Conservatorium High School Annual School Report

2012

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Our school at a glance

Students Of the 155 students attending the school in 2012, 90 were in the junior school and 65 in the senior school. The student population was 52% male, 48% female, with over 54% of students from a non-English speaking background. This ethnic diversity reflects that of wider Sydney. The enthu-siasm, dedication, work ethic and capabilities of our students are reflected in their academic results and musical achievements.

Staff In 2012 the school had 29 staff, of whom six were executive staff and seven administrative staff. In addition to the music faculty, the school’s Principal and Deputy Principal also have post-graduate qualifications in music and actively par-ticipate in the music program. The school employed 135 tutors, drawn largely from the Sydney University’s Faculty of Music, to teach instrumental studies, musicology, composition and small and large performing ensembles.

All teaching staff meet the professional require-ments for teaching in NSW public schools.

Significant programs and initiatives As in previous years, the Conservatorium High continued to provide students with an extensive program of music-educational enrichment throughout 2012.

• Choral and Orchestral Program engages the entire school in an hour & a half of vocal work every week. Choral repertoire for all-of-school concerts is usually per-formed from memory.

• Chamber Music Program develops students’ ensemble skills through a wide variety of judiciously chosen, graded repertoire studied under the expert guidance of professional musicians.

• Ensembles Program affords students of orchestral instruments the opportunity to study and perform repertoire scored for medium-sized instrumental choirs.

• Sight-Reading and Accompaniment Program addresses the importance of all students acquiring functional keyboard skills.

• Performance Workshop Program com-bines performance, critical listening and instruction in aspects of performing-arts health care. It affords (mostly senior) students the opportunity of performing for their peers, developing style, critical and performance appraisal skills and appraisal and practising pre-concert positive thinking and relaxation techniques.

ILPs Individual (or Personalised) Learning Profile The individuality of Con High students is reflected not only in the musical personalities but also in their application and response to the demands of academic work. In order to better meet the learning needs of all its students the school compiles a portfolio from SMART data (an online tool for tracking and analysing NAPLAN results) the purpose of which is to identify areas of strength and weakness peculiar to each student. Year 9 and 10 students worked with Ms Laura Smith creating their own Individual Learning Profiles (ILPs). Students used their portfolio along with school reports and relevant non-academic evidence to formulate specific long- and short-term academic goals. Created using the SENTRAL

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program, students’ ILPs are accessible to teachers enabling them to contribute insights on student performance and to track their progress. Teachers were allocated time to update the relevant ILPs during afternoon staff meetings and faculty meetings.

Student achievement in 2012

The Conservatorium High School’s 2012 NAPLAN data indicate that our Yrs 7 & 9 students score not less than 18% and up to 57% above the State average in terms of percentage of students who achieve the top band in all assessed components. In Numeracy, 96.7% of Year 7 students achieved results in the top two bands (State average 25.7%) and 66.7% of Year 9 students were in the top band (State average 12.7%). In Literacy, 90% of Year 7 students were in the top two bands for spelling (State: 34%) and 45.8% of Year 9 students were in the top band for grammar and punctuation (State: 6.6%).

Con High students HSC achievement highlights: • Top ATAR - 99.8% • 45% of cohort gained ATAR over 93.5;

72% an ATAR over 85.0 • 106 Band 6s in toto achieved across 16

subjects • 34 nominations for Encore

Conservatorium High School students achieved Band 6s or notional Band 6s in the following subjects: Chemistry, English Advanced, English Ext 1, English Ext 2, General Mathematics, Mathematics, Mathematics Ext 1, Mathematics Ext 2, Modern History, Music 2, Music Ext, Physics, Visual Arts, Chinese Background

Speakers, French Continuers and German Beginners.

Messages

Principal’s message It is a truism in music education that the most effective way to develop students’ musicianship and aural acuity is through singing. To that end the school has been placing greater emphasis in recent years on things vocal with a view to sharpening the focus of music pedagogy in the school overall. Until this year, however, the Conservatorium High had not admitted into the junior school students whose primary medium of musical expression is singing. This omission, an obvious anomaly in a specialist music school, stems from the fact that expertise in training the young teenage voice is not part of the remit of the singing teachers on the tertiary side of the Conservatorium which, traditionally, has been the provider of most instrumental tuition for Con High students.

