2018 Winston Hills Public School Annual Report

Winston Hills Public SchoolAnnual Report

2018

4417

Printed on: 7 May, 2019Page 1 of 20 Winston Hills Public School 4417 (2018)

Introduction

The Annual Report for 2018 is provided to the community of Winston Hills Public School as an account of the school'soperations and achievements throughout the year.

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

Mark Byrne

Principal

School contact details

Winston Hills Public SchoolHillcrest RdWinston Hills, 2153www.winstonhil-p.schools.nsw.edu.auwinstonhil-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au9639 8518


Message from the Principal

It is with great pleasure that I present Winston Hills Public School's Annual Report as the school continues to take pridein delivering outstanding quality education to the community. During this year the department's External Validationprocess provided the opportunity for Winston Hills Public School to share and celebrate the academic growth, cultural,sporting and individual achievements. Quality and explicit teaching continues to be a focus to ensure consistent andmeasurable growth for all students in both literacy and numeracy. Student enrolments continue to grow with the schoolincreasing to 29 classes for 2018.

In 2018, the school implemented the first year of the 2018–2020 School Plan. This strategic plan embraced evidencebased practices to support student learning and wellbeing, building teacher capacity and strengthening communitypartnerships. Through the Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) initiative, the students continue to learn together in asafe, inclusive and nurturing environment.

I would like to thank the committed staff of Winston Hills Public School who, in an environment of collaboration, alwaysstrive to ensure each child is reaching their potential. The staff are committed to creating quality learning environmentsthat strengthen cognitive, physical, social and emotional development.

A strong partnership exists within the school between staff and the community. I would like to acknowledge the WinstonHills Public School P&C who continue to work tirelessly on behalf of the students and families of Winston Hills PublicSchool. I would especially like to acknowledge the P&C Executive for its leadership, foresight and ongoing support.Thanks also to the P&C committees that continue to provide a valuable service to the community.

Mark Byrne

Principal

Message from the school community

Winston Hills Public School has an extremely active parent community. The WHPS P&C continues to operate activitiesand programs at the school including the Uniform Shop, Band, School Banking and Book Club. Any surplus funds fromthese programs along with funds raised by the tireless efforts of our fundraising team are directed towards capitalimprovements and educational resources for students at WHPS.

On behalf of the parents at WHPS, I would like to thank the teaching and support staff at WHPS for their tirelesscontribution to the development of our children and their education. We are fortunate to have such a fantastic teamsupporting our children.

We have many dedicated volunteers that assist the P&C and our Committees. It would be impossible to single out everyparent and volunteer that has contributed to the school over the last 12 months but I would like to thank everyone fortheir contribution on behalf of the school community.

Allan Dall

WHPS P&C President


School background

School vision statement

Winston Hills Public School is held in high regard by parents and the local community as a place where all students fulfiltheir potential within a nurturing environment.

We strive to provide high quality teaching and learning programs delivered by a committed teaching staff within aschool–wide culture of positive behaviour. We pride ourselves on meeting the individual learning needs of every studentso they can achieve their full potential and become globally engaged citizens of the future.

School context

Winston Hills Public School is a growing school with approximately 675 students including four support classes. Theschool population has 38% of students identified from language backgrounds other than English. There are over 36different languages or cultural groups identified.

Winston Hills Public School has a highly experienced, dedicated staff that consistently focuses on providing qualityeducational programs. Teachers work in six teams (stage, support unit and support staff) to develop teaching andlearning programs led by executive members.

Excellence is promoted across all areas of the curriculum and emphasis is placed on providing a broad range of learningopportunities to meet the needs of all students.

The school is committed to continuous improvement in teaching and learning, and accordingly has identified severalstrategic priority areas as the basis of the 2018–20 school plan.

School improvement goals are identified as a direct result of extensive evaluations. The school's parent community ishighly involved and there is an active P & C Association which meets on a regular basis.


Self-assessment and school achievement

Self-assessment using the School Excellence Framework

This section of the Annual Report outlines the findings from self–assessment using the School Excellence Framework,school achievements and the next steps to be pursued.

