seven clusters, themean scores rated Cudgegong Valley PublicSchool as 'meeting community expectations' orhigher. The mean scores from all respondents foreach competency excluding 'School Vision'matched or exceeded 80%, making eachcompetency and each cluster overall considered astrength.

In the 'Customer Service' competency from theCommit to Customer Service cluster, the schoolexceeds community expectations. 100% of parentcomments in this area were positive.

In the 'Information– Quality and ease of use'competency from the Communicate Effectivelycluster, parents/future parents rated the school at2.8 (with 2 rated as meeting communityexpectations and 3 exceeding community






Increased community confidencein the school as a learningcommunity.

expectations), meaning there is a school–wide,collective responsibility for effective communication,with high levels of students, staff, and communityengagement.

Increased proportion of staffunderstand and use evaluativethinking to assess the impact ofschool practices.

$8 100 3 days casual relieffor the members of theSchool Improvement Teamto participate in planningdays.

$4000 (1.5 days / leader)for LeadershipDevelopment days

100% of staff engaged in an evaluation processwhere they were asked to consider the impact ofkey strategies on their teaching practice andstudent learning outcomes. They were also askedto consider suggestions for tweaking – this strategywould be even better if... and what else we could doto meet the intent of each major strategy within ourplan.

2018 Self assessment against the ExcellenceFramework has seen movement from Delivering toSustaining and Growing in the elements of SchoolPlanning, implementation and reporting, Schoolresources and Management practices andProcesses within the Leading domain.

Feedback from staff indicated that as a result of theintroduction of the School Improvement Team thefollowing has occurred; there is greaterunderstanding and connection to the school plan byeveryone; there is greater connection between ourstrategic directions, key strategies and money spentand the team has been more focused than in thepast with clear directions set on where we want toget to.

Next Steps

Evaluative Thinking

In 2019 the School Improvement Team will be supported to consider how we can utilise a variety of data sources in orderto make assessments of the ongoing progress towards the strategic directions identified in the School Plan. Work willfocus on developing the capacity of the team to utilise the evidence bank available on SPaRO to track progress towardsour milestones. A process to collect and/or upload evidence as we go, will be established. All staff will be encouraged toconsider how the things they are doing could provide evidence of achievement against our improvement measures andprogress against the SEF.

The School Improvement Team will continue to be supported to develop their understanding of how to plan, undertakeand lead the evaluation of our School Plan. Careful consideration by the School Improvement Team of what data couldbe collected to show evidence of progress towards our improvement measures will be a focus next year. The team willbe supported to choose the right data and design data collection instruments for each process within the plan, buildingour capacity to effectively use existing data sets.

Community Engagement

In 2019 our Communication and Engagement Team will be broadened to include representation from each stage acrossthe school. A focus for this team will be the analysis of our communication channels including; Newsletter, website,Skoolbag, Facebook and Class Dojo. This will also include work around clearly articulating the purpose and targetaudience for each channel. Rules of engagement and support for classroom teachers in implementing Class Dojo as acommunication tool will also be established.

The Communication and Engagement Team will also look at establishing a system to seek feedback from our parentbody in regards to our communication systems. A timeline for the revision and uploading of content to the School websitewill be established, along with a system for uploading posts etc. to the School's Facebook page. It is hoped that ourmarketing strategy can be finalised next year and our Communications and Marketing Plan drafted for implementation in2020.


Key Initiatives Resources (annual) Impact achieved this year

Aboriginal background loading $41 323.00 SLSO support

$908.46 NAIDOC week

$5 255.61 Developmentand review of PLPs

The establishment of an Aboriginal EducationTeam involving key local Aboriginal AECGmembers and our Aboriginal families has leadto a strengthening of our partnership with ourAboriginal community, allowing forco–decision making. This team lead ourNAIDOC celebrations in 2018 which allowedfor all of our students at CVPS to be educatedabout Aboriginal cultures. This also allowedfor our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderstudents to work with local Aboriginalcommunity to deepen their ownunderstanding of their culture and celebratethis.

The employment of School Learning SupportOfficers (SLSO) to support our ATSI studentsin the classroom, with a particular focus onliteracy and numeracy has resulted in;

The average NAPLAN score for our Year 3ATSI students in Reading is above the Stateaverage score for ATSI students.

38% of our ATSI students in Year 3 achievedproficiency in Reading and/or Numeracy, anincrease of 13% in 2017

The gap between the average NAPLAN scorefor our Aboriginal and non–Aboriginalstudents in Year 5 decreased in 4 aspects ofthe NAPLAN test; Grammar and Punctuationdecreased by 64%, Spelling decreased by 9%and Reading and Writing decreased by 8% in

Low level adjustment for disability $60 000 employment ofSLSOs to support learning

$4 950 development andreview of ILPs

Staff have enabled success for our studentswith a disability by personalising studentlearning and supporting students to achieve.

Parents/carers actively participate in theschool and in helping students to developpositive connections by supporting andreinforcing student learning as part of thedevelopment and review of Individual SupportPlans for students with a disability.

