NSW Department of Education & Training 2009 Annual School ReportComboyne Public School

NSW Public Schools – Leading the way

Our school at a glance

StudentsIn 2009, the students at Comboyne Public School continued to enjoy caring and dedicated teachers working in partnership with families to support learning. The students contributed to the positive atmosphere many visitors to the school commented about.

StaffOur staff enjoyed a cohesive working relationship and operated as an effective team to support student learning and welfare and to administer the school. We appreciated the positive relationships amongst the whole school community. Our learning team also included staff from the Bago community of schools group and the Hastings Small Schools community of schools.

All teaching staff met the professional requirements for teaching in NSW public schools.

Significant programs and initiativesThe school was proud of its achievements in initiating and further developing many highly engaging learning programs. They included; public speaking, technology skills, combining all the small schools in a major excursion, initiating the mathematical literacy in problem solving project, developing resources and programs in reading and writing, strengthening the Bago community of schools network and transition to high school program, developing the outdoor education program, major improvements to sporting facilities and shelter and establishing strong values and knowledge in environmental education.

Messages

Principal's messageComboyne Public School is an innovative school which actively seeks out positive educational opportunities for the students from a wide variety of sources. The school has a strong practice of assessing student work and evaluating programs in literacy and numeracy in order to maintain strengths and address areas of need.

Our P&C is very supportive and involved. Inclusiveness is an essential feature of this rural school. The Comboyne community became more engaged in the school in 2009.

Comboyne has excellent playgrounds and equipment, well maintained buildings, gardens, chook run and orchard, all within the striking rural

2

Comboyne setting. It has a strong environmental policy and on-going commitment to being a sustainable school.

I enjoyed the satisfaction that we successfully achieved most of what we set out to do in 2009 making Comboyne Public School an even more enjoyable and engaging place to Grow, Share, Learn and Care.

I certify that the information in this report is the result of a rigorous school self-evaluation process and is a balanced and genuine account of the school's achievements and areas for development.

Mrs Marion Ricketts

Winner of Early Stage 1 Public Speaking Contest

P&C message2009 was once again a successful year for the Comboyne P & C Association with new members welcomed.

Our activities included raffles, Mothers and Fathers Day stalls and the Annual Garden Walk. Monies generated from fundraising were used to purchase fresh sand for the students’ sandpit, contributed to the cost involved in sending our Year 6 students to a leadership conference in Coffs Harbour, bus hire for excursions, the Intensive Swimming program and funded the purchase of books for presentation night.

The P & C continued to oversee the operation of the school canteen, maintaining the emphasis of providing healthy food at a reasonable cost to the students.

Members of the P&C were once again very active in assisting the school with evaluation and organisation process.

Financially, we have ended the year with a healthy account balance of approximately $8,000. Special thanks must go to all members of the

Comboyne community for the contributions that helped to make 2009 such a fruitful year.

Mrs Annie Naselli

Student representative's messageStudent Representative Council was busy this year.

In April, Year 6 students went to Coffs Harbour to learn about being better leaders at the Impact Leadership Conference. The main message was that anyone can be a leader.

This year we continued our Cash for Cans collection. We won the $500 bonus in Terms 1 and 2 for collecting the most and also sold $1558.75 worth of recycled cans. We purchased soccer goals, shin pads, gymnastics equipment, tents and we plan to purchase bikes.

This year we supported Jump Rope for Heart and raised $512.25. We also raised $32 for our World Vision sponsored child.

The students’ school responsibilities were looking after the chooks, raising the flag, helping to run the library, keeping the sports equipment tidy in the sports shed and collecting notes. The kids at Comboyne enjoyed being responsible for all the jobs they did.

Amy-Louise McCormack

SRC organised a fair that included a jumping castle for the day to raise money fro the bush fire brigade in response the Victorian bush fire tragedy.

Soccer gala day

3

School context

Student informationIt is a requirement that the reporting of information for all students must be consistent with privacy and personal information policies.

