School plan 2018-2020

Helensburgh Public School 2153

Page 1 of 37 Helensburgh Public School 2153 (2018-2020) Printed on: 10 April, 2018
 School background 2018–2020

School vision statement School context School planning process

A quality school, working with its community, to inspire all
students to be lifelong learners and responsible citizens by
cultivating innovative educational experiences in a
nurturing environment.
Our students are drawn from the town of Helensburgh and
surrounding areas of Stanwell Tops and Darkes Forest.
Traditionally a coal mining town, the area has seen an
influx of professional and semi–professional people who
commute to Sydney. There has also been a noticeable
increase in those who work part–time and/or from home.
Situated in the Northern Illawarra, but at the southern
gateway to Sydney, our students have the benefit of
selecting secondary education from both the Illawarra and
Southern Sydney suburbs.
The school has had a long history of healthy, active,
lifestyle programs and wide ranging interschool sport
programs. This has been supplemented with a range of
creative and performing arts initiatives including public
speaking, debating, school band and choir. Academically
challenging co–curricular activities form part of the school’s
ongoing program.
Our students enjoy the additional benefits and support
received from a highly active and motivated Parents and
Citizens’ Association, who play an integral part in the
school’s decision making processes.
The school engaged with all sections of its community to
develop a clear and generally accepted School Vision. The
School Planning and Evaluation Committee commissioned
students, parents and staff surveys using the Tell Them
From Me survey tool. Committee members attended P&C
meetings and also gathered responses from the school
SRC. An online survey was also designed which allowed
for community feedback. Results were presented to staff
meetings and a detailed analysis of the results was
produced using an online graphics tool.
A parent focus group evening was held to review and to
give feedback on the school’s Strategic Directions.
The Planning and Evaluation Committee led a session at
the School Development Day to review our annual
milestones.
The School Leadership Team refined the delivery of each
process and project to address strategic direction and
monitored student process.

Students with special needs are supported through a

variety of learning support programs and a multi–
categorical class.

The school is an active member of both the SeaCliff

Community of Schools, based around Bulli High School,
and the Community of Schools on the Park, based around
Heathcote and Engadine High Schools. In 2018 the school
population was 487 students.

Page 2 of 37 Helensburgh Public School 2153 (2018-2020) Printed on: 10 April, 2018
 School strategic directions 2018–2020

STRATEGIC STRATEGIC STRATEGIC

DIRECTION 1 DIRECTION 2 DIRECTION 3
Quality Teaching – A Knowing, Valuing and Caring for Leading, Teaching and
Professional Learning Students Learning Together
Community

Purpose: Purpose: Purpose:

Teachers who are actively engaged in a professional
learning community have high performance expectations
for student achievement. They collaboratively plan and use
evidence based teaching strategies to support students at
their point of need.
Identifying the knowledge and skills of students is critical in
developing personalised learning. Fostering teachers'
skills in assessment for, as and of learning, will support
students at their point of need. School life is enhanced for
students by developing whole school initiatives based on
student wellbeing and engagement and in turn developing
responsible, creative, caring and informed citizens.
A positive school culture based on high expectations for
student achievement occurs when there is authentic
collaboration between local schools, parents, students and
teachers and there is a distributive leadership culture that is
focused on improving teaching and learning.