The employment of SLSOs to support theimplementation of Support Plans has led toan increase in the proportion of studentsachieving their personalised learning goals.Some students are now better able toarticulate their learning and understand whatthey need to learn next to enable continuousimprovement.

Quality Teaching, SuccessfulStudents (QTSS)

Staffing allocation used torelease executive to workwith Classroom teachers

Each member of the Leadership Team wasreleased one day per week in order toenhance professional practice across ourschool by focusing on the quality of classroomteaching.

Executive staff used this time to provide theirteachers with support in the development andimplementation of their Performance andDevelopment Plans. Staff were supported to


Quality Teaching, SuccessfulStudents (QTSS)

Staffing allocation used torelease executive to workwith Classroom teachers

develop their professional learning goalsthrough the analysis of data. This involvedsupporting teachers to reflect on their practicein order to set appropriate goals. Reflectionpoints were built in across the cycle whereleaders engaged in substantive conversationswith their teams, supporting them to reflect onthe impact of TPL in change to practice andsubsequent progress towards their goals.

The observation of teachers in theirclassrooms along with the demonstration ofeffective teaching strategies was also astrong component of our leaders work duringtheir QTSS time.

Through providing timely, frequent andimprovement focused feedback to supportteachers' efforts to improve their practice, ourleaders have begun to create a culture ofteacher quality, feedback and growth for allteachers within our school.

Socio–economic background $33 109 Higher Duties forAP Learning and Support

$10 500 Speech Therapist

$97 603.35 SLSOs

$2 400 PBL UniversalsTraining for PBLLeadership team (coursecosts)

$39 015 Teacher Relief

$15 195 Technology

As a result of establishing the AssistantPrincipal Learning and Support position worktowards a whole school approach to wellbeingand engagement to improve learning hasbegun. Individual student needs are beingaddressed through a more strategic,whole–school approach to wellbeing andengagement. The effective use of school andsystem resources to support the learning andwellbeing of all students is becoming evident.

Employment of a Speech Therapist one dayper week, as part of a whole school approachto the implementation of Spelling, hasresulted in an increase in the capacity of ourteachers to explicitly teach Spelling. This alsoinvolved supporting the development ofprograms for students with Speech andLanguage needs. Classroom teachers whowere involved with the Speech Therapist aspart of this initiative reported improvedspelling results for the students in their room.As a result of the modelled lessons providedby the Speech Therapist teachers involvedstated that they have made significant changeto their teaching of Spelling.

Equity funding have been used to relieveteachers in the following initiatives;Curriculum planning and Assessment days;Mighty Minutes strategy; Leadership andSchool Improvement Planning Days;engaging in TPL around evidenced–basedpractices with a focus on the What WorksBest research and PBL Universals training forthe PBL Leadership team. The impact ofthese strategies has been reported in theprevious section of this report.

The purchase and installation of Interactivepanels has allowed for the enhancement ofhow our teachers teach along with the wayour students are learning. This multi touchtechnology supports our students to interact


Socio–economic background $33 109 Higher Duties forAP Learning and Support

$10 500 Speech Therapist

$97 603.35 SLSOs

$2 400 PBL UniversalsTraining for PBLLeadership team (coursecosts)

$39 015 Teacher Relief

$15 195 Technology

and share together. Interactivity providesopportunities for every student to interact andengage in class. This technology hasenhanced classroom experience by providingmany education tools to use together withmultimedia.

Support for beginning teachers $13 292.21 Casual relief Beginning teachers funding in 2018 was usedto support our early career teachers indeveloping and maintaining their professionalpractice. Release was provided for thoseteachers working towards accreditation atproficiency, along with the support of anexperienced mentor in this process. Our earlycareer teachers at CVPS were supported toreflect on their work in relation to theAustralian Professional Standards forteachers and how they could demonstrateachievement towards the standard atproficiency.

Funding was also used in 2018 to provide ourbeginning teachers with access toprofessional learning that focused onclassroom and behaviour management,strategies to build student engagement,collaborative professional practices within theschool and productive relationships withparents and carers.

Targeted student support forrefugees and new arrivals

$3 605.00 Funding was used to provide initial intensivesupport for a small group of newly arrivedstudents to our school. Additional teachersupport was provided to these students toenable them to develop their Englishlanguage skills and participate successfully intheir learning in the classroom. This supportwas provided over two half days in order tomaximise the opportunities these studentshad in accessing intensive English support.

The EAL/D Learning Progression and ESLscales where used to assess and map thesestudents literacy skills in oral interaction,reading and responding and writing. Asuitable learning program, which includedEnglish language learning outcomes relativeto the different KLA stage outcomes andlearning experiences including plannedassessments, was then developed andimplemented.


