Firstly, open SPaRO and choose the self-assessment section to view the situational analysis headings and fields.

Secondly, open Scout at the School dashboard to view the 5 focus areas for your review and analysis.

Note: there is no set length for a situational analysis, as it is a school-based decision and should include as much information as needed to inform future strategic directions.

Focus area and analysis - Scout

A current enrolment of 9 students; there has been minimal movement in enrolment numbers over the past 3 years. Current distribution is 3 Kindergarten students, 1 Year 1 student, 2 Year 2 students, and 1 student in each Year 4, 5 and 6. Of the current 9 students, 2 identify as Aboriginal. All 9 students were born in Australia with English as their first and only language spoken at home.

Focus area and analysis - Student performance

Of the 2 students who sat NAPLAN in 2019, 50% of these students were in the top 2 bands for Reading and Numeracy. Neither student scored in the lowest 2 bands for any subject area.

With minimal numbers of students sitting NAPLAN each year it is difficult to compare previous year groups.

Our average NAPLAN scores in the areas of Reading, Writing and Numeracy for Year 5 are within 2 points of SSSG schools. In grammar and punctuation, our Year 5 scores are significantly higher than SSSG schools and state average.

Our average NAPLAN scores in the areas of writing and spelling for Year 3 are within 5 points of SSSG schools. Reading and Numeracy are much lower than SSSG schools for Year 3, although again grammar and punctuation scores are significantly higher than SSSG schools and state average.

Focus area and analysis - Wellbeing

Overall attendance has had a slight decline in the number of students with attendance over 90% throughout the past 2 years. The average overall attendance rate for 2019 was 91.68%.

During 2019, reported negative incidences was dramatically higher than previous years due to the introduction of PBL and formally recording incidences. Two suspensions were recorded in 2019, no suspensions were recorded in 2018.

Parent survey at the end of 2019 indicates a high level of satisfaction with the direction of the school’s focus on attendance and student wellbeing and this will continue to be a focus moving forward.

Targets

• Attendance: baseline 86.76%, lower bound 91.1% and upper bound 95.6%
• Wellbeing: baseline 85.1%, lower bound 89.6% and upper bound 94.6%.

Focus area and analysis - Human resources

FTE 2.551

There is currently 1 fulltime teaching principal, 2 temporary teachers (2 days per week each), 1 SAM, 1 SLSO and 1 GA employed at the school.

All teaching staff have over 10 years teaching experience. Principal is first time permanent principal.

One teacher 2 days per week is funded from socio-economic background funding, SAM is increased from 0.6 to 1.0 through second adult on site and SLSO is funded through integration funding support.

Focus area and analysis - Finance

Flexible funds available for 2021:

6100 consolidated funds -

• Socio-economic background - $30,961 + predicted unspent funds $3,000
• Aboriginal background - $1,030
• Low level adjustment for disability - $10,780 + predicted unspent funds $2,100
• Professional learning - $5,242
• Literacy and Numeracy - $1,365
• QTSS - $ 7,366 (0.081 FTE)
• School support allocation - $11,960
• Location - $26,469
• Teaching principal’s relief - $16,987
• Integration funding support - $29,750

6300 school and community sources -

• Anticipated 2021 opening balance of $37, 637.

Note - in SPaRO, the 'Focus themes' column will already be prepopulated with the data schools added to their SEF S-aS.

Legend:

• WTD = working towards delivering
• D = delivering
• S&G = sustaining and growing
• E = excelling
• NA = not applicable.

Reflections on SEF S-aS and EV

The school has gone through a significant period of transition, with all teaching staff new to the school in 2019. Thus, the primary focus has been about the establishment of practices and processes to support the effective operation of the school. When current staff completed the 2019 SEF S-aS, our on-balance judgements were lower compared with previous years. Whilst there were clear examples of process and system activities, evidence of process quality and impact were difficult to determine.

The school’s external validation took place in 2019 and what was determined from this is that we need:

• consistent and reliable collection of student and whole school data
• further development and refinement in the PDP process, including the provision of effective formal feedback
• further investigation into refining how the school garners effective feedback on school performance and student wellbeing
• a focus on the implementation of the English and mathematics syllabus according to all requirements that meets the needs of all students
• a focus on the following SEF S-aS themes: individual learning needs, differentiation, formative assessment, data use in teaching and a planned approach to wellbeing.

