Annual Report 2015

Raukkan Aboriginal School and Preschool

Annual Report

2015

Annual Report 2015

Page 1

1. CONTEXT

School Name: Raukkan Aboriginal School and Pre-School

School Number: 0845

Principal: Sue Sifa Partnership Coorong and Mallee

Raukkan School was built by Ngarrindjeri people with George Taplin, the missionary who selected

Raukkan as the site for a mission, during 1859 and 1860. Stage 1 was completed on 2nd July 1860. Since that time the school buildings have been expanded and updated. Raukkan community

celebrated 150 years of education at Raukkan School in 2010. Ngarrindjeri people are proud of their

long commitment to education as crucial to their children’s future.

In 2014 all students enrolled in Raukkan School are Ngarrindjeri. Ngarrindjeri people live across their traditional country which includes the Murray River and Lakes, the Coorong and Encounter Bay.

Raukkan Community is a significant centre for Ngarrindjeri people across the state, as it is regarded

as the ’home’ of the Ngarrindjeri.

The use of Ngarrindjeri language was forbidden. Since then there has been a revival of language and much research and reconstruction continues to the present day. Ngarrindjeri language is taught at

Raukkan School. Students enter preschool after they turn 3 and generally their home language is a form of Aboriginal English which contains some Ngarrindjeri vocabulary.

Raukkan despite its proximity to Adelaide and larger communities such as Murray Bridge and Meningie is quite isolated. Most of the children’s lives are lived within the community itself.

Raukkan School is a Category 1 Index of Disadvantage site with a current enrolment of 25 students. The school has an Index of Community Socio-educational Advantage, (ICSEA) value of 625 (The

average is 1000) The school has 2 primary classes JP – Pondi / Murray Cod Class and MP - Kungari

/Black Swan Class and a preschool – No:ri / Pelican Class with 4 children enrolled in term 3. In addition 7 children were part of the occasional care programme which began in term 2.

Enrolments have remained relatively stable for the last 3 years. In 2015 there were 21 children

enrolled in the combined school and pre-school. All students are Aboriginal and eligible for School

Card.

There continues to be some movement between Raukkan and larger localities such as Murray Bridge and Adelaide. The highest enrolment was 23; however 26 students attended the school at some time

during the year. This transience has a significant impact on the learning of all children.

The school’s financial position is sound, upgrading the grounds and facilities continued across the

year.

3. 2015 HIGHLIGHTS

Ngarni-yan yunti enani - Together we can do it

2015 has seen the school motto put into action. Staff, students, parents and support from the department and other schools in our Coorong Mallee partnership have worked together and we have achieved many of the goals we set ourselves at the beginning of the year. Students who come to school every day ready to learn are closing the gap between themselves and the benchmarks set by DECD. We are really excited that most of the students who sat the NAPLAN

Annual Report 2015

Page 2

test this year scored within the acceptable bands of one or more areas. That’s a great foundation to build on for 2016. This success is directly linked to the intensive work they are doing with staff in Jolly Phonics and Grammar, Lexia and MultiLit. We’ve just started Symphony Maths so by next year we hope for similar success in NAPLAN numeracy. Changes to the organisation of services in DECD have given us greater access to support services for students who experience learning difficulties. We have been able to screen all the children for hearing and speech as well as other communication issues and we look forward to better supporting these students in the coming years. The new shade sails over the play equipment have given us a much greater hot weather play space in both the Kindy and school yards. It’s fantastic that they can spread out and choose between different activities. I’d like to congratulate Mrs Renee and Mrs Helen for creating the Occasional Care programme for 1 to 3 year old children. The involvement of the children and their mums has filled the Kindy with chatter and games. All of the children have benefited from having others to share their ideas and learning. Over the year an additional 11 children have begun their learning journey at Raukkan School with up to 9 children present on a single day. This year we’ve said goodbye to Miss Liz, Miss Lyticia and Mr Troy. I’d like to acknowledge their contributions to the school community, particularly their involvement in the children’s learning and to wish each of them well in their new adventures next year. We’ve welcomed Ms Emma, Ms Lisa, Mr Mitchell and Miss Cathy. Our school family expands and contracts but we continue towards our learning goals, doing things the Raukkan way.

Occasional Care and Pre-School We started Occasional Care this year and Mrs Helen and Mrs Renee have loved having the younger children join us! We started with children who were 18 months old and above, but lowered the age to 12 months and above in 4th term. The sessions run on Kindy days from 9-12 noon. Often mothers stay until their child is settled and then they get some well-earned child-free time for a few hours. Mrs Helen has really liked getting to know families better. We will definitely continue next year! During terms 2 and 3 we visited Tailem Bend Kindy each week to give the Kindy children a chance to play with a larger number of children the same age. Tailem Bend Kindy also came down to visit us and we shared in craft, outside learning and listened to a Ngarrindjeri story about the Nori – pelican- told by Mrs Shirley.

Cleland Park Excursion Kindy invited Occasional Care children to join them to see lots of Australian animals. 11 children and 10 adults came along. Some brave children even fed some of the animals!

