The Minister for Education and Training has announced that TWO selective classes will be established at Prairiewood High School for Year 7 students from the beginning of the school year in 2010.

Prairiewood High School is proud to be a part of the public education system and, as such, we are bound by the policies of the NSW Department of Education and Training. We are part of the Hoxton group of schools in the South Western Sydney Region. From the late 1980s until 2004, Prairiewood was designated as a "Languages' High School", but, with fewer and fewer students electing to take up the study of the (mainly European) languages offered in the curriculum, a decision (totally supported by the School Council) was taken to forego this status, in spite of the highly acclaimed teaching and learning programs being implemented by the Languages Faculty (as acknowledged in the DET specialist high schools review).

The school's Mission Statement sums up our key focus and purpose: "To strive for excellence in classroom teaching with students supported by wide-ranging experiences and opportunities which enable them to develop as productive, effective and valued members of the community." A Quality Teaching Focus in 2007-2008 Staff across all faculty areas have been involved in a diverse range of quality teaching initiatives, workshops and professional learning experiences, both at whole school and faculty level, throughout 2007 and 2008.

This excellent work by staff will be further developed in 2009, with a whole school focus upon “Achieving My Personal Best” and is aimed at students accepting more responsibility for their own learning – both in and beyond the classroom. During the past three years, all teaching staff members have been actively involved as part of our Quality Teaching focus in wide-ranging workshops and discussion groups involving the development of teaching and learning programs (and associated resource materials), detailed reviews and planning and evaluation in the area of student assessment. This work has been invaluable as we lead up to 2010 and the establishment of two selective stream Year 7 classes at Prairiewood High School.

Our staff has been actively involved in working with staff from other selective high schools (both partially and fully selective) in the planning and organisation of additional professional learning opportunities for staff - part of our ongoing commitment as we strive to provide the best possible teaching and learning programs for all students, whether in selective or mainstream classes. All staff will be participating in a range of specialised workshops throughout 2009, further developing teaching and learning programs and sharing strategies and resource materials, as they work together with teachers from a range of schools across the South Western Sydney Region. School Certificate and HSC results for 2006, 2007 and 2008 have shown continuing levels of improvement across many different subject areas – with excellent achievement levels for our students and an overall four-year improvement trend. Results in fifteen HSC courses last year were on or above the State mean, with approximately 43% of our exiting Year 12 students being offered ‘first round’ university places.

Location
The school is located in the Fairfield Local Government Area (third largest in the Sydney area) and is surrounded by the suburbs of Wetherill Park, Prairiewood, Smithfield and Bossley Park with William Stimson, Smithfield West, Prairievale, Smithfield and Horsely Park as its main "feeder" primary schools. Almost all of the housing in the immediate area is privately owned, with a small section of government housing adjacent to the school. The Site The present site of almost eight hectares was first occupied in 1984 and is bounded by Prairie Vale Road, Restwell Road, the Stockland Centre and public housing area of Bogong Place. Two public hospitals, The Spastic Centre and a rehabilitation clinic are located "just across the road", with a neighbourhood youth centre nearby. In 2001, after many years of negotiation with DET, a full security fence was installed around the school's perimeter. The "early eighties" designed two-storey buildings, and surrounding grounds with major shadecloth structures for sun protection, provide a very pleasant working environment for both staff and students. The school farm, a designated environment area, outdoor double basketball courts, a multipurpose hall/gymnasium and large playing fields are significant additional features of our site.

A Multicultural and Changing Enrolment
After peaking at 1,510 students in 1995, the total school enrolment has now reduced to 920 students for the 2009 school year (almost the same as in 2007 and 2008) mainly as a result of the changing demographic with the children of original residents now young adults and many younger families now moving into this area. Although 71% of our students are from almost fifty different cultural backgrounds the actual breakdown in terms of cultural groups has changed quite significantly over the years. In 2009, the most significant LBOTE groups represented by students from an NESB/LBOTE background are: Assyrian (17% of these students), Arabic (12%), Vietnamese (11%), Spanish (8.3%), Italian (6.0%) with the next most significant groups being Samoan, Turkish, Tongan and Cantonese. These figures represent a noticeable change in the mix of students from a range of different cultural backgrounds, even when compared to statistical figures in just the past four or five years. It is also interesting to note that, of thirty-five new students enrolling at our school in Years 8-12, almost 20% of these (and 2% of new Year 7 students) formerly attended a non-government school.