This year, our school undertook self–assessment using the School Excellence Framework and participated in an externalvalidation. The framework supports public schools throughout NSW in the pursuit of excellence by providing a cleardescription of high quality practice across the three domains of Learning, Teaching and Leading. During the externalvalidation process, an independent panel of peer principals considered our evidence and assessment of the school'sprogress, aligned with the standards articulated in the School Excellence Framework.

The results of this process indicated in the Learning Domain that the school is sustaining and growing acrossall six elements.

Learning Culture – The school has demonstrated a commitment that all students make learning progress and that thereare developed strong partnerships with parents which ensures that there is a clear aim for improvement and that periodsof transition are successful.

Wellbeing – As evidenced by the Positive Behaviour for Learning program, the school is always refining its whole schoolapproach to wellbeing and engagement, to improve learning. Winston Hills Public School has well–developed andevidence–based approaches, programs and assessment processes to identify, regularly monitor and review individualstudent's needs. This is supported by a proactive Learning and Support team and PBL committee.

Curriculum – The school's curriculum provision and evidence–based teaching practices provide a high expectationsframework where students' needs are meet. The teachers collaboratively plan learning experiences that are explicit andprovide differentiation.

Assessment – Teachers routinely use evidence of learning, including a range of formative assessments, to inform theirteaching, adapt their practice and meet learning needs of students. Professional learning and opportunities for dialoguehas supported teachers' ability to plan both formative and summative assessments. The school is reviewing its practicesto ensure that data gained over a period of time is used to determine student improvement.

Reporting – Parents are presented with clear information on what and how well their children are learning. The school'scommitment to providing parents with information on what is being taught is highlighted by the regular, well–attended,parent information sessions.

Student Performance Measures –Improvement initiatives within the school have supported processes to gain andevaluate internal school progress and achievement data to determine student growth. Data from standardisedassessments is collected and reviewed. Recent NAPLAN results demonstrate a rate of growth which is above state andlike schools in all areas.

The results of this process indicated in the Teaching Domain that the school is sustaining and growing acrossall four elements.

Effective Classroom Practice – The CESE document 'What works best: Evidence–based practices to help improveNSW student performance' and the Department's curriculum underpins improvement initiatives within Winston HillsPublic School. The school's Strategic Directions demonstrate that there is a strong focus on a school–wide approach todevelop and implement evidence–based programs and lessons, which meet the needs of all students. This is reflected inthe school's 'Writing Project' which is being implemented into every classroom within the school during 2018.

Data Skills and Use – The school's major focus on consistent teacher judgement has provided all teachers withprofessional learning and support to improve understanding of data concepts, analysis and the use of studentassessment results. The process of comparing data and identifying skill gaps for improvement is embedded into schoolpractice. The leadership team of the school regularly analyse student progress and achievement data.

Professional Standards –The school is committed to both a whole–school approach and differentiated professionallearning. This is reflected in the range of staff professional goals. School improvement initiatives within the strategicdirections are focused on ensuring that teachers are proficient in their teaching of literacy and numeracy to meet theneeds of the students within their class.

Learning and Development – The 'Lesson Study' program demonstrates the collaborative nature in which the teacherswork to refine their practice. This process and regular observations of classroom teaching practice by executives andpeers, provides teachers with an opportunity to improve professional knowledge and practice. The school has identifiedexpertise and this is often shared with other schools within the area.


The results of the Self–assessment process indicated in the Leading Domain that the school is sustaining andgrowing across all four elements.

Educational Leadership – Winston Hills Public School engages the parents and community in a range of school relatedactivities. The process of regularly gaining feedback from the school community is a focus for improvement. Supportingthe professional development of the instructional leaders is also an area that the school continues to strengthen.

School Planning and Implementation – Strategic Direction and milestones are effectively created, communicated andimplemented to all members of the school community. As a result, all staff understand what they need to do to helpimplement the plan to meet the school's improvement measures. Processes are embedded into the school's practices toensure that the milestones are regularly reviewed by all teachers.

School Resources – During this period of systems and staff changes, Winston Hills Public School is refining itspractices around strategic financial management to maximise the resources available to support students. Technology isaccessible to students and staff, and teachers are developing their ability to use it effectively to enhance learning.

Management Practices and Processes – Winston Hills Public School continues to refine and enhance administrationpractices and systems to better support the school community. Through Strategic Direction 3– Empowered LearningCommunities, the school is focused on gathering and analysing community responses to satisfaction measures.

