School plan 2018-2020St Johns Park High School 8531

Printed on: 13 April, 2018Page 1 of 6 St Johns Park High School 8531 (2018-2020)

School background 2018–2020

School vision statement School context School planning process

St Johns Park High School uses its motto “Know FirstYourself” and its positive behaviours description “Safe,Respectful Learners” to drive high expectations and acommitment to excellence. All students have theopportunity to reach their personal best, in a school whereexcellence, innovation and equity are central to allactivities. Our school leaders foster a culture highexpectations, quality relationships, a passion for lifelonglearning and assist students to find a career or future thatoffers personal satisfaction and success. St Johns ParkHigh School aims to develop the talents and capabilities ofall students to equip them socially, emotionally andacademically to meet the challenges of a rapidly changingand connected world. Teachers, students, parents andcommunity work together to develop a strong sense ofbelonging and pride in our school.

St Johns Park High School, founded in 1978 is a proudcomprehensive coeducational high school located in SouthWestern Sydney.

The student population is representative of localenrolments, international students and new arrivals. Thestudent body is culturally and linguistically diverse. Morethan 90% of students come from a language backgroundother than English. Students speak more than forty–onedifferent languages, including Vietnamese (30%),Cantonese (8%),  Assyrian (8%) and less than 1% ofstudents are Aboriginal.

The school has a strong reputation as a provider of qualityeducational services and outcomes for a diversecommunity.  The school is ranked as one of thetop performing schools in NSW terms of high value add forstudents from Years 7–12.

The school offers a broad, relevant and innovativecurriculum including VET pathways, Project BasedLearning, High Performance program for gifted andtalented, Accelerated Mathematics program Years 9–12,specialist EALD and targeted learning support classes. Theschool provides an after school Homework program andHSC tutorials. The school also has a Special EducationUnit with four designated classes supporting students withmild to severe intellectual disability. 

Student leadership is explicitly developed through SchoolRepresentative Council (SRC) and HOUSE programs. Wepartner with University of Wollongong, Western SydneyUniversity and the Australian Business Community Network(ABCN) through structured mentoring programs in Years9–12. Student wellbeing is central to the school's success,with personalised approaches to learning, and individualand small group instruction allowing students to feelconnected and flourish.

The school has funded the building of a commercialkitchen, an industry standard Metals and Engineeringworkshop and is continuing to refurbish learning spaces tofacilitate innovation and collaboration.

In 2017 the school designed and implemented a newstrategic plan for 2018–20. The school planning processincluded gathering qualitative and quantitative data fromparents/carers,students, teaching and executive staff.Other sources of evidence and consultation activitiesincluded reference to:

• Tell Them From Me Survey

• NAPLAN and HSC Smart data analysis

• School attendance and retention data

• Internal school developed surveys and focus groupsof staff, students, parents/carers

The analysis of this internal and external data informed thestrategic directions for the school’s three year planningcycle, these are; Wellbeing for student success, Leadershipfor powerful learning and Leading a culture of innovation.

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School strategic directions 2018–2020

STRATEGICDIRECTION 1

Wellbeing for Student Success

STRATEGICDIRECTION 2

Leadership for PowerfulLearning

STRATEGICDIRECTION 3

Leading and Building a cultureof Innovation

Purpose:

St Johns Park High School is committed to a whole schoolapproach that supports the wellbeing of all students. It isfundamental that students connect, succeed, thrive andlearn to face the social and emotional challenges of achanging world. This will enable our students to buildmindsets and develop life skills in the areas of resilience,collaboration, tolerance, positive communication andcooperative leadership.

Purpose:

St Johns Park High School drives a leadership culture forpowerful student learning and achievement. We recognisecreating and maintaining an excellent school to advancethe learning of every student involves leadership that istransformational, instructional and distributed across thewhole school. Leadership for powerful learning buildsknowledge and skills about how to learn and supportsstudents to be the best learners and finest people they canbe.

Purpose:

St Johns Park High School recognises that innovation inteaching and learning is essential to respond to the needsof 21st century learners. We will build effective partnershipswith the wider community to ensure authentic and realworld learning for students and teachers. Through this wewill be future focussed in the promotion of a learningenvironment that values creativity, collaboration andinnovation. We will integrate new technologies, learningspaces and modes of learning that empowers students forfuture success. 

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Strategic Direction 1: Wellbeing for Student Success

Purpose

St Johns Park High School is committed toa whole school approach that supports thewellbeing of all students. It is fundamentalthat students connect, succeed, thrive andlearn to face the social and emotionalchallenges of a changing world. This willenable our students to build mindsets anddevelop life skills in the areas of resilience,collaboration, tolerance, positivecommunication and cooperative leadership.