Student enrolment profile

Enrolments

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009Year

Stud

ents

Male Female

Student attendance profile

Student attendance rates

0102030405060708090

100

2006 2007 2008 2009

Year

Atte

ndan

ce ra

te

School Region State

Management of non-attendance There were no non-attendance issues in 2009.

Class sizesIn March 2003 the Government announced its commitment to publish primary class sizes in annual school reports in order to provide parents with as much local information as possible.

The following table shows our class sizes as reported at the 2009 class size audit conducted on Wednesday 18 March 2009.

Roll Year Total Total in

Class per Year ClassYR 3-6 3 2 16YR 3-6 4 6 16YR 3-6 5 3 16YR 3-6 6 5 16YR K-2 1 4 10YR K-2 2 5 10YR K-2 K 1 10

Structure of classesComboyne Public School had one class of Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 students and one class of Stage 2 and 3 students.

Sorting and classifying at the surf camp.

Staff informationIt is a requirement that the reporting of information for all staff must be consistent with privacy and personal information policies.

Comboyne organised its staffing allocation into three positions over two classes; Teaching Principal, a full time classroom teacher and a part-time classroom teacher. There were no Indigenous people employed at our school.

Staff establishmentPosition NumberPrincipal 1.0Classroom Teachers 1.084Support Teacher Learning Assistance 0.1

Teacher Librarian 0.084Total 2.268

Teacher qualificationsAll teaching staff meet the professional requirements for teaching in NSW public schools.Qualifications % of staffDegree or Diploma 50Postgraduate

4

K/1/2 making salad for a shared lunch day.

Financial summaryThis summary covers funds for operating costs and does not involve expenditure areas such as permanent salaries, building and major maintenance.

In 2009 the school finances remained healthy. Reviews of the budget took place each term.

A full copy of the school's 2009 financial statement is tabled at the annual general meetings of the School Council and/or the parent body. Further details concerning the statement can be obtained by contacting the school.

School performance 2009

Achievements

ArtsThe whole-school approach to creative arts was expanded in 2009. Mrs Ricketts developed the teaching and learning program in visual arts as part of the release-from-face-to-face timetabling. A valuable opportunity for a wider audience was found with student work being displayed in the local shop as well as in the Village Fair and Comboyne Show art exhibitions.

Work developed as part of the Indonesia in the Bush project was displayed in the Regional Art Gallery in Port Macquarie.

Music, dance and drama were integrated into classroom programs. Students developed a shadow puppet play for the Indonesia unit and a Four Seasons dance for the unit on weather and performed them at assembly. Our students developed a play to perform in the Glasshouse in Term 2.

Sport and Outdoor EducationActive After School Sports (AASS) was well supported in 2009 with the majority of students participating in table tennis and gymnastics in Term 1, hip-hop dance and tennis in Term 2, table tennis and Australian Football League (AFL) in Term 3 and swimming and hockey in Term 4. We received additional funding to supplement the cost of transporting the students to Kendall for swimming.

Soccer Gala Day

Small schools combined sports continued in 2009 with swimming and athletics carnivals and also with the annual soccer gala day. Comboyne participated with Byabarra, Huntingdon, Long Flat, Heron’s Creek and Rolland’s Plains Public Schools. Distance Education students also participated in these carnivals.

The school bike day road ride was again very successful.

5

Quality teaching in PE and sport was continued with an emphasis on more student involvement in creating their own directions and challenges.

Swimming skills continued to improve as a result of holding swimming for sport in Term 4 as well as a two week course in intensive swimming instruction.

A great deal of new equipment was purchased through various funding sources. The new sports court constructed under the Building the Education Revolution program was completed in December.

In November, students participated in the annual family overnight camp. In 2009 the camp took place at Diamond Head and included marine and National Parks education as well as surfing coaching. The new direction was an outstanding success.

