New Norfolk High is a respectful learning community with high expectations for all. One of the ways we show this is by our commitment to school improvement. This year, I have already been able to share some very exciting progress in a range of different areas.

There has been a substantial decrease in suspensions, a promising increase in attendance and a very encouraging improvement in NAPLAN relative gains. Suspensions continue to be 27% down on the year-to-date last year and 40% on the same time in 2021. The significance of this improvement was recently recognised by the Department when we were recently one of just five schools from across the whole state invited to share our engagement strategies because of the extent of this improvement in suspension data. We are also seeing a more modest but nonetheless promising increase in attendance. This is the first improvement in attendance we have seen since before COVID. Finally, as previously shared, we say significant improvements in the percentage of students displaying medium or high levels of improvement between their Year 7 and Year 9 NAPLAN tests, especially in Reading (up 14%), Numeracy (up 27%) and Writing (up 32%!).

This week we had further positive feedback when the results of the Student Wellbeing and Engagement Survey were released. We saw improvement in many areas, including three of the Department’s key indicators (the other, already better for us, remained steady). The highlights were School climate, which continued to improve, up 4% year-on-year and 14% since 2021. Even more impressively, School Belonging which improved 17%, the biggest improvement I have every seen in any SWES result. The percentage of medium and high wellbeing for this question was better this year than at any other time since the survey was introduced in 2019.

It is very exciting to be able to share these results, which are only achieved by focussed, hard work and successful partnerships with students and their families. On the Professional Learning Day, our teachers were concentrating on taking next steps and driving further improvement by developing a Multi-tiered System of Supports for positive behaviour, increasing engagement by designing learning activities with more engaging hooks that are easier to access and by developing learning checklists to support students returning from absences. All of this draws not only on external data but also the understanding of staff on the ground and active engagement with student voice.

Of course, there is always a next step, and always more to do, but we look forward to taking those steps together, because that is the New Norfolk Way.

Stuart Lord