The Students
The majority of Prairiewood students are friendly, courteous, polite, well-behaved and interested in making a worthwhile contribution to their school work. Our students are representative of a wide range of academic ability, with some very hard-working students achieving outstanding HSC results in recent years and a significant number of candidates achieving results which place them in the top 10% or 20% of students across the State. At the same time, there has been an increase in the number of students identified as experiencing learning difficulties and in need of additional learning support, with a recent increase in the number of these leaving school during Years 10 or 11 and being offered traineeships, apprenticeships or permanent employment, instead of remaining until Year 12 to complete the HSC. Twenty students are enrolled in the two Special Education (I.O.) support classes which operate at our school. Our student retention rate for students from Years 7 to 12 continues to remain higher than that of most other schools in the district, region or state.

The Staff
Prairiewood High School is fortunate to have a very stable and experienced staff, with 43% or more of the teaching and non-teaching staff having greater than twenty years teaching experience in schools and 43% of our teaching staff having worked at Prairiewood High School school for 15 years or more. Many of our teachers regularly participate in School Certificate and HSC marking, with some also involved as members of Board of Studies Examination and Syllabus Committees or as members of District Training and Curriculum Support teams.

Student Welfare and Support
The Student Welfare Team is led by the Head Teacher Welfare and involves each of the six Student Year Advisers and six Assistant Advisers together with the School Counsellors working together to provide support to the students in each scholastic year group. A Learning Support Team and Behaviour Support Team work closely with Year Advisers and other members of the Welfare Team. In addition to the usual teacher/faculty monitoring and individual student assessment/exam results for results each half year, student achievement and progress is also further monitored across Years 7-12 via the principal's Monthly Review Meetings and the school works closely with students and parents to address any issues and concerns which may arise. An innovative approach to providing targeted welfare support to incoming Year 7 students has been the establishment of a “transition” class with students selected following identification by feeder primary school teachers of those students who are most likely to experience difficulty in settling in at high school. An after-school learning and homework centre operates on Monday and Thursday afternoons for two hours each week, with four staff tutors providing teaching and learning support to students – in addition to the EvenStart tutoring funded by the government.

The Curriculum
Prairiewood offers a very diverse curriculum and includes a wide range of VET courses offered at the school and at TAFE, an area of emphasis which has existed since the earliest years of the school's operation in the late 1980s. With the change of 'status' in 2005, the mandatory study of a LOTE elective for all students during Years 9 and 10 (introduced as a curriculum initiative in 1991) ceased with a third 'free choice elective' introduced. However, following a major review and discussions as part of the school Quality Teaching focus introduced in 2006, further curriculum changes which involved increasing the number of periods allocated for core subjects in Stage 5 and an equity issue relating to student achievement in the School Certificate, have led to these changes being fully implemented in 2008. In the Senior School, students are invited to choose from more than sixty-five different subjects, including extension courses in English, Mathematics, History and Languages, together with a significant selection of 2 Unit Board Developed courses, as well as other Board Endorsed and Vocational Education and Training (VET and TVET) courses being offered to students for the HSC.

Prairiewood was the first school in this area to offer the new Entertainment VET course (commenced in 2005), with a VET Primary Industries course introduced in 2007. Unfortunately, despite the best advice provided by school staff, some parents and students experience difficulty in making the most realistic and appropriate decisions about study and career aspirations beyond the HSC (with almost double the State average seeking university placement at the end of Year 12) and, as a result, many students who would benefit greatly from including some VET courses at school or TAFE in their study programs are reluctant to choose them, preferring instead to enrol in courses which may severely limit their opportunities for success. Students enrolled in the Special Education (I.O.) classes work towards a Life Skills School Certificate and are actively involved in many whole school programs.

Special curriculum initiatives which provide opportunities for work skills and social skills development both within and beyond the school have been extremely successful, with many of these students being offered employment upon leaving school. A hugely successful curriculum initiative which has operated for a number of years now has been the hospitality and catering program (including invitations to cater for events and training courses organised by district office and other outside groups) developed for our Senior I.O. students. A special feature of this program is the “Prairiewood Café” where students have the opportunity to develop their competencies in a range of areas related to hospitality.

