Annual Report 2013 - St Agnes Primary School

18 Pages·2014·0.8 MB·English

by  Janine Preece

Annual Report 2013
St. Agnes Primary School
Annual Report
2013

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Annual Report 2013

Context

School Name: St. Agnes Primary School School Number: 1091
Principal: Mr. David Cowles Region: Northern Adelaide

The 2013 Annual report outlines progress towards achieving our strategic priorities in our site improvement plan:
Reading Comprehension, Numeracy and ‘Effective Teaching & Learning’. In my third year as Principal it has been
exciting to see the ‘distance travelled’ over our 3 year journey together. The Governing Council and staff are to be
commended for their hard work to ensure that all students at St. Agnes School continue to have the best possible
learning opportunities and access to a high quality curriculum. It is with great pleasure that we present the following
annual report to the community.

David Cowles Niccola Haskell
Principal Gov. Council Chairperson

St Agnes C7 School is a public school for pre-school to Year 7 students that is committed to achieving high level
learning outcomes for students in a safe and supportive learning environment. It is situated in a bushland setting, in
the north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide (approx.20 mins from the city), in the Tea Tree Gully Council area. The staff
takes great pride in providing a high quality curriculum and broad and balanced education for students, from
Reception to Year 7. The school similarly offers a vibrant Pre-school program for four year old children. The Pre-
school is situated on site in the Junior Primary Unit, which provides easy transition to school. Complementing this
early childhood centre, a Playgroup session is offered on Friday mornings for 0-4 year olds.

A focus on teaching and learning continues to be at the centre of the school’s site improvement plan and our priorities
include: Literacy (reading comprehension), Numeracy and Effective Teaching & Learning. The school has continued
to be an active participant in the Northern Adelaide Region’s reading comprehension focus. St. Agnes Primary’s
achievements in the N.A.R.’S focus over the past 3 years were recognised by its inclusion in the publication ‘Stories
from the field: How sites responded to the Northern Adelaide Region’s Comprehension Focus’.

In 2013 the school also made the key appointment of its new Assistant Principal Karen Post, who brought to the
school a broad skill set in Numeracy and whose previous roles included working as a ‘Numeracy Coach’ to support
and improve learning outcomes in a number of different schools across D.E.C.D. (Dept. of Education and Child
Development). The school has also worked closely with Ann Baker who is the D.E.C.D.’s ‘Mathematician in
Residence.’ The school has subsequently implemented Ann Baker’s ‘Natural Maths’ strategies in the classrooms and
have begun work on an R-7 ‘Scope and Sequence’ of Numeracy.

St. Agnes offers a very strong Arts and L.O.T.E. (languages other than English) programme which includes weekly
Music, Dance and German lessons for all students. Students get the opportunity to also participate in authentic music
experiences such as learning an instrument through the D.E.C.D. instrumental music programme and private
providers (voice, strings, guitar, drums) as well as junior and senior choir and recorder for junior primary students.

The school also offers a strong P.E. programme with all classes participating in weekly P.E. lessons with a P.E.
teacher and the opportunity to participate in a number of S.A.P.S.A.S.A. sporting teams (primary school sports
competition). As well as S.A.P.S.A.S.A. teams the school has a small number of school sporting teams that play in out
of hours competitions against other schools on week nights and weekends.

St. Agnes School has been extensively refurbished in 2013. It is open plan in design and has three wings attached to
a central administration area. All teaching classrooms are reverse –cycle air conditioned with data projectors and
electronic smart boards. The Western wing houses the pre-school and Junior Primary classes (R-1). The Eastern wing
caters for years 1-5 and the Northern wing is a combination of a Resource Centre, Computing suite and senior
classes (year 5 to 7 students).