Student information

Student enrolment profile

Enrolments

Students 2015 2016 2017 2018

Boys 299 297 294 283

Girls 245 246 281 274

Student attendance profile

School

Year 2015 2016 2017 2018

K 94.3 93.9 94.3 93.4

1 95 94.7 93.6 93.1

2 94.7 93.8 94.6 92.6

3 94.6 94.8 94.4 94

4 94 94.4 93.8 92.6

5 94.8 93 93.4 90.5

6 94.9 93.8 92.3 92.1

All Years 94.6 94 93.7 92.6

State DoE

Year 2015 2016 2017 2018

K 94.4 94.4 94.4 93.8

1 93.8 93.9 93.8 93.4

2 94 94.1 94 93.5

3 94.1 94.2 94.1 93.6

4 94 93.9 93.9 93.4

5 94 93.9 93.8 93.2

6 93.5 93.4 93.3 92.5

All Years 94 94 93.9 93.4

Management of non-attendance

Student attendance rates in 2018 are shown to belower than in previous years. Improved structures andprocesses put in place should see an improvement inthis figure throughout 2019.

Teachers at Cudgegong Valley Public School arecommitted to managing student attendance using theappropriate Department of Education Attendance policyand procedures. Teachers are provided with an annualrefresher of Attendance Policy and Procedures with anychanges to Policy or internal procedures communicatedto staff, as required

In order to maintain school attendance we haveestablished monitoring practices and regular follow–up

of unexplained absences. A range of school basedstrategies are implemented to resolve attendancedifficulties that have the welfare of the student as theirfocus. These include: DP fortnightly role checks withHSLO, student and parent interviews via phone calls,letters or interviews, referral to the school Learning andSupport Team and referral to the school Counsellor.Support from the Home School Liaison Officer isrequested when there is a break down ofcommunication between home and school.

Structure of classes

Cudgegong Valley Public School hosts the DistrictOpportunity Class, for identified students in Years 5and 6, run out of the Department's High PerformingStudents Unit. This class was established to supportgifted students to achieve their potential by providing anenvironment, resources and learning opportunities thatmeet their particular educational needs. TheOpportunity Class provides a classroom experiencewhere being academically gifted is explicitly valued.Having their intellectual differences valued andrewarded can lead to students learning to accept andvalue their differences, instead of ignoring or denyingthem.

The OC at Cudgegong Valley Public School providesindividual students with a learning path that supportstheir academic, social and emotional needs. Studentslearn to question, design solutions to challengingproblems and present their understanding in creativeand original ways. Their individual differences areencouraged and nurtured in a supportive andcooperative learning environment. Students are able tofollow individual learning paths that enrich and compactthe regular NSW syllabus.

Workforce information

Workforce composition

Position FTE*

Principal(s) 1

Deputy Principal(s) 1

Assistant Principal(s) 4

Classroom Teacher(s) 20.86

Teacher of Reading Recovery 0.63

Learning and Support Teacher(s) 1.2

Teacher Librarian 1

School Administration and SupportStaff

4.06

*Full Time Equivalent

Two staff members at Cudgegong Valley Public Schoolidentify as being Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanderdescent.


Teacher qualifications

All teaching staff meet the professional requirementsfor teaching in NSW public schools.

Teacher qualifications

Qualifications % of staff

Undergraduate degree or diploma 100

Postgraduate degree 25

Professional learning and teacher accreditation

Staff Development Days in Terms 1 and 4 focussed onthe mandatory Child Protection training, CPR,Anaphylaxis as well as Code of Conduct training. Acombined development day with local schools acrossthe Cudgegong Learning Community in Term 2featured expert Dan Hasler presenting on developing aGrowth Mindset, a disposition that embraces challenge,seeks out feedback and values effort as the pathway tomastery. All staff at Cudgegong Valley Public Schoolcompleted the Management of Actual or PotentialAggression (MAPA) Foundation course on StaffDevelopment Day in Term 3.

Reporting on student achievement was another focusduring the year with professional learning provided toteachers on how to report clearly, accurately andrespectfully to students and parents about studentachievement.

Supporting the development of our leaders was also afocus for us in 2018. Two members of the schoolLeadership Team completed the Art of Leadershiptraining. Two aspiring leaders are engaging in the HighImpact School Leadership initiative. Members of ourSchool Improvement Team participated in theEvaluation Essentials for School Leadership run byCESE. Members of the schools Leadership and SchoolImprovement Teams completed the Introduction toSCOUT module. The Deputy Principal competed theSchool Leaders & the Law workshop.

Professional learning in Literacy and Numeracyfocussed predominantly on the early years with threeEarly Stage One teachers participating in theLanguage, Literacy and Learning (L3) program. Ourearly years team also completed professional learningin the implementation and use of Best Start K; 5members of our Early Years team attended PLAN 2:How to – a technical guide for using PLAN; and aleadership team attended the Introduction to theLiteracy and Numeracy Progressions training as wellas, Effective Reading in the Early Years of School. Thisteam then led the implementation of this training atschool with groups of teachers.