Improvement Measures

Increase recognition of positive behavioursand students taking responsibility for theirlearning goals and achievements.

Positive and supportive teaching andlearning environment evidenced by areduction in negative behaviours andsuspension rates.

80% of staff using the PB4L strategies,protocols and language in their every daypractice.

100% of staff using the reward andrecognition system.

People

Students

Understand the core values of safe,respectful learners, engage in the PB4Lreward system and build mindsets and lifeskills in the areas of resilience,collaboration, tolerance, positivecommunication and cooperative leadership.

Staff

Use best practice in the management andpromotion of student wellbeing throughthe consistent use of PB4L strategies andprotocols.

Leaders

Build the capacity of staff to best supportthe wellbeing needs of all students andfocus on processes that support continuousimprovement of student and staff wellbeing.

Parents/Carers

Maintain a productive partnership betweenhome and school and reinforce theimplementation of PB4L.

Community Partners

Provide opportunities to promote the social,cognitive, emotional, physical and spiritualdevelopment of all students by sharingexpertise and resources.

Processes

Development and implementation of areward and recognition system that isclosely aligned to schools values andPB4L.

All staff trained to understand and developgrowth mindsets within all students,resilience, collaboration, tolerance, positivecommunication and cooperative leadership.

All staff professionally developed andupskilled in the consistent use ofPB4L strategies and protocols.

Evaluation Plan

• Monitoring of Teaching and Learningprograms and ensuring integration ofPB4L.

• Assessment and analysis of Sentraldata.

• Parent, staff and student surveysconducted annually to evaluate level ofsatisfaction.

• Focus group discussions withrepresentative samples of the schoolcommunity.

• Follow–up surveys to measure progressagainst baseline survey data.

Practices and Products

Practices

Teacher’s effectively and consistently usethe strategies and protocols of PB4L insideand outside the classroom to manage positive and negative behaviours.

Students and teachers co–designpresentations and convey information toraise awareness and promote wellbeingprograms.

Teachers are explicitly using PB4Lstrategies in their teaching and learningprograms to develop within all studentsresilience, collaboration, tolerance, positivecommunication and cooperative leadership.

Products

The PB4L model aligned to The ThreePillars, Code of Conduct, Reward System,Behaviour Expectation Matrix and LevelSystem is established and utilised in wholeschool approaches to wellbeing.

A whole school PB4L wellbeing programembedded in all learning environments andplayground areas to create a positive andsupportive teaching and learningenvironment.

A recognition and reward program isutilised effectively by all staff to promote thevalues of safe, respectful learners andacknowledge the achievements of allstudents.

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Strategic Direction 2: Leadership for Powerful Learning

Purpose

St Johns Park High School drives aleadership culture for powerful studentlearning and achievement. We recognisecreating and maintaining an excellentschool to advance the learning of everystudent involves leadership that istransformational, instructional anddistributed across the whole school.Leadership for powerful learning buildsknowledge and skills about how to learnand supports students to be the bestlearners and finest people they can be.

Improvement Measures

100% of staff emphasise inquiry focusedteaching

Increase the proportion of students in thetop two Literacy NAPLAN bands by 2019

Increase the proportion of students in thetop two Numeracy NAPLAN bands by 2019

100% of stage 4 teaching programs embedformative assessment strategies

85% of students understand and useformative assessment strategies toprogress their own learning.

People

Students

Students will be supported to be literate,numerate and self–regulated learnersthrough the adoption of consistent learningprotocols across the school.

Staff

Teachers utilise the Curiousity andPowerful Learning framework to createclassroom environments for their studentsthat are inquiry–focused, authentic anddifferentiate for specific learning needs.

Leaders

Leaders act as change agents to transformpedagogy and embed new ways ofteaching supported by whole schoolsystems and structures that result inpowerful learning. 

Community Partners

Network with local Fairfield schoolsparticipating in Curiosity Powerful Learningprogram to share best practice for schoolimprovement.

Parents/Carers

Parents to participate in the schoolimprovement model instigated by Curiosityand Powerful Learning to improveunderstanding of learning and teachingpedagogy.

Processes

Develop and sustain instructionalleadership using the CPL Five PhaseImplementation framework leading tocollaborative and reflective teachingpractices.

Develop a whole school teams to collectrobust data of student learning andevidence of assessment practices to trackstudent progress overtime and informteaching programs and assessment.

