2017 Annual Report

Saint John’s Catholic Primary School

Frankston East

Registered School No. 1667

2017 Annual Report

to the school community

Published May 2018

Contact Details

Saint John’s Catholic Primary School

Address: Jayne Street Frankston East 3199

Principal: Mrs Tonia Tamblyn

Parish Priest: Rev Fr Chinua Okeke

School Board Chair: Anthony Stevenson

Telephone: 03 9789 9794

Email: principal@sjfrankstoneast.catholic.edu.au

Website: www.sjfranskstoneast.catholic.edu.au

Registered School No.: 1667

Minimum Standards Attestation

I, Tonia Tamblyn, attest that Saint John’s Catholic Primary School is compliant with:

· All of the requirements for the minimum standards and other requirements for the registration of schools as specified in the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic) and the Education and Training Regulations 2007 (Vic), except where the school has been granted an exemption from any of these requirements by the VRQA.

· Australian Government accountability requirements related to the 2016 school year under the Australian Education Regulations 2013 (Cth)

11 May 2018.

Introduction

The Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (CECV) School Improvement Framework, introduced in 2005, addresses the dual purpose of satisfying compliance requirements of government and sector authorities about accountability of the outcomes for schooling, and to assist schools and teachers to improve student learning outcomes. The framework provides a structured approach to ongoing internal improvement planning with a component of external objective assessment and accountability every four years. Under the School Improvement Framework there is an expectation that schools report to their school community on an annual basis mid-year. The aim of this report is to inform the community of the School Improvement Plan and the school’s progress in addressing the articulated goals and intended outcomes.

Historical Context

In 2017, Saint John’s Catholic Primary School commemorated fifty years of Catholic education on the peninsular. The school enjoys strong community support and is proud of its positive reputation as a welcoming and inclusive community with much opportunity to participate in the life and culture of the school. Saint John’s Parish was established as a Parish in its own name on 1st February 1969. Parents value the school’s capacity to enable their children to live the faith.

Saint John’s Catholic Primary School opened on 5^th February 1967, under the leadership of Mrs Margaret Carruthers. There was an initial enrolment of twenty-four Prep students. The order of the Faithful Companions of Jesus then led the school from 1968 to 1988. Sr. Kevin Noonan FCJ (1970-80) and Sr. Peter Wilson FCJ (1980-88). The FCJ is the foundational charism of Saint John’s Catholic Primary School. The FJC Charism is an Ignatian spirituality working with a missionary spirit to adapt their religious life to the changing needs of the society and culture in which they live.

The school’s leadership continued with Mrs Dana Morison (1989-98) and Mr. Paul Hartin (1998-2016). The school has a current enrolment of 275. After 50 years of Catholic Education, there is a clear and continued staff commitment to the best interest of students and of improving professional practice.

Environmental Context- Frankston District

Saint John’s Catholic Primary School is a co-educational Catholic primary school located in the Melbourne bayside suburb of Frankston on the Mornington Peninsula. Saint John’s is approximately 36 kilometres south-east of Melbourne. The district comprises of residential areas, a business and shopping precinct and beaches. Saint John’s services the parish catchment area defined by the Edithvale Wetlands in the North, Langwarrin in the East, Mornington Peninsula in the South and the coastline of Port Phillip Bay in the West. Saint John’s Catholic Primary School resides in the State electorate of Frankston District and the Federal electorate of Dunkley.

Family background

Saint John’s Catholic Primary School is a diverse and multicultural learning community, with a Language Other Than English (LBOTE) of 26% and there is currently one Indigenous student enrolled at Saint John’s. There was a whole school Catholic/ Christian enrolment of 62% in 2017. The school has an Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) of 1059 or a Socio Economic Status (SES) rating of 90.

Distribution of Students

Bottom Quarter

Middle Quarter

Top Quarter

School Distribution

51%

23%

26%

Australian Distribution

25%

50%

25%

The percentage of families claiming Education Maintenance Allowance (CSEF) in 2017 was 19% and had an increase of 5% from 2016. The school had a fee collection rate of 90% in 2017.

