Windale Public School

Key features

The school established a learning centre to improve student literacy and numeracy outcomes.

School context

Windale Public School is in the electorate of Charlestown in the Lake Macquarie area sited between the lake and the ocean, close to a major suburban centre and 10 kilometres south of Newcastle central business district.

The school has a current enrolment of 290 students (P-6) comprising 150 boys and 141 girls from 170 families. Students from an Aboriginal background comprise 23% of the total student population. There is an annual mobility rate of 26%.

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What was the school aiming to achieve?

Previously many of the intervention programs in the school were welfare based, while the gap between school and state means continued to widen. The majority of teachers were working hard without there being any improvement in student learning outcomes. The school identified that there was the need and opportunity to utilise the PAS program funding to do something differently to improve learning outcomes.

Extensive use was made of school, NSW Department of Education and Training and external data to determine a strategic focus. This focus was to improve student achievement in literacy and numeracy outcomes, while sustaining the professional learning of teachers, parents and community members.

The school wanted to establish a learning centre that had an intensive focus on literacy and numeracy involving small like group instruction for all students for a definite period of time.

Teacher release time was organised for all staff to participate in regular sessions in the learning centre, where the suggested strategies were aligned to syllabus outcomes. Teachers undertook to trial a particular strategy over a period of time and then met with the co-ordinator to reflect on the effectiveness of the strategy.

Using learning journals teachers engaged in reflection and formative evaluation. They discussed the reasons for success or worked collegially to address the challenges they encountered.

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The improvement process

The learning centre provided a learning environment where students could participate in smaller group sizes. The smaller size instructional groups allowed for specific individual programs to cater for students’ needs and were centred on achievable goals to encourage success and therefore lead to an increase in student confidence.

Teachers were provided with quality professional development. Parents and the community were encouraged to participate in learning workshops to create a professional learning community.

The school set out to improve the literacy outcomes K-6 by developing an intensive literacy program through the establishment of a best practice learning centre.

Specifically the targets were to:

• improve student outcomes in literacy
• increase student engagement in schooling
• improve staff pedagogical practices through the implementation of professional learning
• promote home, school and community partnerships.

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Funding was used to employ additional staff to establish and conduct a learning centre that targeted students performing well below appropriate stage outcomes in literacy.

The program consisted of four one hour sessions per week for eight weeks. Students were pre and post tested and programs structured around areas of need for further development and interest.

In 2004 numeracy was included in the Stage 3 program. In 2005 the learning centre was made available to all students in both literacy and numeracy. In 2006 to ensure equity for all students, the learning centre incorporated a Gifted and Talented (Students) perspective across both literacy and numeracy.

What were the results?

Students

The following table is a comparison of Basic Skills Test (BST) results for 2005 and 2006.

School

The school has implemented stage based literacy and numeracy groups K-6. Pedagogy now incorporates the Quality Teaching framework, specifically deep understanding, relevance, significance and intellectual quality. Explicit literacy strategies, including guided and modelled reading, running records, the 3H strategy and reciprocal reading are all part of the literacy sessions.

Community

There has been a positive involvement and an increase in parents’ participation in assisting with guided reading both at school and home.

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Reflections

The 2007 PAS program is maintaining the current learning centre model’s structure as both a support and enrichment program for all students K-6 in literacy and numeracy. It will also provide further professional learning and training in literacy and numeracy support strategies for both parents and teachers.

From parents:

• "Daniel has been very lucky to have been in the learning centre. The time, effort and money for this program have really paid dividends for the students who have been involved; his attitude to learning has improved significantly and he seems happier at school in general."
• "A range of students have been provided opportunities in this centre; they are more relaxed and confident and the processes that are used engage them in active learning."
• "The reports provided at the end of the term are excellent; there is information and suggestions on how to move forward."
• "I have attended Reading Recovery lessons so I can support my child at home, we read for an hour at home and we both enjoy it!"

From students:

• "My family is pleased with how much better I read. It has helped with all my subjects."
• "I enjoy reading now and I read at home."
• "I like being able to run the class like a teacher. You learn so much more in the small classes."
• "I don’t get into trouble as much in normal class, because I understand how to read now."
• "My friends told me that the learning centre was lots of fun, it helped me to read.
• "I have learnt how to scan and chunk and we all work well together."
• "The learning centre is great; that’s why I like coming to school."

From teachers:

• "The reading process is complex; it draws upon a range of experiences and demands active engagement."
• "There is a metalanguage for teaching and learning literacy, e.g. prompts."
• "Literacy pedagogy needs to be explicitly directed to the identified needs of the students."
• "The skills of literacy are necessary for effective learning in other KLAs."

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Future directions

BST data 2006 suggest a need to move from gender based maths groups to streamed maths groupings across all stages. Parent sessions on Working Mathematically have been identified to support this change.

Contact: Julie Lai, Principal