Page 3 of 37 Helensburgh Public School 2153 (2018-2020) Printed on: 10 April, 2018
 Strategic Direction 1: Quality Teaching – A Professional Learning Community
Purpose
Teachers who are actively engaged in a
professional learning community have high
performance expectations for student
achievement. They collaboratively plan
and use evidence based teaching
strategies to support students at their point
of need.
Improvement Measures
Differentiated teaching programs, formative
assessment records and classroom
teaching practice indicate all teachers are
using data to inform and adjust their
practice.
Increased percentages of students each
term achieve stage based targets in literacy
and numeracy and students will achieve at
least one year's growth for one year's
instruction in literacy and numeracy.
Aboriginal students' literacy and numeracy
results will be tracked and will show
expected or exceeded levels of growth.
Page 4 of 37
People
Students
will be supported to self–assess their
progress using child friendly rubrics and
student exemplars.
Staff
will be supported in their understanding of
lesson planning and classroom observation
systems. They share their expertise of
teaching in stage and across stages.
Parents/Carers
will be made aware of the student centred
teaching strategies employed and will have
opportunities to collaborate with leaders
and teachers to support their child's
learning.
Leaders
will participate in professional learning at
executive meetings. This will include
professional learning in programming and
data analysis to strengthen distributive
instructional leadership across the school.
Helensburgh Public School 2153 (2018-2020)
Processes
In–School Professional Learning
Teachers will participate in professional
dialogue to measure and discuss student
achievement and design differentiated
teaching and learning experiences .
Teachers will have opportunities to
strengthen existing and learn new
pedagogical skills. By starting with the end
in mind, teachers will plan with the
assessment first, develop student
exemplars and use backward design to
plan modelled, guided and independent
teaching and formative assessment
strategies.
Quality Teaching – Learning from each
other
Classroom observation model will be
implemented to develop strong
understanding of high quality pedagogy.
Teachers will have opportunities for teacher
to teacher feedback and student to teacher
feedback to nurture a culture of continuous
improvement.
Evaluation Plan
Regular review of classroom programs,
assessment records and observations
indicate an increased percentage of
teachers differentiating the curriculum –
Improvement Measure 1.
On line PAT assessment and NAPLAN
assessment will be used to gain a baseline
measurement of student progress –
Improvement Measure 2 and 3.
Practices and Products
Practices
Teachers are using evidence of learning to
plan 4–5 week teaching and learning
cycles in literacy and numeracy.
Teachers will investigate, share and
implement effective formative assessment
strategies that are used to monitor and
differentiate student learning.
Evidence based teaching strategies are
researched, planned, trialled and
implemented with appropriate resourcing.
Student achievement will be the focus of
professional learning. Effective teaching
strategies will be used to target students
not making expected levels of growth.
Products
Professional dialogue, teaching programs
and classroom observations indicate all
teachers are using evidence of student
achievement to plan differentiated
teaching..
High level teaching is modelled and
supported through classroom
observations. All teachers meet
requirements based on the Australian
Professional Standards for Teachers.
Printed on: 10 April, 2018
 Strategic Direction 2: Knowing, Valuing and Caring for Students
Purpose
Identifying the knowledge and skills of
students is critical in developing
personalised learning. Fostering teachers'
skills in assessment for, as and of learning,
will support students at their point of need.
School life is enhanced for students by
developing whole school initiatives based
on student wellbeing and engagement and
in turn developing responsible, creative,
caring and informed citizens.
Improvement Measures
Increased percentages of students each
term achieve stage based targets in literacy
and numeracy and students achieve at
least one year's growth for one year's
instruction in literacy and numeracy.
Aboriginal students' literacy and numeracy
results will be tracked and will show
expected or exceeded levels of growth.
Increased percentage of students
displaying positive behaviour each year.
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People
Students
Support students to become self–reflective
learners who know the learning intention
and success criteria of each lesson.
Staff
Develop skills in efficient methods of
gathering and using evidence of student
learning to provide engaging and
differentiated learning.
Parents/Carers
Parents will work collaboratively with
teachers to share their child's strengths and
areas for development.
Leaders
Will participate in professional learning in
formative assessment and data skills in
literacy and numeracy.
Helensburgh Public School 2153 (2018-2020)
Processes
Student Centred Learning
Professional learning will be provided in
using the literacy and numeracy
assessment to plan challenging learning
goals and success criteria. Just like
backward design, students too need to start
with the end in mind. Student exemplars
are used to indicate what success looks
like so that students know what and how
they will be assessed.
Data Skills
Planned professional development on
assessment for, of and as learning based
on the research of John Hattie and Dylan
William, will be implemented. External
assessments and internal pre/post
assessments will be used to make
