Passfield Park School Annual Report

5563

2015

Introduction

The Annual Report for 2015 is provided to the community of Passfield Park School as an account of the school’s operations and achievements throughout the year.

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

The Annual Report describes the school’s high quality practices across the three domains of the School Excellence Framework of Learning, Teaching and Leading. For more information about the School Excellence Framework please visit:

http://www.dec.nsw.gov.au/about-the-department/our-reforms/school-excellence-framework

School contact details:

Passfield Park School 53 Guernsey Avenue Minto NSW 2566 www.passfield-s.schools.nsw.edu.au passfield-s.school@det.nsw.edu.au 02 9820 1700

Message from the Principal

I am exceedingly pleased to present this report on the progress of Passfield Park School on its continuing journey to nurture students as lifelong learners. 2015 saw an ongoing commitment from families to support their children in a very practical way by working in the classrooms, assisting in literacy, numeracy, creative arts and community access. The teaching staff and students have benefitted greatly from this support, and families have also reported a great sense of satisfaction in providing such hands on support. Thank you to all.

All staff received training in implementing Picture Communication Exchange Systems (PECS) in late 2014. PECS is a functional communication system for students who are non-verbal, and with the support of a grant from the Every Student, Every School initiative, the school employed a speech pathologist to work in the school to assist staff to successfully implement the system for students who need this support to communicate. The project is using this expertise to finalise an online toolbox of communication strategies and resources available for all by the end of 2016.

Our charity, Passfield Park Kids Inc, continued to support the school in a practical way by providing a music therapist to work across the school weekly, and also purchased three interactive Hitachi touchscreens. Autism Advisory and Support Services continued to support the school with speech pathology and occupational therapy throughout 2015. Both staff and students have benefitted from the expertise of these therapists and their support has enabled many students to make good progress in their learning. I would like to publically acknowledge the work of both community and staff members to support student learning.

Other significant initiatives we have been working on include:

KidsMatter – our team has commenced with continuing to ensure we have a positive school community, where all find the school to be a welcoming and friendly environment and have a sense of belonging and inclusion.

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) – our team has identified positive behaviours that are expected of all across our school environments, and is on its way to improve learning outcomes for all students.

Count Me In Too (CMIT) – all teachers completed CMIT training, which has increased skills in teaching and assessing mathematics across the school.

Community of Schools – we are working with the staff of Beverley Park and Mary Brooksbank Schools to develop skills and strategies to support student learning.

Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) – ensuring that all our students have an individualised and appropriate means of making their choices known to others.

I would like to thank all staff and our community for their ongoing, dedicated commitment to student leaning.

I certify that the information provided in this report is the result of a rigorous school self-assessment and review process undertaken with staff, parents, carers and students, and provides a balanced and genuine account of the school’s achievements and areas for development.

Julie Raciborska Principal

School background

School vision statement

‘Together we learn, participate and strive to achieve our best.’

Passfield Park School is committed to achieving high expectations for our students and staff. We work as a collaborative team to ensure that quality student learning outcomes are at the core of all decisions made within our community. We strive to challenge, inspire, guide and scaffold learning for all students, differentiating teaching and learning in order to ensure all students can achieve their full potential.

School context

Passfield Park School is a school for students with moderate or severe intellectual disabilities, Kindergarten to Year 12. Many of our students have additional needs, including Autism Spectrum Disorders, physical disabilities, mental health, visual or hearing impairments.

Our school is in multicultural Minto, a community undergoing renewal and revival in its character, facilities and capacity to embrace 21st century living. We share a unique learning environment with Sarah Redfern Public and High Schools, in close proximity to public transport, community and shopping centres.

We are a member of a community of special schools, all of which are centres of expertise. With Beverley Park and Mary Brooksbank Schools, our students are able to benefit from the leadership and learning of uniquely strong and committed staff who value the gifts of each and every member of the Community of Schools (CoS).

Passfield Park School is a caring and supportive community, with high expectations in learning and living for its students. We believe in supporting students to achieve their full potential and have rich, differentiated programs with technology embedded across all Key Learning Areas (KLAs). Our goal is to support all students to communicate with their community and to ensure that all students have the capacity to achieve their personal goals and lead successful, rewarding lives as 21st century citizens.

Self-assessment and school achievements

Self-assessment using the School Excellence Framework

This section of the Annual Report outlines the findings from self-assessment using the School Excellence Framework, our school achievements and the next steps to be pursued. The Framework supports public schools throughout NSW in the pursuit of excellence by providing a clear description of high quality practice across the three domains of Learning, Teaching and Leading.

