Milperra+PS

Team Members: Suellen Debono - Year 5 Kay Shand - STLA
 * __Milperra PS __**
 * Project Coordinator/Facilitator: Peta Lloyd **

What is the context within which the action inquiry is being implemented? Describe in terms of: · Milperra is located in the south-west of Sydney and currently has approximately 230 students. The majority of students live locally within walking distance of the school. It is a small but well-resourced school enabling us to create a personal, caring atmosphere in which the individuality of children is recognised and provided for. There are 10 full-time teaching staff members with STLA, LOTE (Bahasa Indonesia) and Library positions filled on a part-time basis. The staff has a wealth of experience and has specific talents and expertise. This allows for a rich variety of programs within the school to cater for and to engage students in their learning. Teachers plan collegially and incorporate the dimensions of intellectual quality, quality learning environments and significance into their teaching programs. The P&C is critical to the education and development of all the children at Milperra. Many members of our school community willingly give their time and commitment to assist in classrooms, sports, canteen, fundraising, uniform shop and in many other ways throughout the year. We will be working closely with three other schools in our Community of Schools who have similar community contexts and NAPLAN results to us.
 * __Context statement __**

· literacy levels – eg: as measured/identified by school BST data, in-school assessment tasks, past/current projects implemented, other relevant data Our results in the 2009 NAPLAN for Year 3 were above national averages in Reading and Writing. Year 5 were above national averages in Reading, Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation. We need to further strengthen our results in Year 3 Spelling and Grammar and Punctuation and in Writing for Year 5. There is room for improvement in all areas of NAPLAN results as our 'value added' scores need focus. 2010 Best Start data indicates ................ At Milperra we also use surveys, anecdotal evidence, observations and standardised testing, such as SA Spelling, MULTILIT, Johnson, M100W, Sutherland Phonemic Awareness, Waddington, GAP and PM Benchmarks, to guide our programming.

· individual and group learning needs as they relate to deep understanding Analysis of our NAPLAN results indicates the students have a basic vocabulary knoweldge. In order for them to gain higher order thinking skills and a deep understanding, it is imperative that they gain a far broader vocabulary base. Reciprocal literacy is the program we will implement to facilitate and improve student's ability to connect, predict, question, monitor, visualise and summarise. These strategies will improve skills and build prior knowledge, questioning techniques, understanding of text structure and features, making connections through inference and reflection.