Achieving excellent results

 Our school must be doing a lot right as our student learning outcomes and other whole school data has been very impressive across a range of measures.

NAPLAN 

 NAPLAN data results have been pleasing and indicate the school is definitely on an upward trajectory compared to many like schools. he growth for students who attend our school and who sit the year 3 and year 5 NAPLAN compared to the state mean  test has been very pleasing.

Many of our E.A.L. (English as an Additional Language) students as we know start from a low base but catch up as they learn English and develop their understanding. Their growth is also very pleasing.

NAPLAN assesses the sorts of skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life, such as reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy. It is important to remember that NAPLAN tests are not pass/fail tests - they indicate where a student is on in their learning journey.

At the classroom level NAPLAN is one of a number of important tools used by teachers to measure student progress. 

Our growth is above state growth in the areas of spelling, grammar and punctuation.
Our school utilizes Essential Assessments which allows students and teachers to track learning progress together. Students have access to this online assessment tool and "own" their data... historically it was the teacher who had access to data but we believe the students should have ownership as well because it is all about them!

At Belle Vue Park our teachers are provided with extra planning time to sit down with individual students to review the student's data, discuss "where to next" and the strategies that are needed to make it to the next growth point.

Students also have their own "My data" folder where they keep their goals, assessments and learning/achievement samples.

 Measuring Excellence in Visual Arts 

Our school was recently involved in the collection of baseline data for measurement of The Arts in Victorian schools. The 2017 sample assessment will be used to assist in the development of materials to contribute to improved performance by sharing best practice and clarifying standards.
 
This target highlights the importance of knowledge and skills in The Arts across Victoria and recognises that embedding a culture that values excellence in the arts will help Victoria achieve its goals for better learning and life outcomes for all students.  The Arts assessments was across 66 Victorian primary and secondary schools (Year 6 and 10 students.)  We were assessed on our Visual Arts program.
 
For Visual Arts, students were required to:
- submit an artwork in any form (e.g. two dimensional, three dimensional or four dimensional form) that had already been created during class time that semester. Artworks could include: painting, drawing, mixed media, sculpture, ceramics, photography, digital imaging, textiles, installation, film, video, sound, animation, performance and interdisciplinary works.
- submit a brief statement of intent and an outline of the process to produce the work of art - this may have pre-existed in a visual diary/artist statement/evaluation of the work accompanying the work being assessed.
 
Arts criteria and scoring
Students were assessed by two assessors using a rubric that included these five criteria:
1. Use of materials, techniques, processes in final artwork
2. Expression and communication of ideas and personal views in the artwork
3. Realisation of artistic intentions in artworks
4. Describing the artistic intentions in the artwork (via written accompaniment)
5. Referencing artistic influences in the artwork (via written accompaniment)
 
Each of the above criteria were marked out of a score of 5, giving a student a total of 50 score points (two assessors marking out of 25).
The median score in 2017 for Visual Arts Year 6 across Victoria was 22.
The median score for Belle Vue Park Primary in the Visual Arts was 27.
Our highest assessed score was 47/50.
 
The assessors were very impressed with the use of S.O.L.E. (Self Organised Learning Environments) inquiry process as they had not seen it used in any other school.
 
These excellent results are a credit to Fay Sinclair and her brilliant teaching of Visual Arts across our school. Belle Vue Park Primary School was rated well above other schools in the state and again is setting high standards for our students and achieving excellent results. These high standards continue into 2020.

Student Attitudes to School Survey data
2014 -2019

You can find out how great a school is if you ask other parents who send their children to the school and what their perception of the school is.

You can also ask the students what they think. This may be difficult to do, however, the Department of Education and Training does a student survey in all schools every year.

Our survey results are at or above state and regional levels in just about all areas and have continued to improve each year.
 
This is what our year 5/6 students think…
 
The trend data from the “Attitudes to School” surveys  indicates a strong upward trend from 2014-2019 in - student relationships, wellbeing, teaching & learning . This reflects the positive  impact our teaching & learning programs and strategies are having on students.

The data indicates that our year 5 and 6 students are engaged in their learning with very strong growth in all categories for Student Relationships, Wellbeing and Teaching & Learning.

One of our goals was to have the Attitude to School variable for ‘School Connectedness’ to be at or above state mean. We have improved our data in this category each year for the past 4 years. These measures are a score out of 5.

2014-3.85, 2015-4.31,  2016-4.54 with an average score of 4.23 / 5

 The School Connectedness of our students is above state & above region  indicating that the strategies and programs we offer are successful and that our students are engaged at school and in their learning.

Parent Opinion Survey 2019

You can find out how great a school is if you ask other parents but obviously that might be a little difficult.
The Education Department likes to know what parents think of their local school and each year parents are asked to complete a survey on their child's school.

Belle Vue Park Primary School has for many years received excellent feedback from our parents. When compared to other schools our school is above state average in many categories. This year the highest ratings the school received from our parents were

Parent participation and involvement - 85.1
School communication - 91.8
General School Improvement - 81.7
Student motivation and support - 84.2
Stimulating learning environment - 83.7
Effective teaching - 85.3
Student agency and voice - 84.6
Confidence and resiliency skills - 79.4
Managing bullying - 93.6
Respect for diversity -90.9
Student connectedness - 89.7
Positive transitions -83.0

School assessed date

Our school uses a number of assessments platforms and staff follow a consistent whole school assessment schedule which allows us to pitch our teaching at the point of need for each student.

The main one is an online program "Essential Assessments" which allows staff to design learning tasks, set learning goals and assess individual and cohort progress. 

Teachers and individual students get time together to review student data and then set learning goals together. We want our students to own their own data and be active participants in establishing their learning goals.