The Junior Vocal Stream [JVS] is a new initiative designed to remedy this longstanding shortcoming in the school’s music program. It aims to inculcate the principles of Kodály method into our classroom-music teaching and, more broadly, it emboldens the hope that, over time, this pedagogical approach will enliven and underpin the whole-school music program. The JVS hinges on a two-pronged strategy: collaboration with Sydney Children’s Choirs and

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engagement of a Kodály-trained choral specialist to teach the JVS students, to oversee the school’s choral program and to mentor members of the Con High’s music faculty in Kodály pedagogy.

The school shares the Conservatorium precinct with Sydney University’s Music Faculty. This circumscribes somewhat the degree of freedom the school can exercise in such matters as timetabling. With a view to minimising interruptions to academic classes the school conducted thorough-going re-examination of the timetable. In particular, the number of extra-curricular activities was monitored and evaluated as was their impact on the overall academic program. This action, together with the policy change obliging students to schedule their music lessons outside academic classes, has led to a more profitable use of class time and a consequent improvement in academic achievement. Witness the excellent HSC results and overall rating of the school.

Dr Robert Curry

P & C message 2012 saw the implementation of improved docu-mentation, the introduction of the annual family contribution levy, annual membership fee and membership registry and more social oppor-tunities for our community.

We continued to provide services including 2012 Buzz Book, parent buddy system for new parents, presentations for parents using guest speakers, providing preconcert student dinner service, soloist program, welcome to new family hosting,

hosting suppers at concert intervals and operat-ing uniform shop service.

Cafe Cantata (a fund-raising opportunity on AMEB Examination dates), the Uniform shop and the annual family contributions were the primary fund raising methods. We purchased a commer-cial BBQ and 2 musical instruments, trombone & bassoon, which were donated to the school.

We updated our appearance with Con High labelled water, new performance uniform, mobile ETF facilities and most importantly a new Website.

Having the active participation of a great group of parents through 2012 was and is the best means by which the P&C can benefit our children and our school. Particular thanks to our office bearers – Kathy Drayton, Leah Arthur, Lubna Salah and Amanda Kirby & Subcommittee Coordinators Rosey Jones, Nick Berg, Helen Johnson, Annette Anderson, Eileen Leather & David Zhang - who have all provided exceptional efforts.

A special thank you to the Principal and Deputy Principal for welcoming and supporting the initia-tives of the P&C. The P&C are also indebted to all teachers and staff, especially to Jan Saunders, Christine Whiting and Cathy Campbell without whose patience, much of the P&C success of 2012 would not have occurred.

The P&C will continue to raise the bar in provid-ing services and opportunities for our students, staff and parents. The challenge is for more parents to be involved - have a say, raise issues and participate. The bond of our community can only be enjoyed by participation.

Linda Cumines, P&C President 2012

Student representatives’ message The year 2012 was yet another year of successes for the Student Representative Council. The SRC’s charity events remained the staple of the school’s

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fundraising program. Despite being restricted to only one mufti day each term, the school raised a substantial amount of money for a number of events, including the The World’s Greatest Shave - where many students and staff sold the control of their hair, and by day’s end we had a menagerie of fluorescent hairstyles and bald heads, not to mention $1400+ accumulated for the Leukaemia Foundation.

In addition, events were held for the Biggest Morning Tea and Pink Ribbon Day, performances took place at the Sydney Children’s Hospital, and students bereft themselves of food, furniture, speech, technology, or an amalgam of pleasures for the 40 hour famine. One particular highlight of the past year was the world vision concert. A small troupe of students attended the World Vision leadership expo, and were alarmed at the amount of poverty that exists in the world. From this we endeavoured to host a full-scale student-run chamber music concert within the Verbrugghen Hall. Despite some initially setbacks, the concert was a raging success, raising in excess of $2000 for the fight against poverty. With respect to student entertainment events, the 3rd Annual Con High Trivia Night was another smash hit, with the variety of erudite trivia and intricate party games providing enjoyment for students and teachers alike. The SCR also implemented a daily breakfast program to feed the starving masses of the school. Brainchild of School Captain, Antonia Berg, SRC members (somehow) managed to get to school by 7:30am and serve piping hot toast, tea, coffee, cereal and juice at unbelievably affordable prices. And just when students

