ANNOTATION

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At IPS parents are informed about the Best Start Kindergarten Assessment. Parents are told that the tests will help the teachers identify the literacy and numeracy knowledge and skills that each child brings to school in the first couple of weeks at IPS. Parents are told that Best Start will enable the teacher to gather information for the development of quality teaching and learning programs.

Parents are also sent home a guide as to what the students will be doing during the assessments. Most importantly, parents at IPS are provided with the results and with the reassurance that all students learn at different rates and that they should not be concerned if their child has been unable to provide an answer. The letter sent home provides information and feedback about how  parents can support their child during the first year of school.

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PLAN software supports teachers to record, analyse and monitor student progress through the literacy and numeracy continuums. The Kindergarten teacher at IPS has the opportunity to observe and record the knowledge, skills and understandings that children in kindergarten bring to school. The teacher is aware of the importance of Best Start as a diagnostic tool. It is completed from Week 2, Term 1. The tests are literacy and numeracy based. The literacy tests concern reading readiness, comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, aspects of speaking and writing, phonics and concepts about print. The actual report shows students receive a 1, 2 or 3 points based on their answers during the tests.

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At IPS the Stage 2 teacher has a data tree displayed at the back of her classroom. Each leaf on the tree represents a student in our school. The student leaves are also placed along a branch indicating which marker or cluster the child has reached.  The teacher uses   the literacy continuum to assess the children. The data tree has united the class. It has brought the class closer. All students know what level they have reached and how to set about achieving the next marker as well. The teacher does a lot of work around setting SMART goals and helping students monitor their progress. It helps the teacher to see where a student needs assistance and where the teacher needs to focus her attention. The data wall is never done to shame a child or to make a child feel they are not measuring up.

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At IPS, staff analyse the results of NAPLAN. They do this to better understand  the school’s performance on literacy and numeracy measures. Data on student growth is particularly important at IPS. IPS examines the patterns of student performances. We identify areas of strengths and areas requiring further development. In 2016, we were particularly pleased that student achievement was once again above the state average.

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Value added measures are based on learning growth. Value added scores indicate the contribution that a school makes to student learning, over and above the contribution made by the average school. The purpose of Value Adding is to shed light on the effectiveness of schools. IPS in 2015 was in the delivering category.

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Two newspaper articles dated July 24 2015, clearly identified IPS as investing heart and soul as well as time, energy and skill into the education of the students. Professor Tony Vinson was highly impressed by the results. IPS results proved that commitment from the teachers and parents can go along way to overcoming disadvantage.

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IPS staff spend a considerable amount of time analysing data from, the NAPLAN results. IPS look at the positive results but spend more time analysing data that identifies the weaknesses. One of the reports IPS use are the questions answered that were more than 10% higher and more than 10% lower than the state average. Results that are usually 10% lower than the state concerned spelling. A number of items were placed on the staff meeting agenda regarding spelling and we looked at ways of addressing these results.

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The National Minimum Standards is the lowest band of the Year 3 and 5 levels. Students who are below NMS have not achieved the learning outcomes expected for their year level. Students below NMS are classified át risk of being unable to progress satisfactorily at school without targeted intervention. At IPS students who are performing below the NMS receive assistance to enable them to achieve their potential.

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Staff at IPS record their weekly spelling and punctuation test results. Staff do this for consistency and for collating when working on a grade for their reports. Student progress is viewed and can be compared with peers. Paper records are now minimised.

ANALYSIS

 

Under the elements of Learning, it was decided that Iluka Public School best meets the Sustaining and Growing outcomes for Curriculum and Learning SG2, SG3 and SG4 and Delivering in Student Performance Measures SG, SG2 and SG3.

 

The school has developed policies and procedures for improvement and school leaders can describe the improvements they wish to see in addressing student learning needs and outcomes. This agenda is communicated in staff meetings, school newsletters, newspapers,  parent–teacher meetings and on the school website, using a variety of formats to suit local needs. The principal and other staff have analysed school performance data over a number of years and are aware of trends in student achievement levels. Targets, timelines and milestones for improvement are clear. The IPS  team is clearly committed to finding ways to improve on current student outcomes. This is reflected in an eagerness to learn from research evidence and from other schools that have achieved significant improvements. There is a strong and optimistic commitment by all staff to support students and a clear belief that further improvement is possible. Teachers take responsibility for the changes in their practice required to address student learning needs and are using data on a regular basis to monitor the effectiveness of their own efforts to meet those students as they progress through the different stages of education.

School leaders pay close attention to data provided to them about the performance of the school NAPLAN results and identify areas in which the school is performing above or below state average. All students in Years 3 and 5 are above national minimum standards for reading.  Time is set aside on staff development days and in staff meetings for the discussion of data and its implications for school policies and classroom practices. These discussions occur at whole-school levels. The school can illustrate, through meeting minutes and project plans, how data has been used to identify priorities, take action and monitor progress. This year students showed above state growth in reading and literacy.