As part of the federal governments B.E.R. capital works programme, a new large multipurpose hall/gym was built in
2011. This facility is heated and air-conditioned with a sprung floor surface and apart from its use for P.E./ Arts
programmes, assemblies and special community events, it is hired out to local community groups, providing a steady
source of revenue for the school. Included in the central administration area is a 2nd smaller multi-purpose hall which
caters for smaller events. The school also has a multi-purpose area that offers a two tiered open space to cater for
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Annual Report 2013
German classes and provide a large open space to act as a music / drama room. Students at all year levels access
these subject offerings. All three wings of the school have withdrawal areas for small class activities and additionally
specialist support service offices which cater for 1: 1 and small group student support.

The school has an ‘Out of School Hours Care’ facility providing high quality care for our students before and after
school and combines with other local schools for vacation care. The St. Agnes O.S.H.C. has also been refurbished
quite extensively in 2013 with new kitchen, art/craft fixtures, new computing facilities and reverse-cycle air-
conditioning. The O.S.H.C. also shares access to all of the school amenities, both before and after school.

The extensive grounds at St. Agnes Primary School offer three distinct playground areas. The first of these is an
enclosed area that has fixed, shaded playground equipment and shaded sand pit with a small grassed play area. This
area is for the exclusive use of our pre-school students. The other two play areas are the Eastern playground which
has an extensive fixed equipment area and a basketball court. These facilities are mirrored in the Western play area
which additionally has a tennis court area and links onto our school oval. All students have access to the major
recreational areas and students from Reception to year 7 mix well, with senior students taking leadership
responsibilities by supporting and helping the younger students in the play areas. The school has direct access to an
adjacent oval which is maintained by the Tea Tree Gully Council and as it abuts the school play areas it is for the
exclusive use of the school during normal school hours.

2013 Highlights

“2013-St. Agnes Primary School- Here we grow”

2013 saw a surge in enrollments in both the Primary School and the Pre-school. Beginning with around 187 students
in the Primary School at the beginning of the year, the school finished with approx. 215 students and the Pre-school
having to put on an extra session to cope with the demand for pre-school places. In 2014 the trend will continue with
approx. 35 students enrolled in the pre-school and approx. 220 students starting the school year; the largest number
starting school in quite a number of years.

“Time Capsule discovery celebrates 25 years at St. Agnes”

2013 saw an initiative from our Governing Council to try and locate time capsules that were buried some 25 years ago
in 1988. With a little help from Governing Council members and old scholars who attended the initial time capsule
burial ceremony in 1988 (now parents of children attending the school), the capsules were finally located just outside
of the office administration area. Upon their excavation, an opening ceremony was held for current and past children,
parents and school community members in the school’s resource centre. A fantastic turn out saw the capsules opened
and a variety of different artefacts were revealed including photographs, school uniform, childrens’ work, class
memorabilia and other personal effects from 1988. Through social media the word soon got out and many more old
scholars and staff attended the school’s ‘Learning Expo Open Night’ to see the contents of the time capsules. Many
more visited the school in the following weeks after hearing from their friends. Seeing the look of delight and wonder
on faces of people past and present during the opening was a real highlight and it brought back many wonderful
memories for them too. Some of the items from the capsule are on permanent display in the Resource Centre.

Curriculum Highlights

“Our great work acknowledged in Print”

For the last 3 years, St. Agnes Primary School has made a deep connection with the N.A.R.’s (Northern Adelaide
Region) Reading Comprehension focus. The school has developed whole school agreements around how we
explicitly teach the skills of reading comprehension such as inferring, summarising, making connections etc. and also
how we use our data to continually drive improvement in reading. In term 4, St. Agnes Primary School was chosen
with a few other schools from the N.A.R. to tell their ‘comprehension story’ and share their experiences. The Principal
was interviewed and the transcript from the interview was then published in the book “Stories From the Field- How
Schools responded to the Northern Adelaide Region’s Comprehension focus.” To have our school’s story published as
a case study for others to read and consider, was a huge achievement for St. Agnes Primary. It was also
acknowledgement from the Education Department of the substantial amount of work and the vastly improved reading
results St. Agnes has achieved through making the most of being part of the Reading Comprehension programme.

