Grays Point Public School - "Our School in the Park"

Responses to Parent Satisfaction Survey 2008:

(Please read them in conjunction with the survey responses below.)

General Section:

Ø Discipline Policy- 82% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they understood the school discipline policy (Effective Discipline and Good Behaviour Policy) while 75% stated they were happy with it.

Ø Recognition and Reward Program-95% agree or strongly agree that they understand this program, 82% are happy with the program.

Ø 95% of students are happy to come to school each day.

Comments from this section recognised the following (numbers of comments in brackets):

Strengths:

Teachers and staff (35), supportive community (16), the size and lovely setting of the school (21), the variety of extra curricular activities available (12) and the environmental focus shown (8).

Weaknesses:

Bullying (4), not enough playground supervision (3), class sizes too big (3), lack of cultural diversity (2), rewarding good behaviour in problem children (2), limited sports variety in non-PSSA (2) and swearing/bullying form Yr 6 boys (1).

Response to weaknesses:

Although staff supervision levels are in accordance with DET guidelines, we are aware that this is not always sufficient for preventing incidents from occurring on the playground. We are taking the following actions to prevent bullying and increase safety of our students:

Our comprehensive anti-bullying program will continue with the addition of a Positive Wellbeing Project in 2009.

Playground Post will continue being operated by Year 6 students.

We plan on installing a student commendation box for exemplary playground behaviour which will be linked to our general reward and recognition program.

Changes to our merit system whereby students will no longer carry over merits from the previous year, but will begin working towards them fresh each year.

We will be working with other local schools on a Student Positive Wellbeing project next year in relation to resilience and values.

Exploring ways for students to better identify the teacher on duty.

Broader School Response: we have already reviewed the place of the Gold Badge in our award system and have decided to drop this level for 2009. All students from K-Year 6 will begin the year on green level and work their way through the class award system reaching until they achieve enough to receive a merit card. Three merit cards and they receive a Gold Award, two Gold Awards and they receive a Principal’s Award. Students who misbehave will have appropriate consequences. A revised flow chart will be produced for parents and students in 2009 to make this clear to all.

Curriculum Section:

89% of respondents felt that the school delivers quality literacy and numeracy programs with 7 % disagreeing literacy and 2% disagreeing numeracy. 77% agreed that we have the right amount of emphasis on technology based learning, with 18% not knowing. 83% agreed we have the right amount of emphasis on the arts while only 65% agreed that we have the right amount on science and 17% disagreed, with a further 18% not knowing.

87% of respondents agreed that the school provides adequate opportunities in sport.

86% agreed that we had the right amount of emphasis on civics and citizenship (values etc) with 4% disagreeing and 11% not sure.

Comments:

The school has a yearly plan which focuses on school improvement in student learning outcomes in the core areas of literacy and numeracy. We have set targets to improve our literacy and numeracy results in both the short and long terms through action projects, professional development, mentor programs, improved assessment tools and improved timetabling and programming.

We will continue all of our arts and sports programs in 2009 with some minor changes- we will have some different sports available for PSSA and hockey will be offered in term one and term 4 as a sport option (non PSSA).

Homework-

Staff feel homework in an essential part of the school program and in the senior years it is used to assist students in preparing for the transition to high school. In junior and middle years the homework consists of lots of reading practice, spelling, learning basic number and other mathematical concepts, writing and some projects. Homework that is assigned prior to holidays is to allow families the opportunity to investigate or visit a museum etc in support of learning about the project item, not to impose work over a break period. In all cases, sufficient time is provided after the holiday for students to complete the project without needing to use the holiday period. Most homework will cover topics that the student has learnt in class; however it is appropriate at times to provide ‘new, unseen’ homework to challenge children’s thinking. Science is a part of the Science and Technology syllabus and as such is mandatory, we teach science either as a ‘stand alone subject’ or as part of our Connected Outcomes Group learning program. Homework will continue to be given as directed by the teacher; parents will be notified of homework procedures and expectations at the annual, ‘Meet the Teacher Evening early Term one.

Physical Environment:

89% agreed we have a safe and secure learning environment, 92 % are happy with classroom furniture, 90% are happy with the air conditioning levels at the school, 76% are happy with the level of teaching resources with 18% unhappy, 100% of respondents are happy with school library, with 82% happy with the computer room and 5% unhappy and 13% did not know, 61% of parents are happy with the hall with 35% unhappy and 2% not knowing, 80% happy with the canteen with 17 % unhappy and 4 % not knowing,62% happy with the toilets with 25% unhappy and 13% did not know,, 67% happy with the sports facilities 9% unhappy and 24% did not know, 99% were happy with the play equipment.

School Response-

Toilets will be looked at in 2009; we have flagged a possible Working Bee early to re-paint the senior and junior toilet blocks and to look at the cisterns. During 2008 we had a representative from Sydney Water do an audit and he found that we are using our water wisely and he has put forward a recommendation that toilets need to be upgraded at the government’s expense. The P&C has plans in place to refurbish the hall through the NSW Governments Joint Funding program; we were unsuccessful in 2008 but will resubmit this in 2009. This refurbishment also includes plans to relocate the canteen to a more central position within the school which if successful, will be a larger workspace.

We constantly speak to the cleaners and their supervisors about maintaining clean toilets.

We do not have the funds to be able to level out the basketball/netball area.

Communications:

82% felt that our current parent/teacher interviews were adequate with 17% disagreeing, 90% of parents felt comfortable approaching their child’s teacher outside of interview times with 4% feeling uncomfortable, 77% of parents are satisfied with their child’s academic progress16% unhappy and 4% not knowing,74% of parents were satisfied with the level of reporting on social development and behaviour with 18% unhappy and 4% not knowing, 68% of parents agreed that the school website provided them with relevant information with 2% disagreeing and 27% not knowing.

School Response-

School reports being unhelpful- the reports currently comply with both state and federal requirements and all staff are very happy with the depth of information reported especially from the semester two report. When taken as part of our schedule of reporting it gives a comprehensive picture of a student’s progress and areas for development. However, as in all years we will continue to investigate improved methods of reporting student achievement. ‘Effort’ continues to be a major part of the report with a comparable scale from 5-1 and reference to homework is included on the back page.

We have five planned opportunities for formal, across the school events for the exchange of information- meet the teacher, interviews, open classrooms to view students and work and two written reports per year. Along with this we have parent surveys for each student at the beginning of each year and the opportunity for all parents to regularly meet with their child’s teacher each term.

We have increased our posting of information and special notices on our website with plans to expand this even more next year. We plan to have some surveys available through the site and we are working on posting next year’s calendar of events, which is as accurate as is possible, as well as more student work.