Department of Education - Victoria

Oak Park Primary School is located in the City of Moreland close to the border of the City of Moonee Valley. The school has a capped enrolment of 400 students. The original school buildings were established in 1954. Stage One of a total redevelopment of the school was completed in 2004. The remainder of the old school was demolished in 2006 and Stage two completed in September 2007. Stage two incorporated new General Purpose Classrooms, a Multi Purpose Centre, an Arts Centre and Library.

The school also gained a full sized, non template gymnasium in 2011 as part of the BER initiative. The 2024 School Family Occupation (SFO) index score of 0.3120 (SFOE 0.2289) suggests that student achievement means could be expected to be in the top half of State results. During the next School Strategic Plan period the school seeks to improve student outcomes in English and Mathematics, further empower students to take responsibility for their own learning and strengthen our PLC structures.

Teaching staff acknowledge the crucial role they play in the lives of our students with consensus that `teacher attributes', `professional learning' and `planning' are the most significant factors in improving student outcomes. A major focus during the past few years has been to assist teachers to develop their pedagogy, to gain agreement on what good teaching is, and deliver that in every classroom. All teachers have more planning time than stipulated in the past two Victorian Government Schools Agreements and all have access to significant blocks of planning time with their Professional Learning Team.

Classroom teachers spend an average of 10 hours per week on English and 5 hours per week on Mathematics. There are Specialist classes in Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Physical Education and Japanese. A Music Program is outsourced. A significant feature of Oak Park Primary School is the positive school community and supportive parent group. Parents feel a very strong connection to the school with many having attended themselves as students. The parent group is very active and take on major responsibilities for the organisation of significant events in the school calendar. Student motivation appears to be on the increase as well as engagement in Inquiry Learning investigations.

The school has well developed structures in place to support student wellbeing and has introduced School Wide Positive Behaviours approaches. The school presents as an attractive and orderly environment and student behaviour is generally very good. A significant development in recent years has been the introduction of the school's one to one BYO iPad program. Students now have `anywhere, anytime' access to technology. A supportive performance and development culture exists and openness, dialogue, inquiry, risk taking and trust are fostered. Peer Observations are encouraged, and teachers are typically focused on sustained improvement.

We were part of the PLC initiative in 2018 and the aim is to further strengthen collaboration within teams and across the school. In 2019 and 2020 we participated in the Primary Mathematics and Science Specialists initiative - with our focus being on Mathematics. The challenge for the school over this next period is to maximise student achievement in literacy and numeracy, strengthen student agency, increase the number of students moving from the middle to the upper cohort and to ensure that every child achieves at least one year's growth each year, and more in some cases.

 

SC1    Demonstrated knowledge of the relevant curriculum, including the capacity to incorporate the teaching of literacy and numeracy skills. Demonstrated capacity to respond to student learning needs.

SC2    Demonstrated capacity to implement high impact teaching strategies, guided by how students learn, and evaluate the impact of learning and teaching programs on student learning growth. 

SC3    Demonstrated capacity to monitor and assess student learning. Demonstrated capacity to use data to inform teaching practice and to provide feedback on student learning growth and achievement to students and parents.

SC4    Demonstrated interpersonal and communication skills. Demonstrated capacity to establish and maintain collaborative relationships with students, parents, colleagues and the broader school community to support student learning, wellbeing and engagement.    

SC5    Demonstrated behaviours and attitudes consistent with Department values. Demonstrated capacity to reflect upon practice and engage in professional learning to continually improve the quality of teaching.