Catholic Identity

A strength of Saint John’s Primary School is the capacity of the staff to articulate and represent the Catholic identity of the school to students and the parish community. Enhancing School Identity data reflects the school’s successful promotion of its Catholic identity, characterised as a Dialogue School. Spirituality is fostered and opportunities are created for actions of social justice.

Saint John’s ensures that prayer and liturgy lay a key role in the forming of the school’s Catholic identity. Spirituality is fostered through regular class Masses, daily prayer, and the Foundation Family Prayer Box. Mindfulness is fostered through daily Christian Meditation. Results from the 2017 Catholic Identity Survey Profile Questionnaire indicate that in relation to the Saint John’s faith development, the importance of our Catholic culture for our parents has shifted slightly and remains an area for development. Parents opportunity to experience and develop their faith remains high at 88%.

Religious Education and Sacramental Programs are taught within the school, based on the Religious Education Texts and Guidelines, prepared by the Archdiocese of Melbourne, and other resources. Children who wish to participate in the parish school sacramental programs must be a baptised Catholic to be eligible. The Sacraments of Reconciliation and First Eucharist were offered in Grade Three whilst the Sacraments of Confirmation was offered in Grade Six.

The preparation for each Sacrament occurs in close partnership with families, the school and the parish. Prior to the celebration of each sacrament, an intensive period of preparation involves adult education, presentation of candidates to the parish community, family workshops, reflection days and classroom instruction.

Student Learning Outcomes

Saint John’s promotes contemporary learning approaches to make learning more visible for all students. Staff are focusing on collaboration to increase teachers’ data literacy and shared planning time to better support all learners. NAPLAN results show student performance has been within or above state mean since 2011, apart from Year Five in Numeracy 2015. Relative Growth reports suggest that sufficient rates of learning growth are being achieved by students who had below mean scores.

Saint John’s Catholic Primary School curriculum in 2017 was based on the Victorian Curriculum and the A-E Assessment and reporting requirements. The school was successful in being awarded a grant to be part of the 'Ongoing Reporting Southern Collective' which involves looking at research around best practice in providing ongoing reporting. The collective provides an opportunity to investigate ways in which to implement ongoing reporting, considering best digital resources. Saint John’s has a rigorous assessment regime to gain student data to inform the learning cycle, and improve student outcomes. Saint John’s is developing contemporary learning spaces and collaborative teaching practices.

In Term Four 2017, St John’s applied for and were successful in being selected as one of only twenty schools in the nation to participate in The University of Melbourne Network of Schools. This is a three year project under the direct guidance of Professor John Hattie.

Buildings and Facilities

Saint John’s has twelve learning spaces, two RTI spaces, a library/ computer laboratory, staff room, conference room, school administration, sickbay, kids’ kitchen, ceramic room, leader’s offices and principal’s office within the main building. A path connects the school to Saint John’s Catholic Church and presbytery.

In addition to the main building, Saint John’s has the Paul Hartin Learning Centre, the Performance Centre, Hobby Shed, Bike Shed and PFA/ Fete Shed. A new Hall was built under the Building the Education Revolution Program (BER). This provides dedicated space for assemblies, presentations, performing arts productions, parent gatherings, physical education classes, sporting activities, indoor recreation, social functions and community activities. The community Coffee Corner and Student Cafe are both new additions to provide a space for parents and carers to meet informally.

Saint John’s is nestled into a battle axe property that features a spacious playground. This includes a large asphalt area with basketball facilities, a junior and senior adventure playground, a football/ soccer oval and a peace garden. Saint John’s has redeveloped its Sustainability Precinct featuring vegetable gardens, composting, and a chook house to support the Garden-to-Kitchen program and environmental and sustainability education.