Staff trained by Literacy consultant inexplicit literacy teaching models anddifferentiating content to cater for identifiedindividual students and groups to improveliteracy results.

Numeracy consultant to train facilitators ineach KLA in explicit numeracy teachingmodels and differentiating content to caterfor identified individual students and groupsto improve numeracy results.

Evaluation Plan

• Literacy NAPLAN data analysis

• Numeracy NAPLAN data analysis

• CPL School Improvement Pathwayframework tool to diagnose currentpractice and map pathway to excellence

• Evidence shared from PDPs

Practices and Products

Practices

Teachers participate in collaborativegroups using inquiry focused teachingand data analysis to reflect on practice toimprove student learning andachievements.

Teachers use effective and explicit literacyand numeracy  practices based onNAPLAN data to improve studentoutcomes.

Teachers embed formative assessmentstrategies in all Stage 4 programs toprovide meaningful feedback to studentsand differentiate resources and classroompractice.

Products

Teachers generate reports and narrativesabout their powerful learning in theclassroom to build capacity in theprocesses of self–reflection anddevelopment of professional goals.

Adopt consistent learning protocols in allclasses to assist students to becomeconfident self–regulated learners throughformative strategies and data analysis.

Differentiated resources designed andimplemented to support targeted literacyand numeracy needs for identifiedindividual students and groups.

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Strategic Direction 3: Leading and Building a culture of Innovation

Purpose

St Johns Park High School recognises thatinnovation in teaching and learning isessential to respond to the needs of 21stcentury learners. We will build effectivepartnerships with the wider community toensure authentic and real world learning forstudents and teachers. Through this we willbe future focussed in the promotion of alearning environment that values creativity,collaboration and innovation. We willintegrate new technologies, learningspaces and modes of learning thatempowers students for future success. 

Improvement Measures

KLAs collaborate to plan and deliver crosscurricular Stage 4 teaching and learningprograms.

All KLAs across the school use ProjectBased Learning approaches that partnerwith an external agency.

All staff to integrate Project Based Learningprinciples for effective classroom practice. 

100% of staff implement emerging teachingand learning technologies.

Modern, future focussed learning spacescater for all student learning styles andincrease student engagement and efficacy.

100% of staff implement cooperativegroups and collaboration. 

People

Students

Through experiences in the classroom,students increase their capacity in 21stlearning skills including creativity,collaboration, critical thinking andcommunication to develop student agencyto solve real world problems.

Staff

Staff through instructional collaboration willdevelop mastery in innovative teachingpractices, emerging technology andpedagogy for flexible learning spaces.

Parents/Carers

Parents to develop an understanding of theimportance of 21st century learning skillsand encouraged to connect authenticlearning opportunities to improve studentexperience and outcomes.

Community Partners

Our school actively includes community,external partners and business to shareexpertise with students and teachers. Thiscreates opportunities to provide authenticlearning that adds value to teaching andlearning.

Leaders

School leaders build a culture that identifiesthat lifting student learning is acollaborative enterprise and relies onstudents, teachers and leaders workingtogether. Leaders implement innovativepractices through evidence basedframeworks.

Processes

Develop learning programs within andacross faculty areas that incorporatesinnovative teaching practices that partnerswith community agencies. 

Develop staff training to implement theeffective use of emerging technologies thatfacilitate student learning.

Staff engage in professional collaborationto develop teaching and learning protocolsthat optimise the engagement of studentsin future focussed learning spaces.

Evaluation Plan

• Monitoring of teaching and learningprograms to ensure the integration 21stCentury learning skills andcompetencies

• Evaluation of innovative teachingframeworks including – Project BasedLearning, STEAM and Creative learningthrough staff, student and parentsurveys and focus groups

Practices and Products

Practices

Explicitly embed 21st Century learningskills and competencies in Stage 4teaching and learning programs to createmeaningful learning experiences forstudents.

All staff are effectively utilising technologybased pedagogies to facilitate high levels ofinteractivity, collaboration and studentengagement.

Staff implement a variety of differentpedagogies to cater for different learnersworking in a diverse learning space.

Products

All KLAs across the school developauthentic teaching and learning programsthat incorporate innovative practices usingPBL, STEAM and creative learningframework.

Teachers are able to effectively usetechnology based pedagogies to providequality instruction and integrate innovationto facilite learning for all students. 

Modern learning spaces are created acrossthe school to facilitate 21st centurypedagogies and provide opportunities forteachers and students to collaborate.

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