The William
Duncan State School vision, ‘A United School of Excellence’ is founded upon our
relentless focus to ‘do whatever it takes’ to support students achieve
excellence. The notion of ‘excellence’ is achieved through continually engaging
in professional learning, reflection and sharing of best practice. Our highly
skilled workforce is committed to inspiring all students to achieve success.
The school aims to support all learners to be highly
successful. Students at William Duncan State School will achieve excellence
through the implementation of effective whole school approaches that align to
the specific educational needs of our students and their families. Improving
the academic standard of every student in every classroom will be closely monitored
by our workforce and leadership team. The establishment of measurable individual literacy and numeracy targets for each individual student will help
advance this core component of our future success. These targets will be shared
with parents in a quest to further promote our students’ achievements.
William Duncan State School is fortunate to have a very
dynamic and highly successful Musical Department. These enthusiastic team
members inspire students to master new skills and provide them multiple
opportunities to develop their confidence through participating in many
community showcase events. The William Duncan State School community is extremely
proud of our students’ musical achievements.
Our highly
regarded, dynamic school provides an inspiring, inclusive, stimulating and safe
learning environment. Our school has a warm and welcoming feel and is proud of
our strong community connections. The future vision for William Duncan State
School advances a strong concept of implementing highly effective whole school
strategies that yield high levels of student accomplishments and outstanding
achievements. Our school’s vision ‘A United School of Excellence’ will be
achieved through:
Personalised
Learning
We formally
acknowledge our students’ parents as their first teachers and understand how
important each parent is to the learning process. Parents and families are recognised as
integral members of the school community and partners in their children’s
education. Our staff members appreciate opportunities to share common learning
goals for each student and welcome any chance to provide parents with ideas on
how to best support their child. We value transparency with all of our
stakeholders and understand how important effective and timely communication is
to achieving excellence. Our school believes in the power of strong collegial
partnerships with other schools (i.e. Nerang Alliance) and appreciates the
importance of sharing best practices and processes for our students.
Consistent
Curriculum Programs and Pedagogy
We recognise
that highly effective teaching practices are the key to improving student
learning throughout the school. Staff members are focused on embedding a
coherent, sequenced plan for curriculum delivery that ensures all students
achieve excellence through a consistent teaching and learning experience. Our teachers
are committed to working closely together to ensure all curriculum units and
assessments are implemented in a consistent manner. Student achievement is
confirmed through a very robust process of moderation and feedback is provided
to all students to assist them to improve. We believe students learn best when
they can make connections from their prior learning and evidence of the use of
a set of common terms or common language is used across the entire school.
High Quality
Leadership
We believe each
individual student displays unique strengths, interests and areas requiring
growth. We value cultural difference and strive to implement curriculum
offerings that promote the love of learning. The achievement of personalised
learning requires a deep analysis of student capacity and a planned approach to
achieve high expectations and success. Our staff members have a strong moral
purpose to ensure the intended curriculum modifications and adjustments are
aligned to the individual needs of our students. Teachers provide feedback to
students on how to improve their work in timely and responsive fashion. We strive to maximise learning for every
student with particular attention being given to literacy and numeracy in our
school through establishing a culture of high expectations and continual
improvement.
Productive
School and Community Partnerships
We believe
learning is developmental and that aspirational student goal setting is
fundamental to individual student success. Implementing quality leadership promotes
positive student learning outcomes by ensuring learning takes top priority
every day in every classroom for every student. We encourage our students to
take learning risks to generate success. We acknowledge that leadership is
everyone’s business. By everyone taking personal accountability for curriculum
leadership, students will be engaged in an innovative and personalised learning
approach. At William Duncan State School we have a strong belief that learning
is a lifelong process. We are committed to implementing strong and focused
leadership that supports all members of our school community to develop a
culture of continuous improvement and success.
William Duncan
State School reinforces the high standard that our community sets. Our school
has a proud tradition of supporting each and every student to achieve their
full potential by building upon the foundations that our students’ parents have
laid. Our school supports and challenges students to achieve excellence in all
that they do.
Rachael Jeffrey
Principal