2018-2020 School Plan

Individualised learning

The Implementation of individualised goals has been a simple but important process for us. They have enabled our students to have made gains in growth, with a 7% improvement in the percentage of students achieving individual goals across literacy and numeracy internal data collections from 65% to 72%. This will continue to be a strategy.

PBL

The continued implementation of our student wellbeing program, Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL), has seen a more consistent approach to student wellbeing practices. This new journey has seen an increase in negative incidences recorded as staff have begun recording incidences where previously there was no formal recording.

PBL is a wellbeing framework that worked well enough for us in the 2018-2020 School Plan however with low student numbers we seek to take a more tailored approach to wellbeing processes and practices in our school. We need to individualise to suit our school context therefore moving forward we will be guided by the results of the Wellbeing Framework self-assessment tool as to the direction we take. This will be done at the start of 2021.

Community

Continued improvements and upgrades to our school environment and continued commitment to strengthening partnerships with our community have been raised as important focus points in the future by staff, students and community. The implementation of quality communication structures needs to be a greater focus moving forward based on community feedback.

Other assessment data

Staff are developing consistency of teacher judgment however PL will need to be considered to further build capabilities. PL in using data to inform and drive explicit teaching and learning will be a focus in order to support student growth and attainment. Internal assessment data does not reflect external data. Our internal reading and comprehension and maths SENA assessments through PLAN2 are showing students are being judged as working at a higher level than they are showing in external assessments such as NAPLAN and PAT. Ongoing assessment as an integral component of differentiated explicit teaching needs to occur.

Student voice

TTFM indicates 88% of students feeling positive about expectations for success. Students are beginning to understand and discuss what and why they are learning certain things and to see the relevance in their learning. Students have shown overwhelming engagement in the SRC as a means for student voice to be heard, valued and acknowledged.

Research and literature

• Improving consistency in teacher judgments- ACER
• Wellbeing Framework and self-assessment tool
• ‘What Works Best’ (WWB) - CESE
• Based on the results of the WWB toolkit for teachers there will be a focus on ‘Assessment’ ‘Explicit teaching’ and ‘Use of data to inform teaching’.

Consideration 1

Lessons and learning opportunities need to be explicit and engaging. Individually and collaboratively across the community of small schools, teachers will need to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching practices.

We are continuing to develop our formative and summative assessment practices to be more consistent from Kindergarten to Year 6. More work needs to occur in aligning and matching our internal assessment data to external data. Professional learning in designing quality assessments and consistent teacher judgement within the school and across schools will be a focus. A greater understanding of stage expected outcomes in literacy and numeracy will support planning and data analysis. PLPs will continue to be used for each student to promote growth and self-directed learning with structures put in place to support students with additional needs.

Draft Strategic Direction 1: Student Growth and Attainment

Consideration 2

The wellbeing and engagement of our students remains a priority. This will be a strategic direction as a reflection of the school’s work in this area. Tell them from me will provide an ongoing data set pertaining to student voice and community perceptions and expectations around wellbeing and engagement. Underpinning our next steps will be the analysis of the Wellbeing Framework self-assessment tool.

The implementation of quality communication structures will provide both qualitative and quantitative data on student and parent engagement.

Draft Strategic Direction 2: Wellbeing and Engagement

Consideration 3

External validation highlighted that planning, programming, assessment and data use in teaching are areas of focus. As the school staff attempt to teach across K-6 in one classroom it is evident that the school’s curriculum provision and evidence-based teaching practices do not always provide a high expectations framework within which all students effectively develop their knowledge, understanding and skills. Continual monitoring of student performance data will determine areas of need and success at an individual and whole school level, especially in our target areas of reading and numeracy.

We need to develop systems to monitor and review our curriculum provision to meet changing requirements of the students. Teaching and learning programs are showing some improvement with the change to online visible programming. The area to next develop is ensuring these teaching and learning programs meet all requirements of the Department of Education and the NSW Education Standards Authority including describing expected student progression in knowledge, understanding and skill and the assessments that measure them.

Draft Strategic Direction 3: Explicit teaching through evidence-based practices.

Draft strategic directions for community consultation