Colyton Public School

Colyton Public School, established in 1861, plays an important and highly visible role in the community by providing a high quality education for all students. The core values of the school community are best described by the actions and attitudes established, encouraged and sustained through our Positive Behaviour For Learning initiative: Go as a Learner, Go Respectfully, Go Responsibly and Go Safely. The school's mission statement, 'seeking success by working together', reflects our social values for and connectedness with each other. The school achieves its mission by constantly reinvigorating and innovating learning and teaching strategies to engage, motivate, support and ensure that everyone moves 'forward with pride'. Together we seek success for all through provision of a well-balanced, inclusive, high quality education and sound foundation for future life long learning. The school delivers an opportunity class program in Year 5 and Year 6 for identified gifted and talented students. The school also implements a wide range of programs to support, nuture, inspire and engage students. These include Operation Art, performing arts initiatives, School Parliament, PSSA and school sport, public speaking and debating programs. The school achieves sound results in the National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). We also deliver the Best Start curriculum implementation and assessment program and maintain a strong emphasis on using data to formulate quality learning experiences for students of all abilities. Through our Smarter Schools National Partnership - Improving Teacher Quality, Centre For Excellence, we have focussed on enhancing the quality of teaching in respect to writing, spelling, punctuation and grammar (2011-12) and numeracy (2012). We are strongly committed to developing quality teaching and learning across the K-12 years and sharing this learning with other schools and teachers. The school's strong links with the local Colyton Learning Community and schools involved in the Smarter Schools National Partnership - Improving Teacher Quality, Centre For Excellence, have provided opportunities for developing and sustaining professional dialogue, learning and collaboratively developed programs for students, staff and parents from across the wider community. The Smarter Schools National Partnership - Improving Teacher Quality, Centre For Excellence, has enabled the school to employ a Highly Accomplished Teacher (HAT) an Educational paraprofessional(3 days per week) and an Operational parprofessional ( 2 days per week). These additional staff have visibly and tangibly assisted teachers and students to improve the quality of their teaching and learning. There is evidence in our NAPLAN data that the new learning and enhanced quality of teaching has led to improved learning outcomes for students. Our school currently has an enrolment of 650 students. Some unique features of our school population are evident in the fact that 402 students or 59% of our student population come from Language Backgrounds Other Than English. The school delivers intensive assistance in learning to talk, read and write in English for students who are new arrivals in Australia. Aboriginal students represent 3% of the school population. Reading Recovery, an intensive and individualised program, helps identified students in Year 1 to develop key early reading skills. The school has been able to employ a School Learning Support Officer (Ethnic) two days per week to assist Arabic speaking students and their families and a New Arrival Program teacher. This has led to visibly stronger communication, enhanced awareness and improved learning and wellbeing outcomes for students. We focus on student learning in Kindergarten through our Language, Literacy Learning (L3) teaching strategies to provide our youngest students with a solid foundation upon which to build their future learning. We have moved our Best Start program into Years 1 and 2 to help teachers and students build upon their prior learning. All classrooms have Interactive Whiteboards to assit teachers in delivering engaging and insightful lessons for all students. We also have two video conferencing centres that are used by staff, students and parents to engage in professional learning, using high level communications technology in order to maximise awareness, understanding, knowledge and skills. In order to support students with established and emerging special needs in their learning and optimise the value and benefits that can be obtained from the talents, experience and skills of teaching support staff, a Learning Support Team meets to provide coordinated and prioritised assistance, advice and advocacy. Our committed teaching and administrative staff are actively supported by an enthusiastic and willing Parents and Citizens Association and a School Council that provides advice about aspects of school governanc