School Review & Improvement Priorities (SRI)

Goal 1: Vision and Mission

This year we have launched and are ritualising the school’s new Vision and Mission statement across the school. It is an exciting opportunity to reconnect with our core values and continue to live out what St Michael’s is truly about.

A part of the implementation journey of our new Vision is the introduction of an award at the end of every term for each class based on the three pillars of the Vision statement. The final term’s assembly will be dedicated to the awards to emphasise their significance. The awards are about acknowledging and celebrating leadership and a genuine expression of our Vision.

Inspired by Christ, we aspire to excellence in learning, living life fully in community.

Goal 2: Literacy

St Michael’s Literacy Goal was focused on all teachers having a shared knowledge and understanding of a balanced literacy approach. The teachers have been working extremely hard unpacking the new English syllabus. All teachers have engaged in new professional learning around the ‘why’ behind the new syllabus and this has created a shared understanding and improved practice. 

Our K-2 teachers have been programming with the new syllabus and we have seen improvements in students' writing and reading skills. The decodable readers have been a huge success in kindergarten and have set our students up to be successful readers with strong reading skills. 

Our 3-6 teachers have been concept mapping on how the new syllabus will look in our primary classrooms and I know they are excited to program and plan using the new syllabus next year. 

Goal 3: Assessment

This year as part of School Review and Improvement, teachers engaged in professional learning to create a common understanding of quality assessment practices. Meetings were utilised to reconnect with the current research around what works best and share ideas of what quality assessment looks like in the classroom. Teachers focused on ways to embed feedback practices into teaching and learning effectively. These practices allow students to be able to self and peer assess their learning to celebrate what they have done well and clearly articulate what their next step in learning is. Teachers were involved in collaborative planning meetings to embed research based quality assessment practices where students can demonstrate their learning and know how they are going. 

After consolidating our understanding of assessment, we focused on developing students' reasoning in mathematics. Teachers engaged in collaborative planning of an assessment task, marking of work samples and data discussions. This collaborative process was very effective, allowing teachers to use this data to plan effective teaching and learning in mathematics.  

Miss Emma Riolo, Mrs Steph Brown & Miss Eliza Treble