In 2017, Saint John’s worked with Hayball Architects to develop a new Master Building Plan and Beveridge Williams to develop a Master Transport and Traffic Plan. The Building Master Plan will refurbish six traditional classrooms into two contemporary learning hubs. An application for a Commonwealth Capital Grant for $1.2 million was lodged in October 2016. Saint John’s School received formal notification of the successful application from the Catholic Education Office Melbourne in November 2017. The building works are anticipated to commence in Term Four 2018.

Catholic Identity: Community

Saint John’s provides a dynamic sense of a Catholic inter-generational learning community and fosters a welcoming family atmosphere. Saint John’s has a strong parent group, who are vital to creating a sense of belonging and engagement in the school. Parents are welcome to participate in all aspects of school life, with the main support through the Parent and Friends Association, Parish Education Board, Fete Committee and individual contributions in the learning spaces as literacy helpers, and assisting with sports, swimming, excursions and school events.

Saint John’s Horizons of Hope

Our School Vision

St John’s Primary School builds a Catholic culture of high levels of learning for all through collaboration, teamwork, partnerships and life-giving relationships which enable all to flourish.

Education in Faith

Goals & Intended Outcomes

Goals:

To develop an environment that supports and nurtures the faith journey of the school community.

Intended Outcomes:

That we will provide further opportunities for staff, parents and students faith formation as a part of the sacramental program.
To plan for a provision of a sacred space within the school grounds.
That we promote catholicity through iconology and liturgical singing.
That we promote social justice through awareness, participation and fundraising.

2017 Achievements

Ongoing professional learning to develop teacher knowledge and skills in best practice and contemporary pedagogy for student engagement in Religious Education.
Strengthened Teacher Team planning in RE to embed the dialogical approach, learning intentions, success criteria, and multiple sources of feedback are developed and shared.
Ensure learning intentions are visible and clear and success criteria are evident to scaffold learning
Invite parents and carers to join daily and weekly prayer, mindfulness and parish school Masses.
Invite parents to Education in Faith Evenings and Family Workshops for the Sacramental Programs.
Support the faith journey of parents, families, students, staff and parishioners.
Embed the Catholic Identity of Saint John’s through professional and spiritual opportunities.
Liaised with Fr Chinua Okeke, Saint John’s parish priest, and Fr Jude Agorchukwu, the assistant parish priest in the planning of parish school liturgies and Masses.
Ensure that religious icons are visible in each learning space.
Promote Social Justice initiatives, led by the Social Justice team.

Learning & Teaching

Goals & Intended Outcomes

Goals:

To enable all students to achieve success in a contemporary and innovative school community focussed on transforming practice and personalising learning.

Intended Outcomes:

That literacy standards be improved.
That numeracy standards be improved.
That science standards be improved.

2017 Achievements

Continued development of Professional Learning Teams to allow for collaborative planning whereby teams share knowledge, analyse data, set learning goals and generate ways of functioning in order to best support the learning of students.
Adjusted organisational structures to facilitate collaboration to develop shared responsibility for student learning, greater responsiveness to data to identify student needs and sharing of best practice
Developed and implemented ways teachers personalise learning using learning intentions, success criteria and feedback.
improved the school's organisational health and to promote a professional learning culture throughout the school.
Deepened staff knowledge and implementation of the Victorian Curriculum.
Documented the teaching and learning program across the curriculum areas for each year level incorporating the sequencing of key knowledge and skills across the years of schooling to support a progression of learning.
Developed staff expertise to implement, analyse and drive learning and teaching through effective use of data.
Developed a shared knowledge and understanding of data analysis to inform classroom teaching to promote academic growth in all student's.
Provided professional development for staff targeted to writing and the implementation of VCOP, a methodology for raising standards in writing across all levels.
Embedding of the Big Write as a whole school writing assessment per term.
Provided professional development for Learning Support Officers in supporting children at point of need and working with teachers on explicit implementation of PLPs.
Developed teacher’s strategies to implement a differentiated curriculum in their classrooms.
Implemented a Response to Intervention program which identified children at risk and high achievers and provided intervention/extension to both students and teachers.
Implemented Chromebooks to enhance teaching and learning as well as student engagement.
Professional learning team (PLT) meetings have been a key source of professional learning about curriculum, mathematics and literacy and opportunities to moderate student performance and examine data.
Contemporary learning approaches to make learning more visible that include goal setting and the use of learning intentions and success criteria, have been implemented across the school.
Planned the implementation of specialist STEM classes to commence 2018.