Surf Camp

Community ProjectsThe students contributed to the Village Fair by creating telescope sculptures.

The school participated in the ANZAC day march and several students spoke in the commemoration ceremony.

School equipment was loaned to several community organisations and individuals.

A relationship with the Comboyne Tennis Club was established and local club members coached students for sport and trained as AASS coaches.

On Seniors Day, a large group of Comboyne residents joined the students for the day to share in reading activities and to learn about the technology resources in the school.

For Literacy and Numeracy Week, we invited parents to work with staff and students to create a book of stories entitled, “A Rainy Day in Comboyne”.

The school became part of the Comboyne Sustainable Community Project which was established in December.

Academic All students improved their understanding of analysing maths problems using Newman’s Analysis. Data showing comparative results will be available next year.

All Stage 3 students participated in Maths Olympiad with one student gaining second place in our small schools group.

Spelling testing showed the great majority of students’ spelling age was above their chronological age.

Nelson benchmarking in reading showed all students making steady progress and all students’ reading age was above their chronological age in Years 1 to 6. Ability to decode text at a level far beyond their experience or understanding became a problem for many Year 2 and 3 students. Plans to raise student understanding of more complex texts were put into place.

NAPLAN In NAPLAN, low student numbers in Years 3 and 5 prevent reporting in skill bands and prevent making comparisons to minimum standards as student confidentiality would be compromised.

Significant programs and initiatives

Multicultural educationThe Principal attended the Leading the 21st

Century Schools: Engage with Asia forum in Canberra in August to find ways we could address the difficulty we had been experiencing with delivering multi-cultural education in a rural setting. Comboyne Public School was successful in its application in the above training and development project and will commence work early in 2010. The project will develop a program to integrate Asia Education across different areas of the curriculum.

Indonesia in the Bush.

Aboriginal education

6

The project described above will also develop integration of Aboriginal Education across the curriculum.

Respect and responsibilityOur school discipline policy incorporating the five fair rules had a strong focus on respect and responsibility for ourselves and for each other.

Other programsThe school continued its public speaking program with a large percentage of families attending to listen to Kindergarten to Year 6 students presenting their speeches on school speech night in Term 3. The evening was supported by APEX. One student went on to compete in the APEX Public Speaking Contest in Wauchope and was successful in winning first prize. Individual students also participated in the small schools multi-cultural speech contest.

Teachers and students were excited about the interactive whiteboards (IWB) installed in both classrooms. Development of skills and knowledge about how to fully use this resource as a teaching and learning tool continued throughout the year in the form of teacher professional learning courses, purchase of new resources, and integration of IWB use across all areas of the curriculum.

Seven students from Years 4 to 6 participated in an excursion to Dubbo in Term 3. The Hastings small schools became a combined group for major excursions.

The Hastings small schools network developed a program aimed at increasing student outcomes in receptive and expressive language of maths for problem solving. This was developed at Comboyne and was well received by all staff across all schools. It was extended into Stage 4 at Wauchope High School. It was funded by the Southern networks professional learning group.

The Bago Community of Schools including Comboyne, Byabarra, Huntingdon, Long Flat, Rollands Plains and Wauchope Public Schools and Wauchope High School have formed to work together more closely as a professional learning group. Projects this year included The Resilience Doughnut, a more comprehensive transition to Year 7 program and forming professional learning links between primary schools and high school faculties.

The School Environmental Management Policy was further developed, with the school garden producing vegetables, the chook farm growing, recycling bins established and, due to outstanding community support, Cash for Cans winning the

most cans collected bonus every term. We were successful in our application for funding for a kitchen permaculture garden Eco Schools grant from the NSW Environmental trust. Work will begin early in 2010. We were accepted for the National Solar Schools Program and an application for funding to have solar panels installed to power the school has been developed.

