Strategic Plan 2016-2019
School vision / School values / Context and challenges / Intent, rationale and focus
Our purpose is to support our students to be courageous, inquiring learners who strive to do their best in a caring environment. / At Castlemaine North we work from a foundation of TRUST.
We show this through…
THOUGHTFULNESS
COURAGE
PASSION and WONDER
in how we learn and how we interact with each other, our COMMUNITY and our environment.
The school motto is LEARNING TOGETHER, GROWING TOGETHER.
These values and principles provide the norms for action, positive relationships and behaviours at the school. / Context
Castlemaine North Primary School, located in a residential area of Castlemaine, can trace its roots of providing education to local students back to 1853, with the current school established in 1878. The site includes the original 1878 Henry Bastow designed schoolhouse, along with a refurbished 1970s building, a contemporary senior school and library building and a new Mod 5 building comprising two classrooms . Other facilities include a basketball court, adventure playgrounds, an oval, several passive areas, an historic summer house, Visual and Performing Arts rooms and a Languages (Indonesian) room.
The April 2016 enrolment of 238 students had a Student Family Occupation (SFO) Index of 0.2231, below the state median of 0.5139. The 2016 index figure places the school in the high socio-economic group of schools. Enrolments have increased by 22% since 2013, and are forecast to increase by another 16% by 2019, to an estimated 259 students. Enrolment patterns are reflected in the growing number of classes, which increased from seven to ten since 2010, and in the growing numbers of staff. The school teaching team currently comprises ten classroom teachers and the principal appointed in mid-2010, Reading Recovery teacher, literacy coach, three educational support staff working as integration aides and a full-time office manager. Since 2012 nine new classroom teachers (including five graduates) have been appointed, along with recent engagement of a Physical Education specialist teacher and a literacy coach. The leadership team consists of the Principal, Leading Teacher (also middle unit leader) and the juniorand senior school unit leaders. Literacy, Numeracy and Learning Technologies coordinators have also been appointed.
The school has a strong focus on English and Mathematics, along with integrated studies using the inquiry method. Whole-school literacy programs include ‘Write2Read’ and ‘Big Write &VCOP’. The subjects of Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Language (Indonesian) and Physical Education are taught by specialist teachers. Pro-social and emotional skills are taught through a whole-school program, ‘Play is the Way’.
A feature of the school is its engagement withparents and the broader community, establishing partnerships that have increased opportunities and outcomes for its students. This approach to building an inclusive learning community is reflected in the school’s welcoming environment, and parents and carers support the school in a variety of ways, such as working in classrooms and organising fundraising activities, and through the School Council and Parent’s and Carer’s Association. Community connections exist between the school and the Castlemaine Art Gallery, the Castlemaine Library, Shire of Mount Alexander and Buda Historic Home and Garden.
Challenges(findings from self-evaluation and review)
Areas of challenge include:
- The contextual factors of growing enrolments and new staff
- High number of students achieving above expected level highlighting the importance of teaching at point of need and provision of a differentiated curriculum
- The discrepancy between teacher AusVELS judgements and other assessment data (e.g. percentage of A & B grades in teacher assessments is far fewer than what NAPLAN would indicate should be the case)
Intent
The school has been effective in achieving targeted student outcomes during the previous strategic plan timeframe, and has demonstrated consistent improvement across all three student achievement, engagement and wellbeing outcomes. In this context the focus for the new strategic plan is on how to sustain and build on these improvements i.e.
- Further enhance teacher capacity to differentiate the teaching and learning programs
- Further develop student capacity to be active agents in their own learning
- Embed effective, whole-school social and emotional approaches
- Continue to build relationships with all members of the parent community through engagement in school activities and children’s learning
Achievement
If the school’s planned whole-school differentiated teaching and learning models are embedded in every classroom then consistently high quality teaching will occur and every student will demonstrate strong learning progress.
Within the strong comparative performance patterns recorded in NAPLAN results, some differences between Literacy and Numeracy outcomes for the same student cohorts highlighted Mathematics and Writing outcomes as focus areas for this strategic plan.
In addition, the school self-evaluation highlighted the important role of Science as a future focus area.
