Annual School Report 2018

St Francis Xavier Catholic School

Nauiyu Daly River

The Malak Malak people are the traditional custodians of the land on which our school stands. We wish to acknowledge and respect their continuing culture in the life of this community.

School Context

St Francis Xavier School currently caters for students from Pre-School to Year 10. The school was established in 1956 by the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, and is located in the picturesque Daly River region of the Northern Territory, approximately 220kms south west of Darwin. The Nauiyu Community at Daly River has approximately 500 residents from 10 different language groups.

The main traditional language spoken at Daly River is Ngungi Kurunggurr, with the traditional owners of the land being the Malak Malak people. Although traditional languages are still used, the dominant language spoken today is Aboriginal English.

St Francis Xavier Catholic School CMB 28 Nauiyu Community,

Daly River NT 0822

Phone (08) 8978 2427 Fax (08) 8978 2590 dr.adminbox@nt.catholic.edu.au

School Vision St Francis Xavier is an Aboriginal Catholic Community School uniting the Aboriginal way of life and Gospel values to build strong learners and future leaders.

School Mission

Strong in Faith, Strong in Culture and Strong in Learning

Principal’s Message

This annual report provides an overview of the 2018 year and a brief record of school achievements.

St Francis Xavier Catholic School experienced an unsettled start to the year with the evacuation of the Nauiyu Community due to flooding, on 30th January to Foskey’s Pavilion, Darwin. ‘Flood school’ was established for the students of St Francis Xavier School at St John’s College and was implemented for 6 days. This gave teachers the opportunity to develop rapport with the students, visit the NT Museum, have visits from NT AFL and immerse the students in mainstream classes at Holy Spirit School and St John’s College. Once the floodwaters had receded the community was able to return for the clean-up. The damage to the school was not as bad as in previous years due to the school’s flood preparation being implemented and the level of the flood waters.

There was also instability in the community during Term 1 due to continual unrest between family members. This impacted greatly on staff and students and our attendance rate dropped dramatically. Some families moved away from Nauiyu for a time until the situation calmed. The biggest impact was on the Seniors’ class due to their age and involvement in the unrest.

I am very proud of all our accomplishments this year, especially the overall consistency in staffing, school procedures and whole-school approaches to teaching and learning. Our school is a very settled and positive place where we strive to reach our goals of high expectations of staff and students. We are starting to see some real gains in student achievements and behaviours.

Reflections on the 2018 School Year

During the first term the members of the Catholic Indigenous Leadership Team (CILT) formally

welcomed and blessed new staff at a water ceremony

Graduation of Nikita Jason in Bachelor of Education (Primary) through Charles Darwin University

and the GOO programme

Nikita Jason short-listed for Young Indigenous Leader of the Year

Implementation of the Graduate and Grow Program with a mentor teacher to support newly

graduated teachers in their first years of teaching

Introduction of our school-wide Fitness Program at the start of each day.

Implementation of the Aboriginal Reference Group with weekly meetings and reporting back to the

Leadership Team

Expansion of the Leadership Team to include the Religious Education Co-ordinator

One Growing Our Own student teacher continued her studies

Book Week parade and activities

Community and family events throughout the year to celebrate special occasions such as: welcome

to the new year, NAIDOC day, Fathers’ Day, parent/teacher interviews, Open Day and Community

Song launch

The Indigenous Language and Culture program continued with regular involvement of the community

Elders. Visual resources in Ngan’gi language were created and displayed in classrooms.

Classes went on a variety of bush trips for Culture.

Time allocation for an Indigenous Language and Culture Coordinator

Swimming lessons in Terms 2 and 3 thanks to the co-operation of Tipperary Station School. During

Term 4 the swimming lessons were held at the local, Nauiyu Pool with the opportunity for staff to

have training in First Aid and Bronze Medallion

Stations of the Cross was observed in the lead-up to Easter in a very reverent and special way with

Miriam Rose sharing her knowledge with the students.

The school vegie gardens continued to grow and flourish under the support of the Wellbeing Co-

ordinator and 2/3/4 class and teachers

Red Dust visits – Healthy Living, Role Models, Yoga and Song Composition, Recording and Video

Art Back Dance Instructor

Artist in Schools Mural project

Hip Hop Dance Instructor

Introduction of the Mountain Bike Project for Senior students as an incentive to promote attendance,

fitness and wellbeing

Employment of a Youth Worker to assist in engaging ‘at risk’ students back into school

Implementation of an after-school AFL training program for young boys and girls.

St Francis Xavier School’s Art stall at Merrepen Art Festival. A percentage of the profits and fund

raising at school contributed $400 towards the Drought Appeal.