Saint John’s Primary School provides a number of school activities and programs that have a positive effect on the students and the school community. Below is a list of curricular and extracurricular activities that have been successful at our school:

Education Programs

• Reading Recovery

• Levelled Literacy Intervention (LLI)

• LOTE Program (Italian) Foundation – 6

• School Psychologist - 1 day a week

• ERIK program

• Woodwork classes

• Cooking classes

• Soundwaves Spelling Program

Extra-Curricular Activities

• Yarn Club

• Craft Club

• Coding Grades 4 - 6

• Games Club

• Jogging Club

• Mindfulness - F-4

• Construction and Creative Play - F-4

NAPLAN DATA STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT LEVEL REPORT

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

The tables below indicate that there has been an upward trend in Year 3 Reading, Writing and Numeracy data in 2015 and 2016 and 2017 data has maintained this trend.
The results show that in 2017, 100% of students reached the minimum standard for Reading, Writing, Grammar & Punctuation and Numeracy in Grade 3.
There has been an increase from 2016 to 2017 in the Spelling achievements of Year Five students with 94.4 % achieving the minimum standard.
There has been an increase from 2016 to 2017 in the Reading achievements of Year Five students with 91.7 % achieving the minimum standard.

PROPORTION OF STUDENTS MEETING THE MINIMUM STANDARDS

NAPLAN TESTS

2015

2016

2015 - 2016

Changes

2017

2016 - 2017

Changes

YR 03 Grammar & Punctuation

97.3

100.0

2.7

100.0

0.0

YR 03 Numeracy

97.1

100.0

2.9

100.0

0.0

YR 03 Reading

94.6

100.0

5.4

100.0

0.0

YR 03 Spelling

97.3

96.7

-0.6

97.0

0.3

YR 03 Writing

100.0

0.0

100.0

0.0

YR 05 Grammar & Punctuation

92.5

100.0

7.5

94.4

-5.6

YR 05 Numeracy

90.0

100.0

10.0

91.7

-8.3

YR 05 Reading

92.5

91.2

-1.3

91.7

0.5

YR 05 Spelling

95.0

94.1

-0.9

94.4

0.3

YR 05 Writing

90.0

97.1

7.1

91.7

-5.4

YEAR ONE TEXT LEVEL STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT REPORT

75.47% of Year 1 children attained their expected standard of Level 15.
64.15% of Year 1 students attained the target standard of Level 20.
35.85% of Year 1 students attained a level equivalent to the Year 2 target standard

Saint John’s remained committed to ongoing analysis of our Literacy and Numeracy learning and teaching and assessment practices to maintain forward improvement trends. Saint John’s uses a range of assessments to monitor student growth. In Professional Learning Teams, teachers use assessment to inform their teaching and investigate pedagogy that will best meet the needs of ALL students, which is having a positive impact on our student outcomes. The students, throughout the school, who did not meet the benchmarks have been identified and programs put in place to support these students in their ongoing development.

