Across the Principal's Desk

We had some very positive feedback on the first day of our School Review. All government schools take part in a review process every four years. In provides an opportunity to identify what is working well in a school and then gives direction for further school improvement. A panel is formed from Department of Education staff, as well as staff within our school and our School Council President, Colin Gerrard. It is quite a rigorous process with three separate days conducted over a five week period. It involves dissecting our data, observing classroom practices, and running focus groups with students and staff.

At the end of our first day, the panel provided us with some very positive comments about the way in which we are able to grow our students with their learning – in many cases, well above the state average. One particular piece of feedback was the ‘positive feel’ as the Panel members made their way around our school over the course of the day. This connects strongly with our focus areas of Respectful Relationships, High Expectations and Excellence and the ‘positive culture’ we have been able to achieve in our school, with many positive comments from the panel about our students and our staff. Our students impressed panel members with their respect, courteousness and willingness to talk about their experiences.     

Thursday of this week is our second day of the Review during which we will spend time identifying the key ways in which we can continue to improve as a school. Exploring ways for us to improve student attendance will be one of the areas we will focus on – being at school every day (unless ill) is very important for the learning process for our students. Missing days of school creates gaps in learning and can make it hard to then catch up what has been missed. We’re looking forward to the remaining days of our Review and setting the direction and priorities for the next four years for our school.