2018 Penshurst Public School Annual Report · Introduction The Annual Report for 2018 is provided to the community of Penshurst Public School as an account of the school's operations

Penshurst Public SchoolAnnual Report

2018

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Printed on: 22 May, 2019Page 1 of 19 Penshurst Public School 2861 (2018)

Introduction

The Annual Report for 2018 is provided to the community of Penshurst Public School as an account of the school'soperations and achievements throughout the year.

It provides a detailed account of the progress the school has made to provide high quality educational opportunities forall students, as set out in the school plan. It outlines the findings from self–assessment that reflect the impact of keyschool strategies for improved learning and the benefit to all students from the expenditure of resources, including equityfunding.

Jeffrey Lie

Principal

School contact details

Penshurst Public SchoolArcadia StPenshurst, 2222www.penshurst-p.schools.nsw.edu.aupenshurst-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au9580 3400


School background

School vision statement

At Penshurst Public School, we are committed to delivering excellence within a dynamic and inclusive environment. Weinspire students to aim high to become successful confident and creative global citizens in preparation for a changingworld.

School context

Penshurst PS is located in the Georges River network of principals. With a population of 441 students, 83% of ourstudent population are from language backgrounds other than English. There are three classes of hearing impairedstudents.These students are integrated for many subjects and help all students develop understanding and positiverelationships with each other. The school generally performs above state averages in NAPLAN. Saturday communitylanguage (Nepalese) classes is a recent addition to the school.

The parent community is supportive of the school but parent participation is a real need. Penshurst PS provides studentswith quality educational programs delivered by highly qualified, dedicated teachers within a caring and nurturing learningenvironment. With a strong academic focus, students enjoy a range of learning opportunities across an extensivecurriculum. Special programs such as Reading Recovery give our students the opportunity to consolidate their literacyskills at an early age.

Our school offers a range of extracurricular activities such as sport, band, choir, dance, signing choir and chess. Ourteachers show great commitment to our students and our school. Our school and our community hold high expectationsof student learning and behaviour. Our welfare system is underpinned by a commitment to restorative practices and ourvalues, which encourage all students to respect and understand others. Self–discipline, leadership and socialresponsibility are actively encouraged and promoted through participation in strong K–6 programs and initiatives.

Over the course of the 2018–2020 school plan, Penshurst PS has been marked for redevelopment. This will involve thewhole school community moving to a pop–up school on the grounds of Peakhurst West PS and on completion of the newschool build, the Penshurst Public School community will move back.

Self-assessment and school achievement

Self-assessment using the School Excellence Framework

This section of the Annual Report outlines the findings from self–assessment using the School Excellence Framework,school achievements and the next steps to be pursued.

This year, our school undertook self–assessment using the School Excellence Framework. The framework supportspublic schools throughout NSW in the pursuit of excellence by providing a clear description of high quality practiceacross the three domains of Learning, Teaching and Leading.

Learning

Learning Culture

The school's on–balance judgement for this element is: Sustaining and Growing • Theme: High expectations

Sustaining and Growing: There is demonstrated commitment within the school community that all students make learningprogress.

Partnerships with parents and students support clear improvement aims and planning for learning. • Theme: Transitions and continuity of learning

Delivering: The school actively plans for student transitions (e.g. into Kindergarten; Y6 to Y7; Y10 to Y11). The schoolclearly communicates its transition activities to the school community.

• Theme: Attendance

Sustaining and Growing: Attendance data is regularly analysed and is used to inform planning. Whole of school andpersonalised attendance approaches are improving regular attendance for all students, including those at risk.


Wellbeing

The school's on–balance judgement for this element is: Delivering • Theme: Caring for students

Sustaining and Growing: Every student can identify a staff member to whom they can confidently turn for advice andassistance at school.

• Theme: A planned approach to wellbeing

Delivering: Students, staff and the community recognise that student wellbeing and engagement are important conditionsfor learning.

