School Leaders
Messages from the Office, Assistant Principal and Learning Specialists...
Annual Implementation Plan Targets
Every year, each school works towards its AIP (Annual Implementation Plan) targets. These are set by the school, based on what they want to improve on. At South Melbourne, we set goals that reflect our values:
- Character (social-emotional goals, attitudes towards school)
- Community (attendance, participation)
- Learning (mainly Reading, Writing and Maths).
Here are some of the targets that we set for 2021. These were ambitious goals that were set with the hope of a 'normal' year. Some of them have been achieved and some have not. For those who are interested, we explain the goals and how we went towards them in the table below.
| Goal | Met? |
|---|---|
| The percentage of students marked 'at standard' or 'above standard' in Reading in their Semester Reports will increase to 85%. | This goal has been met.
We are proud of not just the results of students in Reading, but their clear delight for books. We believe the two are closely linked - children tend to enjoy subjects when they are successful in them. Our students are wonderful and eager readers. |
| The percentage of students marked 'at standard' or 'above standard' in Writing in their Semester Reports will increase to 70%. | This goal has been met.
We are very impressed with the growth in Writing skills, particularly given the number and length of our remote learning periods. We look forward to improving this even further next year! |
| The percentage of students marked 'at standard' or 'above standard' in Mathematics (Number and Algebra) in their Semester Reports will increase to 80%. | This goal was not met.
We saw a dip in mathematics during Semester 2. Students continued to excel with their number facts, but found it trickier than usual to apply their maths to solve problems. We will be working to improve this in 2022. |
The percentage of students responding positively to questions regarding their sense of inclusion will increase to 85% (measured in an Attitude to School Survey completed by Grades 4-6).
The questions asked are: • I have lots of chances to be part of class activities; • I have friends at this school; • My teacher makes me feel like I matter; and • My teacher makes sure all students feel included. | This goal was not met.
We were at 84%, so very close but not there. We are looking to focus on this through 2 new Education Support roles next year related to the Disability Inclusion Program (DIP) and a full time Learning Specialist who will oversee the DIP and focus on class culture/behaviour management.
Our strongest question in this area was 'I have friends at this school' where 95% of students responded in the affirmative. |
| Student attendance will be at 95%+. | This goal was not met.
Again, we were very close at an average of 93%. This is interesting because we expected attendance to be quite high as a result of remote learning. During these times, students who may have had a sniffle and would normally miss school were still able to engage in lessons remotely. We did have a number of students who remained at home for extended periods after remote learning had concluded.
We had 27 students who had 100% attendance for the year. We had 4 students with less than 50% attendance for the year. |
Whilst we didn't achieve all of our goals, we were pretty close and have reflected to make plans for 2022. We set ambitious targets because we believe in our children and families to aim high. It would be easier to aim low and achieve all targets - it is not in our DNA.
None of these results can be achieved without the work of all staff, students and parents.
We thank you and appreciate your commitment.