This year, our school undertook self-assessment using the elements of the School Excellence Framework. Time was allocated during professional learning and staff meetings for staff to explore the school plan, monitor and validate the progress and impact of our teaching and learning strategies in 2015. Executive staff collaborated to identify evidence to support our self-assessment across the fourteen elements, providing an important overview to ensure our improvement efforts align with the high level expectations.

In the domain of Learning, our work has focussed on learning, curriculum and wellbeing. Close attention to individualised student learning needs has been a strong focus of our progress throughout the year, with a close collaboration between school, home and therapists to ensure learning opportunities are tailored to each student. Wellbeing has continued to be a strength of the school community, and our work in 2015 has strengthened a community that values, trusts, and respects each other. This has been evident in the students’ engagement in learning and in the trust and tolerance shown towards their peers across the school.

Our major focus in the domain of Teaching has been on strengthening our established collaborative practice for all staff members. Continued opportunities have been provided to staff in relation to planning, teaching and collaborating across both the primary and high school teams. Importantly, staff have identified a need to further develop their evidence based practice and evaluation of student growth by reflecting upon the impact of their teaching on student learning.

In the domain of Leading, our priorities have been to progress leadership and management practices and processes. Our priority has been leadership capacity building across our school and across our Community of Schools, to ensure consistency and effectiveness of the implementation of our key strategic directions throughout the year. The leadership team has been successful in leading the initiatives outlined in this

report, building the capabilities of staff to create a dynamic school learning culture which promotes leadership development.

The new approach to school planning, with support from the new funding model to schools, has had a significant impact on our progress as a school. Both the achievements and identification of our next steps are outlined on the following pages of this report. The self-assessment process will further assist us to refine the strategic priorities in our school plan leading to further improvements in the delivery of education to all students at Passfield Park School.

Strategic Direction 1

Building student capacity to engage in learning to reach their full potential as successful individuals.

Purpose

To empower students to be fulfilled as successful, active citizens.

Overall summary of progress

The Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) team has included the whole staff in developing the positive expected behaviour matrix for all settings that the students will encounter, and has also begun to challenge the staff to react to positive examples of student behaviour and comment upon and promote acknowledgement of expected behaviour across all settings and for all students.

Working with a speech pathologist (SP) has enabled staff to identify and strengthen individual student communication. Ongoing support from the SP across the school has enabled staff to implement the Picture

Exchange Communication System (PECS) with confidence.

Ongoing collaboration with a designer has changed some of our aspects of conducting individual education plans and these features are being included in the web based database soon to be completed. Our goal is to record student progress over time and ensure student goals are constantly viewed and adjusted as students make progress.

Progress towards achieving improvement measures Resources (annual)

Improvement measure (to be achieved over three years)

Progress achieved this year Funds Expended

Data tracked for 100% of students’ Individual Education Program (IEP) goals, with growth recorded to measure student progress

Throughout 2015, the Learning and Support Team collaborated with a programmer to create a database to record student background information, parental decisions for learning, and a way to capture ongoing data on student progress. The database is yet to be finalised. Staff have begun to use Goal Attainment Scales to measure student progress towards the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals.

Programmer has donated his expertise

Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) implemented across the school, with ongoing support to individual students (100%).

A speech pathologist (SP) has assisted teachers to identify and train students to use PECS in all settings to meet their basic wants and needs. The SP has worked closely with staff to ensure targeted students are continually assessed and moved through the phases of PECS as necessary, allowing staff to become fluent in assisting students to communicate through this medium.

$13934

English language proficiency funding

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) team established positive rules and developed strategies to enable students to learn to self-regulate.

The PBL team attended the first two days of the Tier 1 PBL training and developed a matrix of positive expected behaviours across all settings in the school. This was shared with the staff and edited to create a shared understanding of expected behaviour.

$12256

Socio-economic funding

Next steps

Systems Leadership project to work on introducing consistent assessments for Individual Education

Plans – Goal Attainment Scales. Database to be finalised and working without problems.

School communication policy to be updated to incorporate school wide use of PECS and iPads.

PECS available in all areas of the school for all students who use the system.

PBL team to lead collection of data to reflect changes in student behaviour and to lead the

development of explicit teaching strategies to assist the students to meet the high expectations

that have been identified for them all.

Strategic Direction 2

Developing a culture of collaboration within the Community of Schools to build the capacity of all in leadership and educational innovation.

Purpose

To provide a high standard of education through collaborative learning, opportunities for sharing and exchanging expertise of innovative education and quality leadership which inspires all CoS stakeholders to excel and reach their full potential.

