Nhamirri walal,
In Week Two we had our School Review. These occur every 4 years, usually at the end of the school’s 4 yearly planning cycle. School reviews are an important part of how the department supports and assures the quality of educational delivery to students. In collaboration with staff and the school community, principals use the findings from the review to inform plans for the next stage of the school’s improvement journey
A team of reviewers visited NPS from Monday to Thursday, where they interviewed 20% of our students, our School Council and as many parents as they could. In addition to this, they talked to all NPS staff for 30 minutes 1:1. It was a very busy week!
The School Improvement Tool (SIT) is the framework reviewers use to rate schools from Low to Outstanding.
The 9 Domains are
1. Driving an explicit improvement agenda
2. Analysing and discussing data
3. Promoting a culture of learning
4. Targeting school resources
5. Building an expert teaching team
6. Leading systematic curriculum implementation
7. Differentiating teaching and learning
8. Implementing effective pedagogical practices
9. Building school-community partnerships
Low = no evidence
Medium = some evidence
High = mostly happening
Outstanding = everyone saying the same thing and evidence it is happening all the time (only 3% of the schools reviewed across the world sit here)
On Thursday afternoon, the lead reviewer (having completed over 500 School Reviews) shared the outcome of the school review with our staff. We scored ‘High’ in all 9 domains with shading in ‘Outstanding’ as well! The lead reviewer acknowledged they had never seen results as strong in some of the domains before.
Outstanding shading included:
- Student voice is actively sought and acted upon and the school values and celebrates a wide range of students’ successes.
- There is a happy, optimistic feel to the school and all school community members express a strong sense of belonging and pride.
- Targeted resourcing enables equitable access to learning for all students. Systematic early identification of students requiring additional support drives flexible resource allocations.
- The school leadership team is driving an explicit and detailed school improvement agenda. The improvement agenda is sharp and narrow, and focuses the whole school’s attention on improving student outcomes.
- Improvement plans are based on systematic analyses of a range of relevant evidence, including student engagement and wellbeing. The school sets challenging, yet achievable, measurable improvement goals and targets with accompanying timelines that are rigorously actioned.
The feedback about you (our families), our school, our kids, our staff and our students was so complementary. They left NPS blown away!
Here is the summary I sent to our teachers after the lead reviewer spoke to them:
You may have heard the lead reviewer mention that ‘Commendations’ recognise the work that the school is doing that is considered best practice. This is the stuff that ACER recommends other schools should observe and learn from. Review Reports generally include 5 Commendations - we got 15!
Some of the comments made by the lead reviewer as they unpacked our report that stood out to me included:
· People always tell you at a school review that they care about students and want them to be successful. I can honestly say that every interaction and observation we had of every member of the school (all staff, students, families and community members) left us knowing without a doubt that the staff at Nhulunbuy Primary School truly believe this and live this out every day.
· Student Voice and Agency at NPS is the best example I have seen in any school I have ever been to.
· I have never reviewed a school where all shading in Domain 2 – ‘Analysing and Discussing Data’ scores all in the High domain.
· Everyone in this school works incredibly hard. They know what the explicit agenda is, and every member (staff, families, students and community partners) recognises they are a crucial contributor. People take pride in their school and the work they are doing.
· Your PLTs don’t just work together. They support, learn and care for each other.
· Your staff are a group of people who care about each other and know that the work they are doing is important. There is a great positive vibe. They know they are changing lives.
Our staff were excited to hear that their hard work, care, and persistence has been recognised by external reviewers and the students were equally as chuffed. Our school council are also understandably delighted with the outcome and are keen to celebrate these results with the community. Once we receive the final report, we will share some of the highlights more widely!
This Friday is our whole school Cross Country event and I hope to see you there!
Kind regards,
Rachel Blundell
Principal