Our self–assessment and the external validation process will assist the school to refine our school plan, leading to furtherimprovements in the delivery of education to our students.

For more information about the School Excellence Framework:

https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching–and–learning/school–excellence–and–accountability/sef–evidence–guide


Strategic Direction 1

Student Learning and Wellbeing

Purpose

To develop each student’s capacity to be active learners who are critical and creative thinkers in preparation for thefuture through the delivery of high quality curriculum underpinned by the general capabilities and supported bycomprehensive wellbeing programs.

Overall summary of progress

In 2018, the school continued to deliver a high quality curriculum which was highlighted by the introduction of an explicitwriting cycle that was implemented within all classes. This improvement project resulted in the consistent delivery of howwriting is taught. Data showed that staff had a better understanding of evidence–based practices when teaching writing.NAPLAN and school data reflected student growth in writing.

Regional staff conducted an audit around the effectiveness of the Positive Behaviour of Learning (PBL) program atWinston Hills Public School. The results highlighted how well the program is embedded within the school and theoutstanding work of the school's PBL committee.

Progress towards achieving improvement measures

Improvement measures(to be achieved over 3 years)

Funds Expended(Resources)

Progress achieved this year

100% of staff and students willuse learning intentions, successcriteria, feedback and learningprocesses to achieve syllabusoutcomes.

$14 040 Through collaborative planning, we ensure thatlearning intentions and success criteria are includedin all our programs and are visible in all classrooms.

An Initative was implemented to ensure that anexplicit writing cycle is being taught in allclassrooms within the school.

80% of students will achieve agreater than 0.4 growth each yearin our standardised testingprocesses.

$600 Standardised assessments were undertaken at thestart and the end of the year. The average effectsize for these assessments were:

Vocab (Yr 3–6)– 0.65

Comprehension (Years 3–6)– 0.71

Numeracy (Yrs 2–6)– 0.81

Spelling (Yrs 1–6) )–0.75

NAPLAN results showed that the rate of growth formatched students from Year 3 to Year 5 was abovestate and like schools in all areas.

100% of students who areidentified as ‘at risk’ in theclassroom and/or playground areplaced in an appropriateintervention to support theirspecific needs resulting inimproved outcomes.

$10 040 Systems across PBL were finalised includingfeedback from PBL audit, wellbeing policy and meritaward system. All staff were trained in PBLprocesses across the three tiers of support. K–2Students requiring Tier 2 wellbeing interventionswere supported by Got it! and the Kindergartenwellbeing program.

Student data, such as TTFM,shows the school is achievingabove state norms for studentengagement.

Tell Them From Me data shows that the school isachieving above the state norms for some areas ofstudent engagement. In Effort, Winston Hillsstudents are 7% above the NSW GovernmentNorms.


Next Steps

A major focus of 2019 will be the evaluation of English programs to ensure that they are effectively meeting theoutcomes as set out in the syllabus and that the teaching of English reflects best practice.

The focus for the school's PBL team will be to refine the practices around second tier interventions, as well as continueto reflect on school data to ensure student wellbeing.

In 2019, the new Science and Technology syllabus will be implemented. Incorporating elements of STEM, the syllabuswill encourage students to embrace new concepts, the unexpected and to learn through trialling, testing and refiningideas.



Teacher Quality and Leadership

Purpose

To strengthen teacher quality to facilitate globally engaged students in student–centred learning underpinned byevidenced based practices which will be supported through expert leadership and targeted professional learning.


The foundation for school improvement projects has continued to be the Department's "What Works Best:Evidence–Based Practices to Help Improve NSW Student Performance". The seven themes from this document includehaving high expectations, explicit teaching, effective feedback, use of data to inform practice, classroom management,wellbeing and collaboration.

With research showing that collective teacher efficacy has a high impact on student learning, Winston Hills Public Schoolstaff focused on enhancing consistent teacher judgement around curriculum expectations and student achievement data.





100%of teachers will engage inlesson observation andstructured feedback that linkstheir teaching to the goals of theirprofessional development.

Beginning Teacher:

$32 000

QTSS Funds: $104 000

Lesson studies: $10 400

Early career teachers had a ECT plan andaccessed release time to meet with supervisors andexpert teachers to observe demonstration lessons,team teach, attend external professional learningcourses and have feedback and discussions in linewith their plan goals.