Jump Rope for Heart

Progress on 2009 targets

Target 1Move student results above state average in 3D, whole numbers and fractions and decimals by 2009 NAPLAN.Our achievements included:

Realisation that 2009 NAPLAN results were an unsuitable measure of achievement due to the low statistical average.

Most Year 2 students achieved Stage 1 outcomes by the end of 2009.

Student recording of Newman’s Analysis for solving mathematical word problems showed most of Stage 3 students had achieved independence and most of Stage 2 students were expressing verbal understanding. Year 2 students were all expressing a good level of analytical and mathematical verbal language and Year 1 students understood the process of analysing. This shows our goal of a 50% increase in the level of expressive language in mathematics was achieved.

Questacon Maths day

Target 2

7

Increase 2008 Year 3 students’ achievement by at least two bands in reading and writing by 2010.

Our achievements included:

Teachers expressed satisfaction in teaching, learning and achievement for whole school narrative writing lessons. Narrative writing assessment results show little increase in skills over most criteria, however, the space in time between 2008 results, 2009 programs being put in place and 2009 testing was too short to be conclusive.

Students showed a growing degree of independence and progress using explicit criteria in the areas of narrative writing that had been identified as needing strengthening.

In reading and writing, this group of students moved towards the criteria for higher bands and can be expected to reach at least Band 6 in 2010 NAPLAN, particularly in reading.

A community reading support was established on Seniors Day, but did not translate into a regular commitment. However, other community members became reliable contributors to the reading program.

Target 3

Increase whole school and community engagement in developing a school culture of environmental sustainability by end of Semester Two 2009.Our achievements included:

The school environmental management plans were dramatically changed because of the BER construction of the sports court and new lunch area. The project was signed off as completed in December.

The canteen menu did not show a 50% increase in foods produced by student enterprise projects by the end of Term 4 due to the BER project installation. Our application for an Eco Schools grant to establish a kitchen garden was successful. In addition, a partnership project with Wauchope High School to landscape and prepare the new vegetable gardens was established.

We grew vegetables over Terms 2 and 3 due to a Seeding Our Future grant from Port Macquarie Hastings Council and received publicity in two newspapers. The students discovered the taste of raw vegetables picked and eaten immediately and are keen to continue the project.

The students developed sustainable living values during our Term 3 recycling unit of work. They established a workable recycling system.

Our application for solar schools was prepared for submission in mid 2010.

Key evaluations

Educational and management practiceIt is a requirement for all NSW public schools to conduct at least two annual evaluations – one related to educational and management practice and the other related to curriculum. In 2009 our school carried out evaluations of planning practices and quality teaching in mathematics.

Planning

BackgroundMany planning processes are strongly in place, but a structured process for review is needed.

A parent and staff survey about planning was conducted. There were 10 responses.

Findings and conclusions

The first three questions were about school purpose. 10% didn’t know but 80% agreed that the school’s statement of purpose involved all stakeholders, was responsive to changing needs and guided school activity. However, the Principal thought it was too general, hadn’t been developed with the schools current stakeholders and didn’t reflect the changes brought about over the last five years.

The next two questions were about targets. 100% agreed that school targets were about improving students outcomes and were identified through planned evaluation.

The following three questions were about documentation and planning processes. 100% agreed the school implemented a comprehensive management plan and was responsive to changing needs. The Principal made a note that the stakeholders should be more involved.

The last question was about the process of allocating resources. !00% agreed the processes are open and understood. The

8

Principal thought the processes need to be more clearly stated in policy.

The survey showed that the school has well structured and open processes for planning, but that more involvement by the whole school community and review processes were needed. The Principal thought that while her vision to lead the school forward was generally understood, it wasn’t well communicated. The school statement of purpose was written many years ago and although it was reviewed five years ago, it didn’t adequately reflect where we wanted to take the school in today’s context.

Future directions

The Principal will draft a policy outlining the current planning processes that includes writing the school plan, school evaluation, classroom programming, policy planning, teacher professional learning, and the budget planning and review process.