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Annual Report 2013
“Off and Racing with our Numeracy Initiatives”

2013 proved to be an exciting year in Numeracy for St. Agnes with a number of new initiatives being introduced into
the school. St. Agnes was one of 7 schools in the Ridgehaven Cluster who engaged with Ann Baker who is the
D.E.C.D. ‘Mathematician in Residence’. The purpose of this initiative was for schools to implement a whole school
Numeracy block structure and to work with Ann to develop mental computation strategies (Natural Maths). St. Agnes
worked with Ann Baker and the other participating schools in a variety of ways including:
 Whole school participation in the inaugural ‘St. Agnes Amazing Maths Race’. Students from Pre-school to
year 7 were required to race in teams around the school to collaboratively solve a number of different
Mathematical challenges. This event was featured in the local Leader Newspaper and was attended by
dignitaries and M.P.’s both state and federal.
 Holding a ‘cluster’ pupil free day where sites learnt about the structure of a Numeracy Block with Ann.
 3 staff from St. Agnes worked closely with Ann throughout the year to develop their knowledge of mental
computation strategies and then brought these back to our staff and supported them in their use.
 Holding a cluster parent workshop with Ann Baker so that our parents could develop a better understanding of
the mathematical language and strategies being taught in classes.
 Establishment of the S.A.N.D. team (St. Agnes Numeracy Development) to develop whole school agreements
with staff around Numeracy Block structures.
 Establishing P-7 scope and sequence of the Natural Maths mental computation strategies.
 Assistant Principal working alongside and supporting staff with planning, explicit teaching and assessment of
rich mathematical tasks and continued familiarisation of the Australian Curriculum.

“Strengthening Partnerships with the local community”

In 2013 St. Agnes School continued to strengthen community involvement by hosting a number of events that
encouraged the community to come into the school and learn more about what their children are learning and
importantly, how their children are learning. There were also opportunities for the community to strengthen social ties
with the school. Some of these events included:

 Parent Numeracy workshops- opportunities for parents to come into the school and learn about the Ann
Baker’s Natural Maths strategies in action and how they could better support their children at home with
their learning (the school also sold a large number of Natural Maths parent support books from the front
office.)
 The St. Agnes Amazing Maths race- A race in teams ( pre-school to year 7) where working
collaboratively to solve numeracy problems was the goal. Parents raced with their children and were able
to support their child and practice their problem solving skills also!
 Twilight ‘Learning Expo’ Open Night- A great opportunity for the community to come into our school to see
‘learning in action’ by walking around the school and seeing first-hand what teaching and learning looks
like at St. Agnes. It was also a terrific opportunity for parents to see specialty programmes such as The
Arts, German language programme and musical performances.
 Westfield Christmas Parade- A great morning where our school has a float in the local Christmas Parade
and as a school community we walk down Smart Road to Tea Tree Plaza.
 School Walk-a-thon fundraiser- A wonderful example of the school community and local businesses
working together to achieve a common goal for the school.
 Federal Election BBQ- Governing Council cooking breakfast for local voters from our community and
another opportunity for them to come into our school grounds.

“Fantastic upgrades to our School’s O.S.H.C. and other school facilities”

We continued to invest in the upgrading of our school’s facilities which is an important thing to do as we need to keep
spending today’s money on today’s students. School improvements included:

 Re-carpetting of all classes including the Resource Centre and the Computing Suite.
 New tiling of all Art sinks in all units.
 Brand new carpet, lino and painting in the pre-school
 Painting of classes in the North, East and West units and the O.S.H.C.
 Purchase and installation of new motorised screen and indoor projector for the Gym.
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Annual Report 2013
 Large re-furbishment of the O.S.H.C. including new Kitchen, Art Facilities, computer cabling and installation of
computers.
 Brand new reverse cycle air-conditioning and fresh painting of the entire O.S.H.C.

Report from Governing Council

St Agnes School Governing Council
Chairperson’s Report 2013

In my first year as Chairperson of the St Agnes Governing Council, I can say we have had another very full and busy
year.

