Educational and Financial Report - Masada College

Reporting Area 11: School-determined improvement targets K—12 in 2011 as identified in 2010 Annual ReportArea Priorities AchievementsStaff Development& Support♦ Complete training of Junior School staffin The Leader in Me—through VisionDay and 7 Habits Training.1. Train staff member to become afacilitator in 7 Habits2. Staff develop Mission statements♦♦Continue to train staff in use ofinteractive whiteboardsStaff mentored and encouraged to useiRock with their students♦♦♦♦♦Staff enthusiastically took The Leader in Me program into the Junior School with veryimpressive and visible results.• Social issues and incidents in the playground were noticeably reduced asstudents looked for win—win solutions and sought first to understand and then beunderstood.• Discipline issues were greatly reduced.New staff were trained in house and current staff were given refresher courses.Staff have strong sense of their purpose and direction.Majority of staff in the Junior School are integrating Smart boards into their teachingprograms and this is starting to take place in the Senior School.Less handouts in class, more student access from home to the website with anexpansion of the material available to students to include exam outcomes.♦♦Senior Executive team have opportunityto visit IsraelExecutive Professional Developmentopportunity re Culture of Thinking withBialik College’s conference in August♦ Masada College initiated aCollaborative Group of staff from otherNSW schools involved in Culture ofThinking♦♦♦Ongoing staff development relating tothe Australian CurriculumHead of Departments and Seniormanagement Professional Developmenton team buildingRestructure IT department to allow formore efficiency, greater support for staff♦♦♦♦♦♦A very successful trip to Israel lead to greater connection and understanding of theethos of the College. It also led to greater collegiality between the Executive at Masadaand between Jewish Day Schools in Australia.Staff were exposed to the Harvard Team which gave them a deeper understanding ofkey concepts. Our staff also had the opportunity to present at the conference whichlifted the profile of Masada College.The initiation of the Collaborative Cluster has provided opportunities to shareexperiences and successes in schools’ pedagogy and a strong network has beenestablished.Staff are feeling well equipped to introduce the curriculum at the appropriate time andfeel involved in the process.A day off campus facilitated by Corinne Alter, HR specialist, was very productive indeveloping a strong team which recognizes each others’ strengths and their ownresponsibilities as team members.A structure with an educational and operational IT approach supported by twotechnicians was instituted. This it was hoped would reduce IT frustrations, particularlyon our Lindfield campus.24