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Last term our school community participated in the ‘Perspectives – your school in focus’ survey. Earlier this term the results were returned and over the past weeks a team of staff have been working through the data to looking closely at the wide range of feedback provided.
We received over 1000 responses from students, families, and staff with regard to questions designed to provide information about the 5 domain areas shown in the diagram below. I would like to thank everyone who participated as your responses help us in decision making for the benefit of our community.
From more than 200 parent responses, some of the most positive responses were in the dimensions of:
Digging further into the data and categorising the text responses has helped us in identify areas we can build greater capacity. It is encouraging that a number of these align with areas that we are already working in to see improvement. Parent responses clearly identified the challenges of the past years and the desire to be more closely connected and involved with school life (particularly in Prep – Year 2). It is great to be able to host parents at Primary assemblies and information seminars again, with more planned for the coming terms.
Effective communication is an aspect that is important to both families and the school. We are preparing for short- and long-term improvements in how school community members can access and provide information in ways that are helpful. This includes a new portal to help parents to access the information they need and streamlining communication for events and student absences.
While the open layout of the school environment is greatly appreciated by our community, a great deal of preparatory and current work is being carried out for facility modernisation. In the short term, we are looking forward to the installation of bus bay shelter and a progressive upgrade to the kindergarten playground. I am also looking forward to sharing some of our longer-term school development plans in the coming terms. As a reminder this is a great time to contribute to the school’s Building Fund (prior to the end of the financial year) as donations are tax deductible. Generous gifts to the fund help in the maintenance and modernisation of our school facilities.
Students raised respectful relationships as important to their school experience. I hold a similar desire to see our students engaging with one another and with staff with respect, building a strong sense of inclusion based on the intrinsic value of each individual as someone created by God. When a school has settled and respectful relationships, students feel more confident and comfortable to learn. Through our wellbeing working party, we have been working on a range of programs in both Primary and High School to provide frameworks to promote positive interactions between peers.
There is so much useful information in the Perspective survey data, and I have only just touched on some initial items in this newsletter. I look forward to sharing more in the coming terms and how we as a school, strive to transform lives by the proclamation of the gospel and the delivery of an excellent Christian education.
God bless,
Mr Keith McMullen
Principal