The PBL Leadership Team completed the three dayUniversals Training for the Positive Behaviour forLearning Program. Our internal coaches alsoparticipated in Coach Network Training provided by the

regional PBL team. two members of our Learning andSupport Team along with the principal completedtraining around Trauma Informed Practice. 9 staffmembers, including both teaching and non–teachingstaff completed the Online Training Australia –Managing Behaviour course. Our Learning and Supportteachers participated in Access request TPL and ateacher completed the Collaborative and ProactiveSolutions course run by the University of TechnologySydney.

Our focus on evidence–based practices and futurefocused learning saw two teachers attend the 2018Edutech Conference; Futures Focus Expo, GameChanger Design Theory professional learning andProgramming the Future Master class. A team of 3teachers attended John Hattie's Visible Learning– HowStudents Learn – Improving how students approachlearning regional workshop.

Two teachers along with the Deputy Principalparticipated in the Ngara Wumara project this yearwhich involved professional learning centred around;AECG – Healthy Culture, Healthy Country; The NSWPhysical Literacy Continuum K–10 and the new PDHPEK–10 syllabus; Differentiating the curriculum for younggifted learners; Building a learning profile of a giftedlearner; Language to Learn and Language to excel –supporting Aboriginal EAL/D Learners.

Two members of our Communication Team participatedin professional learning run by the Communication andEngagement Directorate on Engaging Effectively withyour Community. This professional learning then drovethe work of this team.

Members of the school Finance Team completedtraining in; Developing ad Managing the Total SchoolBudget for 2019, Managing the Total School Budget inthe eFPT; Enterprise Financial Planning and Budgetingfor additional Staff in an LMBR school; eFPT SystemsStaff Planning; LMBR – SAP Reports & BankingManagement and LMBR – SAP Reports, CEPS &Journalling.

Members of our SAS Team completed; Health Careprocedures recertification; Student Wellbeing –including Health Care, Court Orders and Auto Injectors;Purposeful Use of ebs:Central/Ontrack+ & StudentWellbeing; Oliver – Introductory Training, Oliver – NewLook Search, Oliver – Reporting, Oliver – Management3 and Equipment and Stocktake.

Teacher Accreditation

At Cudgegong Valley Public School in 2018 threebeginning teachers achieved accreditation atproficiency. One teacher is currently undertakingaccreditation at Highly Accomplished.


Financial information

Financial summary

The information provided in the financial summaryincludes reporting from 1 January 2018 to 31December 2018.

2018 Actual ($)

Opening Balance 250,376

Revenue 4,884,169

Appropriation 4,763,201

Sale of Goods and Services 95

Grants and Contributions 119,586

Gain and Loss 0

Other Revenue 0

Investment Income 1,286

Expenses -4,603,294

Recurrent Expenses -4,603,294

Employee Related -4,248,576

Operating Expenses -354,718

Capital Expenses 0

Employee Related 0

Operating Expenses 0

SURPLUS / DEFICIT FOR THEYEAR

280,875

Balance Carried Forward 531,251

The school Finance Team consists of the Principal,Deputy Principal and School Admin Manager. Thisteam meets two – three times a term to reviewexpenditure against the School Plan. Much of the workof this team in 2018 was centred around deepening ourcapacity to effectively utilise the systems introducedunder LMBR.

Financial summary equity funding

The equity funding data is the main component of the'Appropriation' section of the financial summary above.

2018 Actual ($)

Base Total 3,819,497

Base Per Capita 111,187

Base Location 16,100

Other Base 3,692,210

Equity Total 444,639

Equity Aboriginal 57,079

Equity Socio economic 195,027

Equity Language 2,864

Equity Disability 189,670

Targeted Total 125,758

Other Total 173,592

Grand Total 4,563,486

Figures presented in this report may be subject torounding so may not reconcile exactly with the bottomline totals, which are calculated without any rounding.

A full copy of the school's financial statement is tabledat the annual general meetings of the parent and/orcommunity groups. Further details concerning thestatement can be obtained by contacting the school.

School performance

International Competitions and Assessments (ICAS)

This year saw 6 students from Year 2 enter theInternational Competitions and Assessments forSchools or ICAS competitions in either Science,Spelling, English and Maths and over these tests ourYear 2 students achieved six Credits across these fourcompetitions. A wonderful achievement!

The achievements of our primary students in this year'sICAS were extremely impressive with students fromYears 3 to 6 participating in the Digital Technologies,Science, Writing, Spelling, English and Mathematicscompetitions. Across these competitions our studentsachieved 12 Distinctions, 33 Credits and 11 Merits.

NAPLAN

In the National Assessment Program, the results acrossthe Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 literacy and numeracyassessments are reported on a scale from Band 1 toBand 10. The achievement scale represents increasinglevels of skills and understandings demonstrated inthese assessments.

From 2018 to 2020 NAPLAN is moving from a papertest to an online test. Individual schools are migrating tothe online test, with some schools attempting NAPLANon paper and others online.


