Address

Karalee State School

Arthur Summervilles Road

Karalee 4306

Phone

3294 5333

Fax

3295 5300

Email

The.principal@karaleess.eq.edu.au

Website or Contact Person

www.karaleess.eq.edu.au

Introduction

This report provides parents, staff and other members of the Karalee State School community with information about the school’s activities and achievements throughout 2007. It highlights our strengths and identifies areas for development and improvements during 2008.

The School Annual Report is a public document required both for Karalee State School’s and Education Queensland’s accountability. It provides valuable information for Education Queensland and for members of the school and wider community on the achievements of our school measured against the achievements of the State. This report is used to develop school priorities as outlined on the 2008 Annual Operation Plan.

W.D Freeman (Principal)

Future outlook

Education Queensland ’s and Karalee’s overarching objective is “To provide a quality Public Education system that delivers opportunities for all students to achieve learning outcomes and reach their potential.”

This will be achieved by a number of 2010 strategies

Improve the learning engagement and achievement of students in the early and middle phases of learning

Provide coherent cohesive learning experiences through the alignment of quality curriculum, teaching, assessment and reporting through the QCAR Framework.

Enhance the educational success of all students through safe and inclusive education practices

Create sustainable learning environments by shaping and monitoring the human resource management, finance, professional development, facilities and information technology management services.

Maintain our Middle Phase of leaning initiative in year 6 & 7.

School Profile

The School

Karalee State School is located in a residential area in a division of Ipswich City .   The area which includes Karalee, Chuwar and Barellan Point is bounded by the Brisbane and Bremer Rivers and the Warrego Highway .   With several large real estate developments in the area, the district population is predicted to increase slowly over the next few years. There is a distinct lack of local services and facilities and limited public transport.

School Enrolment:        Primary: 480  

Year Levels Offered: Prep, Year 1,2,3,4,5,6,7

Karalee State School is a co-educational complex catering for both boys and girls.

Curriculum offerings

Karalee State School offers the normal curriculum offerings of all State School.

Our LOTE is German which runs from Prep to year 7. Prep to year 6 receive 30 minutes a week while year 7 receive 60minutes of LOTE.

Karalee has a Distinctive schools program. Parts of the Distinctive schools program include

Distinctive schools program

Art Program : The schools employs 2 specialist art teachers for one day a week. All children are involved in the art program, meaning that the students receive 2 lessons per term with the specialist art teachers. Each year the school holds, normally in term 4, an “Arts Afternoon” which celebrates the achievements of the Art & Music program in the school. The community is invited to this event and is normally well attended.

Karalee State School Middle Phase run a lunchtime program for year 6 & 7 girls called GIDGITS (Girls Into Doing Great IT Stuff). It is attended by approximately 40 girls. Our Gidgits's program is based on the Ed Queensland program "Go Go Gidgits. Attendance is voluntary and is run over two days to accomodate the number of girls wanting to participate.  The girls participate in online activities created by girls for girls. Our program has been designed to change girl's perceptions of ICT.  Research has shown that girls need effective female role models to combat the negative perceptions of technology and we aim to show girls  that ICT can be enjoyable and rewarding for them.  Our Gidgits program has been so successful that we now run a parallel program for boys called "Gadgets".

Extra curricula activities

Extra-Curricula Activities: The school throughout the year provides opportunities for children to be involved in many extra curricular activities. These include:

Competitions in Science, Computer Skills, English, Maths, Spelling and Writing are offered to the children Each year we have a number of children who take part in these competitions.

Griffith University Excellence Expo: Each year the school normally enters one team in the Griffith University Expo. This is an excellent opportunity for those children with a passion and energy for problem solving.

Opti Minds: The Opti-Minds Challenge is a problem solving program for teams of students from both primary and secondary schools. They are required to solve demanding, open-ended challenges from one of the following disciplines:

Language Literature

Maths Engineering

Social Sciences

Opti-Minds is an opportunity for students with a passion for learning and problem solving to demonstrate their skills and talents in an exciting, vibrant and public way.

Interschool Sport

Children from year 5 -7 are involved in Friday afternoon Interschool Sport. During Summer we play – Cricket, Softball, AFL, Touch and during Winter we play – Soccer (Boys & Girls), Rugby League, Hockey, Netball and some years Joey League for the year 4’s

Library: The library is opened Monday to Thursday at lunch time for children to browse books, play games etc during lunch time recess.

How computers are used to assist learning

Computers

Computers are used to assist learning in the school by the use of various strategies. The school has 92 computers on 1 networks in the school. All classrooms have 4 computers. The school has a computer lab of 17 computers in the library. All the computers in the lab have been replaced in 2007. In 2007 the school had MOE (Managed Operating Environment) installed providing one network across the school

Computers are used for learning using a variety of strategies depending on the needs of the students. They include:

Use of powerpoint for presentations

Providing stimulus for language development with the use of Inside Stories, PM and the older children Book 2 Web

Combining information & graph creation using excel

Interactive maths and language games

Interactive websites for research and reading

Use of word, publisher and excel

Browsing the internet as part of developing critical literacy skills

Publishing student writing

Keyboarding skills

Basic maths facts

Use of tutorials for students having difficulties

Use with digital cameras

Use with Data projector for whole class instruction

Emailing buddy classes in Australia and across the world

Art Development

OneSchool

Karalee has become one of ten schools across the State to trial the One School Entrée in 2007. Building from the 2002 - 2005 ICTs for Learning strategy, the Smart Classrooms strategy establishes Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as the foundation of 21st century schools, where new technologies spark greater interaction between students, teachers, parents and guardians. One school is being rolled out to all state schools in 2008.

