February BOT meeting

St Dominic’s Catholic Primary School

Board of Trustees

February 2015 Meeting

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Strategic goals reported on from Strategic plan

Engaging Families/Whanau

Consult and make connections with our parish and local community to promote St Dominic’s Catholic Primary School and celebrate what makes our school the place it is.

·         Inserts into the parish newsletter when appropriate

Consultation meetings with all main Cultural groups within the school at least once a year.

·         Meeting with Pacifica group planned twice a term.

·         Will engage with Indian group From here a plan will be created that is run

·         Surveys and survey monkey will also be a voice in the process as per the consultation process.

Develop the Pastoral care group so that they support our families in need when needed.

·         Met with Pastoral care group last week.

·         Families continue to be tracked and support offered when needed.

·         We have supported two families with IT devices from the Joan Watt Support fund

·         We have a strong team in the pastoral care group and tis was discussed at Parish retreat last weekend.

Plan to organise at least 2 community events each year that encourages families coming together and socialising. (PTA support here)

·         Bowling Afternoon after mass. Building a sense of community with parents and parishioners.

·         Parent evening was well attended and feedback was positive about this evening.

Parent 3 way conferences coming up in two weeks.

Portals continue to be rolled out and parent are using this more and more.

Teaching

Develop and implement programmes that raises student abilities in literacy and numeracy.

·         Targets have been set up based on last year’s results

·         Rainbow reading is again up and running and is being rolled out to ESOL children to build reading awareness and to hear the written word. This is part of the programme that is run.

·         Classroom Special needs registers are all up to date and each classroom teacher has commented on their children and what they hope to achieve for them in regards their learning.

·         Mutukaroa across the junior school continues at least end of Term 1

·         ALIM in the Year 3 and 4 area http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/System-of-support

·         ALL in the Junior school

·         This year we continue the whole school focus on Numeracy. We are getting Numeracy professional development on this through the Ministry of Education. The professional development thus far has been very good. There is a real sense from the staff to focus on their Maths programmes and to improve their practice. Observations, modelling and self-reflection have all been and will be part of the PD. From this we have two staff that lead the staff through a Maths Plan.

The idea is that the support from MOE is withdrawn and the school can sustain the focus on Maths into 2016

Use integrated curriculum delivery, inquiry learning and the key competencies in our teaching and learning programmes.

·         Key competencies were unpacked as a whole staff. Use of vocab to be pushed this term with the introduction of our school’s curriculum.

·         We plan to review the new planning document at the end of Term 1 to see if it is working in regards highlighting the Key Competencies across the school.    New format Curriculum 18th Nov.docx

Develop further formative assessment practice and encourage students to personalise their learning.

·         Staff have chosen their goals for their personal reflection that build on previous years personal development.

·         Staff will be self-monitoring their own evidence gathering in relation to the teacher criteria.

·         Process for 2015 Final.docx

Report to parents on student achievement in relation to the national standards.

·         This will take place as Assessment timetable sets out

·         Parent portals are a centralised place where assessment data is kept and this is open to all parents across the school.

·         We also have a NZ National Standard information page on there for parents to better understand where their child sits in relation to the National Standards.

·         All data was shared at the en of the year at Praise givings

Student engagement and independence: student voice, goal setting and AKO concepts.

·         Goal setting takes place next week in the year 3-6 classrooms

·         AKO is a term that is becoming used on a daily basis in the classes with teachers and children learning together.

Develop a culture of learning where ICT is an everyday learning tool.

·         Room 8,9,10 is running well with Mr Williams leading the 3 classrooms.

·         The learning so far

ü  Most children prefer to work alongside each other while on them

ü  They prefer to not work at desks

ü  Writing is still taking place within the classroom, a record of the learning

ü  Total engagement from the children, girls and boys.

Using the tools is becoming the main driver for the staff. Jerremy is working with individual teachers to develop their understanding of these tools and how these relate to the classroom environment.

Develop and implement differentiated learning programmes to meet the needs of students across all learning areas.

·         Target groups have been set up within the classrooms for Maths, Writing and Reading

·         Assessment data has been used to set up groups within the classes.

·         We have the following programmed groups set up within the school

ü  Rainbow reading as part of the ESOL programme being run

ü  RTLB is currently working with 4 children.

ü  Special needs registers have been written for each class based on previous years notes from teachers.

ü  Maori and Pacifica students have also been highlighted within the classes.

Library has changed hands with Mrs Gosh taking on the challenge to lead this. She has had a day Professional development on the Oliver system and is organising the children into rosters etc.

School Catholic Culture

Reviewing the annual plan from previous year

·         Have yet to have a formal meeting with Oliver regarding this due to Baby

·         An action plan will be in place by the start of March.

·         This year the focus is Pastoral Care. What does our school acually do to support our school families?http://www.ero.govt.nz/Review-Process/Frameworks-and-Evaluation-Indicators-for-ERO-Reviews/Wellbeing-Indicators-for-Schools

Visually our school looks more Catholic using images and pictures

·         Murals will be looked at by a group of students

·         They are based on our special character.

