Newmarket State School Queensland State School Reporting 2014 School Annual Report Postal address PO Box 225 Alderley 4051 Phone (07) 3552 7222 Fax (07) 3552 7200 Email [email protected] Additional reporting information pertaining to Queensland Webpages state schools is located on the My School website and the Queensland Government data website. Contact person Mrs Vicki Richards Principal’s foreword Introduction The intent of this report is to provide parents and the wider school community with information that is common for all state and non-state schools throughout Queensland. It provides an overview of the programs and achievements of Newmarket State School during the 2014 school year. Newmarket is a small but growing inner-city school with a proud history. Excellence in learning and strong community values are two distinctive features of our school. The active role of parents in the P&C and in daily school activities strengthens our community and contributes to the range of opportunities available to our students. The core business of our school is having quality programs to allow students to achieve in the eight key learning areas - and within these programs, a commitment to literacy and numeracy is fundamental. This report also includes important information about student performance as well as links to further information on the MySchool website. I trust that you find the information contained in this report about our school of interest. Should you require any further information, please contact the Principal as indicated above. School progress towards its goals in 2014 2014 was a year of achievement and success for Newmarket State School. In 2012 Newmarket State School completed its four-yearly review (QSR) and 2014 was the second year of the four year cycle. Our curriculum focus was on implementing the Australian Curriculum in English, Mathematics and Science and History. Geography was also implemented last year. To assist teachers with this transition, EQ produced C2C units in all curriculum areas which included lesson plans as well as a range of resources including many digital resources for use on the IWB. We also continued to focus on a new spelling program, “Words Their Way”. The success of these programs was highlighted in the improved results our students achieved during NAPLAN. As a school, we were above the State mean for every area in each year level. When compared to like schools, our results were higher in thirteen strands and similar in the other two strands. As an improvement agenda is in place, it was gratifying to see an increase in the number of students in the top two bands in the areas of reading and numeracy in Years 5 and 7 which were the focus areas of EQ. Results were as follows: Year 3: Reading 42.0%, Numeracy 46.0% in the top two bands. Year 5: Reading 66.7%, Numeracy 62.5% in the top two bands. Year 7: Reading 62.5%, Numeracy 50.0% in the top two bands. Other highlights were: Year 7: 100% of students who participated were above the National Minimum standard in every strand.* Year 3: Grammar and Punctuation 52.0% in the top two bands. Year 5: Grammar and Punctuation 66.7% in the top two bands. Year 7: Grammar and Punctuation 62.5% in the top two bands. Our results continue to improve. I attribute our excellent results to: An explicit improvement agenda, dedicated staff, community involvement and a supportive school community. In August, we underwent a Discipline Audit which resulted in excellent results. Over the five domains, our results were as follows: Principal Leadership: Outstanding Parent and Community Engagement: Outstanding/High Data Informed Decision Making: High Clear Consistent Expectations for Behaviour: Outstanding Explicit Teaching of Appropriate Behaviour to All Students: Outstanding Our excellent data in NAPLAN, School Opinion Survey and Discipline Audit resulted in us being nominated by the region for the Jack Pizzey School of the Year Award. Mid last year, some of our Year 7 students participated in a writing competition run by Everton Park High School for schools in the Future Schools Alliance Competition. The writing was marked by an outside provider. All of our students performed well, with Eliza Ferry gaining top marks in the Year 7 division. Eliza then went on to win the trophy for Junior Secondary Champion which meant that she was the top student from Year 6-9. To celebrate 110years of Learning and Caring, our students contributed to the design of the mural on the western side of the hall. The result is a quilt depicting what is special about our school. In 2014, NSS continued with the many environmental initiatives implemented in 2012 such as recycling paper, cartridges, batteries and mobile phones as well as the planting of a vegetable garden, in an effort to reduce our carbon footprint. The diligence of the students and Mr Devaney meant that they were able to supply the tuckshop and OSHC with fresh vegetables from the gardens at various times of the year. Staff continued to undertake professional development programs on adopting a school wide pedagogy, Gifted and Talented, Students with Disabilities, Differentiation, the Teaching of Reading, OneSchool and the Australian Curriculum. As a staff, we implemented a school wide Pedagogical Framework with a strong emphasis on explicit teaching and the work of John Fleming. The staff continued to attend many professional development sessions with John in an effort to further enhance their classroom practice. The principal accompanied three staff members to Melbourne to visit and observe Haileybury College, a John Fleming school. On several occasions, staff met with other teachers in the cluster to participate in moderation activities. This gave them the opportunity to discuss and critique student work and to make consistent judgements by matching evidence in student work to the standards. Another element of QCAR is the Reporting Framework. This was continued with twice yearly written reports to parents on student achievement on a five-point scale (A-E). Further development was undertaken on our school’s Information Communications Technology for Learning Agreement. This plan ensures we have a replacement schedule for all of our IT hardware and a futures plan. It also illustrates how we will prepare our students for the technological rich world in which they live. In 2014, teachers participated in professional development sessions to increase their skills in the use of online literacy programs, the use of iPads and the use of the Learning Place to enhance learning for their students. Through a Commonwealth Bank grant, fourteen laptops and a trolley were purchased for our Year 6 and 7 students. We also replaced fourteen desk top computers. Several of our Years 6 and 7 students attended the City Cluster High Achievers Program which gave them automatic selection into the Young Scholars Program. This program is offered through the Queensland Academies to provide extension to our high achieving students. Newmarket State School hosted Creative Sparks – Mini Writers Festival and Mini Scientists Festival. Four of our talented writers from Year 4 attended the writing festival and had the opportunity to work with local author, Julie Fison. They produced an anthology of their work which is available for perusal in the LARC. Four of our students attended the Mini Scientist Festival run by BUEEC and four of our students attended a Higher Order thinking Program at Ascot SS. In the sporting arena Newmarket State School did well, coming second in the District Cross Country (Small Schools Division) and fourth in the District Athletics (Small Schools Division). We also completed winter sport fixtures in soccer and netball, with our senior netball team and our junior netball team finishing undefeated and going on to participate in the Regional Championships. The senior team was victorious, completing the carnival undefeated and the junior team was runner/up. This is a wonderful achievement for a school our size. Musically, our band and choirs entertained us on several occasions throughout the year. A highlight was the band receiving a silver award at fanfare. The choirs also had several performances at community events which were well received by the audience. Mrs Battersby, Miss Enchelmaier and Mr Ryan do a wonderful job developing the musical talents of our students. We introduced the ‘You Can Do It Program’, social skills program throughout the school and offered the “Friends Program’ to assist students in further developing life skills. Schools The success our school has achieved over the past 12 months has been reflected in us maintaining enrolments for the 2015 school year. Our current enrolment is 220 and we have maintained 9 classes for students in Years Prep to 6. Achievements In 2014, School Opinion Survey data demonstrates that 100% of parents are satisfied that teachers expect their child to do their best, 94% believe the school encourages them to participate in school activities and 94% believe that the school has a strong sense of community. 100% of students like being at Newmarket State School and 100% are satisfied that they are safe at this school and 100% think this is a good school. 100% of staff members believe that the school has a strong sense of community, 100% of staff members believe that staff morale is positive at this school and 100% of staff members believe that this is a good school. This data is very positive which is very pleasing. A number of facilities issues were addressed during 2014. These included: A number of maintenance issues such as safety strips on the stairs, damaged boards replaced and railings on stairs replaced. Painting of A Block stairwells and painting of entire B Block. Possum proofing the hall.