The foundation component of the Department's Smart Classrooms strategy is the OneSchool program. The OneSchool program involves the design and deployment of a comprehensive, flexible and sustainable information management system in Queensland state schools.

The OneSchool program is not just about securing a technology replacement for the current school-based system, but is concerned with delivering a comprehensive, flexible and sustainable information management system that will meet the future needs of the Department and schools.

The program will support the Department's core business of learning, teaching and the curriculum by providing functionality for:

student management

curriculum and learning management

school resource management

financial and asset management

performance, reporting and analysis.

Social climate

Social Climate of the School:

The school has a visiting Guidance Officer, a STLD (Support Teacher Learning Difficulties), Visiting Advisory Visiting Teachers and Volunteer Religious Education Teachers. All students can access these staff and community members.

Involving parents in their child’s education.

Strategies used for Involving Parents in their child’s Education

Education is a partnership between the child, the home and the school, and the establishment of positive, effective relationships among all partners will ensure rewarding educational and social experiences for your child.

As parents, your involvement in the functioning and development of Karalee State School is vital.   You are welcome to participate both within the classroom and in the organisational aspects of the school.   Your child will benefit from your involvement.

Expenditure on and teacher participation in professional development.

The total funds expended on teacher professional development in 2007 was $7 900 or 13% of the General Grants received..

The major professional development initiatives are as follows:

QCAR

ICT

Literacy

Science

The involvement of the teaching staff in professional development activities during 2007 was 100 %.

Average staff attendance

For permanent and temporary staff and school leaders the staff attendance rate was 95.9% in 2007.

Proportion of staff retained from the previous school year.

From the end of the 2006 school year, 95 % of staff were retained by the school for the entire 2007 school year.

Student attendance

The average attendance rate as a percentage in 2007 was 95.9 %.

Results in the Year 2 Diagnostic Net

(Recommended). The results below are available on the Corporate Data Warehouse webpage “Additional Support with State and Like School Benchmarks.

Percentage of students not requiring additional support

Reading

71%

Writing

97.1%

Number

78.3%

Our reading, writing and numeracy results for the Queensland Years 3, 5 and 7 Literacy and Numeracy Tests.

Yr 3

Yr 5

Yr 7

Reading

Average score for the school

520

589

686

Average score for Queensland

527

606

672

Percentage of students at the school above the national benchmark

2007

95 %

69 %

87 %

2006

99%

92 %

92 %

Writing

Average score for the school

514

571

689

Average score for Queensland

523

600

681

Percentage of students at the school above the national benchmark

2007

97%

100%

93%

2006

96%

95%

98.1%

Numeracy

Average score for the school

513

601

666

Average score for Queensland

521

588

648

Percentage of students at the school above the national benchmark

2007

93%

88%

89%

2006

92%

86%

98%

Value added

Special Needs

Karalee is a PI (Physically Impaired), II (Intellectually Impaired), ASD (Austitic Spectrum Disorder), HI (Hearing Impaired), VI (Visually Impaired) coded school in the Moreton Region. We have children with all these disabilities who are integrated into the normal classroom. They form a special education class co-ordinated by a specialist teacher. We have a number of Special Needs Teacher aides who work with teachers and these students in the school to support their learning and physical needs.

Community Hall

During 2007 Karalee P&C Association signed the contract for the construction of the Community Hall. This 36x24m structure is for the use of the school, Outside School Hours Care and the Community. The hall was finally finished on the 13 December 2007 when the school held the term 4 Art Exhibition and the last Disco for the year. This facility will provide the opportunity for many things for the school and community that we were not able to do before.

The hall was constructed under a Joint Development Agreement between Karalee State School P&C Association, Ipswich City Council and Education Queensland. We also received funding Assistance from the Federal Government through Regional Partnerships.

Year 7 Cohort 2007

If we take the 2007 cohort of year 7 and compare their results in Numeracy, Reading and Writing with the results in 2005 in the year 5 tests it looks like this:

This is an example of a cohort of children as they pass through the school and the value added that has happened across the 2 years from Year 5 to Year 7.

Parent, student and teacher satisfaction with the school

Each year a number of parents are surveyed and asked a series of question about the school. Below is a result of the 2007 parents who were surveyed.

Parent Opinion Data says in 2007

76% of those surveyed felt that their child was getting a good education while 21% was neither

75% of those surveyed felt the school was developing their child’s literacy skills while 15% was neither

84% of those surveyed felt the school was developing their child’s numeracy skills while 11% was neither

73% of those surveyed felt that Karalee was a Good School while 21% were neither

74% of those surveyed said their children were happy to go to school while 15% was neither

78% said their children felt safe at school while 16% was neither

76% said their child was treated fairly at school while 15% was neither

75% said that the school provided a good learning environment for their child.