The school plans for and monitors a whole school approach to student wellbeing and engagement • Theme: Individual learning needs

Delivering: The needs of all students are explicitly addressed in teaching and learning programs • Theme: Behaviour

Delivering: The school's wellbeing approach focuses on creating an effective environment for learning

Teachers and other school staff explicitly communicate expectations of behaviour across school settings

Curriculum

The school's on–balance judgement for this element is: Sustaining and Growing • Theme: Curriculum provision

Sustaining and Growing: The school's curriculum provision and evidence–based teaching practices provide a highexpectations framework, within which all students effectively develop their knowledge, understanding and skills

The school monitors and reviews its curriculum provision to meet changing requirements of the students. • Theme: Teaching and learning programs

Sustaining and Growing: Teaching and learning programs describe expected student progression in knowledge,understanding and skill and the assessments that measure them.

• Theme: Differentiation

Delivering: Differentiation of curriculum delivery within classrooms happens for some students with particular identifiedneeds. The parents of affected students are advised about adjustments made.

Assessment

The school's on–balance judgement for this element is: Delivering • Theme: Formative assessment

Delivering: Teachers collect and use assessment data that monitors achievement and identifies gaps in learning toinform planning for particular student groups and individual students.

• Theme: Summative assessment

Delivering: Assessment is planned and undertaken regularly in all classes and data is systematically collected. • Theme: Student engagement

Delivering: Students know when and why assessment is undertaken • Theme: Whole school monitoring of student learning

Delivering: There is a whole school assessment strategy in place that is designed to ensure that the learning of allstudents is systematically monitored.

Reporting

The school's on–balance judgement for this element is: Delivering • Theme: Whole school reporting


Delivering: Individual student reports meet Department of Education requirements and include personalised descriptionsof the student's strengths and growth.

• Theme: Student reports

Delivering: Individual student reports meet Department of Education requirements and include personalised descriptionsof the student's strengths and growth.

• Theme: Parent Engagement

Delivering: Schools provide parents/carers with information on the learning progress of their children, including reportsand parent/teacher interviews as well as opportunities to discuss this progress.

Student performance measures

The school's on–balance judgement for this element is: Sustaining and Growing • Theme: Value–add

Excelling: The school achieves excellent value–added results, significantly above the value added by the averageschool.

• Theme: NAPLAN

Sustaining and Growing: At least 35% of students achieve in the top two bands for NAPLAN reading, writing andnumeracy.

• Theme: Student growth

Delivering: The school identifies growth targets for individual students, using internal progress and achievement data. • Theme: Internal and external measures against syllabus standards

Sustaining and Growing: School data shows that student progress and achievement on external measures is consistentwith progress and achievement on internal assessments.

Teaching

The school's on–balance judgement for this element is: Sustaining and Growing

Effective classroom practice • Theme: Lesson planning

Delivering: Teachers regularly review and revise lesson plans and sequences, ensuring that the content is based on thecurriculum and the teaching practices are effective.

Teachers regularly use student progress and achievement data to inform lesson planning. • Theme: Explicit teaching

Sustaining and Growing: Teachers are skilled at explicit teaching techniques such as questioning and assessing toidentify students' learning needs, and use a range of explicit strategies to explain and break down knowledge.

• Theme: Feedback

Sustaining and Growing: Teachers provide explicit, specific and timely formative feedback related to defined successcriteria. Teachers' feedback supports improved student learning.

• Theme: Classroom management

Delivering: Teachers maintain orderly classrooms and manage challenging behaviour to create a positive environmentfor learning.

Data skills and use

The school's on–balance judgement for this element is: Delivering • Theme: Data literacy

Delivering: Teachers access and engage in professional learning that builds skills in the analysis, interpretation and useof student progress and achievement data.

• Theme: Data analysis

Delivering: The leadership team regularly uses student progress and achievement data to inform key decisions such as


resourcing and implementation of new programs and initiatives. • Theme: Data use in teaching

Delivering: Teachers review student assessment data and compare results from external assessments (e.g. NAPLAN,ICAS, PAT, HSC) with internal measures to build consistent and comparable judgement of student learning.