Exec staff utilised QTSS funding to be released 1day a week to conduct lesson observations,demonstration lessons, team teaching andprofessional conversations and feedback in linewith whole school improvement initiatives and PDPgoals.

All staff participated in the lesson study processwhere they worked together to investigate acurriculum or pedagogical 'problem of practice',hypothesised a possible solution, collaborativelydesigned a lesson to include these elements,collected data during the delivery of the lesson andevaluated the success of their hypothesis andintervention.

100%of staff will embed highimpact pedagogy, such as,explicit teaching and effectivefeedback.

See above Leadership team were trained in leading thedevelopment of consistent teacher judgementthrough the use of collaborative planning protocols.Stages were expected to use the backward designmodel and the collaborative planning protocolsduring all team planning sessions. Staff participatedin whole school professional learning in thedevelopment of rubrics and rich assessment whichreflects A–E achievement. Staff participated inmoderation conversations to build CTJ.

100%of teachers will provideevidence of their performanceagainst the teaching standards.

$5 800 All staff had a PDP in 2018.

All pre–2004 staff gained accreditation with NESA.

Early Career teachers knowledge and skills wereincreased through targeted professional learning.






100%of teachers will provideevidence of their performanceagainst the teaching standards.

Staff PDP goals supported through targeted expertteacher support.

Aspiring leaders knowledge and skills are increasedthrough leadership professional learning andparticipation in the external validation process.

Next Steps

Quality Teaching, Successful Student initiative will continue to support evidence–based practices as executive staffprovide focused support and mentoring of teaching staff. The seven themes of the "What Works Best" document willcontinue to be evaluated to enhance teacher quality.

Whole staff professional learning will support consistent teacher judgement as it focuses on the enhancement ofevaluative practices.

Differentiated professional learning of staff will include the school's early career support group and targeted professionallearning for aspiring educational leaders.



Empowered Learning Communities

Purpose

To foster a culture of high expectations and a shared sense of responsibility for student engagement, learning,development and success amongst the learning communities.


In 2018, the school provided a range of workshops to support student understanding of the curriculum and studentwellbeing. These workshops were well–attended by the school community and they included:

* Supporting parent understanding about how Mathematics is taught.

* Personal development sessions conducted by Interrelate.

* Cybersafety information sessions.

The school worked closely with the Department of Health to implement a targeted program to support families within theschool.

School staff continued to work closely with other schools to enhance the learning community. An example of an initativethat was introduced in 2018 was the combined primary and high school creative and critical thinking day.

The school was pleased with the increased numbers of parents who took part in the Tell Them From Me survey.





A statistically valid number ofparent responses to schoolsurveys.

The survey was successfully promoted which led to60% of our parents completing the Partners inLearning parent survey as part of Tell Them FromMe. The survey gave parents the opportunity toprovide feedback and suggestions about studentengagement. This assisted parents to clarify andstrengthen the important relationship between themand the school.

Teacher expertise is increased byworking in learning communities.

Teachers used their expertise to build knowledge,skills and understanding across community ofschools. Teachers were given the opportunity towork across a number of learning communities toincrease opportunities for participation in a range ofevents to develop themselves and others, forcontinuous school improvement.

Executive staff enhanced learning communities bythe continued involvement within collegial supportnetworks.

Parent data indicates anincreased understanding ofschool learning and wellbeinginitiatives.

Tell Them From Me survey indicates that 74% ofparents are aware of the Positive Behaviour forLearning (PBL) expectations and how they areembedded in the school. For learning culture, 60%of parents discuss learning at home with theirchildren.

Parents were invited to a series of Parent PlusMathematics Curriculum workshops, and all parentsthat attended found it beneficial.


Next Steps

The school will continue to provide a range of workshops to increase the parents/ carers understanding of the curriculum,pedagogy and wellbeing.

Through the Hills Hub, the school will look at enhancing the linkages between the nearby schools to enhance thelearning community.


Key Initiatives Resources (annual) Impact achieved this year

Aboriginal background loading $10 000 All students worked closely with localAboriginal artists as they contributed to thecreation of a mural that developed studentunderstanding of Indigenous culture.

NAIDOC celebrations acknowledged the newschool mural and the infants choir performedthe National Anthem in Durag.

Staff professional learning supported byattendance at the local Aboriginal EducationConsultative Group (AECG).

All Aboriginal students are supported byPersonalised Learning Plans.

English language proficiency $113 455 Intensive individual programs of explicitEnglish Language learning.

Classroom teachers were supported withprograms and strategies by specialistteachers.

New arrival students and families weresupported during the transition into anAustralian school.

Low level adjustment for disability $144 082 Learning and Support Teacher (LaST)supported classroom teachers and parentswith programs and strategies.

Targeted early intervention programs wereintroduced into Early Stage 1 and Stage 1classes.

School Learning Support Officers wereemployed to support students with needswithin the classroom and in the playgroundthrough structured play programs.

Quality Teaching, SuccessfulStudents (QTSS)

$124 000 Assistant Principals were released to work asinstructional leaders. This involved mentoringand supervision practices that focused onclassroom management and effectivepedagogy.

Lesson Study focused on the effectiveteaching of writing and enhancedcollaborative practices amongst staff as theyjointly planned, observed and evaluatedlessons.

Staff Performance and Development Plangoals and school strategic directions weresupported by professional learning.


Student information

Student enrolment profile

Enrolments

Students 2015 2016 2017 2018

Boys 357 346 352 364

Girls 280 281 296 311

With a continued increase in enrolment numbers, a newmainstream class was established in 2018.

Student attendance profile

School

Year 2015 2016 2017 2018

K 96.7 95.7 96.3 94.9

1 95.3 94.9 95 95.1

2 96 95.7 95.7 95.3

3 96.2 96.7 96.1 94.6

4 96.9 95.8 95.9 95.2

5 95 97.2 96.3 96.8

6 96.3 94.6 96.8 95.1

All Years 96.1 95.9 96 95.3

State DoE

Year 2015 2016 2017 2018

K 94.4 94.4 94.4 93.8

1 93.8 93.9 93.8 93.4

2 94 94.1 94 93.5

3 94.1 94.2 94.1 93.6

4 94 93.9 93.9 93.4

5 94 93.9 93.8 93.2

6 93.5 93.4 93.3 92.5

All Years 94 94 93.9 93.4

Management of non-attendance

Regular and consistent attendance patterns areessential to achieving student progress and socialdevelopment. All teachers monitor their classattendance on a daily basis. A range of school basedstrategies are implemented to resolve attendancedifficulties that have the wellbeing of the student astheir focus. These include: communication with parentsthrough meetings and/or phone calls, referral to theschool's Learning and Support Team and referral to theschool counsellor. If these interventions proveunsuccessful, support from the Home School Liaison

Program is requested.

School attendance rates have continued to beconsistent over the past four years with school figuresbeing higher than the state.

Class sizes

Class Total

KN 19

KJT 20

KC 19

KW 20

KV 19

1B 24

1R 24

1N 24

1F 24

2J 24

2Y 25

2M 24

2K 24

3LB 29

3A 29

3M 30

4TW 27

4M 28

4C 27

5V 29

5J 30

5F 29

5/6D 30

6H 29

6R 28


Workforce information

Workforce composition

Position FTE*

Principal(s) 1

Deputy Principal(s) 1

Assistant Principal(s) 5

Classroom Teacher(s) 27.79

Teacher of Reading Recovery 0.42

Learning and Support Teacher(s) 0.9

Teacher Librarian 1.2

Teacher ESL 0.8

School Administration and SupportStaff

8.26

*Full Time Equivalent

In 2018, one staff member at Winston Hills PublicSchool is identified as being of Aboriginal descent.

Workforce retention

After a long career with the Department of Education,Mrs Judy Jones, who was the school's SchoolAdministration Manager retired.

Mrs Louise Pollard joined the school executive team asthe Assistant Principal responsible for Stage 3. MrsMelinda Kammmerer was appointed as a teacher to theschool in 2018. Mrs Tere Griffin was appointed as thenew School Administration Manager through the meritselection process.

Teacher qualifications

All teaching staff meet the professional requirementsfor teaching in NSW public schools.

Teacher qualifications

Qualifications % of staff

Undergraduate degree or diploma 100

Postgraduate degree 35

Professional learning and teacher accreditation

The school recognises the importance of supporting thecontinuous development of professional practice for allstaff. The significant professional learning undertakenby Winston Hills Public School staff was either alignedwith the school's strategic plan or with individual staff

professional goals. The two main focus areas in 2018were developing consistent teacher judgment aroundthe evaluation of learning and also the implementationof an explicit writing cycle across all stages.

In 2018 the school was involved in the Department ofHealth's "Getting On Track In Time– Got It!" program.This provided staff with professional learning aroundsupporting students' social, emotional and behaviouraldevelopment.

Whole school professional learning also supported theenhancement of the Positive Behaviour for Learning(PBL) program within the school. Mandatory training inChild protection, Code of Conduct, Anaphylaxis,Emergency Care and CPR were also conducted.

The Quality Teaching, Successful Students (QTSS)funded program enabled executive staff to work in otherclassrooms, supporting teachers to evaluate andenhance their teaching. The program also providedstaff with the opportunity to create collaborativepractices as staff jointly planned and observed eachother's lessons.

The executive staff and a group of aspiring leaderswere involved in professional learning around theSchools Excellence Framework and the collecting ofevidence and data to support the framework. Thisprofessional learning supported the school'ssubmission for the external validation process. Earlycareer teachers have been supported by thedepartment's Beginning Teacher program. Thisprogram provided release for early career teachers andtheir supervisors to develop and work towardsprofessional goals.


Financial information

Financial summary

The information provided in the financial summaryincludes reporting from 1 January 2018 to 31December 2018.

2018 Actual ($)

Opening Balance 484,585

Revenue 6,064,096

Appropriation 5,705,813

Sale of Goods and Services 11,441

Grants and Contributions 338,506

Gain and Loss 0

Other Revenue 100

Investment Income 8,235

Expenses -5,767,241

Recurrent Expenses -5,767,241

Employee Related -5,080,735

Operating Expenses -686,506

Capital Expenses 0

Employee Related 0

Operating Expenses 0

SURPLUS / DEFICIT FOR THEYEAR

296,855

Balance Carried Forward 781,440

Funds carried forward are to cover commitments forunpaid salaries, ongoing costs of utilities and forground, building and equipment maintenance. Fundshave also been put aside for future spending on capitalassets.

Financial summary equity funding

The equity funding data is the main component of the'Appropriation' section of the financial summary above.

2018 Actual ($)

Base Total 4,275,191

Base Per Capita 132,121

Base Location 0

Other Base 4,143,070

Equity Total 281,633

Equity Aboriginal 5,431

Equity Socio economic 18,665

Equity Language 113,455

Equity Disability 144,082

Targeted Total 823,679

Other Total 172,598

Grand Total 5,553,101

Figures presented in this report may be subject torounding so may not reconcile exactly with the bottomline totals, which are calculated without any rounding.

A full copy of the school's financial statement is tabledat the annual general meetings of the parent and/orcommunity groups. Further details concerning thestatement can be obtained by contacting the school.

School performance

NAPLAN

In the National Assessment Program, the results acrossthe Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 literacy and numeracyassessments are reported on a scale from Band 1 toBand 10. The achievement scale represents increasinglevels of skills and understandings demonstrated inthese assessments.

From 2018 to 2020 NAPLAN is moving from a papertest to an online test. Individual schools are migrating tothe online test, with some schools attempting NAPLANon paper and others online.

Results for both online and paper formats are reportedon the same NAPLAN assessment scale. Anycomparison of NAPLAN results – such as comparisonsto previous NAPLAN results or to results for studentswho did the assessment in a different format – shouldtake into consideration the different test formats andare discouraged during these transition years.

The average scaled growth for students who have beenat the school in Year 3 and are now in Year 5 wasabove that of both "like schools" and of the state. Thiswas highlighted by the growth in Writing (69.2compared to the state score of 48.9) and Grammar andPunctuation (98.4 compared to the state score of 61.0).




The average scaled growth in Numeracy for studentswho have been at the school in Year 3 and are now inYear 5 was above that of both "like schools" and of thestate. The school's scaled growth was 98.7 while thestate's score was 93.9. Almost 70% of the students atWinston Hills Public School demonstrated a rate ofgrowth that was at or above expected levels.

The My School website provides detailed informationand data for national literacy and numeracy testing. Goto http://www.myschool.edu.au to access the schooldata.

Winston Hills Public School supports the Premier'sPriorities: Improving education results and StatePriorities: Better services – Improving Aboriginaleducation outcomes. The number of students in the top2 bands for reading and numeracy has continued toincrease over the past 3 years. In 2018 the result was52.20% which is almost an 8% increase from 2016.

Parent/caregiver, student, teachersatisfaction

Each year the school seeks the opinions of students,parents and teachers about the school. This data isused to evaluate and implement initatives to supportthe school's strategic directions. This year we capturedthe opinions of the school community by:

* The Tell Them From Me survey which is developed bythe department's Centre for Education Statistics andEvaluation.

* Online surveys that are created on the SurveyMonkey platform.

* Information and parent feedback seesions.

* One–on–one interviews with staff members.

Their responses are presented below:

Students

Students responded with a number of positive qualitiesincluding:

* 95% of students believe that they display positivebehaviour while at school and that the number ofstudents who feel like they are bullied is well below thestate average. This is a reflection of the school's focuson wellbeing through the PBL program.

* 90% of students feel like they are trying hard tosucceed in their learning . Only a very small percentageof students lacked confidence in their skills.

Parents

A focus in 2018 was to increase the number of parentswho took part in the Tell Them From Me Survey. Thiswas achieved with the number of parents taking partincreasing from 36 to 284. The results from this surveyshows that:

* Parents feel welcome when they visit the school andfind it easy to speak to their child's teacher.

* The school community is below state average when itcomes to how comfortable they are at helping theirchild with work at home.


At the completion of information sessions to supportparent understanding of how Mathematics is taught, thefeedback from participants was that they found thesessions very helpful. Similar sessions will beconducted in 2019.

Parent discussion groups at the completion of thetargeted program Getting On Track In Time– Got It!was very positive with all participants feeling like it wasa worthwhile experience.

Teachers

Staff were involved in a range of opportunites toprovide feedback. They included surveys, interviews,strategic direction groups and input into ExternalValidation.

* When looking at what evidence to present during theExternal Validation process, the staff wanted tocelebrate the strong commitment to inclusive educationand student wellbeing. They also believe that a strengthof the school is how the teaching teams workcollaboratively to deliver informed practice that has highimpact on student learning.

* Staff completed the Tell Them From Me survey. Theresults showed that the school was above stateaverage for leadership, collaboration, inclusivity andparent involvement. An area that continues to beidentified as a focus for improvement is the effectiveuse of technology within the classrooms.

Policy requirements

Aboriginal education

In 2018, the school continued to implement theAboriginal Education policy which aims to enhance theknowledge and understanding of all students aboutAboriginal Australia. At Winston Hills Public School thelearning programs educate all students aboutAboriginal history and culture. All students had anopportunity to work with Aboriginal artists to create alarge mural that celebrates both Aboriginal culture andthe local environment.

Equity funding for Aboriginal background was utilisedfor the development of Personalised Learning Plansthat focused on literacy and numeracy.

In 2018, Mrs Meale continued to strengthen therelationships with the local Aboriginal EducationConsultative Group (AECG) and was theirrepresentative during a merit selection panel.

Aboriginal perspectives are embedded into units ofstudy in many subject areas at the school.

Multicultural and anti-racism education

The school values the diversity of the cultures withinthe school community. Winston Hills Public School hasstudents from 44 different language backgrounds. Thenumber of students from a LBOTE (LanguageBackground Other Than English) background hasincreased to 38%.

A multicultural perspective is evident throughout allKLAs at Winston Hills Public School, as well as wholeschool events such as Harmony Day. Theseexperiences allow students to successfully take part ina rapidly changing world where cross–culturalunderstanding and intercultural communication areessential.

In 2018, the school worked closely with ChineseCommunity Language group to provide opportunitiesfor students to enrol into after hours Chinese Languagelessons.

A staff member completed the required training to takeup the role as the school's Anti–Racism Contact Officer.In Term 4, staff were involved in professional learningto support the department's expectations aroundanti–racism education.


2018 Winston Hills Public School Annual Report

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