From the Principal's Desk

Saint Mary MacKillop

Australia's first saint

Feast Day August 8th

God of the Pilgrim, Mary MacKillop trusted your guidance in her journey of life and deepened her confidence in your will. May we renew our trust in your Providence to lead us to hope as we bring our prayer before you. May we grow in the fullness of your love and the depth of your mystery. Amen.

CONTINUOUSLY IMPROVING OUR SCHOOL

The School Improvement Framework (SIF) recognises the distinctive nature of Catholic education. Focusing on the full flourishing of each student, the SIF is designed to highlight the priorities and practices that support student outcomes through school improvement and effectiveness.

The SIF of Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) has two purposes:

to assist schools and teachers to improve all student outcomes
to satisfy legitimate expectations of government and sector authorities.

The Continuous Improvement Process moves cyclically over four years, however, improvement is a continuous and ongoing process. Within the Continuous Improvement Process each school moves through self-assessment and reflection, improvement and compliance reviews, school improvement planning and annual implementation planning. Each stage supports the accountability and compliance requirements of schools.

Our school ensures that the standards, requirements for registration, Child Safe Standards and other State and Commonwealth requirements for Victorian Catholic schools are being met and exceeded.

The School Review process usually occurs in the fourth year of the continuous improvement process and results in the development of the School Improvement Plan (SIP) for the next four years as well as an Annual Action Plan (AAP) each year. 2024 is our School Review year.

In preparing a four-year SIP, the plan sets out the school’s:

vision
strategic intent
priorities
goals
intended outcomes
targets that are clearly identified to improve school and student outcomes
key improvement strategies for achieving the intended outcomes.

It is important that all goals, intended outcomes and targets provide a challenging basis for school improvement while maintaining a realistic balance of what is achievable within a four-year period.

Access to perception data from Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools – School Improvement Surveys (MACSSIS) assists schools to track their progress, and the Annual Report to the School Community offers schools an opportunity to share and celebrate improvement.

MACSSIS is a set of tools for creating, collecting, analysing, interpreting and using data to inform Catholic school improvement. MACSSIS produces perception data. This data shows what different people in a school community think and feel about the learning environment.

As part of compliance with regulatory guidelines, schools are expected to engage with, and gather feedback from, their communities as part of their school improvement cycle. Schools are encouraged to view MACSSIS as a positive opportunity for gathering feedback and engaging communities in ongoing school improvement efforts.

Between now and the end of this term, our Year 4-6 students, all staff and a randomly-selected group of families will complete the MACSSIS. The report of this perception data will be provided to us later in the year. It will compare our 2023 and 2024 results as well as comparing our results to all MACS primary schools this year. The report will provide us with an opportunity to celebrate what we are doing well, reflect, ask questions and focus on the improvement of our school.

Our school staff are currently completing the self reflection phase of pre-Review preparation. We will write a report for an external Reviewer who will visit the school on October 17th, November 13th and 14th and December 3rd. The first visit will involve compliance and school registration requirements (VRQA). The second and third visits will allow the Reviewer to get to know the school through discussions with members of the school community. Please watch for an invitation to take part in a discussion with the Reviewer on either of these dates. There will be lots of opportunities for the Reviewer to validate our self-reflection Report. We will receive the external Review Report through dialogue and engagement on December 3rd. This Report will include affirmation and recommendations for future school improvement.

All the best,

Jane Dunstone

PRINCIPAL