Government Required Information 

(to be published by 30 June each year.)

 DESCRIPTIVE INFORMATION

 School Sector:                         Independent

 School’s address:                    123 Bunya Road,  Arana Hills  4054

 Year levels offered:                Prep to year 7

 Co-educational or single sex:  Co-educational

Distinctive curriculum offerings

(this refers to special programs or innovative offerings, not regular subjects offered)                        
Participation in “Theatre Restaurant” in Term 2; “Our Town” in Term 3 (enabling children to become leaders, entrepreneurs, and learn hands-on aspects of government, democracy, culture, compassion, arts, literacy and numeracy in a whole-school week-long dramatic play context);  permaculture gardening  (involving project management, science, SOSE and technology learning); digital photography training, democratic principles (learned through whole-school, year-long, real-life contexts, including skills in problem-solving, conflict resolution, chairing meetings and taking minutes), conflict resolution/peer meditation, cross-age peer tutoring programs and yoga

Extra-curricular activities:      

Friday “shared” picnic lunch; ice-skating; roller-skating and bowling offered at various times during the year, social justice club (investigating issues of human rights, developing compassion, participating in local and global social justice projects).  Guitar lessons by private tuition.

Parental involvement:  

Pine Community School has an “open door” policy.  Parents are welcome in the classroom at any time.  Parents are also involved in many roles around the school including:

 

Staffing Information:   

Pine has 5 teaching staff available on a permanent basis. Other staff are employed on a casual or contractual basis as the need arises.

Qualifications of all teachers: 

All our teachers are registered with the Queensland College of Teachers.

Classroom teachers and school leaders all have at least a Diploma or Bachelor Degree, 75% with more than one degree.

Expenditure on and teacher participation in professional development: 

All staff engage in some professional development every year.  Approximately $1500 is spent  annually on PD.  Staff attend PD offered through the AISQ federally funded programs as well as many courses and workshops offered by other educational institutions.

Average staff attendance for the school, for permanent and temporary staff and school leaders (based on unplanned absences of sick and emergency leave periods of up to 5 days):        Approximately 95%

Proportion of teaching staff retained from the previous year:  100%

The average attendance rate for the student population during 2008:  87.5%

  

BENCHMARK DATA

READING

Year Level

Average score (school)

Average score (State)

% above benchmark

3

NA

527

0

5

NA

606

0

7

756

672

60

 WRITING

Year Level

Average score (school)

Average score (State)

 % above benchmark

3

NA

523

0

5

NA

600

0

7

613

681

60

 NUMERACY

Year Level

Average score (school)

Average score (State)

% above benchmark

3

NA

521

0

5

NA

588

0

7

782

648

60

 NOTES

(see also Parent comments in relation to the NAPLAN tests)

 1.      Information on benchmarks in Years 3, 5  and 7 tests are sent to individual schools by the Queensland Studies Authority.

2.      The data provided indicates the average score for the State and the average score for the school.

3.      The data provided also indicates the percentage of students at the school who sat the tests that were above the national benchmark. 

4.      Students who are exempt or withdrawn from the tests by their parents are considered below the national benchmark.

5.      Students who are absent are not included.

6.      Pine Community School has a very small number of students eligible to sit the tests.  Parents may choose to withdraw their children from the tests. 

7.      The school uses diagnostic tests (e.g. First Steps Diagnostic Continuum, PM Benchmarks and the TORCH test, which tests reading comprehension) to assist in the development of individual programs for each student.  These tests are administered one-on-one twice a year or as deemed necessary by the school. 

8.      One-on-one learning support is available to students that are in need of extra assistance.

Parent, student and teacher satisfaction:

Where schools already undertake yearly surveys or studies of parents, students and teachers for the purpose of marketing and school improvement, it will involve preparing a relevant report, in plain English, on the findings of those surveys or studies.

Pine Community School conducts in depth parent, student and teacher satisfaction surveys every 5 years, including past students.   During the end of 2007, early 2008, such a survey was conducted as part of our Cyclic Review process.  The results indicated very high levels of satisfaction.


Pine Community School also conducts regular “parent chats”, “teacher chats” and “student discussions” in relation to satisfaction levels within the school community.  Although this information is gathered on an informal basis, the results still indicate a high satisfaction level amongst the school community, as also demonstrated by high teacher and student retention rates.

How computers are used to assist learning

Computers are used in all the classrooms and are available as a teaching tool from Prep onwards.   Computer programs focusing on literacy and numeracy support are used extensively throughout the younger and middle groups.  The older students have supervised access to the internet to assist with research projects.  Students also have access to digital technologies such as digital cameras, video recorders and audio recorders. These are used to further enhance learning in literacy, media, technology, the arts and other KLAs.

Disclaimer:  The information contained in this policy is to the best of our knowledge and belief correct at the

date of publication.  However, no warranty or guarantee is or can be given by Pine Community School or any

member of its staff, and no liability is of can be accepted for any loss or damage resulting from any person

relying on or using the information contained in this policy.