• Theme: Data use in planning

Delivering: Clear and accurate analysis of student progress and achievement data informs planning that is shared withthe school community in the Annual Report.

Professional standards

The school's on–balance judgement for this element is: Sustaining and Growing • Theme: Improvement of practice

Sustaining and Growing: Teachers' Professional Development Plans are supported by coordinated whole schoolapproach to developing professional practice, informed by research. Whole school analysis of the teaching staff identifiesstrengths and gaps with planning in place to build capabilities and source teachers with particular expertise to improvestudent learning outcomes.

• Theme: Accreditation

Delivering: Teachers' attainment of their professional goals in their PDPs and their maintenance of accreditation aresupported by the school.

• Theme: Literacy and numeracy focus

Sustaining and Growing: Teachers are proficient in their teaching of literacy and numeracy, meeting the needs ofstudents in their subject/stage.

Learning and development

The school's on–balance judgement for this element is: Sustaining and Growing • Theme: Collaborative practice and feedback

Delivering: Executive, staff, faculty/stage, team and other meetings are used to review the curriculum and to reviseteaching practices and learning programs to meet the needs of learners, based on evidence of student progress andachievement.

• Theme: Coaching and mentoring

Delivering: The school's structure and organisation ensure that direct support is available to new staff members fromexperienced teachers, and beginning teachers are mentored.

• Theme: Professional learning

Sustaining and Growing: Teachers actively evaluate, share and discuss learning from targeted professional developmentwith other staff in their school to improve whole school practice.

• Theme: Expertise and innovation

Sustaining and Growing: The school identifies expertise within its staff and draws on this to further develop itsprofessional learning community. Areas for development in teacher expertise are identified and addressed. Teachers aresupported to trial innovative or evidence based, future–focused practices.

Leading

Educational Leadership

The school's on–balance judgement for this element is: Sustaining and Growing • Theme: Instructional leadership

Sustaining and Growing: Professional learning in the school emphasises developing effective instructional leadership,management skills and leadership attributes to facilitate whole school improvement and build a strong pipeline ofleaders.

• Theme: High expectations culture

Delivering: The leadership team ensures that the teacher performance and development policy is implemented in aculture of high expectations for every staff member.


• Theme: Performance management and development

Sustaining and Growing: Teaching and non–teaching staff proactively seek to improve their performance. The schoolsupports collaborative performance and development and efforts to continuously monitor improvement.

• Theme: Community engagement

Delivering: Parents and community members have the opportunity to engage in a range of school–related activitieswhich help build the school as a cohesive educational community.

School planning, implementation and reporting

The school's on–balance judgement for this element is: Delivering • Theme: Continuous improvement

Sustaining and Growing: The leadership team actively supports change that leads to improvement, creating opportunitieswhere feedback about the impact of change can be shared and monitored.

• Theme: School plan

Delivering: The school plan aligns to student and system priorities and ensures responsiveness to emerging needs.

Staff, students, parents and the broader school community are welcomed and engaged, where possible, in thedevelopment of the vision, values and priorities of the school.

• Theme: Annual report

Delivering: The school collects and analyses learning and wellbeing data to monitor the achievement of milestones andreview, self–assess and report performance annually.

School Resources

The school's on–balance judgement for this element is: Sustaining and Growing • Theme: Staff deployment

Sustaining and Growing: The leadership team allocates non–educational administrative tasks to appropriatenon–teaching staff. All staff use technology available to streamline the administrative practices of the school.

• Theme: Facilities

Sustaining and Growing: Physical learning spaces are used flexibly to meet a broad range of student learning interestsand needs

• Theme: Technology

Sustaining and Growing: Technology is effectively used to enhance learning and service delivery • Theme: Community use of facilities

Delivering: The school plans for community use of school facilities • Theme: Financial management

Sustaining and Growing: Strategic financial management is used to gain efficiencies and to maximise resources toimplement the school plan.

