2012 Annual School Report - Gordon West Public School

This communication forum is invaluable and the school
and P&C cordially encourage all school parents to attend
these monthly meetings.
To the question “What is the school doing well?” the school
received 71 responses. It was pleasing to read the wide
ranging, supportive comments expressed by the school
community. An overwhelming number of these responses
noted the approachable, caring atmosphere created at Gordon
West and the strong commitment of the teaching staff
to providing consistent, high quality teaching and learning
programs in a happy, nurturing environment. Comments
relating to positive aspects of the school also included the
sense of community, the promotion of citizenship both at
school and in the community, the encouragement of students
to achieve their personal best and to learn of respect
and self responsibility. A number of comments expressed
an appreciation of the clean, presentable, well resourced
facilities provided by the Gordon West with its well maintained
buildings and school grounds. Throughout 2012 the
school and DEC funded a number of maintenance projects
including a refurbishment of the school hall, building stairs
to the lower oval, painting exteriors of 2 buildings and resurfacing
the asphalt at the Kooyong Street access.
At Gordon West, we acknowledge that while we continue
to achieve success in a wide array of educational and community
endeavours, we recognise the need to continue to
improve all aspects of school management and aim to address
the concerns raised by the school community.
Future Directions
The evaluation of survey results identified certain areas for
future development including the need for the school to:
• provide greater assistance for students with disabilities
and additional learning and support needs
• provide a range of activities for students to extend their
learning
• continue to develop effective, efficient means of parent/
school communication
The school communications committee will follow up all
suggestions during 2013 and report their findings to the
school community.
along with the Literacy and Numeracy targets for 2012.
Kindergarten teachers involved in implementing the Literacy
– Language, Learning and Literacy (L3) initiative,
the Kindergarten classroom intervention program targeting
reading and writing, undertook extensive, comprehensive
training and professional development in 2012.
In 2013, The Australian Curriculum and Leadership to
enhance teacher quality and student learning outcomes,
school targets and priorities remain key focus areas for
professional development.
The budget for teacher professional learning in 2012 was
$19915.10. The increase from 2011’s budget was due primarily
to the funding of the Literacy – Language, Learning
and Literacy (L3) initiative.
School Development
2012-2014
Gordon West Public School continues to have a long term
strategic management plan with a 3 year horizon in addition
to shorter term strategic goals of a 1 year horizon.
The purpose of the Gordon West School Management
Plan is to:
• develop efficient and effective administrative and organisation
policies;
• develop educative policies to support relevant and challenging
learning programs;
• monitor and upgrade resources to support teaching/
learning programs;
• promote professional growth and development of all
teaching staff K-6;
• monitor and reflect on changing trends in education and
adjust planning accordingly; and
• provide for longer term school strategic direction. (3 year
horizon 2012- 2014)
Longer term school strategic directions are closely aligned
with school targets through identified needs based on
analysis of student performance and evaluations in consultation
with the School Self Evaluation Committee.
Professional Learning
To ensure continual professional growth, all teachers participated
in training and development based on their individual
needs, as well as school and systemic priorities.
Individual plans for training and development are negotiated
with supervisors each year as part of the TARS program,
the annual review of the performance and development
of teachers.
In 2012 a school priority was to further improve individual
Professional Learning Plans. Through conferences between
teacher and the principal or supervisor, the observation
of educational programs and the review of documentation
such as lesson planning, lesson material and student
work, plans, evaluations and reports teacher quality and
student learning outcomes in our school have been enhanced.
The areas of Quality Teaching and Differentiated Learning
were the focus of K-6 staff professional development
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