thought it could not get any better, we started serving up bacon and eggs! The SRC continued to serve as the medium through which students could bring up concerns: changes to uniform policies, removal of junior performance workshop, introduction of compulsory study periods for senior students. Sadly, few of the proposals, rebuttals and criticisms of changes to school policy won the day, despite the best efforts of the SRC to engage in compromises and discussions of alternatives.

The 2011/12 year also saw increased activity from both the School Captains and the House Captains. Given the House Concerts were performed for without the guidance of Mr Willey - an event which has not occurred for over 25 years - the school community was naturally a bit concerned about how the concerts would turn out, notwithstanding Mr Willey’s constant reminders that he is not the Almighty of the Con High. The additional efforts on the part of the School Captains in such matters as room organisation, rehearsal monitoring, and student-staff mediator proved to be crucial, providing further support to the house captains, teachers and student body. Furthermore, House captains took a larger role in the SRC and contributed greatly to the smooth running and organisation of events, concerts and the daily breakfast program. Finally, we would like to express our thanks to all those who helped us along the way: to the SRC members who sacrificed a weekly lunchtime to benefit the school; to Ms Foat for her tireless work in convening meetings and organising events; to Mr Mew and Mr Fowler for their endless expertise and connections; and, of

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course, to Mrs Kell for generously donating her room for our meetings. Antonia Berg & David Erho School Captain and Vice-Captain for 2012

School context

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

Student enrolment profile

155 students attended Conservatorium High School in 2012.

Student attendance profile

Con High School has maintained a very high level of student attendance thanks to enhanced reporting and accountability strategies and a more fully integrated employment of existing school software systems.

Management of non-attendance

The school has implemented a three-tier system for managing student non-attendance. The first step comprises remedial responses to unexplained lateness and fractional truancy. The second makes use of a third–party SMS attend-ance management system. The third-level response involves the software package ‘SENTRAL’ in conjunction with swipe cards. This package generates formal absence notifications. It is subject to regular upgrades in response to users’ suggestions and requests for improve-ments.

Post-school destinations

Gender 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012Male 76 73 72 76 81

Female 92 74 74 74 74

Year 2008 2009 2010 2011 20127 97.0 94.4 98.2 95.1

8 93.5 95.1 96.7 97.29 91.8 91.8 96.6 96.110 88.0 91.8 94.4 95.111 87.2 92.8 94.7 90.612 87.6 88.0 93.0 92.5

Total 87.2 89.4 91.6 95.4 94.4

7 94.3 94.6 94.7 94.38 92.4 92.7 92.6 92.59 91.2 91.8 91.5 91.510 91.1 91.0 90.3 90.511 91.1 91.2 90.6 90.912 90.8 90.9 91.1 91.1

Total 91.5 91.8 92.0 91.8 91.87 92.3 92.6 92.5 92.48 90.0 90.5 90.1 90.19 88.8 89.1 88.8 88.710 88.7 88.3 87.1 87.011 89.4 89.1 87.6 87.612 89.4 89.8 89.2 89.3

Total 89.9 89.7 89.9 89.2 89.1St

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Year 12 students undertaking vocational or trade training

0% of Year 12 students undertook vocational or trade training in 2012.

Year 12 students attaining HSC or equivalent vocational educational qualification

100% of Con High Year 12 students attained an HSC in 2012.

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

Staff establishment

Position Number Principal 1 Deputy Principal(s) 1 Head Teachers 3 Classroom Teachers 11.8 Support Teacher Learning Assistance 0.1 Teacher Librarian 1 Teacher of ESL 0.2 Counsellor 0.1 School Administrative & Support Staff 5.8 Total 24

The National Education Agreement requires schools to report on Indigenous composition of their workforce.

In 2012 Conservatorium High School had one staff member, a teacher working under a Temporary Engagement, who identified as Abo-riginal.

