GK School Profile

Glen Katherine Primary School is located in Eltham North, a north-eastern suburb of Melbourne. It is a relatively new school being just over twenty years old. Children are drawn from Eltham, Eltham North, Diamond Creek and Greensborough as well as Plenty, Yarrambat and Hurstbridge. Strong links with the local kindergartens and St. Helena S. C. ensure a smooth transition process into and beyond GKPS. The close physical and professional links with St. Helena S.C. have enabled the sharing of expertise across schools through the “Innovation and Excellence Program” (2005-2007) and the ongoing “Cross Age Tutoring “and “Connections” Programs.The school has three major local feeder kindergartens and in 2007, out of 122 exiting Grade 6 students, 99 of the children continued on to St. Helena Secondary College, 9 to other state secondary schools, 8 to Catholic schools and 6 to private colleges. The school educates 709 children (365 boys and 344 girls) and is organized into 30 grades. Total school enrolments have remained fairly stable over the past three years in the low seven hundreds with Prep enrolments close to 100.

Our staffing structure includes the Principal, two Assistant Principals, (one of which is in an Acting Position), two Leading Teachers, (one of which is in an Acting Position), 20 Expert Level teachers of which 7 are Grade Managers and 7 Grade Level teams of teachers and support staff. There are 6 teachers at the Accomplished Level and 13 Graduate staff. There are School Support Officers (SSO) personnel in the office, library, a Business Manager and a trained First Aid SSO. Five Integration Aides are employed as SSO’s. The age/experience profile of the staff has changed over the past few years after an extended period of very little personnel change, enabling employment of many graduate class teachers over the past four years.

Parent participation is recognised as being essential to the continuing success of the school. Parents, teachers and children form the partnership for children’s learning. Contact with parents is through: the weekly ‘Linkletter’; our school website, at http://www.glenkps.vic.edu.au/ ; information evenings; Three Way Conferences and through involvement on School Council, Parents and Friends Association and the Grade Communicator Program.

Glen Katherine Primary School Council and staff are committed to offering equality of opportunity to all members of the school community. We aim to create an environment in which all members of the school can work together in a co-operative manner, develop a sense of unity, experience enjoyment and success and to ensure all children achieve to their full potential.

Glen Katherine Primary School uses the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) to plan the curriculum. Our Professional Learning Teams are: Priority Groups, Grade level teams and Curriculum Domain Teams. The school has 4 major Priority Groups focussing on: Boys Education, Assessment and Reporting, ICT and Thinking. Support staff teach: L.O.T.E. (Italian Gr. 1-4 only), Science, Music, Visual Arts, Health and Physical Education across all grade levels. Additional support is provided in Special Needs, Reading Recovery and Library. Elective groups include Junior and Senior Choirs, Rock Band and Dance with a variety of extension and enrichment activities scheduled throughout the year, including our first school production, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” in Term 4. Instrumental and vocal tuition are also available. The school has a whole-school pro-social skills program called “Stop, Think Do“ supported by “You Can Do It” in the Preps and Grade 1. It is currently reviewing these programs in light of our new school values and the upcoming review of our Student Code of Conduct. Consultant Dr Sue Roffey has been working with staff as a part of our preparation for the review. Dr Jeni Wilson from Melbourne University has also been working with staff in the review of our Integrated Inquiry Learning Approach through the concept of curriculum design using “Throughlines” and the creation and use of, the 4 curriculum organizers of: Ourselves; Community; Scientific and Technological World and Environment (Natural World) to ensure curriculum coherence and continuity across the school.

Children are encouraged to strive towards greater independence and responsibility in their learning development. Staff recognize the importance of developing programs enabling each child to feel confident and challenged in their learning. Children are encouraged to set goals and take an active part in tracking their own learning. Assessment windows include student portfolios, parent feed-back in the portfolios, Mid and End of Year Reports and Three Way Conferences which are developed and presented very much from the children’s point of view.

Glen Katherine Primary School is committed to maximizing the educational opportunities for all students with staff professional development playing a vital role in achieving this. In 2006, the school participated in the Performance and Development Culture application process and was accredited at the end of Term 4. The school demonstrated having a strong Performance and Development Culture with results in all areas above 93.8%. Striving for continuous improvement and living each day according to our shared values is the challenge we have adopted for ourselves.

Information and Communication Technology is a feature of the school and the development of skills for both teachers and students is strongly emphasised. Children have ready access to over 216 computers along with cameras, scanners and printers, which are linked together through a central server. There is an ICT Centre with computers and large screen data show and a restored old red train carriage with 30 computers. All Grade 6 classrooms, the Community Room and the grade one area have been fitted with Computerised Interactive White Boards (“Smartboards’’) The school community has access to the school website for school communication and educational development. All teaching staff have laptop computers.

There are 16 permanent, 14 relocatable classrooms plus 2 school owned portables. School facilities include modern, carpeted, air-conditioned/heated, open teaching spaces, a large library, spacious multi- purpose room, specialist art, science, L.O.T.E. and music rooms, and an activity based Out of School Hours Program, which includes Vacation and Prep Care. The extensive well-planned grounds provide both active and passive playing zones including new adventure playgrounds. There are comprehensive sporting facilities including: a full sized gymnasium, a shared oval, hard courts, tennis courts and adventure playgrounds. An outdoor stage area was installed to enable further opportunity for the performing arts both during class, at lunch time and for out of hours performances. The Science classroom has developed an environmental area called the Glen Katherine Gully to support our vibrant Science Program. Our school fosters a “Sun-smart” Policy and children are encouraged to wear hats for all outdoor activities. Shade sails, a gazebo and many covered play areas give children lots of shaded play space. The school has compulsory school uniform. The School Council is currently working with the school leadership to develop a Grounds Development Plan for prioritising improvement initiatives across all school areas.

Click here to view more information re Glen Katherine, including a brief history of the school.