consistent teacher judgement and set term
based literacy and numeracy targets.
Student Wellbeing and Engagement
Positive wellbeing strategies, active health
activities and rich curriculum activities such
as STEM and PBL will be planned,
implemented and evaluated.
Evaluation Plan
• On line PAT assessment and NAPLAN
assessment.
• Regular review of classroom programs
and assessment records.
• Evidence of pre/post assessment
information will be used to plan teaching
and learning programs.
Practices and Products
Practices
Teachers will gather and analyse data to
plan according to students' learning needs
and interest and analyse student growth
made from pre and post assessments.
Teachers will make the learning
transparent for students by using student
exemplars, learning intentions and success
criteria.
Teachers will have consistent expectations
and processes for promoting positive
student behaviour with the PBL framework
and will plan a range of student
engagement strategies.
Products
Professional dialogue, teaching programs
and classroom observations indicate all
teachers are using evidence of student
achievement to plan differentiated teaching.
Pre and post test assessment information
measuring student achievement will be
used to plan challenging learning goals for
all students.
Students will be able to articulate what
quality work looks like and develop self–
assessment strategies to move forward in
their learning.
Positive student behaviour will continue to
grow through PBL.
Students will have opportunities to
participate in STEM activities.
Printed on: 10 April, 2018
 Strategic Direction 3: Leading, Teaching and Learning Together
Purpose
A positive school culture based on high
expectations for student achievement
occurs when there is authentic
collaboration between local schools,
parents, students and teachers and there is
a distributive leadership culture that is
focused on improving teaching and
learning.
Improvement Measures
The development of leadership program
that utilises coaching mentoring to improve
teaching and learning and build leadership
capacity and sustainability. Evaluations will
be used to continually improve this adopted
practice.
Increased percentages of students each
term achieve stage based targets in literacy
and numeracy and students achieve at
least one year's growth for one year's
instruction in literacy and numeracy.
Increasing numbers of parents, teachers
and community groups, including AECG,
are actively engaged in surveys,
professional dialogue and online
communication about teaching and
learning.
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People
Students
Students will be supported in the
importance of providing authentic feedback
on learning, engagement and wellbeing.
Information from students will be gathered
and prioritised to ensure that strategies
within the school plan are student centred.
Staff
Teachers will be provided time to develop
their understanding of school planning and
evaluate thinking. Additionally, they will
develop a stronger understanding of
coaching and goal setting and the role
these play to improve and grow
instructional leadership.
Parents/Carers
A variety of strategies will be used to
ensure that a significant number of parents
are contributing to the school strategic plan
and that they have a clear understanding of
what their child is learning.
Community Partners
Local community of schools meetings will
be used to share staff expertise and
strengthen national, state and local school
priorities.
Leaders
Aspiring and current executive will be
provided professional learning in data
analysis, school planning and coaching
strategies.
Helensburgh Public School 2153 (2018-2020)
Processes
Whole School Collaboration
Strategies will be devised to improve
teaching and learning. Teachers will work
in groups to evaluate the school plan.
Student focus groups will be used to
monitor the effectiveness of the school's
teaching and learning strategies and
students will set personal learning targets.
Parents will be valued through their
participation in focus groups, surveys and
involvement in the P&C. The school's
involvement in the Seacliff Community of
Schools will ensure that effective
pedagogies are evaluated and applied to
enhance existing teaching and learning
strategies.
Leadership Capacity Building
Leadership will be supported at all levels
from beginning teachers to experienced
teachers, aspiring leaders to teachers in
existing leadership positions. All teachers
will be guided through PDP process using
the Australian Professional Standards.
Teachers with expertise will be identified to
support teaching and curriculum provision,
and gaps will be identified to improve whole
school professional learning.
Evaluation Plan
Teacher surveys, professional dialogue
PDPs and student achievement –
Improvement Measure 1 and 2.
Tell Them From Me Surveys and focus
groups, community consultation meetings –
Improvement Measure 2.
Practices
A range of data sources from all
stakeholders are used to evaluate teaching
and learning.
The school monitors the accreditation
status of all staff and encourages the
pursuit of higher levels of accreditation. All
teachers use professional standards and
PDPs to identify and monitor specific areas
for development or continual improvement.
Establishment of coaching and mentoring
program for beginning and experienced
teachers and aspiring and existing
executive.
Products
The school is recognised by the whole
school community as having excellent
communication and collaboration
processes centred on improving teaching
and learning., Positive evaluations of
teaching and learning will be evident with
value added results.
A culture of high expectations among all
stakeholders is established through
distributive leadership strategies and goal
setting.
Printed on: 10 April, 2018