A staff meeting, a P&C meeting and a SRC meeting early in the year would involve reviewing a draft school policy on planning and developing a statement of purpose. The school evaluation committee will finalise the document.

CurriculumMathematics – Teaching

Questacon Maths Day

BackgroundThe teaching staff have been working individually on improving the teaching and learning in mathematics. The staff decided they wanted to consolidate and improve classroom practice using a whole school approach.

The following statements were discussed at a staff meeting with a view to evaluate what we do and what needs improving.

Findings and conclusions

‘A variety of teaching strategies is evident in maths lessons.’

Students were engaged in well structured lessons that used a variety of strategies and addressed many learning styles. More opportunities were needed to practise and retain concepts and more opportunities to verbalise understanding were needed.

‘Intended outcomes and the purpose of learning experiences are clarified with students.’

While teachers were aware of the purpose of learning experiences and sometimes talked about what we were going to do, statements to students clarifying expectations and goals needed to be part of every lesson.

‘Students are supported in perusing self-directed learning.’

This was not a common practice in maths lessons.

‘Expectations of individuals are understood and promote excellence.’

While class and individual expectations were generally understood, it was not made clear in an explicit and planned manner.

‘Student success is recognised, shared, valued and built into further learning.’

Verbal praise was constant in classrooms, bookwork was acknowledged with stickers and lucky dip rewards were sporadically given. Individual students were awarded with certificates in assembly, but not often for maths. There was no planned process to recognise student success and build it into further learning.

‘Students have input into the learning and teaching process.’

The Stage Two and Three class engaged in peer teaching.

‘Learning opportunities are provided within a stimulating and secure environment.’

A variety of materials were used in the teaching and learning of mathematics and technology is used for both teaching and practise of concepts. The school discipline policy works well in the classroom to provide all students with a secure learning place.

‘Teaching practice is supported by critical reflection and understanding of effective practice and current research.’

9

Teachers often engage in informal discussion and sharing of successes, problems and known strategies to overcome them. We led a self nominated project using Newman’s analysis to improve receptive and expressive language in maths problem solving. We often used Internet search engines to research strategies. Our part-time teacher in the ES1/Stage 1 class engaged in Count Me In Too online training and Best Start teaching strategies. We discovered the Kagan structures method of cooperative learning in Term 4.

‘Appropriate periods of time are allocated to each unit of work.’

Stage 2 and 3 needed a great deal of revision to retain understanding, so lessons were structured to accommodate this need. Stage 1 needed more time spent on understanding new concepts and units of work usually covered three lessons. More engaging review strategies needed to be included for both classes.

‘Students learn with, about and through the use of relevant technologies.’

Use of technology was included as an important learning tool throughout maths teaching and learning.

‘Mandatory policies and cross-curriculum issues are incorporated into lessons.’

Syllabus content was followed closely. Teachers needed to cross check semester assessment tasks that all the content has been adequately covered as following the text book structure sometimes left gaps. Maths was addressed in other curriculum areas on a piecemeal basis.

Future directions

Develop the Kagan structure strategies to give meaningful opportunities for students to verbalise and practise understandings.

Give teachers opportunities to develop the use of the structures in Notebook on the IWB.

Use Rainforest Maths for demonstration as well as practise.

Discuss and roleplay different ways of making clear statements of intent for the start of each maths lesson and build it into programming until it becomes an automatic process.

Purchase iMaths texts and build investigation tasks into each unit of work using Kagan structures.

Develop a school policy on work presentation and strategies to improve expectations and

responsibility for individual learning. Introduce award systems that state when individuals and groups have demonstrated they have reached expectations.

Give students the opportunity to decide what they could do to reach a goal or practice a skill. Introduce Silly Sports and Goofy Games as mid or between lesson breaks and have students choose the game.

Build quizzes and drills into each unit of work.

Restructure programming for ES1/S1 so it uses a greater variety of practice opportunities to consolidate understanding.

