- Utilise a school-based evaluation process to identify successes and inform planning.
- Ensure that community consultation on planning and evaluation is included in the school’s Strategic Improvement Plan.
- Support the engagement of parents and community members in the evaluative processes through induction and training programs.
- Demonstrate the evaluation and planning process to parents and community members.
- Use data to demonstrate to staff/ community that some approaches may require review.
- Include data from a range of sources to set goals in the school’s Strategic Improvement Plan
- Review research and available resources on community consultation.
Using data
Evaluating strategies to engage parents and community members in a sustained manner requires effective use of data tools. As part of the School Excellence in Action cycle, schools are required to demonstrate to their communities how they intend to meet student needs and improve the learning outcomes for students.
‘A diverse group of parents engaged in our World Café consultation and shared their ideas and aspirations for their children. This provided great insights into our community's priorities and hopes.’
Principal, Daceyville Public School
‘Evaluate with parents, students and most importantly, the wider Aboriginal community.’
Principal, Toormina High School
‘The parent body was absolutely engaged in the process (data analysis) which took about two hours and was fairly intense. This made it all the more important that their voice was heard and they felt empowered by the process.’
Independent forum facilitator, Islington Public School
‘Opportunities to reflect on and revisit the school plan between the stages of development were important in ensuring that the plan would really take the school where it needed (to go) and where the school community wanted it to go.’
Principal, Turvey Park School
Rooty Hill High School designed an analytical tool to annually evaluate the formal links with over twenty external providers, including universities and Social Ventures Australia to ensure that mutual benefits were maintained.
The Ringrose Public School working party collected discussion points and data from small groups to determine prioritisation.
The leadership team at Warilla North Public School identified a rich collection of data over a number of years that provided a deep understanding of community aspirations for students and clear directions for the development of the school plan. The data included focus group discussions, Tell Them From Me surveys, and the Seesaw app.
Bright ideas
Daceyville Public School prides itself on being community focused. It has an average enrolment of 290 students with 65% of students from a language background other than English.
The school was working towards increasing the number of parents engaged in supporting learning programs for the benefit of students. When developing their school plan they drew on evidence collected from targeted focus groups, ‘Tell Them From Me’ parent surveys, and from online surveys published through the school Facebook page.
The leadership team plan to deliver regular family learning events that will build connections between families and school to promote student learning and enable families to contribute to students’ success at school.
