At the AGM  on 18 March our 2014 Annual Report was presented. It highlighted some key aspects of our Learning Improvement Plan for the year ahead:

It is acknowledged that we provide a very good  level of educational opportunities for all students. We also understand that for all students to  shift into even higher levels of achievement it is a difficult journey  and therefore we have to seek some more effective strategies.  Our 2014 Annual Report  strongly connects our current practice and achievements to our vision for our learners and highlights the need to  intellectually stretch our learners by :

• working  strongly on developing students’ personal and social capabilities: their ability to manage  their impulses; to understand and harness relationships; to listen for understanding; to be resilient; to all have a headset for growing their learning capabilities to a higher level.
• developing powerful interwoven learning networks between our staff, parents and students. Our focus is on activating  people to help each other learn:  this means  greater partnering  across our school community so that 24/7 learning  can be understood and become habitual.  Our digital spaces are an important aspect of this focus as are our face to face relationships. We believe that  if we can get strong improvement in students’ personal and social development, this will ultimately give us sustainable intellectual stretching.  We also believe that this will most effectively happen with our staff  sharing good practice; with our parents learning how to better develop their children’s personal and social skills; with our students more effectively powered up to understand their own personal and social development and be better influences on their peers’ learning.

We recognise that our developmental work in specific subject areas is also important:

• English: improved oral language is a target as is persuasive writing (Yr 3-7)
• Maths: developing mathematical thinking through real life problems; greater focus on making maths visible  in all aspects of life;  connecting maths lessons to  mathematical thinking in all curriculum areas.
• Inquiry skills: all curriculum areas have inquiry (and problem solving) as a focus. We want students to be curious about learning; to be able to generate investigable questions and have the  skills and opportunities to pursue them at school and at home.

Throughout the year you will see that these are key areas  we will be working on  and setting learning goals around with students. We will be working with staff and parents to create effective ways of developing adults’ capabilities to better support  success for all students. Our Family Engagement  Strategy (more on this next week) is aimed at strengthening our capacity as a school community to do this.

The 2014 Annual Report will be published on our website next week.