Student Wellbeing

Goals & Intended Outcomes

Goal:

To develop students’ social and emotional learning

Intended Outcomes:

That students’ interpersonal learning skills are strengthened

Attendance

AVERAGE STUDENT ATTENDANCE RATE BY YEAR LEVEL

93.58

93.22

93.20

91.14

94.17

92.28

Overall average attendance

92.93

Value Added/Achievements

Saint John’s continues to develop the whole person by building student’s wellbeing and social-emotional learning. We have provided experiences whereby the students feel connected to the community. Some of the experiences provided at Saint John’s included:

Explicit teaching of social and emotional learning through the “You Can Do It” program
Highlighting the importance of student wellbeing in weekly newsletter items
Worked with Peninsula Health to provide free dental checks for all our students
Providing access to an onsite psychologist through our association with OnPsych
Buddy Program for our Prep and Year 6 students
Transition program with our secondary Catholic feeder school, John Paul College, for Year 6 students
Transition program with our local kindergartens and Foundation team
Buddy/Mentor program for Grade 6 students and staff
Mentors allocated to students identified at risk, particularly senior students.
Transition program (Velocity) with Youth Workers at Frankston City Council to support students in Year 6 who may be at risk of disengaging at secondary school
Explicit teaching regarding Cyber Safety
Termly Program Support Meetings for students who receive a Personal Learning Plan
Consulted with outside professionals and specialists such as, speech pathologists, psychologists, occupational therapists and Catholic Education Melbourne to support students
Daily structured play activities every lunchtime to support students to “play with a purpose”
Brainstorm Productions visit to consolidate our work on social and emotional learning
Boon Wurrung Family School Partnership parent forums focussing on student wellbeing with topics such as: managing anxiety, resilience in children, healthy eating and mindfulness
Peer Support Program for our Year 6 leaders to complete under the guidance of a qualified youth worker
“Buddy Seat” to support social interactions on the playground
Staff explicitly stating learning intentions for daily lessons to assist with connectedness to student learning
Student Progress Report Conferences twice a year where students are provided with an opportunity to articulate their learning goals with the parent/guardian and class teacher
Student led action teams with Year 6 leaders around community, social justice and sustainability
Behaviour Support Plans for students requiring additional support with social and emotional learning
Weekly class meetings/Circle Time
Student Representative Council for students across all year levels
Student led weekly assemblies
Supporting staff with CEM documentation around Supporting Positive Student Behaviour and Guidelines for Behaviour Support

STUDENT SATISFACTION

The Student Wellbeing Aggregate Index is calculated using the following indicators of the Insight SRC Student Survey: Emotional Wellbeing, Teacher Relationships and Engagement in Learning.

Student responses to the survey indicated that Student Motivation and Learning Confidence has remained steady

STUDENT WELLBEING AGGREGATE INDEX

2014

2015

2016

2017

71.0

75.0

72.5

68.7

Child Safe Standards

Achievements

Saint John’s has engaged Martin Tennant from SafeSmart to maintain and develop relevant policies in this area. Professional Learning opportunities are also developed in consultation with Martin.

Training and Awareness Strategies:

All staff, including those not listed as mandated reporters, have completed the Mandatory Reporting Module as required by the CEM.
All visitors to the school are required to sign in via the office, this includes high traffic days such as fetes and sporting events which can be particularly difficult to monitor.
All volunteers are required to complete the induction process and agree to the Child Protection protocols of Saint John’s.

Consultation within the Community:

There has been broad consultation within the school and parish community including the sharing of policies with the broader parish community, the Saint John’s Jaguars Basketball association, LA Dance Studio and other affiliated school bodies. Extensive communication of new and updated policies has occurred through digital newsletters, parent Facebook, class memos and is reflected in other associated policies such as excursion and risk assessment documentations.

Leadership & Management

Goals & Intended Outcomes

Goal:

To develop an understanding of instructional leadership by promoting a professional learning culture throughout the school.

Intended Outcomes:

Increase role clarity within the leadership team.
Improve the effectiveness of communication between educators on staff.
Develop a plan to build leadership capacity.

Achievements

Continued use of a digital interface of communication between all members of the learning community. This included a reduction in email traffic between staff and channelling all important information into one, weekly memo.
Establishment of Professional Learning Teams to allow for collaborative planning whereby teams share knowledge, analyse data, set learning goals and generate ways of functioning in order to best support the learning of students.
Continued promotion of a professional learning culture within the staff. A professional learning culture has been defined, promoted and valued.
Developing the concept of distributive leadership. The Leadership team for 2016 consisted of the Principal, Deputy Principal, Religious Education Leader, Student Service Leader and Digital Education Leader.
All staff participated in professional learning in the past school year.