Management practices and processes

The school's on–balance judgement for this element is: Delivering • Theme: Administrative systems and processes

Sustaining and Growing: The school makes informed choices about administrative practices and systems in place, basedon cost effectiveness, evidence, and in response to local context and need.

• Theme: Service delivery

Delivering: All school staff are supported to develop skills for successful operation of administrative systems and apositive customer service ethic is evident.

• Theme: Community satisfaction

Delivering: The leadership team measures school community (parent and student) satisfaction.


Our self–assessment process will assist the school to refine our school plan, leading to further improvements in thedelivery of education to our students.

For more information about the School Excellence Framework:

https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching–and–learning/school–excellence–and–accountability/sef–evidence–guide


Strategic Direction 1

Future Ready Students

Purpose

To prepare students across all curriculum areas and learning stages with skills and capabilities to thrive in a rapidlychanging and interconnected world. It connects students and engages their sense of curiosity.

Overall summary of progress

With the support of the Department's School Support Services, the Future Focused Learning team at PPS evaluated,developed, presented and implemented a series of professional learning workshops. These workshops addressedevidence – based practice around collaborative and co–teaching and future focussed learning spaces in preparation forour transition to a new, temporary classroom and school setting.

During the year, staff were supported with visits to new school builds with future focussed and flexible learningenvironments. These included visits to Bellevue Hill Public School and ANZAC Park Public School. At both theselocations, PPS teachers were provided with a tour of the facilities, supported with a presentation and a Q&A session.

Progress towards achieving improvement measures

Improvement measures(to be achieved over 3 years)

Funds Expended(Resources)

Progress achieved this year

Students and teachers havevisible learning goals which theyregularly monitor and evaluate.

$10000 – RAM Equity Teachers experimented with using visible learningstrategies in their class. This has been supportedwith professional learning from ANZAC ParkFutures Learning hub

Project Based Learning andSTEAM facilitate opportunities forCCT.

$1000 – RAM Equity Teachers have implemented project based learningand STEAM has components of their term basedunits of work.

Where available, teachers were afforded theopportunity to participate in professional learning.

K–6 students to integrate digitallearning across the curriculum.

$5000 – RAM Equity ICT is imbedded as mainstream teaching andlearning programs.

Flexible seating plansdifferentiate to meet the diverseneeds of learners.

$1600 –RAM Equity Teachers experiment with flexible learning spacesand furniture

Next Steps

Teachers will be working in a co–teaching environment in the temporary pop–up school setting, following theprofessional learning and support provided. This has provided the opportunity for teachers to experiment with spaces intheir demountable classrooms in preparation for the new school build.

Focus for 2019 will be the development and implementation of STEM programs and as well as the implementation oflearning progressions and growth mindset. The Term 1 SDD twilight session will also provide an opportunity for teachersto share, feedback and showcase their co–teaching experiences.



Teaching and Leadership Excellence

Purpose

To ensure that all staff consistently implement quality teaching practices and set high expectations to instil a culture ofteaching and student excellence.


4 teachers commenced their first year of the Literacy, Language and Learning (L3) professional learning program.Another 3 Stage 1 teachers completed their final and second year of this program.

Following whole school self –evaluation processes against the School Excellence Framework v2, the school executive, inconsultation with the school community, developed, shared and implemented the 2018–2020 school plan for the newmanagement cycle. This school plan will take into consideration of the new building project and the innovative pedagogyattached to the future focussed and flexible learning spaces.

Milestones were also developed to indicate performance throughout 2018.





Staff gather and analyse PLAN 2/ Learning Progressions to informand assess teaching andlearning.

$1500 – RAM Equity Strategic Direction Team Leaders completeprofessional learning on the revised PLAN andlearning progressions in preparation for 2019.

Growth in PLAN aspects ofReading Texts, Comprehensionand Writing andNAPLAN–Reading and Writing

$2000 – RAM Equity Teachers use and analyse student performanceand growth in literacy and numeracy for eachstudent.