Overall summary of progress

Passfield Park School has developed a strong relationship with Beverley Park and Mary Brooksbank Schools. This Community of Schools (CoS) has allowed the sharing of expertise, staff and resources which has improved all staffs’ ability to engage students in learning. Our first conference was a positive experience, and led to a second conference at the end of the year where the executive teachers shared their earning on Pre-Early Stage 1 strategies with the wider teaching body. Staff across the three schools share expertise, allowing strengths to be shared in all three settings.

The relationship between the schools has broadened the opportunity for staff to develop their skills in teaching and leadership. All of our teachers, including most casual and temporary teachers, have been trained in CMIT, which has had a positive impact on teaching numeracy across the school. This initiative was led by a classroom teacher who had strongly indicated her need in this area, and willingness to lead her colleagues in the learning journey.

Progress towards achieving improvement measures Resources (annual)

Improvement measure (to be achieved over three years)

Progress achieved this year Funds expended

100% of all professional learning opportunities across the CoS reflect Performance and Development Plan (PDP) goals

Principals from the three schools worked with executive to ensure 100% of teachers have a PDP reflecting departmental policy, NSW teaching standards and the professional learning needs of each individual. Professional learning to meet the self-identified learning needs was identified, and a system of CoS learning three times a term was established in Term 4.

Continuing Teacher Professional Learning (TPL) led by CoS staff

Teacher Professional Learning Funds (Tied TPL)

100% of staff attend the CoS conferences.

A CoS conference for all staff was run in Term 3, where staff were able to access learning and develop professional networks across the CoS. The conference was successful and lead to a second one at the end of the year which included presentations by CoS staff.

Executive staff attended Great Leaders, Great Teams, Great Results (GL,GT,GR) training in Term 1 which enabled collaborative planning across the schools for teacher professional learning, and gave each school time to plan their individual initiatives to engage their communities in student learning.

$2000 Tied TPL

GL,GT,GR – costs of PL and teacher days

100% of staff involved in trialling or using assessments and teaching strategies for students at pre ES1 level.

Executive staff from the three schools collaborated to explore the Literacy and Numeracy Frameworks, which provide teaching and assessments for students at the pre-Early Stage 1 level. The frameworks were presented to the teachers at the end of the year to enable the resources to be included in teaching and learning programs in 2016 onwards.

Ongoing, regular TPL – no cost

Next steps

Professional learning to be scheduled three times termly to meet needs of teachers in the CoS.

Conferences planned for 2016 to reflect staff resilience and wellbeing.

Schools to work on embedding a Pre-ES1 Science Framework into teaching programs.

PDPs to reflect school priorities, departmental priorities, and individual teacher needs, and

supported by regular reflection and coaching within the school.

Strategic Direction 3

Building and maintaining family and community partnerships which support students becoming active 21st century citizens.

Purpose

To embrace our multicultural community and strengthen the learning environment. To challenge, engage and cater to the learning and wellbeing needs of all our students, staff and community members.

Overall summary of progress

Inviting our parents, carers and wider community into classrooms to assist student learning has been very successful, with staff and volunteers indicating a high level of satisfaction with the weekly engagement. Our understanding of the complexity of wellbeing in our setting has led to the decision to ensure all staff authentically understand the complex needs of our students, hence the longer time spent on delivering professional learning in wellbeing.

In recognition of our increasingly multicultural school community, parents and carers were invited to help us write a multicultural handbook sharing cultural highlights. This initiative has proved difficult to fulfil as the school community chose to instead, support student learning in the classrooms and to celebrate times of cultural significance. Parents and carers also expressed a need to be supported through the current changes in disability funding to occur in our area in July, 2016.

Progress towards achieving improvement measures Resources (annual)

Improvement measure (to be achieved over three years)

Progress achieved this year Funds expended

100% of students meaningfully connected with student wellbeing programs, evidenced by Stepping Stones Positive Parenting Program and KidsMatter data.

By the end of 2015, the KidsMatter team had trained all staff in Component 1, leading staff in their ability to recognize and celebrate a positive school community. Parents/carers were surveyed and expressed a need for further information to address issues such as wellbeing and behaviour management for their children. Staff member trained in Stepping Stones PPP.

$12256

Low socio-economic funding

15% of parents/carers attending professional development workshops.

Parents/carers attended some sessions to learn about ways to assist their children to communicate. Far more successful, was the introduction of parents/carers as volunteers in the classrooms, where they assisted students to learn and watched how staff managed and taught communication, behavior management and differentiated the curriculum for learning.