Results for both online and paper formats are reportedon the same NAPLAN assessment scale. Anycomparison of NAPLAN results – such as comparisonsto previous NAPLAN results or to results for studentswho did the assessment in a different format – shouldtake into consideration the different test formats andare discouraged during these transition years.

In 2018 the students at Cudgegong Valley PublicSchool once again completed the NAPLANassessments in paper format. 2018 saw a decrease inthe proportion of our students performing in the bottombands in most aspects of Literacy as well as anincrease in proficiency across a number of theassessments.

Grammar and Punctuation

The proportion of students in Year 3 achieving belowNational Minimum Standard decreased by 4.6% in2018, with the proportion of students achieving bothbelow and at National Minimum Standard decreasingby a total of 6%.

The proportion of students achieving in the top 3 bandsin Year 3 is 6.6% above state, this is an increase of7.7% in 2018.

The proportion of students in Year 5 achieving bothbelow and at National Minimum Standard decreased by4.3% in 2018. While the proportion of students in Year5 achieving proficiency increased by 4.9% in 2018.

Reading

The proportion of students in Year 3 achieving belowNational Minimum standard decreased by 3.3% in2018, with the proportion of students in Year 3achieving both below and at National MinimumStandard decreasing by a total of 4.2%. This is 4.9%lower than state.

The proportion of students in Year 3 achievingproficiency increased by 3.8% in 2018, with theproportion of students in Year 3 achieving in the topband increasing by 6.2%. The proportion of students inYear 5 achieving in the top band in Reading alsoincreased by 1.3%.

Spelling

The proportion of students in Year 3 achieving in thebottom 2 bands decreased by 1.8% in 2018, with theproportion of students performing at National MinimumStandard decreasing by 5%. The proportion of studentsin Year 5 achieving below National Minimum standardin Spelling also decreased by 3.1%.

The proportion of students in Year 3 achievingproficiency increased by 3.9% with the proportion ofstudents achieving in the top band increasing by 4 %.

Writing

The proportion of students in Year 3 achieving bothbelow and at National Minimum Standard for writing

decreased by 1.4%. While the proportion of students inYear 3 achieving proficiency in writing increased by2.6%.

Growth Data compared to State

The average growth Year 5 students at CVPS forSpelling is 88.6 scale score points which is higher thanthe average growth of Year 5 students across the State(79.7).

The average growth 3–5 for Grammar & Punctuation is85.6 scale score points significantly higher than theaverage growth of the same cohort of students acrossthe State which is 68.3.

67.5 % of Year 5 students at CVPS achieved at orabove expected growth in Grammar and Punctuationcompared to 56.5% of Year 5 across NSW.

66.3 % of Year 5 students achieved at or aboveexpected growth in Spelling compared to 58% of Year 5across the State.

Average NAPLAN score over time

The gap between our Year 3 student's averageNAPLAN score for Reading and the State averagescore for Reading has decreased by 72% over the lastyear. The average NAPLAN score for our Year 3 ATSIstudents in Reading is above the State average scorefor ATSI students. The gap between our Year 5student's average NAPLAN score for Reading and theState average score for Reading has decreased by30% over the last year.

Percentage in Bands:Year 3 - Grammar & Punctuation

Band 1 2 3 4 5 6

Percentage of students 3.9 7.8 14.3 37.7 22.1 14.3

School avg 2016-2018 8 8.8 15.9 30.1 19.9 17.3

Percentage in Bands:Year 3 - Reading

Band 1 2 3 4 5 6


School avg 2016-2018 5.3 8.8 18.6 30.1 19.5 17.7

Percentage in Bands:Year 3 - Spelling

Band 1 2 3 4 5 6


School avg 2016-2018 5.3 12.8 19.9 21.2 24.8 15.9


Percentage in Bands:Year 3 - Writing

Band 1 2 3 4 5 6


School avg 2016-2018 3.1 9.3 25.7 28.8 25.7 7.5

Percentage in Bands:Year 5 - Grammar & Punctuation

Band 3 4 5 6 7 8


School avg 2016-2018 5.5 12.5 22.4 33.8 14.7 11

Percentage in Bands:Year 5 - Reading

Band 3 4 5 6 7 8


School avg 2016-2018 5.1 13.9 26.7 25.3 16.8 12.1

Percentage in Bands:Year 5 - Spelling

Band 3 4 5 6 7 8


School avg 2016-2018 4.4 9.6 27.9 33.1 15.8 9.2

Numeracy

The gap between our Year 3 students averageNAPLAN score forNumeracy and the State average score for Numeracyhas decreased by 55% over thelast year.

The proportion of our Year 3 ATSI students achievingproficiency in Numeracy in 2018 doubled from 2017.

The proportion of Year 3 students achieving proficiencyin Numeracy increased by 13%, with an increase ofstudents in the top band of 2% from 2017. Theproportion of Year 5 students achieving proficiency inNumeracy increased by 2%, with an increase ofstudents in the top band of 3% from 2017.