A Christmas Concert proved to be a wonderful celebration to complete the year and was well attended by the community

Whole-school celebration of St Francis Xavier’s feast day at Lake Leanyer, Darwin

Class excursions to Darwin provided students with the opportunity to have different learning experiences. T/1/2 and Seniors went to The Territory Wildlife Park, 4/5/6 went to see the Gruffalo play at the Darwin Entertainment Centre and the Seniors went on a Mountain Bike ride in Darwin

Catholic Identity

We have endeavoured to encourage reverence and respect in the Church. Pointing out to the children the Church is a holy place, a spiritual place, and there is expected behaviour in a sacred place.

Each term we celebrated two Masses eg: Pentecost, Easter, 1st Sunday in Advent, The Assumption. As well we celebrated Liturgies such as: National Sorry Day and Remembrance Day. The students also participated in the Mass with students reading the Prayers of the Faithful and take part in the Offertory procession.

Father Peter has been visiting our school each Wednesday to join us in Mary’s Space for the morning prayer and has been into classrooms for brief visits. A beautiful, hand-painted, silk cloth which was a gift from one of the visiting schools, St Ignatius Adelaide will be ideal to be used for liturgies.

Preparation for the Sacraments was improved this year with the co-teaching of the 4/5/6 classroom teacher and Religious Education Co-ordinator teaching two groups: the Confirmation candidates and the Communion candidates. Year 4 students from 2/3/4 joined the class. The practice of ½ hour lessons over a period of 4 weeks ensured the children were well prepared. There were 15 students for First Holy Communion and 8 students for Confirmation.

Indigenous links have been supported by Miriam Rose in the Seniors’ Religion lesson while Mushiwan has assisted with Religion in the other classrooms when needed, particularly 4/5/6 class. Prayer tables have focused on the liturgical seasons and classroom displays have been excellent supporting the unit of work being covered.

St Francis Xavier Staff had their annual retreat on Friday, 30 November. Miriam-Rose was the facilitator extending on Dadirri from last year, and also presenting The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. We found it was beneficial for staff to have the retreat during Term 4 as it gave us the opportunity for strong reflection. St Edmunds and the Youth Ministry’s visit during the year was very beneficial to our students as they planned and implemented a retreat for the seniors, middle primary and the juniors.

One of the highlights of the year was the Nathan Galea Concert. Three students travelled to Darwin for the event and it was a wonderful experience for those students. Overall the two main improvements in Religious Education at St Francis Xavier has been the respectful behaviour during Mass and the teaching of Religion daily.

Professional Development

There has been on-going professional Development opportunities for all staff throughout the year. Catholic Education Office have been instrumental in providing quality PD through: network meetings, school visits and regional PD sessions. These have included:

Maths Assessment Interview

Essential Classroom Management Skills and Classroom Profiling

Accelerated Literacy, John Munroe

Employment Pathways

Providing CPR

Autism and Communication

SMART goals

Effective Planning and Differentiation

Read, Write Inc. training

Peter Sullivan: Open-ended and challenging Maths tasks

Technology and Ipad Apps

Prioritising Curriculum

Team Work

Strategies for Defiant Behaviours

Using INSPIRE and PLPs

Mind Up

Mandatory reporting

Work, Health and Safety Policy

EAL/D Writing Moderation

Catholic Indigenous Leadership Team (CILT) SFX staff and CILT continued to strengthen partnership and participate in joint activities. It was recommended that the membership on our CILT team be expanded. Two additional members were initially elected to participate as ‘observers’ in a CILT meeting. One of those members withdrew her interest in joining the team, so there is currently two members on CILT.

Teaching and Learning This year we have introduced uninterrupted time for the Literacy block each morning and ensured that the timetable has the least interruptions to the students learning. The time-table reflects key learning areas and time with regular time-tabled Culture lessons. We have used our data to inform our teaching practice throughout the school and this has created a culture of collaboration between staff and their professional engagement. The staff have been working at becoming more effective at tracking and using data which is then readily available at reporting time. We have used assessment checklists which have helped to keep records, track students and record data. There have been assessment folders set up for each student, which allows for information to be stored in a central location and we can keep track of evidence collected

