Belmont High School Annual School Report - Millennium

Teachers decided to undertake further formaland informal professional development in theuse of learning matrix and learning contractsbased on Bloom's Taxonomy and MultipleIntelligences to address the learning styles andneeds of each student.Future DirectionsThe successful implementation of learningmatrix and learning contracts will focus onstudents in Years 7 to 11 learning higher orderthinking skills. Teachers aim to develop moreprograms in this style with an emphasis on thehigher order skills of analysis, creation andevaluation.Five more English teachers will undertake theformal component of training in the pedagogy.Parents will be more involved in the learningprocess as they are given detailed informationabout all learning activities and assessmentParent, student, and teachersatisfactionIn 2011 the school sought the opinions of parents,students and teachers about the school.Their responses are presented below.The school learning support team conducted asurvey addressing the satisfaction of the schoolcommunity with key areas of the schools welfaresystem. The survey was presented to staff, studentsand parents with approximately one third of theschool community responding to this voluntarysurvey.Key indicators of school satisfaction were that 76%of students, 82% of parents and 95% of staffrespondents indicated that they were proud toattend, be involved with or work at BHS. With 88%of student respondents agreeing that they believedtheir learning at BHS was preparing them with skillsnecessary for the world of work.When asked the three best things about BHS,students reported overwhelmingly the breadth ofsubject and curriculum choice, the variety ofextracurricular and sporting choice as well asfriendly, supportive teachers who are willing to helpthem learn.Parent responses indicated the quality of teachingstaff, improved communication systems such as theSMS notifications and parent portal as well asvariety of extracurricular programs as areas ofsuccess and thus satisfaction for parents of theschool.One area highlighted for further development as aresult of this survey was that students and parents52% and 63% respectively, believed that they wererewarded for positive behaviour and learning withinthe school. The school aims to provide a greaterlevel of positive feedback to students and parents.This has prompted the school to address this as anarea for future development with a new process forthe recording of positive feedback and a restructureof the rewards system to be implemented in 2012.Professional learningIn 2011 BHS spent $59587 on teacher professionallearning. These funds were to provide professionallearning opportunities to support beginningteachers, use of ICT, literacy and numeracy, qualityteaching, syllabus implementation, careerdevelopment and welfare and equity.School planning2012—2014The school planning policy provides direction forthe preparation and implementation of school plansincluding the identification of priority areas,intended outcomes and targets that are consistentwith the NSW State Plan and the Department’splanning documents.School priority 1Outcome for 2012–2014Improved student performance with an emphasison literacy and numeracy2012 Targets to achieve this outcome include:Increase in student achievements at or aboveexpected growth in NAPLAN from 54.37% to60% over three yearsIncrease by one per year the number of HSCcourses achieving above the state average.Strategies to achieve these targets include:NAPLAN sharing day with BLC schools toestablish key writing criteria across schools22