DIOCESE OF TOWNSVILLE

SCHOOL REPORTING - 2018

St Francis School, Ayr

Principal’s foreword

Introduction

St Francis School is a Catholic Systemic School with 290 children and is part of the Townsville Diocese. It is situated in the township of Ayr, an hour to the south of Townsville, nestled in the heart of the Burdekin Valley. It commenced in 1912 with just a handful of children and three Sisters of the Good Samaritan. Since then, St Francis has been serving the sons and daughters of farmers, mill workers and service providers in a diverse Catholic community. Responsibility for the school was assumed by the Marist Brothers in 1974. The community continues to maintain a close association with the brothers since their final departure in 2000. In its history the school has served the Burdekin district in many ways. Today, it is the Parish School for the Burdekin district north of the river, with children enrolled in classes from Prep to Year 6.

Our ideals are based on the Gospel Values of Christ. Through these ideals, we try to influence the children positively with concern for others, cooperation, obedience, tolerance, respect and honesty. Education is a partnership between child, school, family and Church, where we see your child becoming a thinking, believing member of society. 

The St Francis School Community is committed to working together to provide opportunities for every child to fully develop their academic, spiritual, physical, social and emotional potential.

“Our mission founded on the experience of being profoundly loved by Jesus is to make him known and loved.”*

“Water from the Rock” Br. AMEstaún, Institute of the Marist Brothers, General House – Rome, June 2007 St Francis maintains an enviable reputation for scholarship and sporting prowess with students and graduates regularly featuring in district and North Queensland teams and events. 

We believe that: Young children are eager to discover more about themselves, their families, their God and their environment; that each child develops at a different rate physically, socially, emotionally and intellectually; that young children learn in a holistic fashion; that the value of play, active exploration and interactive experiences is central to the development and learning of the young child; that young children actively construct their own knowledge; that young children learn best when they have a positive self-concept; and that young children anticipate their family and friends will be interested, informed and actively involved in what they are doing.

Our curriculum is characterised by close cooperative planning by all teachers. There is an intense focus on openness and accountability to parents in the instructional process.

Our Learning Enrichment processes developed to assist in the development of literacy skills include Early Literacy Foundation Support and Central Auditory Processing courses in the lower school and Phonological Awareness for Literacy Courses in the middle and upper school.

We have a strong commitment to Social Emotional Learning through the “You Can Do It” elements of Program Achieve. We also work continually to develop the Restorative Justice practices of Marist Youth Care in our behaviour management processes.

Our Language Other Than English is Italian. This reflects the strong Italian heritage of the district. The program runs from Preparatory Year through to Year 6.

Over the past 8 years the school plant and equipment has undergone extensive renovation and development. All classrooms are air-conditioned and equipped with Electronic Whiteboards and data projectors. There are extensive investments in information and computer technology. Facilities include a 1000sqm multi-purpose hall equipped for both drama and sport.

The school is involved in a wide range of community functions including ANZAC day, our local Water Festival Young Ambassador Competition and Parade and the Burdekin Junior Eisteddfod.

School Renewal, Strategic Planning and Annual SchoolImprovement

The Characteristics of Effective Catholic Schools is the guiding document of the TCEO schools linking the processes of planning, implementation and review for the purpose of enhancing the quality and effectiveness of Catholic Schools.  Through the Characteristics of Effective Catholic Schools each school responsibilities to various entities. Can monitor its effectiveness, focus on strategies for improvement and fulfil its accountability

Mission and Purpose

• To build on the momentum of Priests and Principals’ Day 2017 in enhancing the parish – school relationship.
• To unpack the report and look at the implications for school and set goals for the future
• Building relationships using the Indigenous Support Officer
• School RAP is published
• Prioritise senior service groups activities

Climate Conducive to Learning

• To utilize data to ensure we have moving schools and improving students.
• To be responsive to the report delivered by the Royal Commission in to institutional child abuse.
• To provide leadership in areas which contribute to improved well-being for staff and students.
• Reorganise human resources in library to ensure effective operation To ensure children receive anti-bullying message

Emphasis on Learning

• To engage teachers in fulfilling the role of the teacher as set out in our TCEO AITSL aligned Position Description
• To finalise and implement the school pedagogical framework
• To continue to implement the Australian Curriculum focussing on The Arts, Technology and Languages.
• To work with leadership teams to ensure they are high functioning and enabled for success.

School Profile

System:                                           ​Catholic Education (Diocese of Townsville) 

             Coeducational or single sex:                        ​Coeducational

          Year levels offered:                                       ​Prep – Year 6

Total student enrolments for this school:

Characteristics of the student body: Junior Campus:

Curriculum offerings

St Francis School provides children with a comprehensive, well developed educational program in all classes from Prep to Year 6.   The Australian Curriculum has been implemented in English, Mathematics, Science, and HASS.

Our distinctive curriculum offerings 

L.O.T.E (Italian) Year 4 – Year 6. The school offers Italian as a second language course to all students from Prep to Year 6.

Our curriculum is characterised by close cooperative planning by all teachers in planning groups P-2 / 3–4/ 5-6. There is an intense focus on openness and accountability to parents in the instructional process.

