XAVIER COLLEGE 2017 Annual Report to Community School Features Xavier College is a Catholic systemic, co-educational secondary school The College is located north of the metropolitan area of Adelaide, just outside of the regional town of Gawler Xavier College was opened in 1995 in the tradition of the Salesians of Don Bosco In line with the Salesian charter for schools in Australia Xavier aims to be: a home that welcomes; a parish that evangelises; a school that prepares for life and a playground where friends meet and enjoy themselves The aims of the College are met via our Pastoral Care program which is designed around a House and Oratory (home group) structure There are four House groups, each of approximately 230 students Each House has 10 Oratory groups which are vertically organised with students from Years - 12 Students remain in the same Oratory Group throughout their time in the school Each House is overseen by two House Directors, one has primary responsibility for leadership of Teaching and Learning and the other for Pastoral Care This senior leadership structure is designed to ensure that students and their families are provided with continuity and consistency across their secondary school experience Xavier College offers students a broad curriculum experience, including a strong academic focus, as well as options for Vocational Education and Training in the senior years Students also participate in a wide range of extra-curricular activities The Xavier College community consists of families from a diverse range of socio-economic circumstances, reflected by the College SES of 93 The College commenced the 2017 school year with an enrolment of 910 students at the February census date with a year level breakdown as follows: Year level Enrolment Year 177 Year 176 Year 10 203 Year 11 164 Year 12 149 The information in the August census included 15 (1.6%) indigenous students and 138 students (15.9%) with specific learning difficulties, of whom 33 were ‘funded’ by CESA to receive Adaptive Education support A number of other students were also provided with assistance with their learning by the Adaptive Education team or through differentiation strategies within subject classes The workforce composition of the College is: 70 teachers (FTE 64.8) and a non-teaching staff of 27 (FTE 21.8) The average length of service of teachers currently employed at the College is years, months and for current non-teaching staff it is 10 years and months No current staff members identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders of Student Attendance Year level % Attendance Year 90.2 Year 88.1 Year 10 89.5 Year 11 88.5 Year 12 90.4 Average 89.3 The College complies with DECD requirements in relation to any concerns about truancy Student Learning Outcomes Results in the 2017 National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy tests at Year Mean Score Percentage of students at or above the national benchmark Spelling 573 92% Grammar and Punctuation 569 91% Writing 543 81% Reading 578 96% Numeracy 571 99% The approach schools take to the NAPLAN continues to be contentious! The NAPLAN tests are administered every second year from Year to Year They are generic skill tests designed to provide schools with specific developmental information about individual students across the years of their schooling The data assists schools to target intervention for specific students and focus overall school learning programs However, some segments of the community have used the data incorrectly in an attempt to make comparisons between the collective data of different schools This is a flawed and meaningless use of the information, which has only pressured some schools to spend an inordinate amount of time preparing for these once every two year tests This is generally done for school marketing purposes and in reality only diminishes the usefulness of the data in terms of providing specific and targeted intervention for individual students as needed At Xavier College, we have continued to resist the temptation to spend time preparing students for these tests, in order to glean informative data about student performance so as to provide appropriate intervention and target school programs accordingly In 2016 and 2017, Xavier College embarked on a school-wide literacy strategy with a particular emphasis on writing We experienced a considerable improvement in the results for writing in 2016, which then stabilised with similar results in 2017 In 2017, there were strong improvement in all other components of the testing of Senior Secondary Outcomes In 2017, 144 Year 12 students completed the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) and 100% achieved the SACE 125 students (87% of the cohort) qualified for an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) and of those 89 (71%) applied to the South Australian Tertiary Admissions Centre for a course at a tertiary institution Of those who applied, 85 students (96%) were offered a place in a South Australian tertiary institution Dux of Xavier College for 2017 was Joseph Metcalfe with an ATAR of 99.35 Joseph also achieved one Merit Award In all, 13 students achieved an ATAR in excess of 90 and collectively, two SACE Merit Awards were received One student was also awarded the Governor’s Commendation for Excellence in the SACE Vocational Studies - Students have accessed Vocational Studies both on-site and off-site The partnership arrangement with St Patrick’s Technical College continues to be quite popular As indicated below, under Post School Destinations, 27 students transitioned from Xavier College to St Patrick’s to undertake a full vocational-based program The following Certificate Courses were undertaken by students in Years 11 and 12: X Certificate II in Kitchen Operations – Year 11 X Cert II in Electro Technology – Year 12 X Cert III in Education Support – Year 12 X Cert III Tourism Year 12 X Cert III in Music Industry – Year 12 X Cert III in Information, Media and Digital Technology – Year 12 X Cert III in Early Childhood Care and Education – Year 11 X Cert III in Individual Support (Aged Care) – Year 12 X Cert III Sport and recreation – Year 12 X Cert III in Business – Year 12 X Certificate III in Fitness – Year 11 X Certificate III in Allied Health – Year 11 27 Students enrolled in Retail Certificate III (combinations of Year 11s and 12s) X SBAs – X Certificate III in Solid Plastering, X plumbing – Year 11 and X Agriculture – Year 12 Post School Destinations In 2014, 210 students were enrolled at Xavier College in Year These students pursued the following pathways: 27 chose to transition to St Patrick’s Technical College under the partnership arranged between the two Colleges, to complete a trade-based vocational