Percentage in Bands:Year 3 - Numeracy

Band 1 2 3 4 5 6


School avg 2016-2018 2.2 16.9 27.1 26.2 19.1 8.4

Percentage in Bands:Year 5 - Numeracy

Band 3 4 5 6 7 8


School avg 2016-2018 4.8 16.8 30.4 31.9 12.8 3.3

Premiers Priority

As reported in the previous section, the proportion ofstudents at Cudgegong Valley PS achieving proficiencyacross many aspects of the NAPLAN assessments hasincreased. This year's results saw an increase of 9.25%of students (Years 3 & 5 combined) achievingproficiency, in the top 2 bands, for Reading andNumeracy.

Parent/caregiver, student, teachersatisfaction

As part of Strategic Direction 3 CollaborativePartnerships from our 2018–2020 School Plan, in 2018,for the first time in three years, we undertook three TellThem From Me (TTFM) surveys: Partners in LearningParent Survey; Focus on Learning Teacher Survey;and Student Outcomes and School. These surveysallow us to gather, analyse and share feedback onwellbeing, engagement and effective teaching from ourkey collaborators: students, teachers and parents.

We had 103 respondents to the Partners in LearningParent Survey in 2018, a significant increase from 7,the last time we completed this survey. Prior to 2018we had not sought feedback from our community on aregular basis, so this is a significant increase inresponse rate and demonstrates that our parents andcommunity are engaging with us in providing feedback.Now that we are actively seeking feedback and peopleare responding, our next step is to act on this feedbackand refine the data that we are seeking.

In 2018 we saw an improvement since the lastsnapshot in: parents feel welcome; parents areinformed; the school supports learning; the schoolsupports positive behaviour; and inclusive school. Ourschool mean in the aspects of 'Parents are informed',and 'Parents support learning at home' are both abovethe NSW Govt. Norm. Parents strongly agreed that theschools administrative staff are helpful when they have


a question or a problem. Parents also strongly agreedthat teachers expect their child to pay attention in classand their child is clear about the rules for schoolbehaviour.

In 2018, our classroom teachers completed the Focuson Learning Teacher Survey. Respondents indicatedthat in the area of 'Data informs practice' CudgegongValley was operating above the NSW Govt. Norm.Teachers strongly agreed that assessments helpedthem understand where their students were havingdifficulty and that they used results from formalassessment tasks to inform lesson planning andmonitor the progress of individual students. Teachersalso strongly agreed that when presenting newconcepts they try to link it to previously mastered skillsand knowledge and use two or more teachingstrategies in most class periods. Teachers identifiedCudgegong Valley as above the NSW Govt. Norm. forbeing an inclusive school, indicating they strive tounderstand the learning needs of students with speciallearning needs and include them in class activities andestablish clear expectations for classroom behaviour.

Cudgegong Valley students from Years 4–6 completedthe Student Outcomes and School Climate survey in2018. Data from this survey indicates that thepercentage of students reporting positive outcomes, inparticular advocacy at school, over the course of thepast three years, has seen an increase in advocacyfrom teachers and adults in the school.

87% of our Year 5 students report high advocacy atschool, as well as high expectations of success. This is2% higher than for the same cohort at State and fallsinto the optimum quadrant of high wellbeing and highexpectations. 92% of our Year 4 students feel acceptedand valued by their peers and by others at their school,compared to 83% of Year 4 students across the State.

Students at CVPS indicate a strong agreement thatimportant concepts are taught well, and that class timeis used efficiently to support class objectives. Studentsalso indicate that learning time is used effectively in theclassroom. The extent to which our students believethey can pursue their goals to completion, even whenfaced with obstacles, is higher than that of State.

Policy requirements

Aboriginal education

NAIDOC Week was celebrated at Cudgegong ValleyPublic School from the 25th to 29th June, Term 2 Week9, 2018.

With consultation from our Indigenous community, avariety of activities were undertaken during the week,culminating in a whole school Indigenous BBQ onFriday 29th June. During our Gold Assembly, held onTuesday 26th June, our NAIDOC Challenge PublicSpeakers presented their speech to the whole schooland projects were presented by individual children. TheGarden Club spent Wednesday 27th June with theATSI children and their friends making dyes, paintingand weaving. Thursday 28th June saw Red Hill

Environmental education Centre visit us and engage allthe children in Indigenous games. The ATSI studentsand a friend participated in an art workshop on Friday29th June with Aleisha Lonsdale, local Indigenous artistand President of the AECG. They looked at symbolsand painted a mural for the school. The whole schoolBBQ followed, where the students were offered Emu,Crocodile and Kangaroo sausages.

The students were invited to design a project at home,prior to NAIDOC Week, for display in the hall. Theprojects were based on the 2018 NAIDOC theme,"Because of her, We can". A few of these projects wereselected and presented during our Gold Assembly.

During 2018, Aboriginal Education at CudgegongValley Public School was boosted through theengagement of some of our Indigenous Communitymembers. A Yarning Group was set up with interestedparents and community members. The group meetsonce a term to discuss topics such as NAIDOC Weekand upcoming Cultural Opportunities for our ATSIstudents.