Develop a formal registration of indicators covered and a record of student achievement.

Other evaluationsAsia Education

BackgroundIn August, the Principal attended a conference Leading 21st Century Schools – Engage With Asia and realised the high importance of the need for our students to be Asia literate. Discussions with staff and the evaluation committee followed.

Findings and conclusions

The staff, P&C and evaluation committee supports the concept of integrating education about Asia across the curriculum.

Collection of some resources to support learning programs has begun.

Local community members from Thailand are available to assist with programs.

The school has few resources or personal knowledge about Asia and needs a great deal of assistance to develop this program.

Future directions

Develop an action research project to develop curriculum as our Leading the 21st Century Schools project in 2010.

Contact the Thai community in Comboyne to discuss how we can work together with special projects such as Yoga and as a resources integrating Asia across the curriculum.

Create a data base of people who have lived and travelled in Asia and who would be willing to share their knowledge and experience.

10

Access the district resources at Byabarra.

Dedicate part of the curriculum planning day to integration of Asia Education into the topic.

Parent, student, and teacher satisfactionIn 2009 the school sought the opinions of parents, students and teachers about the school through a survey. There were 22 responses with overwhelming over-all satisfaction with our school.

100% wanted students to get good results at school.

100% agreed teachers helped students get good results.

100% agreed students were expected to strive for the best they can do, although 1 student didn’t know.

80% agreed the work done at school challenged the students in a positive way. 1 student disagreed; 2 students and 1 parent didn’t know.

100% valued the students, staff and parents, although 1 student thought they didn’t value other students.

100% agreed the school praises and rewards students.

100% agreed the parents and community members are involved in helping to educate the students, however 2 parents commented that not all parents were involved.

100% supported and enjoyed the learning programs.

100% agreed the principal had a positive influence in the school.

95% agreed the Five Fair Rules policy treats everyone fairly. 1 student disagreed.

80% agreed bullying is dealt with fairly and quickly. 2 students disagreed and 2 parents didn’t know.

Professional learningThe majority of the professional learning budget was spent on developing literacy and quality teaching. Classroom teachers engaged in two planning and development days per term. Another day to release teachers from class for developing quality teaching practices and resources was implemented each term. This also included our part time teacher.

The principal attended Primary Principal Association meetings and North Coast network conferences each term.

The principal was secretary to the Hastings Small Schools network group and led professional learning about using Newman’s analysis as a tool to improve student outcomes in the language of mathematical problem solving.

The principal engaged in Student Based Student Reporting, child protection and Best Start updates.

The Senior Administration Manager (SAM) engaged in Enrolment and Registration Number (ERN) training.

The principal, classroom teacher and SAM updated their Senior First Aid certificate.

The classroom teacher and SLSO attended a course about autism behaviour management.

The principal attended a course about mathematical problem solving.

All staff engaged in Kagan Australia teacher professional learning about cooperative learning skills. This training will be adopted comprehensively into classrooms in 2010.

All staff took part in The Resilience Doughnut training as part of the Bago Community of Schools School Development Day at the start of Term 2.

Teachers engaged in training to learn the basics of the IWBs and also in using technology in reading and writing.

The principal attended a course to learn about Wiki websites.

School development 2009 – 2011The school has three priority areas to develop over the next three years. They are:

Develop receptive and expressive fluency in the language of mathematics problem solving.

Move all students to higher bands in reading and writing in NAPLAN.

Engage the school and wider community in becoming an environmentally progressive, self-sustaining school.

Targets for 2010To achieve these long term goals we aim to accomplish the following short term targets for 2010.

Target 1Move Stage 2/3 Newman’s analysis maths problem solving project results from ‘basic and sound’ to ‘high and outstanding’ in all steps of the analysis in the criteria.