The beginning of the year saw the start of our O.S.H.C. change. Jo Dunn the Director resigned, and at the end of
June our Assistant Director June Lewis retired. Both staff members were well liked by the children and parents who
had attended St Agnes O.S.C.H. and Vacation Care.

This opened up an opportunity for our school to review the services we offer, and to see if we could better enhance
our school. This has lead to Johnathon Measday ( Keithcott Farm Director) overseeing our O.S.H.C. too.
St Agnes School are currently in the process of putting things in place to enable our school to operate on a stand-
alone basis. This will enable the Governing Council to have more input and responsibilities with the running of the
O.S.H.C. and Vacation Care as they will be the new legal employers of the OSHC staff.

After a suggestion from a Governing Council member in 2012, a list was compiled and is held at the school of all
parents that are willing to be called upon to assist in volunteering their time. The group is called ‘Helping Hands’, and
is a great list for the school’s staff and committees to access in times of need.

One of the focuses for the school in 2013 was numeracy. Karen Post held numeracy workshops in-house for parents,
and Anne Baker (resident mathematician) ran an information evening at Redwood Park P/S. It was great to see both
workshops well attended by St Agnes parents.

Governing Council approved the school’s Debt Collection Policy; this in turn has seen outstanding monies Paid.

The Governing Council reviewed the Sun Safe Policy and agreed to extend the hat policy, as recommended by the
Cancer Council. This is a small change for the school as the hat policy currently operates in Term 1 and 4 – ‘no hat,
no play in the sun’. It was agreed upon that hats are to be worn from 1st September to 30th April, and encouraged on
high UV rating days

NAPLAN results for 2013 overall showed St Agnes School improving, and in most areas exceeding in key areas of the
school’s curriculum; this is a tremendous result for the school.

This year again saw our Learning Expo well received and attended by many of our local community. It was an added
bonus that our infamous time capsule/s had been found. A huge thank you to Bruce Dunn and volunteer Richard
Snelling, along with Ron and Grant from Minelab. Having items from the time capsule on view made for an excellent
evening of interesting viewing.

The school received funds for school maintenance and upgrades to the school. Through the school’s newsletter and
at Governing Council, parents were asked to put forward their ideas on areas that should be upgraded in the future.
I’m sure you will agree the work that has been done so far looks great. Some of these works have included:
 Relining of the sports courts and stepped areas
 Re-carpeting of the German room
 Re-carpeting of the East and West rooms including the library
 New fencing to include a bush-land play area for the Pre-School
 New painting to most areas of the school.

Over the Christmas break further works will be undertaken around the school.

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Annual Report 2013

The fundraising team have again done a TREMENDOUS job for 2013 raising money for our school. Events have
included:
 Cookie dough
 Bulbs
 Mothers’/ Fathers’ day stall
 Book week
 Election BBQ
 Walk-a-thon

On behalf of the Governing Council, I would like to thank the staff at St Agnes School for their ongoing commitment to
our children’s learning, and to all the Governing Council members who have given their time throughout the year to
serve on the Council. Thank you also goes to all our volunteers; your help does not go unseen and makes for a
successful school.

Lastly I would like to encourage those parents out there who would like a say in their child’s school to come along and
either be a committee member, or purely just to attend a meeting and have a listen or have your say. You do not
need to be a Governing Council member to attend a meeting.

Best wishes to you and your families over the Christmas break, have a safe and wonderful time.

Nicola Haskell
Chairperson St Agnes School

Site Improvement Planning

The site improvement plan for 2013 continued to be aligned to D.E.C.D. and the N.A.R. (Northern Adelaide Region)
regional directions (in particular Reading Comprehension)
Our 3 curriculum priorities for 2013 were:

 Numeracy
 Reading Comprehension
 Effective Teaching and Learning

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Annual Report 2013

Priority 1: Numeracy

Targets Year 3 Achievements Year 3

 100% of year 3’s achieving N.M.S - 100% of students achieving N.M.S.
 65% of year 3’s achieving proficiency band 4 or higher - 60% achieving band 4 or higher
 Year 3 cohort achieving proficiency band 4 - Year 3 cohort achieved band 4