During 2018, our school participated in the NgaraWumara Project. This was a large scale projectconsisting of four studies with the Institute of PositivePsychology and Education at the Australian CatholicUniversity (ACU) aimed at identifying factors andstrategies that optimise the wellbeing and academicfunctioning of high ability Aboriginal and non–Aboriginalstudents.

The study focused on enhancing the wellbeing andacademic achievement of high ability Aboriginal andnon–Aboriginal students in Years 2–4 through theprovision of a targeted professional learning programfor teachers (experimental group only). 5 students wereselected at our school and 2 teachers completed thecourse. These students, and their class cohorts, wereinvited to participate in the online literacy, numeracyand wellbeing tests and lessons offered in class by theteachers.

Multicultural and anti-racism education

At Cudgegong Valley Public School we endeavour tobuild a culturally inclusive and responsive learningenvironment that benefits all of our students. To enable


students and staff from all cultural backgrounds atCudgegong Valley Public School to connect andsucceed in the learning and working environment, ourschool is committed to building an inclusive andracism–free school community.

The Multicultural Education and Anti–Racism policieswere implemented in 2018 through: • Culturally inclusive school and classroom

practices being embedded and encouraged bythe leadership team. Intercultural understanding isa key capability in NSW syllabuses learningacross the curriculum content. Throughcollaborative programming sessions teachers aresupported to develop and implement strategiesand practices to implement culturally inclusiveteaching and learning.

• As part of our school–wide PBL expectations ourvision states that "Students at Cudgegong ValleyPublic School do their best by being responsiblelearners, who are safe and respectful." Beingrespectful and building positive relationshipsbetween students and teachers from all culturalbackgrounds is embedded in this vision.Celebrations such as Harmony Day where wepromote diversity and acceptance of othercultures were included on the school calendaragain in 2018 and embraced by all staff andstudents.

• Participation in multicultural public speakingopportunities.

• Resources were allocated to meet the specificneeds of students learning English as anAdditional language or Dialect (EALD).

• The appointment of a staff member in the role ofAnti–Racism Contact Officer (ARCO).

Other school programs

Achievements in The Arts and Sport

Our students in Year 3–6 have also excelled in the Artsthis year with winning entrants in the Mudgee Show.Our 5/6 Art Collage was awarded 1st place in theSenior Primary section and 3/4R were highlycommended for their Dandelion Artwork. And of courseGarden Club received 2 1st and a 2nd for their giantpumpkins! Entries from our K–2 classes in the MudgeeShow also achieved placings. With our kindergartenentry being awarded second in the Infants category andour stage one entry of" A is for Australia landscapesscenes" achieving a highly commended. Our KH andKC entry to the Sculptures in the Garden at RosbyEstate won first place in the Infants category.

Debating and Public Speaking

Our debaters and Public Speakers have also performedvery well again this year with students making it to theZone final for the Multicultural Public Speaking and wealso had a first in the Junior section of the RogerWotton/Kevin Pye Public Speaking competition and asecond in the Senior section.

Gulgong Eisteddfod

All Kindergarten students participated in the Prince ofWales, Gulgong Eisteddfod. Our students' entry inChoral Verse Speaking received a Highly Commendedfor their efforts. We also entered Singing with ourstudent's receiving First Place for their amazing efforts.

Infants and Primary Dance Groups

The CVPS Infants and Primary dance groups competedin the 38th Gulgong Prince of Wales Eisteddfod in May.17 students performed in the infants group and 13students performed in the primary group. All studentsdemonstrated great commitment as they met eachThursday to rehearse with Miss Haley Priest fromDance Unlimited. The primary group was awarded thirdplace and the infants group came in at first place. Thiswas an enormous achievement as they wereperforming against 4 other dance groups.

In July, both dance groups competed in the 42ndAnnual Wellington Eisteddfod. Both groups received 1stplace in their sections which was an amazingachievement. They competed against other schoolgroups in the area and lit up the stage with theirprofessional performances.

2018 CLC Gala Concert

The Cudgegong Learning Community (CLC) 2018 GalaConcert achieved its goals through providing anopportunity for interested students to showcase theircreative talents to a wider audience. Our two dancegroups entertained the audience with their colourful andprofessionally executed dance routines. A CVPSStudent Leader, Madeline Cooper, volunteered to beone of the MCs at the concert and performed her dutieswith confidence and maturity.

Band

In 2018 the School Band program continued to grow,with 9 new students joining the beginner band, andothers graduating to the senior band. In Term 4 weagain hosted Chatswood High School band forworkshops and combined bands performances. Theyear culminated with performances at our GoldAssembly and Presentation Days.

Sport

There is a strong commitment for students toparticipate in a range of sports. The following recordsour outstanding achievements. • The school participated in NSWPSSA Knockouts

in Australian Football, Boys and Girls Basketball,Boys and Girls Cricket, Netball, Boys and GirlsSoccer, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Tennis andBoys and Girls Touch.

