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Annual Report 2008

CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT

My role as chairperson for 2008 was made easy last year with such fantastic support from Rex and the other GB members. We have focussed on running the school with the best interest of the children, staff and parents while trying to maintain the school ethos.

Our discussions have been productive, cohesive, team orientated, friendly and usually unanimous. Everybody has contributed some great ideas and valuable input.

I would like to thank personally:

Forrest Woodbury for the amazing effort she put into the fundraising for the school. She has sung jazz, baked cakes, sold bulbs, chopped onions and run BBQs. Thanks also for your work on the prospectus and capital grants.

Tony Evers for the many hours he spends with the computers and IT for the school and for being a great mediator.

Diane Evers for her accurate and amazing job of keeping our financial state healthy - a particular challenge last year.

Yann Touissaint for the assistance with the school review and for getting the extra Active After School grant organised.

Kaye Murray for organising many of the fundraising events.

Peter Pickett for his valuable expertise and advice.

Rex for his amazing effort into the school. He is so committed to the smooth running of the school. He always comes to the meetings well prepared (with the help of his diary and the administration staff). He is such an asset for the school and well deserved his NEITA recognition.

I am not there for most of this year, however I am sure that the GB is continuing to run well and would like to thank the new members this year.

We are always looking for parent support, if anyone is interested in helping, even in a small role, please let the GB or school know.

Government regulations require that the school reports annually on certain performance factors of the school, some of those follow:

Value Adding: The school is continuing to try to value add to our extensive programme and school experience for the children. We maintain great extra curriculum activities such as Out and About days, camps and the music program. The computer/student ratios, staff/student ratios are sensational and the children continue to have freedom to have their say. The school review last year revealed great satisfaction and provided us some areas to work on for this year.

Staff Attendance: Of the possible 940 staff days, there were only 9 days sick leave. This is a 99% attendance.

Staff Retention: 100% retention. The school review showed the staff are extremely happy.

Teacher Qualifications:

Rex Davies - Teacher in Charge

  • Registered with WA College of Teaching
  • B.Ed. Admin (partially completed) (Northern Territory University)
  • Bush and Mountain Leadership Certificate
  • Certificate of Student Counselling (Victorian Education Department)
  • Diploma of Education (State College of Victoria)
  • Diploma of Fine Arts (Deakin University)

Deanne Lowrie

  • Registration with WA College of Teaching
  • B.Ed (Primary) (Edith Cowan University, Western Australia)
  • Bronze Medallion in Lifesaving

Thanking you all

Michelle Rechichi - Governing Body Chairperson 2008
7 April 2009

HEAD TEACHER'S REPORT

Welcome.

This report is to notify the Annual General Meeting of the progress of the curriculum over the last year, some important incidents, issues and the intended developments over the next years.

I will brief this meeting on the statistics for staff, students and the academic results of the National Assessment Programme Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), also touching on the fairness or not of these tests. Next the staff and the ancillary people of the school, and the way they add incredible value to the welfare and effectiveness to our community's environment. Then we will look at a couple of incidents over the past year and our exciting new plans.

The school's student attendance has stayed the same with about 84% attendance recorded in the 2008 period and 89% so far this year. Again a slight rise against last year's figures.

Last year we had 47 Full time equivalent students (Kindy students do not attract a full time quota).

The proportions of students that were at or above the national benchmarks in the NAPLAN need to be reported as part of our agreement with the federal government to access funding.

The NAPLAN figures while favourable this year only represent a thin slice of the students' movement through the curriculum and any school base percentages are warped by the small samples of students in any one class.

Year 3 the results at this level have been adjusted to take into account that one student has diagnosed special needs, and another sat the test although not yet within the age range.

Year 3 results in English, reading, writing, grammar and spelling:
All students were above the benchmark with some notable examples of two out of three students being in the top 20% of the Australian national average in a significant spread of subjects.

Year 3 results in Numeracy:
All students being at or above the benchmark with 1 student being in the top 20%.

Year 5 results in English, reading, writing, grammar and spelling:
Two out of three students were at or above the benchmark with some notable results with both benchmarked students being in the top 20% of the Australian national average in writing and grammar.

