Jackson School Newsletter

Principal's Message

Anthony Jackson (Principal)

Jackson School is a collaborative learning community for all. We aim to develop independence through safety, respect and responsibility. We aspire to offer authentic, quality educational experiences that develop futures, create opportunities and inspire student potential; enabling our students to be valued and contributing members of the wider community. We share and celebrate our successes and achievements.   

The Issue Highlights

Dear Families,

Remembrance Day is one of the most important days on our commemorative calendar. It's a day when we acknowledge those who died or suffered while serving in wars, conflicts and peace operations. Remembrance Day is held on 11 November each year. This is the anniversary of the Armistice of 1918 that ended fighting in World War I. The war didn't officially end until 28 June 1919 with the Treaty of Versailles. People in Australia and many other countries observe one minute's silence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month because that's when the Armistice came into effect. It's a time to honour our service personnel who died or suffered in service of Australia. On Monday, we held a minutes silence at 11am before the recess bell.

 

We will remember them - lest we forget.

Russ Jackson Day

On Friday 8th November, we celebrated Russ Jackson Day. Our students strive to display our values (Learning, Independence, Safety, Respect, Responsibility) everyday by displaying the employability skills (Communication, Team Work/Collaboration, Problem-solving, Initiative and Enterprise, Planning and Organising, Self-Awareness & Management, Learning, Technology). Our students took part in volunteering activities around the school in memory of Russ Jackson. Here are some photos of the gardening, car washing, cleaning and baking that the students participated in. 

School Performance Group

 

 

I am pleased to announce that our new School Performance Group of has been published from the Department of Education. This is held of high importance within the Department.

 

The school performance method has been updated in 2024.  School Performance Groups have been simplified and allocate schools to one of four different performance categories, High, Improving, Medium and Developing. School performance in the two domains, learning and wellbeing.

 

Our overall school performance group is now categorised as: HIGH.

 

In the HIGH performance group, student outcomes are high across a range of

learning and wellbeing measures. This is heavily influenced by the opinion of our students in the annual Attitudes to School Survey. 

Student Attitudes to School Survey

The Attitudes to School Survey is our annual survey to capture students’ attitudes to and experiences at school. Survey data helps us understand student perspectives of their school. We use this to help improve their schooling experience. The data we collect includes how students feel about their school, learning, peer relationships, resilience, bullying, health and wellbeing, physical activity and life in general. Feedback has been gathered from 99% of students across Years 4-12. The questions and responses are designed for students in a special school to capture the most reliable feedback as possible.

  • Effective classroom behaviour 93%
  • Respect for diversity 92%
  • Effective teaching time 91%
  • Self-regulation and goal setting 91%
  • High expectations for success 91%
  • Advocate at school 91%
  • Differentiated learning challenge 90%
  • Effort 90%
  • Teacher concern 89%
  • School stage transitions 89%
  • Sense of inclusion 88%
  • Motivation and interest 88%
  • Attitudes to attendance 87%
  • Learning confidence 84%
  • Managing bullying 83%
  • Emotional awareness and regulation 83%
  • Peer relationships 83%
  • Student voice and agency 83%
  • Stimulating learning 82%
  • Perseverance 81%
  • School connectedness 80%

I am very pleased that all of these measures are above 80% and above similar schools across the state, in particular managing bullying. Our Jackson Student Leaders (JSLT) give regular feedback to myself and leadership on concerns which matter most to them.

 

We know social media at home remains a concern for many of our students in the secondary school. This is a challenge in all schools. Please find below links to the eSafety Commissioner website with advice for families. For any serious concerns online, please report these to the social media company first, then the eSafety commissioner and where required to Victoria Police. 

Arts Festival

 

Next Wednesday 20th November we will celebrate our student's artistic skills in our annual Arts Festival! Even though it is a smaller event than last year due to limited space, we hope you can join us to celebrate our students amazing talents and abilities.

 

For more information, check out the flyer on the Community News page.

 

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

 

Anthony