$12256

Low socio-economic funding

Next steps

Establish links with outside agencies to give parents/carers the opportunity to learn together and support one another, including National Disability Insurance Scheme information and Stepping Stones PPP.

KidsMatter team to launch their initiative with the school community in 2016.

Continue to include and invite parents into the school for volunteering in the classrooms.

Next Steps

Key initiatives and other school focus areas

Key initiatives (annual) Impact achieved this year Resources (annual)

Aboriginal background funding

Anti Racism Contact Officer (ARCO) and principal met with the local Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AEGC) to coordinate our plan for the year. Executive team attended professional learning in Aboriginal Pedagogy in order to understand and lead teaching through culture, across the school. All staff requested further training to ensure authenticity in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pedagogy for all our students.

Teachers released from class to coordinate National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) week celebrations, which included studies to achieve a deeper understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) arts, crafts and games for children.

$3958

English language proficiency funding

Communication is vital for all our students and is complex for students who do not use English at home. In 2015, we employed a SP half a day per week to support communication for all students. PECS was put into place for many students who were assessed as requiring support, and the speech pathologist assisted teachers to assess students and supported student learning in the classrooms, assisting students to find their voice for wants and needs.

Strategic Direction1

$13934

Socio-economic funding

The School Leadership Team attended a series of workshops to drive wellbeing across the school community. Our KidsMatter team attended training in student wellbeing, and PBL training was attended by a school team. These initiatives have seen an increased understanding in the school community about behaviours which enhance learning in classrooms and transition areas, as well as an understanding of what sustains a positive learning community. The KidsMatter and PBL teams continue to work through their complimentary agendas, and staff wellbeing will be a focus in 2016.

Strategic Direction 1 and 3

$12256

Other school focus areas Impact achieved this year Resources (annual)

Every Student, Every School

Passfield Park School received funding to support learning for students with additional needs. Our project was to develop a toolbox

Strategic Direction 1

$35,000

Next Steps

of resources to promote communication. We employed a speech pathologist to work with staff one day a week to write programs, make resources, train staff and students to use a wide variety of means to communicate. PECS was supported for all students who were assessed as suitable for beginning the training, and a School Learning Support Officer was released from class to make resources to support communication strategies. This has resulted in staff having a high level of understanding of different ways to engage students in communication, and our students are all able to make basic choices through PECS. Students who are able to talk but whose speech is unclear, were also targeted to gain clarity and fluency.

Resources have been made and are being uploaded on to a website throughout 2016.

Count Me in Too (CMIT), Literacy and Numeracy Frameworks

All teachers participated in CMIT training led by a classroom teacher. The executive staff collaborated with colleagues from our CoS to gain an understanding of Pre-Early Stage 1 assessments and teaching strategies needed by many of our students. This training has increased the teachers’ skills and understanding of literacy and numeracy strategies that allows them to further differentiate the curriculum successfully for many of our learners.

Strategic Directions 1 and 2

$2200 School Initiative

Student information

It is a requirement that the reporting of information for all students be consistent with privacy and personal information policies.

Student enrolment profile

Gender 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Male 39 36 42 42 46 46 51

Female 17 21 21 22 18 16 16

Structure of classes

Classes at Passfield Park School vary in size and are multi aged. Our staff collaborates to ensure that each student is in a group to meet their learning, social and emotional needs.

Year 12 students undertaking vocational or trade training

In 2015, one student successfully completed a course in Beauty and Make Up at TAFE NSW South Western Sydney Institute - Liverpool College.

Year 12 students attaining HSC or equivalent vocational educational qualification

In 2015, 100% of eligible students were awarded an HSC.

Access to post school programs funding by Aging, Disability and Home Care (ADHC) are available for students leaving school at the end of Year 12. All three students accepted places in Community Participation Programs.

Workforce information

Reporting of information for all staff must be consistent with privacy and personal information policies.

Workforce composition

Position Number

Principal 1

Deputy Principal(s) 0

Assistant Principal(s) 3

Head Teacher(s) 0

Classroom Teacher(s) 7.1

Teacher of Reading Recovery 0

Learning and Support Teacher(s) 0

Release fro Face to Face teacher 0.84

Teacher Librarian 0.4

Teacher of ESL 0

School Counsellor 0.2

School Administrative & Support Staff 11.822

Other positions 0

Total 24.362

The Australian Education Regulation, 2014 requires schools to report on Aboriginal composition of their workforce.

At Passfield Park School, one staff member identifies as Aboriginal.

Teacher qualifications

All teaching staff meet the professional requirements for teaching in NSW public schools.