·         Possible Mosaic idea to be run with

Professional development in this area is looked into and encouraged through the appraisal process.

·         Staff encouraged to attend strand meetings.

·         Making sure the staff have notice of these meetings

·         Each staff members needs to attend PD run through the CSO and Catholic institue

Key competencies are developed through the school values.

·         Work has been done in this area.

·         Merging the KC into the values using the following relationship

·         It is really important that we get the children to understand that the Values are for the heart and the KC are for the body.

·         Now after the start of school rush we can return to this focus and see what is happening in the classes.

·         Example of planning using KC

More student voice and action into all things Catholic at school

·         Disciples have been set and have been out on duty.

·         Disciples run the mentoring programme at school

·         Will oversee the sharing shed idea set up by the pastoral care group

All staff expected to attend 2 PD courses each year.

·         This will be talked about at staff meetings and DRS to ensure that information is getting out to staff in timely manner

Exchanges with other catholic schools for mass and sport exchange where our faith can be celebrated Catholic School’s Day

N/A

Teacher’s video practice and this is used to reflect upon. This will form part of teacher appraisal process.

·         Ongoing and as part of individual teachers evidence gathering

·          

Managing and Learning

Design and implement a school wide curriculum that meets the needs of NZC and our school community.

·         There has been huge movements in this area over the last three years with a move into integration. The idea of RE seamlessly fitting into all the other curriculum areas appeals however we have to be mindful that we don’t stop teaching the core objectives of the RE curriculum.

·         The new St Dominic’s Curriculum has been introduced however we need to go back to this to ensure that this is leading the schools drive.

Build a professional learning community that focuses on student learning as their core purpose. Share good practice.

·         The learning community continues to grow and teachers are fully committed to ensuring they too learn alongside the children. All decisions that are made at all levels within the school continue to focus on students and their learning needs.

·         Classroom teachers share ideas with others at team meetings. Planning takes place together and DP is fully informed of the classroom activities. Staff meetings are now being held every week and team meeting once every two weeks.

·         Teacher practice goals are based on aspects that will improve practice which of course will improve the learning for the children.

Provide professional development opportunities to support student achievement through improved understandings in Curriculum, Pedagogy, Literacy, Numeracy, Assessment, National Standards and E- Learning.

·         Mutokaroa project

·         Whole school Mathematical focus

·         Developing teacher practice as a cross over from 2015

·         Catholic strand meetings

·         ALiM

·         ALL

·         NZC support

·         Reciprocal teaching professional practice

Grow Great leaders. Build leadership capability of principal and teachers who hold positions of responsibility and leadership and also Student leaders.

·         Units have been assigned and leadership roles within the school continue to be promoted

·         Leadership in the school announced.

·         Units are in the following areas

A.      Arts

B.      Maths

C.      PE and health

D.     Senior leadership

E.      ICT

Provide a safe secure learning environment for our students.

·         Emergency procedures in place

·         All staff have signed the health and safety check list

·         Building warrant of fitness up to date

·         Risks continue to be feedback to senior team and then on to Caretaker to be actioned.

·         Current areas of concern

ü  Junior playground

All work that is happening around the school for SNUP and the work re corridor has been covered through safety meetings and I get weekly updates about this.

Governing

Enrolment and Office procedures - monitor the enrolment procedures

·         This is working well

Promote high levels of staff performance. Revised registered teachers dimensions, use of the appraisal connector over the next three years.

·         This has been set up and all teacher having to come up with 3 gaols based on IT, Teacher practice and Maths

·         This will then lead into formal observations and reflection through evidence gathering

·         All part of the teacher inquiry model and building teacher capability.

Continue to upgrade the school grounds, ensure the property is able to meet the needs of a 21st Century education, continue environmental education

Need work on the following areas.

·         Junior playground needs re surfacing Safety concern

·         Courtyard painting for games

·         Ninja warrior course

Monitor school budget to ensure purchasing is strategic.

·         Business as usual

Ensure there is a planned cycle of review and self-review in the school.

·         New format rolled out that is simpler and easy to follow BoT  Self Review 2015.docx

Staff feedback at BOT meetings leading the reports in their areas

·         Staff yet to be set up for this however they are very keen to get this off the ground.

Current school roll 220

Education counts website Trends

Ethnic make up

·         Europeans   %

·         Maori  %

·         Pasifica (Samoan, Tongan, Nuie, Fijian)   %

·         Indian   %

·         Chinese  3%

·         Filipino   %

·         Other (Australian, Afican, Latin American, Middle East, Sri Lankan, South Asia)   %

Points to discuss

·         SNUP up date

·         I to I device roll out

·         Junior school IT devices

·         New teaching staff

·         IES up date

·         Stand down process taken

This year see the school fair taking place and this has already been discussed at PTA level. They have made this their focus this year with all planning and organisation concentrated on this. 6th November

They will still run the school events however meeting will mainly be focused on fair organisation.

Parish council met and planned their short and long term goals. Was great to be part of this and the school was highlighted as an significant part of the future for the parish.

Aspects like youth group were discussed and providing more opportunities for families to engage socially were brought up.

This is something that the pastoral care group want to push as well.