Annual Report 2015

Page 3

Swimming In term 1 we ran an extended swimming programme for all school aged children. This was made possible through the generosity of Tailem Bend Primary School who allowed us to use their pool. Mrs Tina and Mrs Sharon have worked with us for the last 4 years and there is an appreciable improvement in the skills of all the children. As well as improving overall health and fitness it is an important safety measure because we live on the shores of Lake Alexandrina. We travelled to Coonalpyn to participate in our first swimming carnival. The children faced their fears and took part in swimming and aquatic contests using their newly acquired skills.

Safety was also a key factor in our excursion to the road safety centre in Adelaide because there is very little traffic in Raukkan we don’t have crossing lights or have to stay on the left side of the road. We built on to the bike riding training when we had other excursions to Murray Bridge crossing the roads, watching for traffic and using pedestrian crossing lights.

Singing School singing continues to assist children’s oral language and reading skills. This year we have expanded our repertoire as the children have begun to choose songs that they know will suit their voices to learn and perform. We sang in public for Reconciliation Week in Murray Bridge and at the Central Market as part of their Christmas celebrations.

Annual Report 2015

Page 4

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra - Stan and Mabel We all enjoy music including our singing programme but usually we only use recorded music as accompaniment. This year we went to a concert put on by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra of a piece based on the book Stan and Mabel. We read this book in class before we went. To prepare for the concert we used live streaming to watch and take part in the Melbourne concert and then the next week we travelled up to Adelaide for our concert. It was a great experience - a theatre full of children mostly under 7! There were lots of chances to join in with the music and then after the concert was finished some of the musicians let us have a close up look at particular instruments. One of the violinists let the children hold her violin and play a note.

Working Together - Coonalpyn, Geranium and Raukkan Schools In 2014 we began to work with Coonalpyn and Geranium Schools. Like us they are small schools. This year we have gone on building these relationships by sharing in celebrations and other events. The children have become friends and the teachers have been able to share ideas as we’ve also shared the fun. In the sports and swimming carnivals the 3 schools are mixed up into 2 teams. It’s not about winning it’s about doing your best, trying new things and celebrating each child’s success. Book Week’s slogan this year was Books Light Up Our World. You can see from the photos that we had lots of fun working on quilt squares which celebrate the things that we all enjoy.

Super Daryl to the Rescue The year 5s worked with Mrs. Helen to script, film and present a short film in the Focus on Ability film festival. These children and staff were able invited to Sydney to take part in the award presentation night. We didn’t win but it was a fantastic experience for all of them.

Annual Report 2015

Page 5

Playground Shade Sails In the fourth term we got sail shades over the Kindy and School playgrounds. They put all the sails up in three days. We watched the workers put them up. It was stormy when they were working. The men worked very fast so that they could tie the sails on before the lightening started. The equipment they used looked really cool. It was amazing for the Kindy kids because it was their first time seeing a crane at the school pick up a massive pole. Everyone was so excited and happy. Students took photos and recorded through the window in the staff room.

School Concert Using The Arts to develop self-confidence and speaking skills is a central element in our learning. We share our learning with parents and families through our open classroom morning at the end of each term. We read our writing, demonstrate new skills, use Power Points to illustrate what we’ve done and usually sing. Students have worked with Mrs. Sally Shaw building drama and movement skills. At the end of the year we demonstrate our new skills to the whole community through the concert. This year in addition to plays, dance routines and songs in English. We also performed “I’m a Long Way from My Country” in Ngarrindjeri.

4. SITE IMPROVEMENT PLANNING AND TARGETS

Our 2015 Site Improvement Plan focused on improving skills in literacy and numeracy. Because of the small number of children at each year level it is difficult to report specific improvements while maintaining the privacy of individual children. This year has however resulted in significant improvements in literacy skills across all year levels. Children sitting the NAPLAN, except for those assessed with learning difficulties or disabilities, achieved within the appropriate band for at least one area. All children participate in the NAPLAN tests. These improvements come through a daily literacy programme built on Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar. All school children use the Lexia online literacy programme. All children in Kungari class access the MultiLit remedial programme. All Kindy and Pondi children use the PreLit programme to prepare them for literacy learning. Because of the positive results of the Lexia online learning programme we researched similar numeracy focused programmes. In term 4 we began a trial of Symphony Maths and this will become part of our numeracy programme in 2016.

Annual Report 2015

Page 6

4.1 Junior Primary and Early Years Scheme Funding

This funding supports the individualized, learning programme offered to each child in the early years. PreLit is shared by the Kindy and JP classes. The JP class is kept small to facilitate one-on-one interventions which are supported through an SSO in the room each morning.

4.2 Better Schools Funding

Additional funding for the school has been used to maintain small classes to ensure teachers can give

intensive, targeted support for each child. All students have a regularly updated ILP developed and closely monitored by each class teacher.

All classes have an SSO who works to support the teacher as the children learn. We have initiated the Lexia learning programme for all school children which provides daily online practise of literacy skills.

