Shire Christian School Annual Report 2015 FINAL
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Annual Report 2015 Shire Christian School Reporting Area 1: A Message from Key School Bodies Chairman’s Report: The School Board met each month during 2015, as did the Finance Subcommittee. The Board continued to give attention to its governance obligations. This included an ongoing analysis of financial accounts and working with the Principal in relation to risk management, staffing and strategic direction. Because the school is required to submit an application for registration and accreditation, the School Board invested a substantial amount of time writing and revising key documentation related to school governance. All board members also completed a day of governance training, which was conducted by the Australian Institute for Company Directors. The school also has a building committee who reports to the School Board. This committee, which includes a board member and the new Principal, Mr Brett Hartley, re-evaluated and modified existing plans for new building construction with a view to submitting final building plans to the Block Grant Authority in early 2016. On behalf of the board, company members, executive and staff, we thank our families for their continued partnership in striving to equip our students for a life of service for God's glory into the benefit of our community. Principal’s Report: In my first year as Principal, I was particularly encouraged by the warm, skilled and dedicated staff and the high level of engagement students demonstrated in learning. Being my first year at the school, I sought to understand the perspective of various stakeholders – the Association of members who own the school, the School Board who exercises governance responsibilities, teachers, support staff, parents and students. From January to July employees completed several surveys that gave them the opportunity to share both what they love and value about school and also features of the school that may be in need of change or reform. It became very clear that all staff particularly value the distinctively Christian nature of the school and the high level of care shown to all students. The surveys, and the small discussion groups that were generated from the surveys, revealed a few key areas for improvement: § Technology – access and use of technology in the classroom, difficulties using key software programs, availability of computer devices. § Communication – some staff were concerned about a lack of clarity or timeliness in communicating key issues or requirements. § staff responsibilities – some staff were concerned over an apparent lack of clarity about what their employment responsibilities are. § Student behaviour issues – this was clearly the greatest area of concern for staff, particularly teachers. There was some concern about the written policies; however, of greater concern was a perception of discipline issues either not being properly followed up or consequences for inappropriate student behaviour being excessively lenient. § Christian education – the substantial majority of staff felt that the quality of Christian education was very high; however, a significant minority of staff felt that the school could better integrate a Christian perspective into a range of topics being studied in the classroom. All employees joined a project groups to research an area in need of improvement and were then given an opportunity, at a professional development day in July, to present their findings and suggestions. In the latter half of 2015, the school executive and other key stakeholders began the task of responding to these suggestions and concerns. By the end of the year, discipline policies and procedures were completely rewritten for both the Junior School (K-6) and Secondary School (7 – 12) and were being trialed throughout the school, ready for formal implementation at the beginning of 2016. Given that the concerns and suggestions surrounding technology were quite diverse, the executive began the task of researching and evaluating the effectiveness of the school’s learning management system and IT based school management system for welfare related matters. In the 2nd half of 2015, parents and other interested community members completed a survey on areas of satisfaction and areas of concern. They were given an opportunity to suggest possible improvements to our current practices. The feedback was very diverse and it was difficult to make generalisations on what parents and community members felt about a particular issue. For example, there was an overwhelmingly large amount of commentary surrounding how effectively the school communicates with home and the broader school community. Approximately 50% of respondents spoke with great praise for the effectiveness of school communication, approximately 25% were satisfied, but gave some critical feedback and approximately 25% were very critical of one or more features of school/home communication. The school executive worked through the specific criticisms and took actions to improve existing practices. Unfortunately, not as much progress was made on receiving feedback from students on their learning and how the school runs more broadly. The executive did, however, discuss how the school could improve student voice in 2016. In addition to efforts made to improve the school, there was a great deal to celebrate over the course of 2015. The Secondary School produced a musical Into the Woods. The musical proved to be an outstanding success, with some exceptional performances and large audiences. The school performed very well academically in 2015. According to measures used by the Sydney Morning Herald, the school received more band 6 results than any other time in its history and was ranked higher than every other school in the whole Southerland Shire and St George District for band 6 results, with the exception of the academically selective schools. Student Leadership Team: Student involvement in leadership in the Secondary School consists of House leaders from Years Ten, Eleven and Twelve and student leaders from Year Twelve. Each group of leaders are independently trained and hold an area of defined responsibility. At the end of Year Ten all students underwent a three-day intensive leadership program led by Miss Lucie Garner and Mr Neil Walker. After this training, students write a letter of application to be a PEPSE (Prayer and Encouragement Partners for Seven and Eleven) leader. PEPSE leaders have been led by Miss Lucie Garner during 2015. They lead a peer support program with Year Seven students during an extended Pastoral Care time every second Thursday. CRU is a lunchtime group that is overseen by Mr Peter Richardson. Leaders were trained by, Mr Walker and Mr Richardson and report to Mr Richardson for ongoing training. House Leaders are responsible for leading their House during the three carnivals and for one fund raising event each year. They are overseen by a staff member who has responsibility for House. It is hoped to grow this leadership in the future. Senior Leaders apply for this position and undergo an interview process followed by a staff and student voting process. These leaders represent the school at all public events, such as performance evenings, information days and evenings and events for new families. They take leadership responsibility to present a devotion to the school on Morning Briefing one morning a week and are responsible to lead the preparation for and the running of Activities Day. These leaders are also responsible for promoting and raising funds for the two sponsor children. They do this by the Annual Cup-Cake competition. Students across the whole High School are given training in leadership through an integrated stream in their Pastoral Care classes. Students were also given the opportunity to attend the University of Wollongong’s Leadership program, the World Vision Young Leaders Day and a Leadership Day at the NSW Parliament. Senior students who attended the World Vision Young Leaders day led the World Vision 40 Hour Famine program. Reporting Area 2: Contextual Information About the School Sutherland Shire Christian School (SSCS) seeks to provide an affordable quality Christian education from Kindergarten to Year 12. SSCS also runs a preparatory school for children in the year before they start Kindergarten. Please note, that at the beginning of 2016, the school changed its name from Sutherland Shire Christian School to Shire Christian School. Therefore, the body of the report will continue to refer to the school by its previous name, because that is the name that was used during 2015. The stationery used for this report, however, is the stationery for the new school name. All of the teachers at the School are very well qualified; many of whom hold Masters degrees and some have been awarded a PhD. The teachers are committed to developing engaging teaching programs based on syllabus documents, which all NSW schools are required to follow. The School believes that classrooms should be engaging learning environments where students have a genuine desire to grasp fundamental concepts and also explore different subjects and topics more deeply. To ensure a quality-learning environment, SSCS teachers are committed to receiving ongoing feedback on the quality of their work and they also engage with research on the best ways to improve student learning. By the time SSCS students sit their HSC, the School trusts that every student has been equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to maximise their ATAR so that they will have a range of options to choose from when they commence their post school life. All SSCS teachers are Christians who are involved in their local church and are committed to living their lives according to what is taught in the Bible. This is of great benefit to all of our students, because our teachers don't merely teach values such as kindness, humility and self-control. They seek to live their lives according to these values and model them to their students. Students study the Bible as a distinct subject and also have the opportunity to understand a Christian perspective on a range of areas of learning.