• Four students represented the school at theNSWPSSA State Swimming Championships.

• Four students represented the school at theNSWPSSA State Cross Country Championships.

• Six students represented the school at theNSWPSSA State Athletics Championships.


• Four students represented Western Region atother NSWPSSA State Championships, in thesports of Australian Football, Touch, RugbyLeague, Rugby Union, Football (Soccer) andTennis.

Student Voice and Leadership

Undoubtedly, one of the major highlights for 2018 waswhen the Cudgee Crew were crowned the winners ofthe Primary School division of the Game ChangerChallenge at the Department of Education Offices inParramatta. The team's plans for a sustainable schoolfor drought–affected NSW was the winning vision at theinaugural event held as part of Education Week. Almost100 students from 16 public schools were challenged toanswer the question, 'How can tomorrow's school helpcreate the future?' Our team focused on sustainabilityand technology with the impact of the drought being thecore focus of their ideas for a sustainable schoolenvironment. This team, along with members from ourgarden club, have begun working with the principal ofRedhill Environmental Education Centre to start draftingour plan for environmental education and sustainability.

Chess Club

In response to overwhelmingly positive studentfeedback from 2017, in 2018 we continued offeringChess Club as an extra–curricular lunchtime activity tosupport student wellbeing and help meet StrategicDirection 1– Engaged and Successful Learners. ChessClub offered students from Kindergarten to Year 6 anopportunity to not only develop their skills in playingchess but also the opportunity to develop and maintainpositive relationships and engage in pro–socialbehaviour. Some students found Chess Club to be awelcome respite from the hustle and bustle of theplayground and it formed a valuable part of our systemsin supporting students to connect, succeed, thrive andlearn.

Kindness Crew

The Kindness Crew is a group of students in Stage 2who focus on developing ideas on how our studentscan spread kindness throughout our classrooms andthe school. Year 3 and Year 4 students are invited tojoin the Kindness Crew and together they brainstormactivities they can do to promote well–being and acts ofservice to our school and our community. Over theyears this has involved visiting nursing homes, singingChristmas carols and delivering home–made Christmascards, as well as picking flowers from our gardensaround our school and making bouquets of flowers forevery teacher and helper delivered by the KindnessCrew. The Crew have surprised students on theplayground with bubbles to chase, made friendshipbracelets to hand out then conduct workshops to teachothers how to make them, held colouring in groups forothers to join in and led buddy reading sessions for theyounger students at lunch time and many, many moreacts of kindness. As a result of this groups work wenow witness acts of kindness being reciprocated byothers. The most popular activity in 2018 was ourKindness Advent Calendar created at Christmas to helpspread good cheer.

Family and Community Programs

In 2018, as part of Strategic Direction 3 CollaborativePartnerships we began to develop systems andpractices that support genuine inclusive collaborativepartnership across the school community whereconsultation and responsiveness to feedback is valuedand a culture of continuous improvement is embedded.By the end of 2020 our intent is that the school isrecognised as excellent and responsive by itscommunity through the valuing of all stakeholdersvoice. Progress in this area has been reported underStrategic Direction 3 on pages 13–15 of this report.

Community Partnerships

This year has seen us work closely in partnership withClub Mudgee and the Mudgee Returned Services Clubthrough our participation in a number of communityevents including; the town Anzac Day March where thisyear we had 76 students march for our school. Wehave had students recognised for their wonderfulentries in the Australian Soldiers Research Competitionand also the Remembrance Day Writing Competitionboth run by Club Mudgee. Our student leaders andwinning entrants took part in the recent 100 yearanniversary of Remembrance Day at the cenotaph. Wealso had 30 of our senior students attend the Invictusgames in Sydney as part of our partnership with ClubMudgee. Offering our students the opportunity toparticipate in this educational project encouraged themto engage in guided inquiry, based on the centralthemes of inclusion, resilience and service. Anexperience I'm sure the students will remember for along time to come.

Transition to School – Let's Connect

Our transition to school program, Lets Connectprovided a range of opportunities for students and theirfamilies to participate in activities to successfullyprepare them for starting school including openclassrooms and information nights. A high level ofcollaboration between the Learning and SupportTeacher (LaST), ES1 Assistant Principal and EarlyLearning Centres ensured we were ready toaccommodate the needs of all students. Our LaSTregularly attends the Child, Family and CommunityServices Network meeting to maintain a collectivecommitment to school transition in our community. Atthe conclusion of our transition to school program allnew Kindergarten students receive a letter introducingtheir new teacher for the school year and are invited toattend an afternoon meeting everyone in their newclass. New Kindergarten students also receive a letterfrom a Year 6 buddy welcoming them to our school.This has further supported a successful transition forstudents into the school setting and developing positiverelationships between our families and schoolcommunity.


Documents

2018 Cudgegong Valley Public School Annual Report€¦ · Cudgegong Valley PS Kitchen Garden Report 2018 was a deliberately quiet year for the CVPS Kitchen Garden crew, so after several