Staff retention

In 2012 we had one staff member promote into a Head Teacher position and one teacher who retired.

Teacher qualifications

All teaching staff meet the professional require-ments for teaching in NSW public schools.

Qualifications % of staff Degree or Diploma 100 Postgraduate 60 Doctoral Qualifications 10

Financial summary This summary covers funds for operating costs and does not involve expenditure areas such as permanent salaries, building and major mainte-nance.

Date of financial summary 30/11/2012

Income $ Balance brought forward 2,908,105 Global funds 221,291 Tied funds 673,490 School & community sources 277,798 Interest 130,508 Trust receipts 1,102,255 Canteen 0.00 Total income 2,405,345 Expenditure Teaching & learning

Key learning areas 58,235 Excursions 40,057 Extracurricular dissections 71,525

Library 7,274 Training & development 3,682 Tied funds 1,587,242 Casual relief teachers 16,519 Administration & office 211,018 School-operated canteen 0.00 Utilities 4,551 Maintenance 669 Trust accounts 1,340,905 Capital programs 5,047 Total expenditure 3,346,730 Balance carried forward 1,966,720

A full copy of the school’s 2012 financial state-ment 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.

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School performance 2012

The quality and variety of the whole-school Music Program is what sets the Conservatorium High School apart.

During 2012 the school maintained its consist-ently high performance standard of challenging repertoire by the continued employment of the Conductor-in-Residence, Carolyn Watson. Carolyn worked with the choir and orchestra for all major concerts and her professionalism, diligence and thoroughness continued as an excellent role model for all of our students. Elizabeth Scott, a choral specialist who also works at The Arts Unit, rehearsed the choir for the major concerts.

Choral and Orchestral Concerts

The Term 1 concert ‘Pictures, Glorious Pictures’ featured music by Mussorgsky and Poulenc. Pictures at an Exhibition was presented in both its original piano version, using a team of pianists, and in its symphonic version, orchestrated by Maurice Ravel. A feature of this latter version was the concluding section of the last movement: the entire school was involved, including staff, play-ing all manner of instruments, whatever was to hand. The sound was electrifying! Also performed at that concert was the choral gem, Poulenc’s Gloria featuring Elizabeth Scott as soprano

soloist. A memento CD of this concert was produced for promotional purposes.

During Term 2 the school’s conductor-in-resi-dence, Dr Carolyn Watson was absent overseas. Her presence was nonetheless keenly felt. She designed the Annual Concert to showcase the collective talents of the various orchestral sections. Wind and brass, under Mark Brown’s direction, performed music by Glinka and Danzas Cubanas. The string section, performing without a conductor, presented Britten’s Simple Sym-phony. Various smaller ensembles presented music of divers genres and the concert concluded with excerpts from Bach’s St John Passion, choir and chamber orchestra conducted by Liz Scott.

The Valedictory concerts were Term 3’s musical highlight. Here Carolyn Watson put together An Australian Tribute featuring contemporary Australian compositions by living composers: Carl Vine, Peter Sculthorpe, Paul Stanhope, Matthew Hindson and John Peterson. Three of the composers were able to attend one of the concerts and were exceptionally pleased with the quality of our students’ performances.

The House Concerts, now moved to their new home at the end of Term 4, as usual proved to be an exciting and enjoyable way to complete the musical year.

Chamber Concerts

The school’s chamber music concerts continued to present high-quality performances by our students with repertoire for small ensembles, both chamber music standards, jazz ensembles

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and some unusual fare. The final chamber music concert in a new venue, History House, remained a favourite with our audience.

Other Concerts

As always, the school’s busy music-making year included Lunchbreak Concerts, featuring an exciting and inspiring concert by our Wind Sinfonia, ably directed by its tutor Mark Brown. Soloists’ Concerts, School Certificate Concerts, numerous competitions and other one-off events completing a hectic round of performances.

