1. education
2. school

Bracken Ridge State High School
Executive Summary
1. Introduction
1.1 Background
This report is a product of a review carried out at Bracken Ridge State High School from
15 to 19 May 2015. It provides an evaluation of the school’s performance against the nine
domains of the National School Improvement Tool. It also recommends improvement
strategies for the school to consider in consultation with its regional office and school
community.
The review and report were completed by a review team from the School Improvement
Unit (SIU). For more information about the SIU and the new reviews for Queensland state
schools please visit the Department of Education and Training (DET) website.
1.2 School context
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Location:
68 Barfoot St, Bracken Ridge
Education region:
Metropolitan
The school opened in:
1967
Year levels:
Year 7 to Year 12
Current school enrolment:
470
Indigenous enrolments:
6 per cent
Students with disability
enrolments:
7 per cent
Index of Community SocioEducational Advantage
(ICSEA) value:
986
Year principal appointed:
2011
Number of teachers:
43
Nearby schools:
Nashville State School, Bracken Ridge State
School, Brighton State School, Norris Road
State School, Sandgate District State High
School
Significant community
partnerships:
Jabiru Community Youth & Children’s Services,
Local Businesses, Einbunpin and BYB Festivals
Unique school programs:
CARE Program, Foundation essentials,
Pathways and Transitions Program, Sports
Coaching program
1.3 Review methodology
The review was conducted by a team of three reviewers.
The review consisted of:

a pre-review audit of the school’s performance data and other school information

consultation with the school’s Assistant Regional Director

a school visit of three days

interviews with staff, students, parents and community representatives, including:
o
Principal, two Deputy Principals, six Heads of Department, one Head of
Special Education Services, Master Teacher, Guidance Officer
o
31 classroom teachers
o
Student leaders and 70+ students across various year levels
o
Business Services Manager (BSM), two administration officers
o
Support team
o
eight teacher-aides
o
Pathways coordinator
o
Local community representatives
o
Tuckshop convenor
o
two feeder state primary school principals
o
Parents and Citizens’ (P&C) association president and three parents
o
School cleaners and support staff
1.4 Review team
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Paul Pengelly
Internal Reviewer, SIU (review chair)
Ken Rogers
External Reviewer
Catherine MacDonald
Principal Peer Reviewer
2. Executive summary
2.1 Key findings

Positive, caring relationships are broadly identified as a key strength.
There is a calm, positive and friendly tone evident throughout the school. Classrooms
appear ordered, with minimal disruptions to teaching and learning. The school tone
and culture is predicated upon the five values of Commitment, Cooperation, Courtesy,
Consideration and Common Sense. Students universally articulated that the teaching
and support staff care about them and were supportive of their developmental needs.
There are strong and positive relationships in evidence across the school. Mutual
respect and trust is an identified feature of partnerships between staff, students and
community.

The school leaders are committed to improved teacher practice.
School leaders actively promote the John Fleming approach to Explicit Instruction, a
high-yield evidence-based teaching strategy. The leadership team has prioritised the
use of learning intentions and success criteria by teachers in every lesson. There is a
school-wide commitment to this pedagogical approach, and this is consistently
articulated by teachers.

The leadership team is committed to developing differentiated teaching as a strategy
for ensuring that every student is engaged and learning successfully.
Teachers are encouraged to tailor their teaching to address individual student need.
Structural differentiation strategies currently support ability-grouped classes to enable
teachers to better target strategies for identified student learning needs. There has
been significant staff development on OneSchool differentiation dashboard and there
appears to be a broad commitment to this strategy.

The school has a commitment to a broad range of improvement strategies.
The school leaders are united and explicit about their objective to provide every
student with opportunities to strive to accomplish, however, a strategic approach to
quality assurance has not been fully implemented. As a result, there are variations in
the level of confidence, commitment and consequently, the degree of implementation
across the school.

There is a variable approach to using data to inform the explicit improvement agenda.
There is no comprehensive school data plan. Consequently, responsibilities for
collection and use of data, timelines for and types of data to be collected are not
clearly defined. Data engagement practices across faculties vary greatly.
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
The school is yet to develop formal processes to support teacher development
through mentoring and coaching.
There is evidence that the school leadership team sees the ongoing development of
staff into an expert and coherent school-wide teaching team as fundamental to
improving outcomes for all students. However, there is an ad hoc approach to the
provision of opportunities for staff to observe one another’s classroom practice and
there is currently no formal coaching and mentoring program in place to support
professional growth.
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2.2 Key improvement strategies

Narrow and sharpen the focus of the improvement agenda to enhance understanding
of and commitment to identified priorities and targets.

Develop and embed quality assurance processes to ensure a consistent, school-wide
approach to the implementation of agreed improvement strategies.

Develop, publish and enact a comprehensive school data plan to reflect clear, schoolwide expectations, timelines, purpose and responsibilities for the collection and use of
data.

Formalise a school-wide coaching and mentoring program that reflects clear
alignment with the explicit improvement agenda.
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