2019 Parklea Public School Annual Report
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Parklea Public School 2019 Annual Report 2838 Page 1 of 21 Parklea Public School 2838 (2019) Printed on: 28 May, 2020 Introduction The Annual Report for 2019 is provided to the community of Parklea Public School as an account of the school's operations and achievements throughout the year. It provides a detailed account of the progress the school has made to provide high quality educational opportunities for all students, as set out in the school plan. It outlines the findings from self–assessment that reflect the impact of key school strategies for improved learning and the benefit to all students from the expenditure of resources, including equity funding. School contact details Parklea Public School Glenwood Park Drive GLENWOOD, 2768 www.parklea-p.schools.nsw.edu.au [email protected] 9629 2518 Message from the principal It has been another incredible year with each student continuing to build on their capacity, in preparation for the world beyond our boundaries. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our supporters, our parents and community who take the time to work with us. Your support of our students has more power than you know. We thank you for your ongoing advocacy for our school and our students. The most important part of what we do is the preparing of our students for their future lives. Whatever that may look like. This is so that they understand not 'what to learn' but how to learn. And to learn deeply. To know themselves, both their strengths and their weaknesses. This year we celebrated our 100 year anniversary. We have come a long way from the first weatherboard school that was completed on the 26th May 1919. Back then, we had one timber classroom with a veranda. During the week of our 100 year celebration we were lucky enough to have Jani Paterson from Artful Designs, paint a new 100 Year Anniversary Mural in which every student and every staff member placed a hand print to show our connection and community. Thanks to the efforts of Mrs Lisa Barrett, 255 community members purchased a commemorative paver to lay the pathway as a testament to our shared educational journey. In August 1919, Parklea adopted the words; Culture, Labour, Service as a motto for the school community. Today our community meets again on different ground but the those words remain unchanged. We continue in our commitment to each other to educate our children to share and build our culture, work hard to achieve our goals, and reach out to each other to serve our community. The measure of a school is how it delivers each and every day for its students to move forward and achieve their dreams. We may not always get it right, yet we are determined as a school to be responsive, continue to refine, reinvent and build programs that enhance the opportunities for our students. Message from the students Albert Einstein once said– Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts. The end of this year brings mixed emotions for us as your school captains – happiness, excitement and a touch of sadness. As our home for the past seven years, Parklea has been the place where we belong, have made memories and wonderful friends. This year has been very memorable for all of us. We celebrated turning 100 with Grandparents Day, a Book Fair and Page 2 of 21 Parklea Public School 2838 (2019) Printed on: 28 May, 2020 most importantly Rides Night. What a week it was! For us Parklea is all about opportunity – a chance to participate in many activities – sport, dance, choir, coding and robotics, debating, band, environmental initiatives and most importantly lots of different and varied leadership opportunities. Now, for one last piece of advice – Bonnie Blair once said, "Winning doesn't always mean being first. Winning means you're doing better than you've done before." We are all winners at Parklea. As the graduating students of Parklea we wish you all the best for the future. We hope you enjoy your journey there as much as we did. Student Leadership Team Page 3 of 21 Parklea Public School 2838 (2019) Printed on: 28 May, 2020 School background School vision statement A vibrant learning community growing together as learners, leaders and thinkers to achieve beyond what was ever believed possible. School context Parklea Public School is an innovative, dynamic and strongly inclusive primary school providing a quality education for over 689 students in the growing Norwest sector of Western Sydney, 49% of these students are from a language background other than English. We are committed to providing rich programs to develop skills in technology, critical thinking, problem solving, communication and collaboration to enable students to reach their full potential educationally, socially and emotionally. Our school is developing a culture of evidence–based, data informed decision making and aims to build the capacity of all teachers to lead, improve learning and innovate. Parklea Public school enjoys strong community support and has an active and very supportive Parents and Citizens' Association. Page 4 of 21 Parklea Public School 2838 (2019) Printed on: 28 May, 2020 Self-assessment and school achievement 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 is a statement of what is valued as excellence for NSW public schools, both now and into the future. The Framework supports public schools throughout NSW in the pursuit of excellence by providing a clear description of high quality practice across the three domains of Learning, Teaching and Leading. Each year, we assess our practice against the Framework to inform our school plan and annual report. Our self–assessment process will assist the school to refine our school plan, leading to further improvements in the delivery of education to our students. For more information about the School Excellence Framework: https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching–and–learning/school–excellence–and–accountability/school–excellence Self-assessment using the School Excellence Framework Elements 2019 School Assessment LEARNING: Learning Culture Sustaining and Growing LEARNING: Wellbeing Sustaining and Growing LEARNING: Curriculum Sustaining and Growing LEARNING: Assessment Sustaining and Growing LEARNING: Reporting Sustaining and Growing LEARNING: Student performance measures Delivering TEACHING: Effective classroom practice Delivering TEACHING: Data skills and use Delivering TEACHING: Professional standards Sustaining and Growing TEACHING: Learning and development Sustaining and Growing LEADING: Educational leadership Sustaining and Growing LEADING: School planning, implementation and Sustaining and Growing reporting LEADING: School resources Excelling LEADING: Management practices and processes Sustaining and Growing Page 5 of 21 Parklea Public School 2838 (2019) Printed on: 28 May, 2020 Strategic Direction 1 Learning to Learn Purpose Use evidence–based practice to equip learners with the skills to set their own mastery goals, respond to feedback and develop an understanding and ownership of their learning. Improvement Measures All students own their learning, using assessment approaches and feedback to set the next steps in their learning. Teachers identify, promote and model evidence–based effective teaching strategies, impacting positively on student learning. Students are aware of and exceed their personal expected growth, using internal and external literacy and numeracy progress and achievement data. Overall summary of progress To support ongoing professional learning throughout 2019, Targeted Teacher Professional Learning sessions were initiated for teachers to engage in and discuss current research and evidence based practice, ensuring evidence, research and data underpins our practice and planning and that staff are effective and responsive in their delivery and teaching. Initially, this professional learning had a focus on ensuring teachers were implementing high quality structured whole class, small group and individual explicit and systematic instruction and that this instruction was based on teacher analysis of student assessment. Teachers worked collaboratively as a team to ensure the design and review of learning programs was in line with syllabus outcomes, quality teaching elements and built deep levels of thinking and application, using high quality information about pupils' current capabilities to select the best next steps for teaching. Throughout 2019, we developed strategies that facilitated teacher and student conferences, allowing for assessment data to be shared with students so that they could reflect, question and self–monitor their own learning, thus instilling a sense of ownership. During conferencing, teachers focused on conveying high expectations for learning, co–designing, scaffolding and differentiating goals with students. This short and long term goal setting encompassed teacher and peer feedback, self assessment and on–going reflection in order for students to evaluate and set the next steps in their learning. During 2019, the Learning to Learn team spent time evaluating, revamping and extended our school Home Reading Program to include students from K– 4, with the inclusion of both fiction and non–fiction books. We are very grateful to our school's amazing and very supportive P&C who provided $20 000 in funding to support this project. In total we spent close to $50 000 on purchasing books, book bags and labels to ensure that each student in Kindergarten to Year 4 could take at least 2–3 books home each week to read. Through this initiative our goal was to support students to have conversations about reading and to feel successful in reading, being acknowledged and celebrated for their success. Our focus for our community was to increase the knowledge, skills and confidence levels of parents when reading and working with texts with their children and for parents to feel genuinely connected to their children's reading.