Two of our students successfully auditioned and took roles in the Sydney University’s première of Anne Boyd’s new opera: Daisy Bates at Ooldea. Jeff Willey Head Teacher – Music

Achievements Arts

2012 saw the introduction of Drama as an Elective subject in Yr 9. The class were involved in a number of theatrical events across the year, culminating in the Australian premiere of a work written by the teacher of the course. The HSC

Visual Arts class had 1 student- Belle Morrison - accepted into ARTEXPRESS. Year 7 had a successful exhibition of their self portraits in words paintings. Year 10's animations on Luna Park were played at a school assembly to much acclaim.

Sport

Conservatorium High School students are in a rather unique environment for Sport. Yr 11 students all attend Fitness First in Bond St, Sydney every Monday morning. Their personal trainer Jose, worked the class very hard for more than an hour each lesson and the class saw some great benefit from this exercise. Thanks to Fitness First for adopting Conservatorium High School in 2012.

Yrs 7 – 10 experienced a wide range of sports in 2012. These included: cross-country running, Futsal, indoor hockey, AFL clinics, swimming, spin classes, ice skating, tennis and Zumba Dancing.

Other LANGUAGES Josiah Fajardo gained 5th position in the State for HSC German Beginners. Thomas Woods matched his mark. There was other Band 6 achievement, in the French Continuers course too. The school participated in the ACER Assessment of Language Competence Certificates again. Languages teacher, Mr Backhouse was awarded an Endeavour Language Teachers Fellowship from the Federal Government at Dalian Educa-tion Institute in China. He spent January observ-ing and teaching Chinese classes while living with a Chinese family and experiencing cultural activi-ties in the North East. Years 7,8 & 9 Chinese visited the Friendship Garden in Ultimo as follow-up to cultural

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research on Chinese gardens. 11German visited a Bavarian restaurant while 11 & 10 French experi-enced the cuisine of France as a part of their cultural studies.

Academic

In the National Assessment Program, the results across the Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 literacy and numeracy assessments are reported on a scale from Band 1 to Band 10.

The achievement scale represents increasing levels of skills and understandings demonstrated in these assessments.

The My School website provides detailed infor-mation and data for national literacy and numeracy testing (NAPLAN).

Click on the link http://www.myschool.edu.au and enter “Conservatorium High School” in the Find a school field and select GO.

Academic Competitions

ENGLISH: Students from Years 7-11 participated in the ICAS English competition. One student, Reuben Langbein received a High Distinction. Seven students received Distinctions and thirty students credits.

Students from years 7-10 participated in the ICAS Writing competition.

Seven students received Distinctions. There were twenty three credits distributed.

MATHEMATICS: In the Australian Mathematics competition, 2 students were awarded High Distinctions and 8 students Distinctions. In the UNSW International Mathematics competition 21 students were awarded Distinctions.

GEOGRAPHY: In the UNSW Geography competi-tion, 8 students were awarded High Distinctions and 9 were awarded Distinctions.

Higher School Certificate

Conservatorium High School students sitting the HSC have made an appreciable improvement over their results in the 2010 School Certificate.

The graph below shows that the Con High’s 2012 HSC results represent an improvement on the school average over the last 3 years. They were better than the Statistically Similar Group of Schools (green column) and markedly better than the State (blue column) in all courses for which statistics have been gathered.

Con High School students achieved the following at the 2012 HSC: Top ATAR of 99.8; 44% of the cohort with ATAR over 90; 72% with ATAR of over 85. 106 Band 6s in 16 subjects; 34 nominations for Encore. Conservatorium High School students achieved Band 6s (or Notional Band 6s) in the following subjects: Chemistry, English Advanced, English Ext 1, English Ext 2, General Mathematics, Mathematics, Mathematics Ext 1, Mathematics

HSC: Relative performance from Year 10 (value-added)Performance Band Low Middle High

School 2012 26.3 17.9 6.5School Average 2008-2012 19.2 16.8 8.1

SSG Average 2012 3.6 4.5 2.4Note: By definition, the State average relative performance is zero

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Ext 2, Modern History, Music 2, Music Ext, Physics, Visual Arts, Chinese Background Speakers, French Continuers and German Beginners.

Significant programs and initiatives Conservatorium High School employs a variety of initiatives to differentiate the curriculum in order to better meet the educational needs of our students. These approaches are varied to suit the particular learning requirements of our students and may be applied across all curriculum areas and stages.