Engagement
The clear evidence of positive student perceptions about their cognitive, emotional and behavioural engagement with schooling resulted in the panel’s endorsement of the school’s current directions.
If students are cognitively, emotionally and behaviourally engaged with schooling then their outcomes will improve.
Wellbeing
Positive and authentic relationships, high levels of relational trust and high levels of resilience are correlated to high levels of student outcomes.
An inclusive, safe, orderly and stimulating environment for learning is critical to achieving and sustaining students’ positive learning experiences.
Focus
The school will therefore focus on these improvement initiatives:
Building practice excellence
Curriculum planning and assessment
Empowering students and building school pride
Four-year goals
(for improving student achievement, engagement and wellbeing) / Improvement Priorities, Initiatives and/or Dimensions / Key improvement strategies / Targets
Achievement
To improve every student’s achievement in all learning areas with particular emphasis on English, Mathematics and Science. / Excellence in teaching and learning
Building practice excellence
Curriculum planning and assessment / Continue to develop the whole-school approaches to differentiated teaching and learning in each of the learning dimensions /
- All deemed capable students to make at least one Victorian Curriculum level progress every year (as measured by teacher judgments)
- An increase in the percentage of students assessed with A or B grades by 25% in each of the English, Mathematics and Science dimensions by 2019 (indicator – Teacher assessments of student achievement against Victorian Curriculum standards from Semester 1 2015 baseline percentages)
- To increase the percentage of Year 5 students performing in NAPLAN Bands 7 and 8 by 25% by 2020
Grammar
Punctuation / 39% / 49%
Numeracy / 32% / 40%
Reading / 47% / 59%
Spelling / 29% / 36%
Writing / 21% / 27%*
- The NAPLAN Year 3 to 5 Relative Gain measures to show:
Less than 25% of students making low relative gain and a minimum of 25% of students making high relative gain in each year of the Strategic Plan
Continue building teacher capacity to implement the whole-school differentiated approaches to teaching and learning with a focus on English, Maths and Science
Continue to provide supportive and instructional leadership to developing the differentiated models and building teacher capacity to embed them in the classroom
Build students’ role as active agents in their learning in the differentiated approaches
Assess the impact of learning programs and adjust them to suit individual needs
Embed a whole-school consistent approach to the analysis of data to track individual progress and inform teaching
Continue teacher collaborate within and across year levels to ensure consistency of curriculum delivery and strategies for consistency of teacher judgements
Engagement
To develop student curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving and engagement in learning. / Positive climate for learning
Empowering students and building school pride / Continue with integrated curriculum approaches that promote student inquiry, curiosity, creativity, problem-solving and critical thinking /
- To maintain Student Attitudes to School Survey measure mean scores at levels at least similar to those recorded in 2015:
Student Motivation 4.49 or above
- Overall attendance to continue to improve and compare favourably with the state mean (P-6 average in 2015 – 13.07 days absent)
- ‘The Education State’ targets –
(as measured by VCAA Critical and Creative Thinking online assessment – baseline and target to be identified by December 2016)
Ensure students are prepared academically, emotionally and socially for their next stage of their learning
Increase use of student feedback to inform teaching and learning programs
Further build parent and community engagement with school activities and student learning
Give particular emphasis to the Critical and Creative Thinkingcapability when implementing the Victorian Curriculum, ensuring that this capability is embedded in all planning documents
Continue to focus on improving student attendance
Wellbeing
To develop student resilience and behaviours that reflect the school values. / Positive climate for learning
Empowering students and building school pride
Setting expectations and promoting inclusion / Continue implementation of the whole-school pro-social and emotional program ‘Play is the Way’ to develop students’ self-management, empathy and relationship skills /
- To maintain the Student Attitudes to School mean scores for Classroom Behaviour, Connectedness to Peers, Student Morale and Student Safety at levels similar to the mean of all school scores
- ‘The Education State’ targets –
(as measured by Victorian Student Health and Wellbeing Survey)
A 20% increase in the proportion of students doing physical activity five times a week by 2025
(as measured by Victorian Student Health and Wellbeing Survey)
Ensure students are provided with the tools, skills and modelling to enable them to develop positive behaviours
Build on the promotion of health, physical activity and respectful relationships within the school community
Final draft for approval: 10 February 2016