% Proficiency Band Year 3
by Test Aspect
Exempt 1 2 3 4 5 6
Numeracy 13.6 27.3 36.4 13.6 9.1

Targets Year 5 Achievements

 100% of students reaching N.M.S. -100% achieved N.M.S.
 Year 5 Cohort achieving proficiency band 6 -Year 5 cohort achieved band 6
 65% of Yr 5’s achieving proficiency band 6 or higher -62.5% of year 5’s achieved band 6 or higher

% Proficiency Band Year 5

by Test Aspect
Exempt 3 4 5 6 7 8

Numeracy 4.2 33.3 50.0 12.5

Targets Year 7 Achievements Year 7

 100% of students reaching N.M.S. - 100% of students reaching N.M.S.
 Year 7 cohort achieving prof.band 7 or higher - Year 7 cohort achieved band 6
 65% of students achieving prof. band 7 or higher - 0% of students achieving prof. band 7 or higher

% Proficiency Band Year 7
by Test Aspect
Exempt 4 5 6 7 8 9
Numeracy 27.3 72.7
** Note: a very small cohort of 11 students completed the NAPLAN assessment

Strategies used for 2013 to improve Numeracy outcomes for students

 Working collaboratively with Ridgehaven cluster – 3 cluster days 2 with 30 teachers and 1 Ann Baker pupil
free day term 2
 Using Pat-Maths online data to identify areas for future development in numeracy and to set future targets
 Analysis of NAPLAN data to identify clusters of questions with which students had difficulty.
 Appointment of Numeracy coach to work alongside teachers and support them in implementing rich and
open ended tasks that focused on problem solving and reasoning.
 Implementation of ‘Quicksmart’ program (targeted intervention at identified students to improve fluency of
number fact knowledge)
 Development of S.A.N.D. team (St Agnes Numeracy Development) team – to draft and formalise whole
school agreements about a Numeracy block structure and expectations.
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Annual Report 2013
 Providing release for year level teams to work with the senior leader to better use the Australian Curriculum
proficiencies for planning.
 Re-structure of finances to enable more teams of teachers to attend quality out of school professional
development opportunities.
 Development of whole school scope and sequence of Natural Maths mental computation strategies.

Recommendations for 2014
 Assistant Principal to continue to work alongside and support staff with development and implementation of
the Australian Curriculum proficiencies (fluency, reasoning, problems solving & understanding)
 Assistant Principal to work collaboratively with regional support staff to implement whole school
moderation and consistency of practice in the area of assessment.
 More strategic use of Pat Maths Online data to identify specific needs of individuals and cohorts of students.
 Fine tuning of Natural Maths scope and sequence mental computation strategies.
 Continuation of S.A.N.D. team to further develop Numeracy Block expectations and agreements
 S.A.N.D team to identify common resources
 Learning teams to integrate the use of reading comprehension strategies into numeracy sessions

Priority 2: Reading Comprehension

Targets Junior Primary- (R- 3) Achievements- Junior Primary- (R- 3)
 80% of Yr 1 students reading level 20 or higher - 80% of students reading level 20 or higher
 80% of Yr 2 students reading level 26 or higher - 84% of students reading level 26 or higher
 Year 3 cohort to achieve proficiency band 4 - Year 3 cohort achieved proficiency band 4
or higher in NAPLAN
 65% of year 3’s in proficiency band 4 or higher -81.8% of Yr 3’s in proficiency band 4 or higher

% Proficiency Band Year 3
by Test Aspect
Exempt 1 2 3 4 5 6
Reading 9.1 9.1 36.4 22.7 22.7

Targets Year 5 Achievements Year 5

 Yr 5 cohort achieving band 6 in NAPLAN - Yr 5 cohort achieved Proficiency band 6
 65% of Year 5’s achieving band 6 or higher - 70.9% of students achieving band 6 or higher

% Proficiency Band Year 5
by Test Aspect
Exempt 3 4 5 6 7 8
Reading 29.2 29.2 25.0 16.7