Progress in this programme is monitored by the class teacher. Areas of difficulty are flagged by the programme and the teacher can then individually re-teach, revise or introduce concepts to fill the

gaps.

Teachers are provided with opportunities for professional development which is directly linked to the learning needs of the children. All teachers attended partnership student free professional

development days. We also funded regular meetings with Australian Curriculum officers to assess and refine teaching programmes.

5. STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

Because student achievements are not yet at, at least benchmark levels, in all learning areas, all students are targeted through individualized numeracy and literacy interventions.

We have committed funding to achieve very small teacher: student ratios so that teachers are able to

better support and extend each student in their class. Testing of children from years R-5 via Progressive Achievement Tests Reading (PAT-R) and

Progressive Achievement Tests Maths (PAT-M) occurs each year. Student writing is assessed through the EALD tools. Daily Multi-Lit sessions for the Kungari students allow an intensive focus for students

whose literacy levels remain beneath bench marks. Kindy children’s literacy levels are tested by the

TROLL (Teacher Rating of Oral Language and Literacy) which is used in conjunction with the Early Years Framework and RRR to identify skills and areas needed additional support.

Support for assessment and student specific programmes is sought through regional student support services. Through Murray and Mallee Health services all children have had vision and hearing testing.

These tests enable us to modify the teaching programmes and learning spaces to meet the needs of the individual students.

5.1 NAPLAN

2015 saw an improvement in NAPLAN results across all areas. Students achieved within the appropriate levels in at least one testing area.

6. STUDENT DATA

6.1 Attendance

Attendance by Year Level % Attendance

2013 2014 2015

Reception 89.0 88.2 87.0

Year 1 89.6 92.9 82.1

Year 2 88.0 91.4 92.5

Year 3 85.4 91.7 87.3

Annual Report 2015

Page 7

Year 4 89.0 90.6 90.3

Year 5 85.5 90.0 91.3

Year 6 84.7 91.2

Total All Year Levels 87.0 90.7 88.2

Total ACARA 1 TO 10 86.8 91.2 88.3

Because of the small numbers of children a family, who is away from the community for a family event, or a death in the family, can have a significant impact on attendance rates over all. The schools attendance policy,

If a child is away for 3 Days without notification we will contact you by note, contact you by phone/ or a home visit, contact you by letter. If we still have not had a reply we will inform the Attendance Officer,

is enacted as necessary. Good attendance is rewarded and encouraged through a weekly raffle for those who come to school each day, on time and ready to learn and an annual attendance award. Generally all students who are in Raukkan are at school.

6.2 Destination

Leave Reason 2014

School Index DECD

No % % %

Employment 1.9% 2.9%

Interstate/Overseas 9.8% 9.5%

Other 4.2% 1.4%

Seeking Employment 2.9% 3.8%

Tertiary/TAFE/Training 1.9% 3.6%

Transfer to Non-Govt Schl 5.2% 9.8%

Transfer to SA Govt Schl 2 100.0% 59.4% 48.8%

Unknown 14.7% 20.3%

Unknown (TG - Not Found) 0.0%

7. CLIENT OPINION

Through the year we have continued working with family and community to refine our Parent School Partnership agreement. This process has helped us refine our School Improvement Plan to include community priorities. Our SIP overview includes these priorities and will form the basis for community acknowledgement and involvement. Al the children participated in the Coorong and Mallee Partnership Student Survey. These results will be used to shape our teaching and learning throughout 2016. Our Site Improvement Plan has been reworked to include feedback from both surveys.

8. ACCOUNTABILITY

8.1 Behaviour Management

Annual Report 2015

Page 8

Our 5 School agreements are Personal Best, Safety, Kindness, Mutual Respect and Attentive Listening. These are the focus for our behaviour management strategies. We aim to celebrate good learning and support for each other and use deliberate processes for students who are behaving outside these guidelines. We use Ask, Tell, Act, steps to facilitate student’s own reflections and to allow them to change their behaviours.

8.2 Relevant History Screening

All staff have completed the DCIS screening and Responding to Abuse and Neglect (RAN) training. Additionally many members of the community have completed this screening and RAN training so that they can be involved in school activities and camps. Records of training and dates for renewal are kept at school. Community members can complete the online updates at the school.

8.3 HUMAN RESOURCES - Workforce Data

8.3.1 Teacher Qualifications All teachers at this school are qualified and registered with the SA Teachers Registration Board.

Qualification Level Number of Qualifications

Bachelor Degrees or Diplomas 2

Post Graduate Qualifications 5

Please note: Staff that have more than 1 qualification will be counted more than once in the above qualification table. Therefore the total number of staff by qualification type may be more than the total number of teaching staff.

8.3.2 Workforce Composition including Indigenous staff

Workforce Composition Teaching Staff Non-Teaching Staff

Indigenous Non Indigenous Indigenous Non Indigenous

Full-time Equivalents 0.00 3.60 2.85 0.84

Persons 0 4 5 2

Annual Report 2015

Page 9

9. FINANCIAL STATEMENT

Annual Report 2015

Page 10

Annual Report 2015

Page 11

Annual Report 2015

Page 12