A message from the Principal

Whilst the last two years have shown everyone the limitations of thinking too far ahead and the value of being flexible and able to respond to the unexpected, the most important document for our school remains our School Strategic Plan (SSP).

This is the plan that sets out what the school will focus on over a four year period and the targets it will aim to achieve. Our current SSP for the period 2018 - 2021 can be read on our school website here. You will notice that we are now in the final year of this plan and so have begun the process of writing a new one.

As is fitting for such an important plan, there is plenty of time and work that goes into its creation.

To understand what we should do next and where we should focus our time, energy and money to get the best outcomes for our students, it is vital that we gain a really clear understanding of where we are currently.

What we are doing well, what we are not doing well and a clear reading of the data that tells us this.

We also need to reflect on what it is that we value as a school - what sets us apart, what we are trying to achieve, the values that we hold up and what our community feels about the school.

The Education Department calls this process our 'Pre-Review Self Evaluation' and last week our School Council began to plan out how we best gather these views and this data in order to have a clear understanding of where we are and what we should do next.

The success of this will depend on our ability to reach out and gather the views of our whole community - the families, the students and the staff.

Over the next few weeks we will be providing a range of different opportunities for you to tell us what you think about SKiPPS. Due to current restrictions, these will likely involve online forums via Zoom and surveys. We would really appreciate you finding the time to take part in this process - it will genuinely help us to understand where we are and take the decisions which will help us to get even better.

Please pay close attention to our normal communication channels fo further details.

Once the pre-review self evaluation is complete, later this year a panel of educational experts will come into the school to examine what we have gathered, our learning data, to observe what goes on at school and to talk directly to the community. Their report and recommendations will then form the basis on a new School Strategic Plan which will inform all that we do from the start of 2022.

We hope that you can help us out by having your say.

Neil Scott

Principal