Curriculum compaction is used for all Yr 7 students entering the school in the Mandatory Music course: the whole of Stage 4 Music is accomplished in Yr 7. The whole Yr 7 cohort is accelerated in Music and, consequently, students undertake the first year of the Stage 5 Elective Music course in Yr 8. Mindful of the needs of students entering the school in Yrs 8-11, the school has built a degree of flexibility into the timetable sufficient to accommodate, if

necessary, a typical State-norm progression through the music syllabuses. To this end the school provides a second-stream Music class in each year group when circumstances require.

When deemed appropriate, students may also be accelerated in non-music courses. In 2012 this occurred in Mathematics and French. This approach, for example, was taken with a student who completed Yr 12 in 2012 scoring an ATAR of 99.8.

The Conservatorium High also uses ability grouping across year groups. This type of streaming was used across Stages 4 and 5 or in Stage 6, with students in Yr 7 – 10 or in Yr 11 and 12 able to interact in classes together, learning at their own ability level.

Aboriginal education

Class programs in various KLAs educate students in Aboriginal history and culture consistent with the Aboriginal Education Policy of the DEC. Significant work is undertaken in Stage 4 and 5 History and Geography and in the musicological endeavours of our senior students.

Multicultural education

Class programs in various KLAs educate students about the Multicultural nature of the world at large and Australia in particular. The multi-ethnic make-up of our school provides an excellent model for the significant work undertaken in Stage 4 and 5 History and Geography and in the English, History and Musicology courses of our senior students.

Other programs

In 2012 Conservatorium High School entered into a partnership with the Sydney Children’s Choir, establishing our Junior Vocal Stream. For junior-

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School 2012School Average 2008-2012

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school applicants (Yrs 7-8 girls and boy-sopranos) whose musicality to date has best expressed itself through the voice (eg. in choirs) and who may or may not also play a musical instrument, the school provides a special stream within the music program. The Junior Vocal Stream, in collabo-ration with Sydney Children’s Choir, entails class-room music taught by a Hungarian-trained Kodály specialist, plus expert vocal coaching, choral training and the performance opportunities and commitments that go with being a full member of Sydney Children’s Choirs.

Initially, the Junior Vocal Stream will cater for students starting their first year of high school (Yr 7) or entering Yr 8. Like all Conservatorium High junior students, those in the JVS will follow the Stage 4 & 5 Mandatory and Elective Music courses together with the Board Endorsed Course and undertake the usual academic subjects.

For students in the JVS the primary medium of instruction will be voice and, accordingly, the teacher with responsibility for the JVS, of necessity, will be a vocally-trained music specialist. While the pedagogical modes of delivery of the instrumental and the vocal stream may differ, the syllabus requirements and learning outcomes for all junior students are essentially the same.

The distinctive feature of the JVS is its articulation with the Sydney Children’s Choir. Students in the JVS will receive vocal training both at school, through the Con High’s choir and small vocal ensembles, and outside school hours, through the coaching and workshops that are conducted by staff of the SCC. Students accepted into the Conservatorium High’s Junior Vocal Program become members of the Sydney Children’s Choir and will be expected to meet the usual SCC

requirements regarding attendance at rehearsals and performances.

Year 7 Literacy Program

In Term 4, Year 7 participated in an intensive literacy program comprising 100 minutes of literacy-focused lessons each week. Students were placed into one of three streamed groups, based on data pertaining to their performance in NAPLAN and school assessments. Students were lead through a number of “scaffolded” and explicit literacy activities based on the theme “Starting High School”. Activities specific to targeting literacy development included three level guides, dictagloss and word clines. The Literacy Program followed the teaching/learning cycle that required students to view a number of persuasive model texts, undertake group deconstruction of the specific aspects of the texts and jointly reconstruct a persuasive text in a similar fashion. As their final product, students wrote a persuasive text arguing that “Starting high school is/isn’t easy”. All students benefited from working in small groups of academically similar peers, working closely with the teacher in an explicit and systematic manner and from the process and outcomes of peer tutoring.

