Dear Parents and Carers,

THANK YOU TO THE ANDREWS GOVERNMENT.

It is with great excitement that I share that Jackson School has been given a building grant of $10Million in the State Budget shared on Tuesday. This money is to be used to replace our portables. This will mean that your child will be learning in classrooms that are designed for their needs. We are thrilled to have this opportunity and would like to thank the Government. Natalie Suleyman our local Member of Parliament visited us today to make the announcement.

We have received our report from the review that took place at the end of October.

A School Review takes place every four years, led by an external reviewer. Along with the reviewer two other Principals and the Senior Education Improvement Leader for the Keilor St Albans area and our School Council President Craig Barnett made up the panel that evaluated our progress as a school over the last 4 years.

It is with pride I share the highlights that the panel identified in the following three areas.

Professional Leadership

The Panel found that a key school community highlight was the establishment of Jackson School’s leadership team and the development of its vision and values with the school community. This resulted in:

A collaborative learning community that created opportunities and experiences for all students. This inspired parents and students to envisage and achieve successful pathways through and beyond school
Strategic resource management resulted in improved school facilities and infrastructure
A staff team responsive to achieving the school’s vision and clear roles and responsibilities for all
A distributed leadership model that built the capabilities of all staff using a professional learning community approach
Staff, student and parent surveys all endorsed the leadership of the school. Feedback from parents and carers included ‘Jackson School has given my child a future’.

The Panel agreed that the professional leadership provided at Jackson School was key to engaging the whole school community in order to achieve its goals and priorities

Excellence in Teaching and Learning

The Panel found that a second school community highlight was the quality of its teaching and learning program. This was evident in the:

Introduction of a teaching and learning model that was evidence-based and reflective of the specific needs of learners at Jackson School
Increased capability of staff. The Panel found staff had a deep knowledge of the teaching and learning model and welcomed opportunities for new learning and coaching
Documentation of the school’s essential curriculum aligned to all areas of the Victorian Curriculum and inclusive of early childhood and senior secondary education
Development of an assessment framework that identified growth points in each key curriculum area to accurately reflect the learning progress of all students
Introduction of professional learning teams and a differentiated coaching model to collaboratively build teacher skills to identify and respond to each child’s specific learning needs
In focus groups, parents and carers expressed their pride in seeing the progress their child/ren made.

The Panel agreed that the improved teaching and learning practice at Jackson School was a key school community highlight.

Community Engagement in Learning

The Panel found that a third school community highlight was the development of partnerships to engage all learners. The results were:

Increased attendance through improved communication and home-school connections
Increased partnerships with external groups and the community to strengthen transitions through, and pathways beyond school. External providers continued to expand their partnerships with the school and saw Jackson School as evidence of a best practice model
Continued commitment to positive behaviour approaches to support engagement and wellbeing
Engagement with allied health and external education models to strengthen teacher knowledge of trauma-informed practice
Development of learner profiles to scaffold a response to an intervention approach to keep students connected to learning and the achievement of successful career options
Commitment to community events such as the Concert in the Courtyard. Parents told the Panel that the Jackson School Community was a family, and they were proud to be members of that family.

The Panel agreed that the engagement of the community at Jackson School was a key school community highlight.

Our review is an excellent opportunity to reflect and celebrate our strengths and to plan our work for the next four years. We will finalise the goals for 2021 – 2024 and document them in our new School Strategic Plan. This will be shared with the School Council and then uploaded onto our website for access to all. We are proud to share and celebrate our successes and achievements with you.

Joan

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