‘A Path to Success’
Grovedale Primary School is located 7km from the centre of Geelong just off the Surfcoast Highway. The school was established in 1854 and has seen different sites and upgrades over that time.We have 248 student enrolments and our results in 2019 NAPLAN Reading for Year 3 were a particular highlight, with 67% of students achieving results in the top two bands and no students in the bottom two bands. This reflects our excellent teaching and learning culture, and the evidence based reading pedagogical model we developed in 2018. Our mission: "We are a community of learners where every child is provided with opportunities to develop academic, social, emotional and physical skills to achieve their potential" underpins everything we do, everyday. We are a community first and foremost, and implement current evidence based pedagogical practices and DET initiatives to enable our students to achieve their best in every aspect of life. Our vision: "To provide a dynamic learning environment - We are a community of learners who value each other and strive to be the best we can" is also evident across the school environment. Furthermore, our motto: "A path to success" is linked to our unwavering focus on wellbeing, engagement and achievement in order to positively contribute to a better community, state, country and world. Through collaboration and consultation the students and staff at Grovedale Primary School are committed to the values of respect, responsibility and safety. We utilise 12 composite classes (2 x Prep, 4 x Year 1/2, 3 x Year 3/4 and 3 x Year 5/6) to cater for individual student needs and our students enjoy the vast space which includes an oval, basketball courts and two playgrounds. Our staff comprise of two Principal Class, seven Education Support Staff, three Specialist Teachers, fourteen Experienced Classroom Teachers and four Graduate Teachers. A strong sense of community exists within the school with parents, staff and students working together in many contexts. Parents are involved in a wide range of school operations and activities. We also have a sister school in Lianyungang, China, who have been visiting us for the past 6 years and sent our second group of students to China in September, 2019. Grovedale Primary School is strongly committed to the provision of a wide range of learning experiences for all students which endeavour to maximise their potential. We have an emphasis on continuous improvement of pedagogy across the school. Our literacy and numeracy leaders have attended Leading Literacy and Leading Mathematics courses respectively with principal class in the past few years. This has led to the implementation of a vocabulary cycle, and reading and writing pedagogical models. Mathematics practices have also improved through Professional Learning Team meetings and through our involvement in the Primary Mathematics and Science Specialist program in 2019-20 which has allowed two Learning Specialists to spread their time between teaching students and mentoring teachers. We participated in the inaugural Deakin University STEM Awards winning awards in the Prep, Year 1&2, Year 3&4 and Year 5&6 categories in 2019. All teachers are now adept at implementing high impact teaching strategies and reflecting upon student learning survey data in their individual classes. Learning goals have continued to be a major focus across the school and they are supported through Student Led Conferences and the use of technology to track goals and develop digital portfolios. Our teaching teams actively participate in weekly Professional Learning Community meetings where they evaluate and diagnose student data and pedagogy, prioritise and set goals, develop and plan, and implement and monitor the outputs before recommencing the continuous cycle of improvement. We have also been part of a Community of Practice with three neighbouring schools and regularly collaborated to improve practice.
‘A school that offers a dynamic learning environment with a small school feel’