Next Steps

2 additional teachers will commence their professional learning in the Literacy, Language and Learning (L3) professionallearning program. 4 Stage 1 teachers should receive accreditation for their successful completion of the L3 program.

New Best Start –Kindergarten, PLAN2 and the new learning progressions to be introduced to the whole school to replacePLAN and the literacy and numeracy continuums. The use of new Best Start – Kindergarten, PLAN2 and the learningprogression will be used to better support, track and plan for student assessment and performance. Professionallearning will occur at a whole school level, led by leaders who have completed training in the learning progressions andPLAN2.



Safe and Supportive Environments

Purpose

To create teaching and learning environments that enable students to be healthy, happy, engaged and successful whilepromoting positive and respectful relationships in the community.


The Positive Behaviour 4 Learning (PB4L – student wellbeing) program was introduced at Penshurst PS. This enabledthe school to evaluate the current student welfare and discipline policy and ensure that the components of this schoolpolicy was current and applicable to the school setting. This included the review of the school rules and merit awardsystem in–line with PB4L procedures.





Increased proportion of studentswill have needs met byschool–wide and classroomsystems for all students, staff and

$20000– RAM Equity Student learning outcomes are supported withadditional school learning support staff, increasedaccess to technology and enhanced teachingprograms

Next Steps

With the move to the new temporary pop–up school on the shared site with Peakhurst West Public School, the studentwellbeing policy will be reviewed following implementation at PPS and to ensure consistency around shared site areassuch as the playground at Peakhurst West PS.


Key Initiatives Resources (annual) Impact achieved this year

Aboriginal background loading $3379 Needs of the Aboriginal education curriculumarea were identified and met

English language proficiency $45 537 EAL/D students are supported in their Englishlanguage acquisition.

Staff have some understanding of EAL/Deducation.

EAL/D specialist teachers attend EAL/Dprofessional learning to ensure best practiceis maintained with EAL/D teaching andlearning.

Low level adjustment for disability $34037 Learning needs of identified students are met


Student information

Student enrolment profile

Enrolments

Students 2015 2016 2017 2018

Boys 231 214 217 213

Girls 228 225 223 225

In 2018, there were 17 mainstream and parallel classeswith 3 hearing support classes. By census date inFebruary, enrolment was 438 students altogether.

Student attendance profile

School

Year 2015 2016 2017 2018

K 95.2 95.3 96 96.2

1 95.4 96 94.6 94.7

2 95.4 94.8 95.3 94.6

3 95.3 94.9 96.2 95.1

4 94.7 96.1 94.3 95.7

5 95.8 95.6 93.6 95.3

6 95.4 94.5 95 93.1

All Years 95.3 95.3 95.1 95.1

State DoE

Year 2015 2016 2017 2018

K 94.4 94.4 94.4 93.8

1 93.8 93.9 93.8 93.4

2 94 94.1 94 93.5

3 94.1 94.2 94.1 93.6

4 94 93.9 93.9 93.4

5 94 93.9 93.8 93.2

6 93.5 93.4 93.3 92.5

All Years 94 94 93.9 93.4

Management of non-attendance

As a legal requirement, student attendance isconsistently monitored, with the support of the homeschool liaison officer.

Parents and carers are required to provide a writtenexplanation that substantiates the absence. Additionalletters are also sent home if a written explanation hasnot been provided.

Should school attendance become a concern,

involvement of the student wellbeing officer and homeschool liaison officer within a parent meeting will be andhas been conducted to support the regular attendanceof the child.

Workforce information

Workforce composition

Position FTE*

Principal(s) 1

Assistant Principal(s) 5

Classroom Teacher(s) 18.74

Teacher of Reading Recovery 0.42

Learning and Support Teacher(s) 0.7

Teacher Librarian 1

Teacher ESL 3

School Administration and SupportStaff

6.22

*Full Time Equivalent

No member of staff at Penshurst Public Schoolidentified as being Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

Teacher qualifications

All teaching staff meet the professional requirementsfor teaching in NSW public schools.