Qualifications % of staff

Undergraduate degree or diploma 58%

Postgraduate degree 42%

Professional learning and teacher accreditation

Significant professional learning was undertaken by the staff of Passfield Park School. The teaching staff understand that research supports teacher quality being the single largest indicator of student success, and use their professional learning opportunities to ensure that their learning impacts student outcome.

All teachers completed Count Me in Too training to support work in Numeracy.

Mandatory training for all staff members was completed.

The PBL and KidsMatter teams embarked upon their learning journeys to ensure consistent practices in student wellbeing are systematic, responsive and suitably adjusted to the needs of the school community.

Our CoS has impacted on learning as two combined staff development days were enjoyed by staff, enabling all staff to network with peers. This led to professional learning three times per term for the CoS staff, meeting learning needs identified by teachers during the performance and development process.

Financial information

Financial summary

This summary covers funds for operating costs and does not involve expenditure areas such as permanent salaries, building and major maintenance.

A full copy of the school’s 2015 financial statement is tabled at the annual general meetings of the parent and/or community groups. Further details concerning the statement can be obtained by contacting the school.

Date of financial summary 30/11/2015

Income $

Balance brought forward 184653.34

Global funds 139873.05

Tied funds 158472.37

School & community sources 24563.70

Interest 5157.63

Trust receipts 4457.75

Canteen 0.00

Total income 517177.84

Expenditure

Teaching & learning

Key learning areas 7406.38

Excursions 7457.82

Extracurricular dissections 5735.64

Library 5599.51

Training & development 17083.06

Tied funds 114960.53

Casual relief teachers 49525.49

Administration & office 48168.62

School-operated canteen 0.00

Utilities 11337.14

Maintenance 13790.02

Trust accounts 4732.09

Capital programs 0.00

Total expenditure 285796.30

Balance carried forward 231381.54

School performance

Higher School Certificate (HSC)

In 2015, three students were successful in gaining an HSC that reflected their learning.

Parent/caregiver, student, teacher satisfaction

Each year schools are required to seek the opinions of parents, students and teachers about the school. In 2015, we sought the opinion of parents/carers, teachers and students about the school. Their responses are presented below.

Parents/carers feel welcome when they visit the school

Parents/carers feel that teachers have a high interest in student learning and high expectations for their child to succeed

Staff collaborate with colleagues to improve student learning and behaviour

Staff identify the school as a welcoming and supportive community

The majority of students responding to questions about the school and their learning reported that they

Like their classroom

Their teacher helps them to do their best

They look at their older work to see how they have improved

Policy requirements

Aboriginal education

Passfield Park School received Aboriginal background funding in 2015. Our plan included

Training in the Eight Ways of Aboriginal Learning for the leadership team.

Dedicated learning experiences and celebrations for NAIDOC week.

The school collaborated with our local AECG to ensure that plans supported the learning needs of our Aboriginal students and were on track to build a deeper understanding of embedding cultural understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders across the curriculum.

All our students who are Aboriginal, have an individual support plan that enables them to learn and engage successfully in the curriculum.

Multicultural Education and Anti-racism

Passfield Park School is part of a multicultural community, and our goal is to embrace the cultural diversity of all our students and their families.

In 2015, we had two staff members fulfilling the roles of ARCOs. These staff members made many connections with our families and were significant in assisting parents and carers to confidently become volunteers across the school to assist student learning.

Our staff and students collaborated with staff and students from Sarah Redfern Public School (SRPS) to perform at both our presentation day and their multicultural festival. Our senior students were immersed in the culture and language of India and

combined with the Indian community group at SRPS and performed a colourful dance to wide acclaim.

A range of activities was organised to celebrate Harmony Day which included high numbers of parent and carer participation.

Our new ARCO will complete her training in 2016, which will lead to a revision of a number of inclusive policies in the school.

Other school programs

Student Leadership Our school has captains who lead the students on formal occasions, including

school assemblies

presentation day The captains also have the opportunity to provide leadership and support to their peers through modelling exemplary behaviours. Each class has opportunities for students to lead, whether this be by completing out of class tasks across the school, or modelling positive behaviours for their peers. All students are supported to reach their potential and to become role models for their peers.

Achievements in the Arts The students at Passfield Park School have frequent opportunities to participate and perform in dance and music. All students participate in our Music Therapy Program which has led to an increase in each individual’s ability to perform in front of an audience, whether this is their class, school, community or a wider community at regional or network events. Our students have once again performed an item in a dance festival as members of the “Shining Stars” ensemble. A number of our students performed at the final Schools Spectacular at the Entertainment Centre in Sydney and were successful members of the D’Arts Ensemble.