St Joseph's School Review

On Tuesday 24 August the School Advisory Council (SAC) had the pleasure of hearing from Judi Hanke on the outcomes of the school review. We were advised that Judi does not often meet with SACs to discuss review outcomes, but she wanted to share the positive outcomes from the school review as there is much to be proud of and celebrated!

The school reviews are conducted every 4 years and a significant amount of planning and work goes into the preparation for review and the key highlights are noted below:

We as the SAC and as parents of the school could not be prouder of the dedication and the commitment shown by Michelle, Martin, and the whole teaching team at St Joseph’s Malvern.  This is a great recognition of the educational foundations that have been delivered by teachers and our children could not be in better hands.   

The education and guidance of our children were a major commendation of Judi’s review.  Judi was resounding in her praise of the school and the position that our children are in.  The sense of community amongst the school also shone through in her review, and we as parents should also be proud of the contribution that we make towards this. 

In short, we all know what an outstandingly great job the whole community is achieving at St Joseph’s Malvern and it was great to have this recognised by an independent reviewer of the School.  This should be celebrated!  Congratulations to the whole St Joseph’s Malvern Community, and especially to all our dedicated staff on this great result. 

Key Highlights from our School Review:

• The leadership of the school is outstanding which should be celebrated and promoted.
• Educational excellence is demonstrated by high-quality teachers who are supported by leadership, consistency of their approach and sound educational practice.
• The use of direct/ explicit instruction (Judi observed all teachers setting learning goals for each class, communicating these goals to the class, teaching according to those goals, and recapping on the goals AND she reflected that what she observed in terms of practices is "not easy to fake" for the reviewer - it felt very authentic and ingrained to Judi from her observations).
• The school ethos is built around high expectations of teaching/learning and a commitment to excellence which the students feel.
• The strong focus of the school on spelling (all year levels start the day with spelling and years 1-6 are doing the spelling mastery program).
• The professional culture of the school inspires the staff to exhibit high levels of professional energy for the work they do, the learning environments are supportive with visual displays that provide explicit prompts for students to refer to and track their learning.  This in turn inspires the students and the community.
• The strong role of support teachers working closely with classroom teachers.
• The survey feedback from the staff at St Joseph’s who all clearly feel that they are working together with Michelle and Martin to "lift the bar" when compared to the engagement levels of the last survey.
• The school decision-making around curriculum delivery is based on sound research practices.
• One of the strongest features of the school is the united community and the inclusive culture of the school community.
• Student well-being programs and practices are embedded in the classroom, students respect the teachers and there’s a shared understanding that student well-being is integral to learning.
• The community is proud of the school, there is a strong sense of welcoming, belonging, calmness and a focus on families and this should be celebrated.
• The school takes nothing for granted, works hard to get great results, not just good results that would probably come from the school’s ICSEA (the school’s measure of the level of socio-educational advantage of the school population) profile alone.

The SAC will work closely with the St Joseph’s leadership team to develop a new school improvement plan to implement the recommendations and further cement the strengths of the school.  The SAC encourages the school community to celebrate this significant achievement and to spread the word in the broader community. 

Peter Piasente (Chair) and Trish Reginato (Secretary) on behalf of St Joseph's SAC