Annual Report 2010

Immaculate Heart School Annual Report 2010

At Immaculate Heart Catholic Primary School we have as the core of our Mission Statement: Kingdom, Partnerships and Learning. We believe that we are all part of God's family working together for  advancement and future opportunities for our children. We promote a sense of belonging in an environment where we all feel accepted, valued and supported. We listen to each other and learn from experience and different perspectives. We look to Jesus as our model of exemplary behaviour and build and sustain a learning community grounded in Jesus' vision of love, liberation and justice. As our core business as a Catholic School, we teach Religious Education in the classroom and we also teach the children about being religious and participating in prayer and liturgical events. Our curriculum is designed to be inclusive, holistic, contemporary and supportive of individual needs. We strive to provide children with opportunities across the curriculum that will both encourage and challenge them. We offer a creative program which is broad and balanced and which focuses on outcomes for life and living.

School Profile

Immaculate Heart Catholic Primary School is a coeducational Catholic school administered through Catholic Education, Archdiocese of Brisbane. Total students enrolled for this school is 199 (100 girls, 99 boys)

Distinctive Curriculum Offerings

Immaculate Heart School is a co-educational catholic school catering for children in Prep to Year 7. We are located at 24 Old Toowoomba Rd, One Mile in the Leichhardt Catholic Parish. Our school supports the nine Key Learning Areas with:

• A structured RE Program that aims to give children Religious Literacy. The program enables children to learn about the Catholic Tradition and to use this process to reflect upon their own spiritual growth.
• Specialist teachers in Music; LOTE (Chinese); Library; Information, Communication and Learning Technologies; Health and Physical Education and Literacy and Numeracy Improvement.
• Bi-annual trip to Canberra for Year 6/7 children (2011);
• Focus on the Arts through DanceFever and School Choir;
• Upgraded facilities and five year plans for technology advancements
• BluEarth Social Skills Program
• Beating Bully Bulldozer - Anti-Bullying Program

Extra Curricular Activities

Children at Immaculate Heart School have the opportunity to be involved in:

• Readers Cup Competition;
• Instrumental band Program and School Choir;
• Eisteddfod competitions including Ipswich eisteddfod;
• Interschool sport competition;
• Bi-annual Educational Tour to Canberra for year 6 & 7 Students
• Academic competitions.

 At Immaculate Heart Catholic Primary School we have a continual cycle of five year plans in order to maintain and upgrade our Information and Communication Technologies. We have a computer lab of 26 computers which is utilised for whole class and group lessons both for learning how to use technology and for using computers to complete projects in all areas of the curriculum. Each classroom also has two computers for use at other times of the day/week. We are phasing in the use of electronic whiteboards as funds become available. Every classroom has a digital camera, access to high definition video recorders and digital projectors. The Information and Communication Technologies teacher targets groups through the school to work on focussed projects involving more comprehensive use of learning technologies eg making a DVD for all classes to use in conjunction with our Beating Bully Bulldozer Program, creating learning objects. Our brand new Immaculate Heart School Hall has excellent facilities for stage lighting, sound and video projection. This facility can adapt to a wide variety of events and learning and will enable us to teach and learn much about stage productions in the future.

Social Climate of the School

Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish and wider community. As a catholic school we ground ourselves and our mission, vision, policy and practice on the following beliefs:

• The person and mission of Jesus is our motivation and example;
• The dignity of every person must be upheld;
• Authentic education is lifelong and life-giving;
• We educate the whole person - spiritually, academically, socially, physically and emotionally;
• Every child has the potential to be an effective learner;
• successful education is reliant on strong partnerships between children, parents and school staff.

A range of indicative data is collated to inform school policy, procedures and practices. Parents, Staff and students are consulted on many issues and play an important role in providing the school principal with feedback. A School Board is responsible for overseeing parent and community surveys and questionnaires. This data is used to help set school goals, provide feedback and help maintain the School Renewal Plan. Parents and Friends meeting agendas and feedback also provide invaluable information about parent satisfaction.

Comments from children on the latest school pamphlet include:

• I have lots of friends. Everyone joins in and plays.
• All of my friends go to this school.
• Our teachers are wonderful.
• I like being in the choir.
• It's a fun place to learn.

Parents play an integral role at Immaculate Heart School through:

• An active Parents and Friends Association;
• Parent involvement in classroom activities;
• Social events - fair, trivia night, disco, morning teas, orientation days
• Sport coaching;
• Attendance and participation in Assemblies and Liturgy;
• Parent Courses offered through the school including Triple P Parenting;
• Communication through newsletter (electronic and hard co, website, parent meetings;
• Student support meetings.

Staff Profile

Expenditure on and teacher participation in Professional Learning

The total funds expended on teacher professional learning in 2010 was $32040. The major professional development initiatives were as follows:

• Self-targeted professional development for individual staff members based on Individual Development      Plans
• Differentiated curriculum training
• First Aid Training
• Curriculum Planning and Development days for all staff
• Religious Education Professional Development - The Catholic School in the 20th Century
• Consistency of Teacher Judgement
• Staff Mentoring
• First Steps Writing
• Australian Curriculum Updates and use of the early version documents.

98.35%

84%

92.57%

Student Achievement - NAPLAN for Years 3, 5, & 7