Teacher qualifications

Qualifications % of staff

Undergraduate degree or diploma 100

Postgraduate degree 10

Professional learning and teacher accreditation

In 2018, teachers engaged in professional learning inquality literacy teaching. This included the ongoingwork with L3 (literacy, language and learning) forKindergarten and Stage 1. This year, Mrs Gleeson wasalso an L3 Trainer, leading teacher professionallearning in L3 as a community of quality literacypractice with teachers from Marrickville Public School,Narwee Public School and Campsie Public School.

With a strong focus on future focussed pedagogy andflexible learning, teachers also completed professionallearning sessions on this topic, in preparation for ourmove to a temporary pop–up school and the rebuild ofa new future–focussed school.

Staff also continued their professional learning around


Positive Behaviour for Learning, especially withtransition to a new school setting and transportarrangements. This professional learning is in line withthe review of the PPS Student Welfare and DisciplinePolicy.

Financial information

Financial summary

The information provided in the financial summaryincludes reporting from 1 January 2018 to 31December 2018.

2018 Actual ($)

Opening Balance 403,474

Revenue 4,665,302

Appropriation 4,438,402

Sale of Goods and Services 27,765

Grants and Contributions 192,935

Gain and Loss 0

Other Revenue 900

Investment Income 5,301

Expenses -4,215,047

Recurrent Expenses -4,215,047

Employee Related -3,927,845

Operating Expenses -287,202

Capital Expenses 0

Employee Related 0

Operating Expenses 0

SURPLUS / DEFICIT FOR THEYEAR

450,255

Balance Carried Forward 853,729

With the move to a temporary school setting, on theshared site of Peakhurst West Public School, thespending of school funds on resources was limited withmost funds expended on professional learning, studentsupport strategies and planning.

Financial summary equity funding

The equity funding data is the main component of the'Appropriation' section of the financial summary above.

2018 Actual ($)

Base Total 2,978,019

Base Per Capita 88,741

Base Location 0

Other Base 2,889,278

Equity Total 498,461

Equity Aboriginal 3,379

Equity Socio economic 30,290

Equity Language 357,876

Equity Disability 106,916

Targeted Total 750,321

Other Total 137,273

Grand Total 4,364,073

Figures presented in this report may be subject torounding so may not reconcile exactly with the bottomline totals, which are calculated without any rounding.

A full copy of the school's financial statement is tabledat the annual general meetings of the parent and/orcommunity groups. Further details concerning thestatement can be obtained by contacting the school.

School performance

NAPLAN

In the National Assessment Program, the results acrossthe Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 literacy andnumeracy assessments are reported on a scale fromBand 1 to Band 10. The achievement scalerepresents increasing levels of skillsand understandings demonstrated in theseassessments.

From 2018 to 2020 NAPLAN is moving from a papertest to an online test. Individual schools are migrating tothe online test, with some schools attempting NAPLANon paper and others online.

Results for both online and paper formats are reportedon the same NAPLAN assessment scale. Anycomparison of NAPLAN results – such as comparisonsto previous NAPLAN results or to results for studentswho did the assessment in a different format – shouldtake into consideration the different test formats andare discouraged during these transition years.

Reading

Yr 5: 36.1% of students at proficiency compared to24.8% when compared to state.



Spelling



Writing



Grammar and Punctuation

Yr 5: 41% of students at proficiency compared to 32.9%when compared to state.


