Getting Started

When the schools first amalgamated many administration procedures had to be changed to accommodate a single school system. These procedures have necessarily caused change and upheaval across the campuses.

The challenge was also for the staff, students and the school community of each campus to begin to feel as if they belonged to or had ownership of the new single school.

Planning

Activities that normally involved a single campus were consciously changed to include the other campuses wherever possible.

Examples of these —

• Athletic Carnivals now include Prep to Grade 6 children.
• Jump Rope fund- raising activities Prep — Grade 6
• Infant Dancing displays became displays from all the school community
• Kinder sports days involve combining children from each kinder campus

Other school activities were introduced across the grades. Examples of these —

• Classes were given opportunities to Buddy with classes from different campuses for shared reading, computer work or excursions. ( prep with grade 5 )
• Assemblies were also changed to include section groups e.g. one each of — Prep,1,2,3,4,5 & 6
• Student Mediators to work across both lower and upper school recess and lunchtime play areas.
• Peer Supports Programs in place between the Grade 2’s and Grade 5’s to help with the transition to the Upper Primary building the following year.
• Displays celebrating the children’s work — Howrah School’s Art Exhibition — Open for the whole community to share

Major Focus

Having set in place opportunities for the children to mix across the grades the next challenge was to have the staff feel more a part of a single unit.

To achieve this the staff need to collectively work toward the direction they wish the school to take with consultation with the school community.

For this direction the staff as a whole began looking at any areas of concern from staff members.

The first area of concern was lack of information being easily and quickly disseminated through out the whole school. This problem has been partially fixed by a daily newsletter to class teachers and students and this is to be made more efficient with the introduction of the intra-net in the school next year. Pathways have also been created to speed up solutions to day to day problems.

Another area of concern was the variety of reports given to parents between the grades and this has been refined to a single format by the whole staff. Discussion on ways of refining the information and streamlining the process will also be looked at for next year.

A major area of concern was the problems with behaviour and as an initial step Program Achieve is being introduced into the classes with both the Senior teacher and class teacher working side by side. This is to be developed further, with time allowed for all the staff for Professional development work on classroom activities for Bullying, Behaviour management and Social skill, at the commencement of school next year. The aim being for a consistent supportive approach for the whole school community.

Although staff are beginning to share ideas etc, we are now looking at implementing ways to give staff more opportunities to share and support each other across the grades.

Key Results

The challenge initially was to create a single school where all children, Kindergarten to Grade 6, Staff and Parents felt they were welcome and could become part of.

Having gone a long way to achieving our first challenge, our school is now working towards making our school more safe, supportive and nurturing of achievement for all the members of our school community.