Our PLCs have been more focused and looked at assessment, tracking and reporting. All staff are willing to take on roles and further their own learning and we have introduced school-based PD opportunities for AT’s to further develop their understandings and skills. The support for GOO students and ATs studying Early Childhood qualifications has seen 2 new enrolments into the Certificate and Diploma level courses through Alana Kaye. Teaching programmes have been monitored closely in order for differentiating and assessment to be a focus to plan for each student. Every week we had “planning together” sessions with the Curriculum Coordinator as well as Friday planning time, where the teachers have time allocated to plan with their AT’s for the week ahead. We have invited outside agencies and utilised our Youth Worker to assist in connecting the curriculum to students’ interests eg. Engagement to VET, Gardening programme, Swimming Programme, Mountain Bike Project. A Youth worker was employed to help with disengaged students and support within the classroom with extension work in the Senior class. An introduction of the Mind Up programme to meet the needs of students’ well-being, as well as utilising the Catholic Care counsellor for further development and well-being processes has proven to be a useful and worthy project. We had a very keen response to implement the Essential Classroom Management Skills and Profiling as a whole-school approach to behaviour and further develop our skills in order to ensure for positive behaviours and school rules to be adhered to and become our “ethos.” The introduction of Read Write Inc. as an intervention programme for phonics, spelling, reading and writing has seen great success and we have seen growth within the students’ progress and confidence levels. The continued collaboration with the Inclusion Support Coordinator and having time set aside for Inspire and setting Smart Goals for the students has been a vital and informative process. Use of the EAP’s for reporting and goal setting has worked well. This year we have changed the teaching of Religion in T-6 to teaching in 30 minute blocks each day. A Religion planning proforma has been developed and RE units are saved on the school server. This planning has put an emphasis on the learning intentions and has assisted in keeping teaching focused on the unit. The focus this year has been to support teachers in their programming and next year the aim is to examine the units and improve the content focus and ensure prayer is an integral part of the unit.

Wellbeing and Engagement This year we made a clear distinction between behavior management and student wellbeing. Classroom teachers are responsible for following up on students’ behavior within their classroom. More serious behavior incidents are referred to the principal. We are collecting ongoing data to confirm the decline in incidents related to behaviour.

Amanda, the school counsellor from Catholic Care is doing a fantastic job with the

students. Her time has increased to 3 days per fortnight for counselling and 3 days

per fortnight for Community Programmes. This term Amanda has been

implementing the Rock and Water Programme with the Senior and 4/5/6 girls. This

has looked at: core strength, valuing yourself and personal qualities and taking

pride in yourself.

There have been a number of staff wellbeing sessions throughout the year which

staff have found beneficial. The Engagement Coordinator and Youth Worker have

been proactive in visiting families and following up on absenteeism with the Elders.

School Profile

Indigenous Enrolment 99%

EAL/D 99%

School Attendance

Year Level Attendance Percentage

Pre-school 61%

Transition 60%

Year 1 53%

Year 2 63%

Year 3 63%

Year 4 75%

Year 5 53%

Year 6 54%

Year 7 55%

Year 8 46%

Year 9 24%

Year 10 20%

The average attendance for the Preschool and Primary classes is: 60.25%. The Elders, Engagement Coordinator and Youth Worker have been instrumental in following up with families regarding students’ absences. The average attendance in the Seniors’ class is much lower. This is greatly affected by the number of students attending boarding school, student dis-engagement with the schooling process and ongoing community fighting.

Average Attendance Whole School: 55%

Students with Disabilities 2

School Staff:

Full Time Equivalent 9 Teachers

1 Youth Worker

21 Support Staff

Total Staff 31

Teacher qualifications

All teachers have a minimum of four years training. Seven teachers are registered

with the Northern Territory Teacher Registration Board and two graduate teachers

have Authority to Teach with the Northern Territory Registration Board. These

teachers are in the process of applying for provisional teaching status with the NT

TRB.

Support Staff No school could function without the support or Ancillary staff. The local staff have been very supportive of the teachers through their ongoing work in the school office, on the grounds, in the kitchen and in the classrooms.

NAPLAN Summary

Year Level Test School Mean

Students Above National minimum standard

Students at National minimum standard

Students below National minimum standard

Year 3 Reading 296 1 0 1

Writing 141 0 0 2

Spelling 238 0 0 2

Grammar &

Punctuation

293 1 0 1

Numeracy 263 0 0 2

Year 5 Reading 364 3 0 3

Writing 373 0 0 6

Spelling 326 0 1 5

Grammar &

Punctuation

329 0 1 5

Numeracy 243 1 3 3

Year 7 Reading 395 0 1 4

Writing 355 0 0 5

Spelling 441 0 2 3

Grammar &

Punctuation

397 0 1 4

Numeracy 440 0 1 3

Year 9 Reading 360 0 0 4

Writing 241 0 0 2

Spelling 464 1 1 2

Grammar &

Punctuation

310 0 1 3

Numeracy 454 0 1 2

It is pleasing to see the number of students achieving at above National Minimum

Standard in: reading, grammar & punctuation, spelling and numeracy. There is also an increase in the number of students achieving at National Minimum Standard in: reading, grammar & punctuation, spelling and numeracy. The area of concern across all year levels is writing and this will become a focus for next year’s School Improvement Plan (SIP).

Financial Summary

Endorsements Fran Enilane (Principal) Date:

Greg O’Mullane (Director of CEO) Date