Band 1 2 3 4 5 6

Percentage of students 0.0 5.3 8.8 24.6 19.3 42.1

School avg 2016-2018 2.7 4.9 10.4 16.9 24 41

Band 1 2 3 4 5 6


School avg 2016-2018 0 2.7 10.9 21.9 37.2 27.3


Band 1 2 3 4 5 6


School avg 2016-2018 3.8 4.4 13.1 18.6 29.5 30.6

Band 1 2 3 4 5 6


School avg 2016-2018 0 4.9 7.7 13.1 29 45.4

Band 3 4 5 6 7 8


School avg 2016-2018 3.6 9 13.9 27.1 14.5 31.9


Band 3 4 5 6 7 8


School avg 2016-2018 2.4 9.6 22.9 24.1 19.3 21.7

Band 3 4 5 6 7 8


School avg 2016-2018 1.8 2.4 13.3 28.9 22.3 31.3

Band 3 4 5 6 7 8


School avg 2016-2018 1.2 6.6 31.9 33.7 18.1 8.4

Numeracy

Yr 3: 64.3% of students were at proficiency incomparison to state average at 39.3%

Yr 5: 49.2% of students were at proficiency incomparison to state average at 19.3%


Band 1 2 3 4 5 6


School avg 2016-2018 0.6 7.2 19.9 14.4 28.7 29.3

Band 3 4 5 6 7 8


School avg 2016-2018 1.2 10.9 16.4 21.8 26.1 23.6

The My School website provides detailed informationand data for national literacy and numeracy testing. Goto http://www.myschool.edu.au to access the schooldata.>

One of the 12 Premier's Priorities is to raise thepercentage of all students in the top two bands in theNational Assessment Program – Literacy andNumeracy (NAPLAN) by 8% by 2019. One of the 18State Priorities is to increase the proportion ofAboriginal students in the top two NAPLAN bands forreading and numeracy by 30% by 2019.

Parent/caregiver, student, teachersatisfaction

Tell Them From Me Surveys were conducted in 2018.The results from these surveys are:

Students: • 76% felt accepted and valued by their peers and

by others at their school • 82% have friends at school they can trust and

who encourage them to make positive choices • 84% believe that schooling is useful in their

everyday life and will have strong bearing on theirfuture

• 53% do homework for their classes with a positiveattitude and in a timely manner

• 89% expressed that they do not get in trouble atschool for disruptive or inappropriate behaviour

• 64% are interested and motivated in their learning • 79% try hard to succeed in their learning

Parents felt: • The school's administrative staff are helpful when

parents/carers have a question or problem. • Written information from the school is in clear,

plain language • They can easily speak with their child's teacher • They praise their child for doing well at school • Teachers expect homework to be done on time • Their child is encouraged to do their best work • Their child is clear about the rules for school

behaviour • Their child feels safe going to and from school

Teachers felt: • That they work with other teachers in developing

cross–curricular or common learning opportunities • That they talk with other teachers about strategies

that increase student engagement • Teachers in our school share their lesson plans

and other materials with me • They discuss learning problems of particular

students with other teachers • They talk with students about the barriers to

learning


• They monitor the progress of individual students • They are effective in working with students with

behavioural problems • They set high expectations for student learning • Their assessments help them understand where

students are having difficulty

Policy requirements

Aboriginal education

In 2018, teachers engaged with students and theirfamilies, who identified as Aboriginal or Torres StraitIslander, in developing personalised learning pathwaysto further student learning outcomes for Aboriginalstudents.

The school also recognised and celebrated NAIDOCwith an Aboriginal school incursion that showcasedDreamtime storytelling, Aboriginal art and culture.

Aboriginal education is also imbedded within wholeschool curriculum.

Multicultural and anti-racism education

The school celebrated Harmony Day with a schoolincursion that incorporated various cultures. Thisallowed for all our students to experience and learnvarious dances and play instruments from countriessuch as India and Spain.

EAL/D and new arrivals program support also enabledour students from language backgrounds other thanEnglish to share their cultural experiences within themulticultural community that Penshurst Public Schoolhas.

Multicultural education is also imbedded within wholeschool curriculum.

The school also has an ARCO (Anti–Racism ContactOfficer). This officer assists parents, staff and studentswho have complaints regarding racism and facilitatesthe complaints handling process.


Documents

2018 Penshurst Public School Annual Report · Introduction The Annual Report for 2018 is provided to the community of Penshurst Public School as an account of the school's operations