pathway 28 students transferred to other schools to continue their secondary education students transferred to TAFE, commenced an apprenticeship or left school to seek employment 14 joined this cohort of students in the years following 2014 and completed their education through to Year 12 at Xavier of As indicated under Senior Secondary Outcomes, the final Year 12 enrolment in 2017 was 144 students In all, the students who completed their studies at Xavier College in 2016 pursued a variety of pathways including: full and part-time study at Universities in metropolitan Adelaide and interstate; full and part-time study at TAFE; commenced traineeships/apprenticeships or were employed working full-time, part-time or on a casual basis Staff Profile All teachers employed at Xavier College hold the Degree equivalent of teaching qualifications A number also hold higher qualifications or additional qualifications Master’s Degree Bachelor Degree Diploma Graduate Diploma Graduate Certificate Cert IV 23 104 11 29 17 Satisfaction In 2017, the assessment of community satisfaction was undertaken by collecting feedback in the following ways: Parents Through formal interviews, information nights and via the College Board Families were encouraged to respond to a comprehensive Parent Survey with 135 families choosing to so Students Students were given the opportunity to provide feedback via Oratory groups, House meetings and formal interviews and morning tea with the Principal The Curtin University WHITS (What is Happening in The School) formal online survey was conducted with students and 404 responses were recorded Graduating Students were given the opportunity to provide feedback via a survey about their whole “Xavier Experience” Staff Teaching staff were invited to give feedback in the areas of Teaching and Learning Pedagogy, Facilities and Resources and Student Behaviour via House meetings and completing the School Organisational Climate Survey (SOCS) for the first time, with 52 responses recorded Collectively the following was reported: 89% of parents surveyed believed that their child’s learning needs were being met 88% expressed that the College’s assessment and reporting provided adequate feedback on their child’s progress 84% believed that the College works with them to support their child’s learning In relation to providing a safe environment 95% responded in the affirmative with the same result in relation to the College’s policies and procedures regarding bullying and harassment Staff feel that the College’s mission has been clearly articulated (rated 4.46 out of 5) Areas of Staff Collegiality and Job Satisfaction were also high in staff responses of 73% of students always feel welcome at the College, which has been consistent for the past three years Peer Connection was valued by students (83.4%) as well as Rule Clarity (84.2%) consistently across all year levels In relation to students feeling bullied or harassed, on average, students seldom felt that they were a victim, which continues a downward trend from 2014 97% of Graduates had felt welcomed and at ‘home’ during their time at the College, with 99% believing that their teachers had known and cared about them When asked, ‘What is one thing you would never change about Xavier College?’, Graduates overwhelmingly replied the Oratory system 94% indicated that they had been satisfied with their overall ‘Xavier Experience’ Finance Xavier College School Finances 2017 – Revenue Sources Australian Government recurrent funding State/Territory Government recurrent funding Fees, charges and parent contributions Other private sources $8,486,903 $1,932,649 $4,068,498 $ 416,718 -$14,904,768 Total gross income School Improvement Plan During 2015, Xavier College engaged in a self-assessment process that lead to the development of a School Strategic Plan 2016-2018 based on the domains specified in the Continuous Improvement Framework for Catholic Schools (CESA) The plan is aligned to the four key dimension of school life: Administrative, Community, Educational and Religious From this overarching plan, a 2017 Annual Plan with specific goals was created The School Improvement focus for 2017 was on the following: Resource Management in a changing educational environment Parent engagement with learning and wellbeing Staff Leadership Development Student engagement and wellbeing Faith and Spiritual Transformation Some of the strategies implemented included: Completion of Stage of the College Master Plan with student use of building in 2017 Work commenced on Stage concept design and commencing the planning approval process Continue work with CESA and local Catholic partnership schools to prepare for the transition of Year to secondary school, in response to the CESA decision to implement this change in 2019 Implemented Year enrolment strategy Implemented the Communication Strategy developed in 2016 of Review Middle School concept and curriculum design with the view of incorporating Year in 2019 Continue to raise community awareness about Bullying and Harassment, Mental Health and Cyber Safety This included parent information evenings facilitated by external presenters Continued the use of Curtin University programs to collect and analyse student feedback on ‘classroom climate’ in their respective classes (CCQ – Classroom Climate Questionnaire) and also whole-school satisfaction levels (WHITS – What Is Happening In This School) Use of Curtin University program to collect and analyse teaching staff feedback using SOCS (School Organisation Climate Survey) for the first time Curriculum design, student leadership and the management of school resources were reviewed in the context of an ecological conversion and sustainable stewardship Some of the outcomes included: Commence working with the Salesian community in expanding their presence in Gawler with the movement and settlement of the community to the Xavier College site Year enrolment interviews undertaken and finalised in conjunction with Year enrolments Employed Community Liaison Coordinator in line with Communication Strategy recommendations Developed Middle (Years 7-9) and Senior School structure after investigation of existing structures both in SA and interstate Decision made to create both new Middle and Senior School structures to commence in 2019 Completed Stage design brief and submitted relevant committees for approval Continued parent engagement at meetings, in particular SPOT (Student, Parent, Oratory Teacher) meetings Continued positive feedback from parents around the implementation of the SMS Parent Portal and Parent Paperwork Positive engagement of teachers in the Curtin ‘School Climate’ survey regime and the development of Individual Professional Learning Plans and Curriculum design of