Tent Hill Lower State School

• May 2006 – Diagnostic Inventories were distributed – these inventories were used to gauge parent, staff and student perceptions of the school

• Term 3, 2006 – Series of Staff Meetings were held to discuss the results of the diagnostic inventory. The results were organised using the Research Based Framework into the areas of school outcomes, 3 dimensional pedagogy, infrastructural design, strategic foundations, cohesive communities and professional support.

• November 2006 – Writing of the school report card. This ‘report card’ lists the successes and the challenges that were identified in the Diagnostic Inventory.

• February 2007 – Photographs were taken of the children in class, at lunch and participating in specialist lessons. From this a list of words describing the values and attitudes displayed was compiled.

• March 2007, History Walk – The questions: where have we come from, what do we value from the past? were discussed with parents. This was done to establish what values and traditions from the school’s past are important to the school community

• March 2007, The Future - What will the future be like for our children? This question and the implications were discussed by staff, children and the P & C.

• April 2007 – Imagery & Metaphor workshop – use of photographs with interested parents to generate words about our school and things that are valued about the school.

• Term 3, 2007 – Workshops with students. In the first workshop students from Years 3 -7 were asked to draw what they thought the school meant to them. In the second workshop the Year 5 – 7 class looked at physical aspects from around the school environment and asked to write metaphors.

• Terrm 3, 2007 – Values – The Ideas Management Team compiled a list of values identified from all previous workshops. The list of values was given to parents, students and staff and they were asked to highlight the six most important values to them. From there the results were collated and the core values were identified.

• Term 4, 2007 – The Values Statement – B.U.D.S. was compiled and launched at the school concert.

• Term 4, 2007, The School Vision, “Growing Beautiful Futures in the Valley of Opportunity” was developed by the school staff and launched at the Christmas Concert.

• Term 1, 2008 – Implementation of the School Values as part of the school’s daily program by working with students exploring the meaning of the value statements and the implication of the values in school life. Each week a student is rewarded at the whole school parade for displaying a selected value.

• Term 1, 2008 – Whole School Pedagogy – the staff (teachers and teacher aides) are working together to develop whole school programming that is aligned and consistent throughout the entire school, from Prep to Year 7.