A large number of students across all academic years is involved in wide-ranging gifted and talented programs, competitions and other extra curricular and sporting experiences including Astronomy Nights, the Ag. Show Team, Debating, Public Speaking, Chess, Theatre Sports, Drama and Music performances, Schools’ Spectacular, Talent Quests, School Newspaper Team, Duke of Edinburgh Award Program, Student Fitness Training, Year 7 Learn to Swim Program, Indoor and Outdoor Soccer, Hockey, Rugby Union, Touch Football, Cricket, Volleyball, European Handball, Basketball, AFL, Tennis, Table Tennis, Touch Football and other sporting knockout competitions. Each year, a large number of students also participates in a range of National Schools' Competitions such as English, Maths, Science, Chemistry, Geography, Economics, Business Studies and ACER Languages' competitions. Many students have also been successful in achieving 1st place, championship and other awards at a different regional shows for their work in areas such as textiles, painting and drawing, cooking and ceramics. Students have also participated in Forensic Science, Ceramics and Cartooning and Digital Photography workshops.

Student Achievements
In recent years we have seen an improvement trend in School Certificate results and overall results compare favourably with those of "like school groups" in the state. Official DET feedback indicates that the “value-added” statistics reveal that student achievement levels at the School Certificate are significantly higher than would normally be expected – based upon testing in Year 5 at primary school. In fact, many of these results are much higher than an average of the school’s results in the past five years, and could be considered as “outstanding” when compared to figures for like school groups.

Students have also achieved high levels of success, as individuals and as members of teams at school, zone, CHS, State and National levels in the following sporting areas: Athletics, Rugby Union, Touch Football, Volleyball, Indoor Soccer and European Handball; as well as in the National Schools' Competitions in English, Mathematics, Science, Geography and Languages and at the Royal Easter Show, Debating and Public Speaking competitions, UWS Unischools Steer Challenge and the State Talent Development Project.

The school continues to be proud and celebrate the achievements of its students and a destination survey of Year 12 students who completed the HSC at the end of last year reveals the following positive information re “life after Prairiewood”:

Student Leadership Program
There has been increased emphasis placed on providing our students with additional leadership development opportunities and experiences in the past three years. In addition to the day-to-day responsibilities of members of the Student Representative Council (SRC), Prefects and Sports Council, a targeted Student Leadership Development Program was introduced about two years ago and continues to involve these students in special programs aimed at building skills and providing additional leadership development opportunities and experiences for students. Parent and

Community Support
Our school is fortunate to have a core group of interested parents, staff and community representatives involved in the School Council and P&C Association which meet on a monthly basis throughout the year. These people are keen to work with the school to further develop its programs and educational opportunities for students. The school is held in high regard by the local community with many "out-of-area" students seeking enrolment each year. Substantial community links have been established with the following community businesses and groups: Qantas Airways, Stockland Centre, McDonald's Prairiewood, Fairfield Hospital, Smithfield RSL, Prairiewood Leisure Centre, Wetherill Park Rotary Club, Fairfield/Wetherill Park Police, and WESCO Concrete, as well as a wide range of local businesses and community groups who are keen to offer work experience and work placement opportunities to our students.

Did you know that the HSC results achieved by Prairiewood High School students in Business Studies, PDHPE, Chemistry, Senior Science, Ancient History, VET Hospitality and Biology courses were well ABOVE the State average last year?

Did you know that our school’s Rugby Team has been selected to represent Australia in the World Youth Rugby Competition to be held in Japan during 2009? What a great experience and fantastic opportunity for Prairiewood students!

Did you know that, at Prairiewood, we celebrate the outstanding achievements of our students (both academic and extracurricular) and pride ourselves on the range of HSC courses offered, as well as the range of gifted and talented opportunities and other learning experiences offered beyond the classroom?

Did you know that Qantas Airways has agreed to establish a career education link career education partnership with Prairiewood High School and agreed to support our students in a range of Vocational Education and other HSC courses ?

John Pickering – PRINCIPAL 12/2/2009