St Francis as part of its Learning Support Policy and procedures has a very effective tracking process in place for quality control of student achievement. This identifies both the students who require intervention through support programs and those students who benefit from Extension Programs.

The Support-A-Talker programme (SAT) developed by Speech Language Pathologists is offered to groups of 3 or 4 students in Prep – Year 3 to develop speaking and listening skills.

In mid -Year 1 children are screened for their phonological development using the University of Queensland Early Literacy Foundations(ELF) programme. Based on the results of this screener, children may participate in 

The ELF Support Programme. Designed by Speech Language Pathologists and Occupational Therapists, it is used in years 1-3 to boost their literacy, including listening, spelling, reading, handwriting and a range of other motor skills important for school participation.

For children in years 4 and 5, the University of Queensland developed Phonological Awareness for Literacy (PAL) programme is implemented for small groups of students. Developed by Speech Pathologists and Occupational Therapists in consultation with teachers it develops students’ phonological awareness skills and shows them explicitly how to use these skills in relation to reading and spelling.

Extra - curricula activities 

There are two separate instrumental programs one for ensemble instruments (clarinet, flute, saxophone, trumpet), the other for acoustic guitar.

All classes participate in the choral speech and singing choirs at the local eisteddfod each year.

Students have opportunities to represent the school in Regional and North

Queensland Sporting Teams

Year 5 attends a 3 day nature study camp at Paluma (Gumburu)

Year 6 attends a 3 day adventure style camp each year (Action Challenge

Mackay)

Students Council provides opportunities for leadership for senior students

How Information and Communication Technologies are used to assist learning 

The use of Information and Communication Technologies is incorporated into all aspects of the school environment. Our eLearning Guide (Year 4 teacher) is released 1 day a week to establish protocols and work with individual classroom teachers to implement and ensure Information and Communication

Technologies are planned and catered for within the classroom environment. All subject programs have incorporated the use of ICT to enhance student learning and teachers have completed professional development to increase their competency in the use of ICT in the classroom. There is a desktop Computer Lab, but classrooms are equipped with an interactive panel, computers and Chromebooks to enable students to access ICT when needed. Ipads are also available for teachers and used in the Early Years classes.

Social climate

St Francis is a welcoming Catholic School where we aim to provide opportunities for every child to fully develop their academic, spiritual, physical, social and emotional potential.

Specific programs in our school to achieve this goal are:

• Religious Education Program
• Pastoral Care
• Program Achieve - You Can Do It

Strategies/programs to respond to bullying include:

• You Can Do It
• Cyber bullying education program

Parent, student and teacher satisfaction with theschool

The parent and teacher satisfaction results are gathered using voluntary participation in a radii survey. 

Involving parents in their child’s education

Parents are involved in educational activities: reading groups, art, managing and coaching sporting teams.

Assessment and Reporting is an ongoing process which involve continuous communication with parents through criterion referenced assessment activities directly related to formal reporting each planning cycle.

Each class has weekly newsletter "Homelink" with families in addition to school newsletter, "Xavier"

2 Formal Parent-Teacher interviews each year plus extras at parent request, 2 written reports each year.

School Board, P&F Association and associated activities Parent volunteer helpers welcomed in rooms

Reducing the school’s environmental footprint

Use of an environmental audit and attention to its recommendations is included in the renewal cycle which is part of the life of TCEO schools. 

Recycling is practised and encouraged.

School Finances

For school income broken down by funding source: please refer to ​My School – School Finances  

Staff composition, including Indigenous staff

Qualifications of all teachers

Expenditure on and teacher participation inprofessional development

     The total funds expended on teacher professional development in 2018 was                                                                                            

$28,684. 

The major professional development initiatives for 2018 are as follows: 

Building Blocks to Literacy

TCEO Staff Compliance PD 2018

Theology of the Human Person

Assessment & Feedback

Lenten Programs 2018

HPE Inservice - Australian Curriculum - AYR

Leading with Integrity for Excellence (LWIE)

Library Network Days

Learning Area Panels

Technology in the Classroom & Planning

Mindframes for Visible Learning

Clickview & Data Training - Wed 8 August 2018

LND - Copyright & 2018 Roundup

Teachers Leading Educational Reform

Network of Indigenous Education Support Workers (NIEW Day)

Hearing Impairment Inservice

Speech Language Impairment Inservice

Autism Spectrum Disorder Inservice - Primary Teachers

Social Emotional Disorder Inservice

Intellectual Disability Inservice

The involvement of the teaching staff in professional development activities during 2018 was 75%

Average staff attendance

For permanent and temporary teaching staff and school leaders the staff attendance rate was 92.9% in 2018. 

Proportion of staff retained from the previous schoolyear

From the end of the previous school year, 100% of staff was retained by the school for the entire 2018 school year.  

Key student outcomes 

Attendance  

Student attendance - 2018  

The average attendance rate for the whole school as a percentage in 2018 was 94.7%.

Student attendance for each year level

Description of how non-attendance is managed by theschool

The school contacts the parents/guardians of each unexplained absence on the morning that the student is absent. A letter or phone call is made to the parent/guardians of those students who are regularly absent from school.  

Achievement – Years 3 and 5.

National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results – our reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy results for the Years 3 and 5.  

NAPLAN results are also available from ​My School​ website