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Annual Report 2013

Year 7 Targets Achievements Year 7

 100% of students achieving N.M.S. - 100% of year 7’s achieving N.M.S.
 65% of students achieving proficiency band 7 - 36.4% of Yr 7’s achieving band 7

% Proficiency Band Year 7
by Test Aspect
Exempt 4 5 6 7 8 9
Reading 27.3 36.4 18.2 18.2

Strategies used for 2013
 Strengthening of P.L.C.’s (professional learning communities) by providing time for staff to engage in
professional dialogue around ‘best practice’ in teaching reading.
 Release time provided for ‘Reading Support Teacher’ (R.S.T.) role in junior primary (priority given in budget)
to work alongside and mentor other junior primary teachers
 Continued analysis of NAPLAN data from previous year to determine focus areas for strategic teaching
 Jolly Phonics and SPA (early speech) test added to online data collection for staff record and track progress in
literacy in the early years.
 Continued analysis of Pat R data in P.L.C.’ s to determine strategic focus for future teaching
 Meeting with creator of ‘Impromation’ software to discuss our school’s needs and further tailor the programme
to better meet the changing needs of the school.
 Establishment of SRT team (student review team- teachers and SSO’s) to meet regularly and discuss early
identification of students with needs and provide a more tailored intervention learning programme to suit the
child.

Recommendations for 2014

 Continuation of R.S.T. role in junior primary to continue work supporting and mentoring new and established
staff.
 School registering to be part of “Literacy for Learning’ professional learning for 2014. Two staff members will
be trained then train the rest of the staff in how to use ‘scaffolding’ to better support students when writing for
different audiences and purposes.
 S.A.L.T. team (St. Agnes Literacy Team) continuing in 2014 to enhance the work already done in whole
school agreements in Literacy and planning P.D. (including pupil free days). This links to the new ‘Literacy for
Learning’ initiative.
 Continuation of ‘whole school approach’ to teaching synthetic phonics/ grammar (Jolly Phonics) across the
junior primary/ lower primary classes.
 Purchase of Jolly Phonics reading & grammar support materials for all junior/lower primary staff, including
resources that support electronic whiteboards in class.
 Use of Tfel (Teaching for effective learning) document to support continued work in peer observations and
unpacking of ‘Tfel Companion’. Using online Tfel Compass to help triangulate teacher effectiveness through
peer and student feedback.

Priority 3: Teaching for Effective Learning

‘Targets’ were set in the sense that our staff were challenged to engage to a high degree in two main aspects:
 Using formative assessments (assessment of learning, for learning) with students the classroom, in particular
those described in the Tfel by Dylan Wiliam.
 Using the Tfel document as a framework to give and receive feedback from a peer, after a series of class
observations.
Staff were then asked to present and discuss these initiatives with senior staff when meeting for performance
development meetings.
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Annual Report 2013

Strategies used for 2013
 All staff presented aspects of formative assessment as part of their everyday class programmes, when
meeting for performance development meetings. This was then shared with other staff during PLC meetings.
 All staff conducted 2-3 lesson observations of each other (with their buddy) that concentrated on one or two
aspects from the Tfel document. Staff then gave written feedback on each other’s performance and provided
suggestions for further improvement in practice in the future.

Recommendations for 2014
 Registering for use of Tfel ‘Online Compass’ so staff can help ‘triangulate’ feedback between not only staff but
also students they are teaching.
 Continuing targeted observations of each other’s practice and giving targeted feedback.
 Staff continuing engaging with formative assessment and working with elements of Dylan Wiliams’ work.
 Most staff attending full day training with Dylan Wiliam early on in the year.

Student Achievement

Year 1’s running records demonstrate that
the school is performing extremely well against
not only schools with the same category of
disadvantage, but also all schools in the state.

This year St. Agnes adopted a whole school

approach to teaching Jolly Phonics in all of the
junior primary classes. This has helped students
to develop a solid understanding of many of
the sounds that are used in the foundations of
reading.

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