Progress on 2012 targets

School priority 1: Literacy & Numeracy Outcomes for 2012–2014

• Increased levels of overall literacy achieve-ment for all students

• Increased number of students who exceed expected growth in writing, grammar & punctuation

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• Increased percentage of ESL students achiev-ing above expected growth in reading and writing

2012 Targets to achieve this outcome include:

To increase the percentage of Yr. 9 students achieving NAPLAN band 10 in • Reading, from 55% in 2011 to 65% • Writing, from 50% in 2011 to 60% • Grammar & Punctuation from 39% in 2011 to

50% • Numeracy, from 61% in 2011 to 72%

Progress on these Targets is as follows:

NAPLAN targets were not met and in two areas a decline was registered:

• Reading, from 56% in 2011 down to 33%

• Grammar and Punctuation, from 39% in 2011 to 46%

• Writing, from 39% in 2011 down to 29%

• Numeracy, from 61% in 2011 to 67%

School priority 2: Engagement & Attainment Outcome for 2012–2014

• Majority of students achieving Band 6 (Extension Band 4) HSC levels

• Consolidate existing and establish new institutional links with tertiary providers and professional organisations

• Intrinsic musicianship to be the primary focus of music pedagogy

• Improved outcomes of high-achieving ‘gifted’ students

2012 Targets to achieve this outcome include:

• Majority of students achieving Band 5 (Extension Band 3) HSC

• High-achieving ‘gifted’ students achieving Band 6 (Extension Band 4) in all subjects

• Consolidate relationships with Sydney Children’s Choirs, Sydney Youth Orchestras, and Faculty of Music, University of Sydney

Progress on these Targets is as follows:

In this priority area the degree of improve-ment was generally solid

• 73% of all courses sat at the HSC saw students attain results in the Top 2 Bands, ie. Bands 5 or 6 (E3 or E4)

• 11.7% of students achieved top bands in all subjects attempted

• All current relationships with our partner institutions were consolidated (USyd, SYO, AYOs). Collaboration with Sydney Children’s Choir was launched. This new venture served to further consolidate the school’s relation-ship with The Arts Unit.

• Discussions and forward planning under way with the Dave Brubeck Institute (University of the Pacific) regarding possibilities of Con High hosting a jazz summer school

• CHS and SCM in discussion to bring music educator of international standing to CHS to provide staff professional learning and to conduct master classes with students

School evaluation NSW public schools conduct evaluation to support the effective implementation of the

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school plan. In 2012 our school carried out evalu-ations of the English Faculty and Soloists’ Concerts.

English Faculty Review

Background

With a view to developing strategies to achieve targets adopted in the current Triennial School Improvement Plan 2012-2014 the school under-took an internal review into the English Faculty. It engaged an outside area expert to facilitate the process.

The panel reviewed:

• current documentation: programs, outcomes, scope-and-sequence documents, registration, assessment criteria, assessment outlines and schedules

• the quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning in this faculty, particularly in the area of literacy

• the quality and effectiveness of planning and programming, assessment practices, programs and procedures in literacy

Findings and recommendations

• coordinated standardised approach is needed in analysing data that informs classroom practice and student literacy

• state-wide assessment policy in the senior school should be extended to the junior school

• junior school needs a consistent assessment schedule

• a uniform approach to data analysis should be adopted by the faculty and they should familiarise themselves with its applicability to classroom practice

Review of Soloists’ Concerts

Background

In 2012 the school sought the opinions of parents, students and teachers about the school.

Their responses are presented below.

The Soloists’ Concerts are a P&C initiative that was launched in 2010. These concerts supple-ment the music program providing performance opportunities specifically for solo repertoire. While the intrinsic merit of the initiative continues to enjoy broad support, the number of students availing themselves of this opportunity had been disappointing. In 2012 a review of the Soloists’ Concerts was undertaken.

Findings and recommendations

Discussion between all interested parties identified a number of causes for the unenthu-siastic response of students. Strategies were formulated to address the situation and they were trialed through the latter half of 2012. Instead of programs embracing students from all years, various grouping were trialed: restricted to particular years, focused on particular instru-ments and/or repertoires. Indications are that students now feel more confident to undertake solo performances and will be more likely to avail themselves of the opportunities that the Soloists’ Concerts afford.

