Principals Report

Welcome to the first newsletter of Term 2. 

In this newsletter you will hear about the recent staff Professional Learning (PL) Day, and the involvement of some of our students in this – a first for Woodmans Hill. 

We place significant effort in the development of our teachers and support staff, in both the key areas of Teaching and Learning, and Wellbeing. The focus of our Term 2 PL day was Teaching and Learning, in particular ‘Checking for understanding.’ More information will follow later in the newsletter. 

You may ask yourself how we decide what is the focus of our work. We always align our efforts and resources to the strategic direction of the school, as set out in the School Strategic Plan (SSP). This is created every four years following the school review process. The subsequent Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) creates each year’s focus. 

As I mentioned in my video message to the community towards the end of last term, one of the developmental areas for Woodmans Hill is to maintain and build upon parent engagement and enhance the partnerships we have to support student outcomes. So, sharing the school’s focus is one part of that. However, the formal document is not always easy to understand as it uses education specific language. As a result, the AIP was unpacked by the teachers and their responses to questions posed by leadership, created the simplified, user friendly list of actions we are working on this year. This formed part of the ‘AIP on a page’. 

If you take a look at the ‘AIP on a page’ you will see it has three columns. 

1. Strategic goal – high level goals over four years, one being directed by the department.
2. Key Improvement Strategies - strategies help us to achieve the goal for the year 
   (these may be different each year of the four-year cycle depending on progress)
3. What does this mean/actions we are developing and embedding – this is a summary of the specific things the school is working on this year. 

The formal SSP and AIP documents are used by all schools in Victoria.  In addition to the goals and Key Improvement Strategies, the AIP has annual numerical targets.  There are set review periods to monitor and track progress against both actions and targets. 

Namely, mid- year and end of year. At Woodmans Hill, the School Improvement Team review this at the end of each term to track our progress and make sure refinements can be made to ensure we continue to evolve and provide the best outcomes for our students. The end of Term 1 review indicated progress was being made and we are on track for each goal’s actions and activities. The rigor of self-assessment will increase as the year progresses, and more evidence is gathered.

Thank you for reading,

Graham Broadbent 

Principal.