Year 5 results in Numeracy:
Two out of three students being at or above the benchmark with 1 student being in the top 20%.

Year 7 results in English, reading, writing, grammar and spelling:
Three out of four students were at or above the benchmark with some notable results with the benchmarked students being in the top 20% of the Australian national average in writing, reading and grammar.

Year 7 results in Numeracy:
All year 7 students in 2008 were in the top 20% of the Australian national percentiles in numeracy.

Because the percentages are skewed by the small samples and while results are not typical or fair in many ways, however, as a community we take credit where we can, and last year's figures were many points above 2007 year's sample. Interestingly the results are closer to the 2006 years results when the same student group were tested.

In addition last year's year 12 graduates at Albany Senior High School included seven ex Woodbury Boston students, four of these were award winners with one student awarded dux of 2008. All the comments attributed to these students included that they were thoughtful and caring, happy to have a go, willing to accept leadership roles and were able to communicate well. We are all very proud.

I personally am very proud of the contributions to the school from the dedicated staff. Deanne is now a certified teacher after completing her probationary period as required by the Western Australian College of Teaching. Her interests in music, and the arts in general, her fascination with the outdoors, the sea and surfing all are infectious and contribute as much to the school as does her scheduled programme which is both compressive and creative. Her extra effort is found seeing her often driving home late after dark.

Robyn's contribution is much more than her excellent skills with the little'uns. This year especially her work in sport with the kids is fantastic. The extra stuff happens under the radar. Robyn, on the Governing Body's initiative, has been co-ordinating the Active After School programme in school. This has resulted in the school receiving $6400.00 of sporting equipment and extra wages.

With the creative budgeting from Diane Evers and the governing body, and Linda and Maree's extra-ordinary efforts at camp budgeting, they all manage to keep the school's excursions and camping programme together. This has many demands on their time and must be mentioned. This is an important part of the school programme and is always a struggle to keep it financially within reach of parents. Elaine takes on work as do others that extended way beyond the scope of the expectations of a teacher's aide. Val is universally loved by the students and her dedication to the special needs of some of our students adds measurable value to our outcomes.

Mathew has made a huge difference to the school's ability to function, the taps, light globes, leaks are slowly being fixed or replaced and the maintenance emergencies are now reducing significantly.

Mark's lawn maintenance, grass cutting and the constant round of pruning and disposing of rubbish, that is often not-so-well recycled is notable by the amount of voluntary hours. The school has many debts of time and Mark is well up on the list.

The school cannot function without the office staff. Thanks again to Mark, a recent addition, and Jan who has continued to work so hard over the last 12 months, juggling this with her ongoing treatment for a serious illness. And Whitney whose gifts of

  • language as read in the NewsLetter
  • her ability to correlate incoming information, and
  • to communicate and make people feel comfortable and welcomed
are essential skills that the school could not do without.

This report would not be complete without mentioning the assistance of Tony Evers who also gives up many hours, beyond the capacity of the school to reimburse, to maintain our generous computer network. And Diane Evers for her often thankless effort in keeping the school finances in check. The governing body members and staff thank you for your tireless efforts and willingness to give up your time.

The parents and grandparents who volunteer are a godsend, thank you.

The essence of this beautiful place is the sounds of children. The colour, joy and challenge that those voices bring to this space change it in ways that make this piece of bush unique. The voices that have the ability to say how they feel and what they need from a peer or an adult equally. The voices that can make a request that will be of benefit to the whole school community and the voices that yell with joy as the adventure of riding a surf wave peaks, these are the voices that will be the next that will be thoughtful and caring, happy to have a go, willing to accept leadership roles and able to communicate well. And we must acknowledge their efforts.

The year has been an eventful one. A storm that took out many trees in the playground changed the face of the yard forever. The resulting effort to get the school yard up and going again brought the community together with a common cause, thanks to John Woodbury, Tony Branch and the Weaver Family for their initial and ongoing help, as with the staff, volunteers, and even students who jumped in to carry twigs and branches.

Last year my request for the years ahead was for some creating thinking and energy to take us forward over the years to come. I believe over the last twelve months we have shown we have the talent and energy in this room now to do it.

Thank you.

Rex Davies
Teacher-In-Charge
7 April 2009