| Primary School: | Albury West Public School |
| Town and State: | Albury, NSW |
| Summary: | Regional government school |
| Website: | www.alburywest-p.schools.nsw.gov.au |
| Year Range: | Kindergarten to Year 6 |
| No of Students: | 156 |
| ICSEA: | 872 |
| Indigenous Students %: | 28% |
| LBOTE* Students %: | 8% |
School Description:
| Albury West Public School is a school with a student population of 150+, which draws students from the western part of Albury. Quality educational programs provide for enrichment, encouraging success in academic endeavour, sport and the arts. The student population is largely from an English-speaking background with 28% Aboriginal students. The school has a history of high mobility amongst the students. Our school motto is “To Wider Horizons”, which is something we strive for each and every day. Our values are based around our Positive Behaviour for Learning Program which emphasises Respect, Responsibility and Care. Supporting teachers in successfully planning and delivering quality, differentiated teacher programs in literacy and numeracy is an ongoing focus. Developing quality assessments tasks and data collation practices, along with ensuring consistency of teacher judgement within the school continues to be a priority. Our support of individual students is responsive to student need and is continually monitored. Individual targeted support is provided with pre- and post-assessment carried out to determine the impact of support provided. Continual monitoring of student’s performance data in literacy determines areas of need. The school supports regular home reading and library borrowing. The school also recognises and rewards students who have read for a number of nights throughout the year and at the end of the year if they have read for 150+ nights. |
Principal’s Statement:
| The majority of our students are from low-socio economic backgrounds. Our Aboriginal population ranges from 25-30% of our total population each year, and a large portion of our students are in Out of Home Care or have a trauma related background. We make it a point to ensure our students have opportunities that their peers would have in more affluent areas of Albury. This includes an emphasis on reading for pleasure – through borrowing from the library and from an extensive home reading program. Our ongoing goal for all students is to develop a love of reading quality texts. Literacy milestones for all students are reviewed every five weeks ensuring students stay on track with their reading for understanding and comprehension. We provide targeted Professional Learning for staff in reading and have committed to a four-year plan that focuses on literacy improvement. Our families do not have disposable income, and books are something that they are unlikely to prioritise when for many of them, feeding their family is a weekly issue. We have partnered with Food Bank and OzHarvest to ease this issue. Our annual Presentation Day supports reading for enjoyment, through the awarding of book vouchers for students to purchase books. We also provide readers to every child in Kindergarten upon the completion of Kindergarten. Factual books are awarded to students who have read for 150+ nights throughout the school year. Our transition to school program, Little Gems, sees pre-school aged students provided a book as a way to promote reading from a very early age. We know that the purchase of books within the home remains low. We are seeking sponsorship to help us support the reading of books and valuing reading within the home. We invest in developing our library and home reading resources every year, ensuring each and every classroom has access to books for Drop Everything and Read time and for reading at home. We know that if we can increase students having access to books in their home, then we will increase literacy outcomes and will move quicker towards our goal of all students achieving a year’s worth of growth for a year’s worth of input in literacy. |
| Annual Sponsorship Cost: | $14,724.45 (ex GST) per annum across three terms for the standard three book program. |
| Additional Comments: | This school qualifies for the two book program. |
| More Information: | If you’re interested in sponsoring this school or require additional information, please phone Peter Large on 0420 984 970 or email: peterlarge@booksinhomes.com.au |