Professional learning Staff at Conservatorium High School undertook whole-school, small-group and individual profes-sional learning activities including School Staff Development Days, Conferences, training days as well as Masters and PhD level study. The whole school activities included; PLPs (Personalised Learning Plans), CPR update, ICT (Moodle, SENTRAL), Referencing in WORD, Autism ASD and the Learning and Support Team. 17 staff (90%) undertook individualised Profes-sional Learning activities throughout the year. These training activities were in the areas of: Digital Education Revolution, Literacy & Numeracy, Quality Teaching, Career Develop-ment, Use of ICT, Welfare & Equity, Beginning Teaching, Syllabus Implementation and ICT for Teaching and Learning. The average expenditure per teacher on Profes-sional Learning at the school level was $918.00

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The School expenditure on Professional Learning was at least $14,350. One new scheme teacher was working towards accreditation. Three new scheme teachers were maintaining accreditation at Professional Compe-tence.

School planning 2012—2014 The school planning policy provides direction for the preparation and implementation of school plans including the identification of priority areas, intended outcomes and targets that are consistent with the NSW State Plan and the Department’s planning documents.

Target 1

School priority 1: Literacy & Numeracy Outcome for 2012–2014

• Increased levels of overall literacy achieve-ment for all students

• Increased number of students who exceed expected growth in writing, grammar & punctuation

• Increased percentage of ESL students achieving above expected growth in reading and writing

2013 Targets to achieve this outcome include:

To regain ground lost in 2012 (reading and writing) and increase the percentage of Yr 9 students achieving NAPLAN band 10 in

• Reading: from 33% in 2012 to 56%

• Grammar and Punctuation: from 46% in 2012 to 56%

• Writing: from 29% in 2012 to 50% • Numeracy: from 67% in 2011 to 75%

Strategies to achieve these targets include:

• ‘Literacy team’ to include teacher-librarian and principal meeting fortnightly to review progress

• Engage Learning & Support Team to monitor use of multi-modal approach to conveying instructions in the classroom

• Trial of peer-tutoring program, Yrs 10 & 7 • At least 50% of all submitted written

work to be pen on paper, not word-pro-cessed

• HTs to report at executive meeting on their faculty’s progress towards targets

• Actively involve parents/ carers to sup-port remediation strategies in reading & writing

School priority 2: Leadership and Management

• Develop educational leadership potential in area of creativity and curriculum inno-vation

2013 Targets to achieve this outcome include:

• focus on creativity in all facets of school’s existing music program to be sharpened

• ‘creativity component’ be taken into consideration when school evaluating applicants

• students to be given greater flexibility in choosing music-study combinations (composition/ instrumental studies/ con-ducting-arranging) and in the choice of idiom (classical, jazz, cross-over)

Strategies to achieve these targets include:

• inclusion of ‘creativity component’ in school’s entrance diagnostic tests and

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evaluation of results by doctoral candidate researching this area

• senior executive to undertake pilot study on creative integration of jazz compon-ents into school’s existing music program

• greater emphasis placed on creativity into music curriculum and harness sup-port of tertiary tutors in their studio lessons with Con High students.

About this report In preparing this report, the self-evaluation com-mittee has gathered information from evalua-tions conducted during the year and analysed other information about the school's practices and student learning outcomes. The self-evalua-tion committee and school planning committee have determined targets for the school's future development. 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 develop-ment. Dr Robert Curry, Principal Mr Ian Barker, Deputy Principal Mrs Kate Kell, HT – Humanities Mr Jeff Willey, HT – Music Mrs Linda Cumines, P&C President Ms Antonia Berg, School Captain 2012 Mr David Erho, School Vice-Captain 2012 School contact information Conservatorium High School PO Box R-1805, Royal Exchange, NSW 1225

Ph: +61 2 9351 1350 Fax: +61 2 9351 1359 Email: conservat-h@det.nsw.edu.au Web: www.conservat-h.schools.nsw.edu.au School Code: 8147 Parents can find out more information about Annual School Reports, how to interpret infor-mation in the reports and have the opportunity to provide feedback about these reports at:

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

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