11

Strategies to achieve this target include:

Improving student skills in reading and understanding problems by developing iMaths investigations as an additional strategy in student directed learning and engagement, and also integrating explicit teaching of the investigative processes in order to move students to independence.

Improving skills in identifying appropriate strategies to solve problems by developing staff and students’ practice of Kagan structures and by video conferencing with other schools in the project through Connected Classrooms.

Engaging in professional sharing of maths successes, strategies, resources and trouble shooting as a regular part of staff meetings, particularly in reference to Kagan methods as well as engaging in discussion about statements of intent and expectation at the beginning of lessons.

Engaging in professional learning in ICT to enhance the teaching of numeracy.

Our success will be measured by:

On the Newman’s rubic, all Stage 2/3 students will be able to identify and mark most key information in problems, identify and paraphrase what the questions asking to a high level, identify and clearly express an appropriate strategy to solve the problem, clearly express the working process and obtain a correct answer and correctly record and clearly justify their answer.

Seniors Day

Target 2Increase narrative writing average criteria benchmarks from Stage 1 and 2 levels to Stage 2 and 3 levels and above.

Strategies to achieve this target include:

Developing resources to take the large group of students skilled in decoding, but with poor comprehension skills to higher bands in NAPLAN. Purchasing sets of four copies of high literary merit titles and developing a variety of ways for students to verbalise understandings using Kagan strategies.

Adding to the “Reading Box’ resources.

Continuing to use IWB resources for interpretive comprehension, particularly to develop skills in comparative analysis of texts.

Developing more comprehensive collaborative planning of programming in guided reading in K/1/2.

Continuing to assess narrative writing skills at the beginning of each term using the criterion marking manual. Designing and using a formal recording system for monitoring.

Increasing library resources for senior and junior fiction to include high level complex texts. Researching titles at Port Macquarie library. Making a library display of highly recommended books.

Reintroducing teacher reading after book exchange time using high level complex texts.

Extending resources for focussed narrative writing in Terms 1 and 2 to include; a professional author working with a small group of talented students to publish a book; Kindergarten intensive writing; Stage 1 intensive narrative writing based on high quality narrative texts; and the remaining group to engage in explicit teaching of narrative writing skills.

12

In Term 3, taking small groups of students to address specific writing needs as part of the STLA program.

Purchasing “Spelling Conventions” as a student text, supported by a CD ROM for IWB teaching. Researching “Classroom Strategies for the Teaching of Spelling” document as part of the development of a whole school spelling program.

Working with the high school English faculty to develop strategies to develop student skills in spelling and reading across Stages 3 and 4.

Working with the Comboyne Community and the Pre-school to introduce a “Birth to Kindergarten” reading program.

Developing the Kindergarten and Year 1 Jolly Phonics program to include big book stories. Putting together a comprehensive schedule of teaching to match Jolly Phonics to Best Start.

Our success will be measured by:

Term 2 narrative writing criteria assessment showing increased planning structures and punctuation at and above stage levels across the whole school.

Term 3 narrative writing criteria assessment showing a high level of audience engagement and descriptive techniques across the whole school at and above stage levels.

By Term 3, Kindergarten students writing assisted page long, engaging, descriptive and well structured texts.

Year 3 and Year 5 students achieving at the high level bands in NAPLAN 2010 and 2011 in reading and writing.

Andrew Stoner presented the Eco Schools grant certificate to the 2010 school leaders.

About this reportIn preparing this report, the self-evaluation committee has gathered information from

evaluations conducted during the year and analysed other information about the school's practices and student learning outcomes. The school planning committee has determined targets for the school's future development.

Marion Ricketts - Principal

Pat Mumford - Classroom Teacher

Arlene Swan - P&C School Evaluation Committee representative

School contact informationComboyne Public School

11 Hill St, Comboyne

6550 4174

6550 4002

www.comboyne-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

1601Annual School Reports, how to interpret information in the reports and have the opportunity to provide feedback about these reports at:

http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/asr

End of year presentation night

13