EXPENDITURE AND TEACHER PARTICIPATION IN PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

DESCRIPTION OF PL UNDERTAKEN IN 2017

REL, Deputy Principal, Numeracy, Literacy, Digital Education,

Learning & Teaching and Reading Recovery Network days

Principal Networks & Principal Conference
Student Wellbeing Cluster and Network days
First Aid, CPR & Anaphylaxis Training
Mandatory Reporting
BoonWurrung Family Partnership Schools Cluster Network Meetings
VRQA Child Safe Standards Professional Learning with SafeSmart
The Berry Street Education Alumni training (Deputy / Student

Services)

Students with Disabilities Briefings
CEM Consultants meetings with Leadership in preparation for the School Review
Team visits to observe collaborative teaching and learning practices in other schools.
360 Reflection Tool (Student Service Leader)
Collaborative Teacher Teams led by Colin Sloper
Autism Spectrum Disorder led by Sue Larkey
Principal Retreat
Deputy Principal Conference
Effective Mentoring provided by VIT
Agile Leadership
Biennial Cluster - Andrew Fuller
Mindfulness PL
Collaborative Teacher Teams - Tom Hierk
Graduate Network Seminars
Family Engagement PL
Staff Reflection / Retreat

NUMBER OF TEACHERS WHO PARTICIPATED IN PL

AVERAGE EXPENDITURE PER TEACHER FOR PL

$4680.54

TEACHER SATISFACTION

Staff Performance & Development Lead Indicators

2016 score

2017 score

School IMprovement Focus

Curriculum Processes

Teamwork

Appraisal and Recognition

Professional Growth

Cultural Pillar

2016

2017

Learning

52.7

63.6

School Community

Goals & Intended Outcomes

Goal:

To strengthen the relationship between the school and the wider community.

Intended Outcomes:

That the parent and parish community involvement in the school will be strengthened.

Achievements

Attendance of parents at school Masses, liturgies and assemblies.
Attendance of parents at school activity days.
Parent participation in community projects
Enlisted new membership to Parish Education Board
Supported Parents & Friends committee by continuing to provide a school representative.
Supported parents’ involvement and coordination of fundraising activities.
Maintained a close parish-school partnership.
Built and promoted relationships with Rotary, RSL and other outside agencies.
Promoted inclusiveness in the parent community through community events e.g. movie nights, trivia nights, school production, 50th Anniversary celebrations
Promoted parents as partners in student education e.g. classroom helpers, literacy information sessions and ICT information sessions.
BoonWurrung Cluster Community Facebook page for parents supporting family school partnerships within the cluster.
Involvement in Local Landscapes program with the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).
Parent engagement with Victorian Premiers' Reading Challenge.
Maintained links with John Paul College.
Velocity program with our Year 6 students and Frankston City Council Youth Workers.

PARENT SATISFACTION

The Insight SRC data shows that the extent to which parents feel that they are engaged in collaborating with staff to achieve student outcomes has increased. The extent to which Saint John’s is receptive of and understands the views and concerns has remained steady. The extent to which parents find that the student reporting provides useful information about their children’s progress has also remained consistent. Finally, the extent to which parents believe the school has a focus on improving its performance has also remained consistent.

Our data shows that parent partnerships have remained high and staff approachability is consistent. The focus on learning is steadily increasing.

Compliance Data from School Improvement Report

Staff Retention – 90.91%

Teaching Staff Attendance – 92.42%

Non-Teaching Staff Attendance - 96.47%

All Staff Attendance - 93.73%

Staff Composition – 26 Teaching (20.3 FTE), 13 Non-teaching (9.23 FTE)

VRQA Compliance Data

NOTE:

The School’s financial performance information has been provided to the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority and will be available for the community to access from their website from October 2017.

Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority