Mount Allan School Annual Performance Report to …web.ntschools.net/w/antgsr/Annual Reports/Mount Allan Annual Report... · Mount Allan School Annual Performance Report to the School

Mount Allan School

Annual Performance Report to the School Community

2014

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Mount Allan School

2014 Annual Performance Report to the School Community

School Overview Our School Mt. Allan School is 280km northwest of Alice Springs in the community of Yuelamu. The population of the community is approximately 300. Yuelamu is the home of Honey Ant Dreaming and the burial place of one of the Western Desert’s most famous sons, Clifford Tjapaltjarri Possum. Art remains an important activity.

The Mt Allan area was opened up for lease in 1948. Eric (Bob) Gregory and E.W Causins were the successful applicants in a ballot drawn in Alice Springs by Rev. Griffiths. A lease was given in 1948, but Mr. Causins withdrew from the partnership. With his father’s support eighteen-year-old Didi Lindsay Smith acquired the station in June 1948 and bought Gregory’s share in 1949. Didi Smith built dams as a way of watering the country and worked with the Anmatyerr and Warlpiri men to build boundary fences. By 1959 there were about 5000 cattle and in 1961 D.D. Smith transferred the land to his son Didi. In 1976 the Aboriginal Land Fund purchased the station for $300,000. Diddi Smith then worked as the Advisor to the Aboriginal owners. Frankie Japanangka received the title papers from Aboriginal Affairs in 1988; it had taken a long time, nine years of waiting for the Mt. Allan land claim from the time that Anmatyerr and Warlpiri people bought the station in 1976 and lodged a land claim on behalf of the traditional landowners in 1979. Mr. Justice Learney heard the claim; found that traditional landowners had maintained strong traditional attachment to the land, performing regular ceremonies and rituals. They were instructing the young in traditional law. A report from Justice Learney in 1985 indicated that the station was being looked after properly; again the hand back of land was blocked. All NT Government arguments were rejected at the High Court level and the title was finally handed over in 1988. Diddi Smith set up a school in 1971. It began over the hill from the station. It was in two sheds. An old man, Ted Cody, who had worked at Coniston, was the first schoolteacher. Audrey Attwood later moved from Papunya and was the first full time government teacher. She lived in a silver bullet and stayed there for 13 years. Mt. Allan School provides education services to students from pre-school to senior years. We have four classes; Pre-school, Junior Primary, Upper Primary and Secondary.

Mount Allan School


Our Staff

Name Total Non-Indigenous

Indigenous

Teaching Principal (TP 1) Phil Bartley 1 1

Classroom Teachers Leonie Woods John Harrington

2 2

Assistant Teachers Sharon Briscoe David McCormack

1.5 1.5

Cleaner Korrinne Hudson 0.5 0.5

Mobile Preschool Assistant Teacher

Nicole McCormack 0.6 0.6

Classroom Support Officer Alley Murphy 1 1

CDEP Fiona Kitson 1 1

Dianne Martin is on leave from the school while she runs our local Family as First Teacher (FaFT) program. We also receive support from other regional staff based in Alice Springs, who frequently travel out to the school. Michelle Ball is the school registrar, who administers the school funds. Our Students We have approximately 50 students attending. The numbers vary up and down as the local families often travel between communities. Our students are all indigenous, mostly speaking Anmatyerr as their main home language. Many also speak some Warlpiri as there are many Warlpiri communities in the area. English is spoken by the students as a second or third language. English is the language of instruction in the school.

Mount Allan School


Principal's Report I think that 2014 was quite a good year for Mt Allan School. The school is a great place for the adults to work and for the students to come to learn. Mt Allan Community should be quite proud of its school. We welcome visits to the school from members of the community at any time. You should feel welcome to come in to talk with the teachers or sit in on any classes. The school had three teachers working in the school in 2014. We would like to increase that up to four teachers in 2015. The number of teachers in the school depends on the number of students regularly attending. It is important that students attend every day. The school is a part of the community, and we would like to thank other people in the community for helping; the council and RJCP for mowing the lawns and collecting the rubbish, the clinic for helping to keep the kids healthy, night patrol for helping to get the kids in each morning, the women’s centre for providing the lunches every day, the shop for helping out when we run out of food or need something quickly and all of the families who send their kids to the school every morning. Mount Allan School is a part of the Remote Schools Support Unit (RSSU), which is located in Alice Springs, just near Target. Along with other remote schools in the region, they provide us with services such as; registrar services, vehicles maintenance, special needs support, pre-school support, ESL support, secondary support and professional development.

Mount Allan School


Teaching and Learning All students demonstrate

improvement in Literacy and

Numeracy skills and knowledge

Each student with 80+%

attendance to improve at least

one full year in reading age

Improve results on NAPLAN

testing

Professional Development on ESL teaching techniques provided to all staff

Creation of new ISA position until end of school year

Extend Lower Primary class readers

Purchase of software and hardware including educational software, screens, headphones, cables, switches, mice etc.)

Registration costs for “Reading Eggs” online literacy program and associated materials

All students engaged with the

Australian Curriculum Use RSSU Curriculum Maps and MYL units of work in Maths and English

Replace maths consumables and resources

Science Resources

Middle Years trial of supplementary curriculum ideas (Work Ready Program)

Develop and implement Visible

Learning Action Plan to

enhance student outcomes

Staff attend Professional Development on Visible Learning

Staff generate 12 month Visible Learning Implementation Plans for the classroom and individual subject areas

Access and use data sets from

BIC, SAIS and Visible Learning

to inform teaching and learning

programs

Staff trained in use of SAIS in monitoring student achievement

Teaching Principal accesses data from SAIS Fast Facts

Implement a systematic

collection of student outcome

data, including test data and

quality classroom assessments

Implement PAT Maths and PAT Reading testing for Year 1 – 9 students twice per year as per regional requirement

Continuation of School wide assessments using PM readers.

NAPLAN Each year during term two every school in Australia participates in a National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). Students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are tested on their reading, writing and maths skills. For Mt Allan School, our school wide results appear at the end of this annual report. Our performance in these important subjects is similar to results from other, similar remote schools in the region. While we always try for a gradual improvement in our scores, the year to year results fluctuate up and down as would be expected from a school with a small number of students. This can be seen clearly in the graphs of the results. Students who attend school regularly and try hard in the classroom will show the best test scores. The school tries to improve our scores by having in place the best possible teachers and teaching programs.

PAT Testing During terms one and three, all of the schools in the region do PAT literacy and numeracy testing. These test help to track the progress of the students and show teachers areas of their learning that they are doing well in or are having trouble with. John Hattie John Hattie has published some research on the best ways to educate children in his book called ‘Visible Learning’. His ideas have been adopted throughout the Northern Territory and in many other places. The teachers at Mt Allan School have attended some professional development days in Alice Springs so that we can stay informed about the best practice teaching methods talked about in his book.

Mount Allan School


Wellbeing The school is a safe place,

maintaining supportive learning

environments

The school will have effective

wellbeing programs (including

behaviour).

Develop Visible Learning

Action Plan

Ensure all staff are aware of and are in compliance with Mandatory Reporting Legislation

Implement Visible Learning Action Plan

Explicit school-wide expectations regarding attendance and behaviour

Resources for Professional Development and support

Continual improvement in

student attendance and retention

Increase attendance rates in

relation to the 90% target Continue to implement breakfast, recess and lunch program

Incentives to increase attendance including: o Excursions – swimming, bush trips o Weekly assembly awards o End of semester attendance and engagement awards o Rock band equipment and maintenance

School Wide Positive Behaviour All staff participated in a training day on School Wide Positive Behaviour with staff from Laramba School, which was held at Tilmouth Well roadhouse. The program is being developed in the school by Leonie Woods and Sharon Briscoe. It helps to teach the students develop a greater sense of responsibility in the school, to be respectful of themselves and others and to try their hardest in their work. Breakfast and Lunch Program The school continues to provide a good free breakfast every morning thanks to the efforts of the assistant teachers. It starts thirty minutes before classes. At morning tea all students get a piece of fruit. At lunch the Women’s Centre brings over a healthy, filling meal for all of the students who were on time that morning. This helps all of the kids who come to school every day grow up strong and healthy. It also helps them to concentrate on their school work. Music The school continues to provide access to our musical instruments to interested students and community members. We hope to be able to provide increased music tuition in the coming months. It is very popular with some students and helps to increase the interest of the teenagers in attending school. Thanks to John Harrington for helping to supervise the use of the band room. ARMTOUR The Athletes as Role Models team has been coming to the school for a number of years now. They returned three times during 2014 and are very popular with the students and strongly supported by the community. They help out during lessons and run sporting and craft activities with the students in the afternoons. They always put on a community barbeque during their one week visits. We hope to see them back for more visits during 2015.

Mount Allan School


Participation, Transitions and Pathways Engage with national agenda for

Early Years/ implementing the

Early Years framework

Implement the Early Years

Framework in Preschool and

Early Years classes

Continuing to support the Mobile FaFT program

Continuation of Mobile Preschool Program.

Resources, art supplies etc. for Preschool

Refresh of early childhood play based learning furniture (shop play equipment, wet play equipment, exercise play equipment)

Develop effective transition

programs that assist student

movement through ‘Phases of

Learning’

Develop orientation program

options for the phases of

learning

Develop orientation program for students to transition from Primary Years to Middle Years

Resources and workshops associated with Middle Years and Secondary provision (VET equipment)

Pre-School We had a strong pre-school class in 2014, led by Nicole McCormack. If your child is over three years old, then they can come along to the pre-school class, which runs every morning. It is a great way for them to learn the skills that they will need to do well at school. We need to keep the young kids coming into the pre-school every morning so that the school is able to keep the pre-school class running. Family as First Teachers (FaFT) Dianne Martin ran the community Family as First Teachers program during 2015. This program goes out into the community to help families with very young children build skills that encourage the children to learn well. Work Ready Program The secondary aged class continues to be engaged in the Work Ready program, which has literacy, numeracy and practical classes focusing on skills that the students will need in the workplace. We are supported in these classes by Graeme Hastwell and Roger Chapman, who make regular visits to help out in the classroom.

Mount Allan School


Partnerships Schools and community

working together to improve

educational outcomes for all

students

Build positive partnerships with

parents and carers to promote

student learning

Provide opportunities for parents and community members to have a greater role in school decision making processes

Inclusion of parents/carers on Language and Culture bush trips

Annual school and community

partnership goals Continue working with the Clinic to implement Healthy School Aged Kids

program

A greater number of School/ Community Projects.

Improve community and

parental awareness of school

programs

Ensure that school issues are raised at community meetings

Every class holds at least one parent “morning tea” per term

Celebration of student achievement at assemblies, open days and displays or work on community notice boards

Night Patrol Morning Run During 2014 some night patrol parents began doing a morning run for us to help bring in all of the school kids. This was a great program and we hope to see it continue. Truancy Visits The community continued to receive visits from the truancy officers, who are based in Yuendumu. These are government workers who make home visits to some families to remind them of their responsibility to get their kids to school every day. Sports and Swimming Trips We continued to participate in the Swim and Survive program during summer, which is held at Yuendumu pool. This teaches the students to swim and increases their knowledge about being safe around swimming pools and waterholes. This was something that families asked the school to do as children are often swimming in the local dam unsupervised. We have regular games of basketball with Yuendumu School. We also hope to continue on with football games and softball games as the opportunities arise. Bush Trips During winter we went on several bush trips. We took students out to sites of cultural significance and listened to the assistant teachers or community elders tell stories about country and looked for some bush tucker. Some of these above sports, swimming and bush trips are dependent on the school being able to access the community bus as only students over seven years old are allowed to ride in the school Troop Carrier due to the new road rules. We hope that the community bus remains in good repair so that we can continue to use it for school trips.

Mount Allan School


Sydney Excursion Eight students from the secondary aged class had a great excursion to Sydney for a week in November, 2014. They were joined by students from Papunya and Ntaria schools. We have another trip already planned for 2015, and one for 2016. It was very popular with the students and well supported by the community. Students who go on these trips are chosen because of very good attendance and working hard during lessons. This project has the strong support of the community. Thanks to assistant teachers David McCormack and Fiona Kitson who accompanied the students on the trip.

Mount Allan School


Leadership High quality staff recruited,

retained and developed

Principal to gain ongoing

mentoring to develop leadership

capacity in line with DoE

strategic plans

TP regularly attends region wide Principals’ conferences and PD programs.

Implement a recognised

Performance and Development

Framework

Implement the region wide Remote Schools Support Unit Performance and

Development Framework.

Efficient use of financial

resources

Teaching Principal supported to

grow understanding of school

budgets and administrative

requirements

Teaching Principal has regular liaison with Business Manager and Principal Mentors on budget matters

Improvement of facilities,

equipment and network

infrastructure within the school

Substantial computer equipment refresh, including touch screen desktops to prepare for upcoming Windows 8 operating environment

Upgrade to the early childhood area to include a large ‘softfall’ surface

We have a very hard working staff who do a wonderful job for the students. The assistant teachers all know the students very well and most have been working in the school for many years. The three teachers are all very experienced and provided strong learning opportunities for the students. The principal attended several regional meetings and professional development sessions with principals from other remote schools as well as Alice Springs principals. He attended regular Mt Allan service providers meetings so that the school is able to stay informed about community issues and respond to the wishes of the community. He also spoke at community meetings at the rec hall and open days, such as the end of semester barbeques, so that the families know what is happening in the school. Global budgeting The school is preparing for a new way that the NT government will allocate money to schools, which will begin operation in 2015. The new system gives the school just over $10,000 for each student who regularly attends. This money is used to pay for wages, resources and any projects that we run. For the school to stay strong financially, it is very important that all children in the community come to school every day. Our biggest expense is the wages of the staff – the more kids that come to the school, the more jobs in the school for teachers and local staff.

Mount Allan School


ATTACHMENT A

Audited Financial Statements

Mount Allan School


Mount Allan School


Mount Allan School


Mount Allan School


ATTACHMENT B

NAPLAN data

Year Level 3

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Grammar

School Mean Range 92 - 92 284 - 284 74 - 297 78 - 195 -44 - 90 161 - 223

School Mean 92 284 186 136 23 192

NT Mean 316 311 313 315 338 326

Aust Mean 420 417 421 424 428 426

Numeracy

School Mean Range 108 - 207 230 - 405 298 - 352 114 - 191 216 - 330 188 - 229

School Mean 158 318 325 152 273 209

NT Mean 322 329 338 323 332 338

Aust Mean 394 395 398 396 397 402

Reading


School Mean 111 263 190 206 22 171

NT Mean 322 329 323 332 339 332

Aust Mean 411 414 416 420 419 418

Spelling


School Mean 228 311 242 192 191 253

NT Mean 305 300 303 337 327 327

Aust Mean 405 399 406 414 411 412

Writing (Persuasive)

School Mean Range - - 153 - 302 125 - 274 81 - 220 151 - 223

School Mean

227 200 151 187

NT Mean

330 323 320 318

Aust Mean

416 416 416 402

Mount Allan School


Year Level 5

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Grammar


School Mean 178 364 406 220 316 328

NT Mean 415 397 400 394 423 419

Aust Mean 500 500 499 491 501 504

Numeracy


School Mean 321 325 441 355 337 304

NT Mean 430 422 424 418 422 423

Aust Mean 487 489 488 489 486 488

Reading


School Mean 204 300 267 214 382 262

NT Mean 421 412 403 405 437 426

Aust Mean 494 487 488 494 502 501

Spelling


School Mean 339 360 353 264 291 284

NT Mean 411 409 393 413 413 422

Aust Mean 487 487 484 495 494 498


School Mean Range - - 214 - 372 218 - 364 141 - 141 138 - 271

School Mean

293 291 141 205

NT Mean

397 391 386 380

Aust Mean

483 477 478 468

Mount Allan School


Year Level 7

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Grammar

School Mean Range - 61 - 272 - 396 - 476 141 - 371 259 - 387

School Mean

166

436 256 323

NT Mean 465 460 457 476 442 465

Aust Mean 540 535 532 546 535 543

Numeracy


School Mean

411

371 410 410

NT Mean 485 487 481 475 477 484

Aust Mean 544 548 545 538 542 546

Reading


School Mean

424

408 300 375

NT Mean 483 488 480 474 469 479

Aust Mean 541 546 540 542 541 546

Spelling


School Mean

371

369 352 321

NT Mean 466 469 462 464 467 462

Aust Mean 540 545 538 543 549 545


School Mean Range - - - 288 - 340 113 - 329 247 - 315

School Mean

314 221 281

NT Mean

446 435 418 416

Aust Mean

529 518 517 512

Mount Allan School


Year Level 9

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Grammar

School Mean Range 225 - 519 52 - 504 448 - 448 436 - 495 - 188 - 506

School Mean 372 278 448 466

347

NT Mean 513 513 507 515 498 507

Aust Mean 574 579 572 573 573 574

Numeracy


School Mean 438 465 442 458

428

NT Mean 540 530 529 532 523 532

Aust Mean 589 585 583 584 584 588

Reading


School Mean 422 438 440 375

422

NT Mean 526 524 526 516 528 522

Aust Mean 581 574 580 575 580 580

Spelling


School Mean 488 458 369 467

368

NT Mean 509 514 516 506 519 509

Aust Mean 576 579 581 577 583 582


School Mean Range - - 415 - 415 388 - 406 - 344 - 402

School Mean

415 397

373

NT Mean

492 472 470 463

Aust Mean

566 554 554 550

Mount Allan School


ATTACHMENT C

Student Enrolment, Attendance and Learning

Mount Allan School


Learning and Engagement Plans

All Indigenous

Number of students in first year of schooling to Year 10 with a Learning and Engagement Plan in place

Proportion of students in first year of schooling to year 10 with a Learning and Engagement Plan

Proportion of students in first year of schooling to year 10 whose parent/carer have worked with the teacher to develop a Learning and Engagement Plan

0 0

Note: Learning and Engagement Plans are plans that address the learning and engagement needs of students, including attendance, behaviour, flexible learning and NTCET Personalised Learning Plans.

Senior Secondary Outcomes [include where applicable]

Students in Year 12 undertaking vocational or trade training NA

Students in Year 12 attaining a Year 12 certificate or equivalent VET qualification

NA

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