Principal's Message

Welcome to the 2024 school year.

At the end of the 2023 school year the other members of the Auburn North staff and I were very fortunate to receive a number of special cards from our delightful students and parents. One parent wrote in one card:

"The values Auburn North has instilled in my children will no doubt make them great human beings. My sincere thanks to all members of the ANPS staff. You are all diligent sculptors who have carved our children and all Auburn North students into beautiful Australian citizens."

This message reflects so positively on the quality of the Auburn North Public School Learning Community and I believe its sentiments represent the views of all Auburn North parents. 

Our school's FIVE main priorities are to assist:

1. Our students love school, love learning, and become happy, lifelong learners.

2. Our students develop outstanding literacy, numeracy, technology, and 21st century skills such as critical and creative thinking and collaboration.

3. Our students live and breathe our six school values that are honesty, kindness, respect, fairness, friendship, and responsibility.

4. Our parents become active participants in their school and in their children’s learning.

5. Our teachers become the very best teachers they can become. 

We will strategically use our People, Programs and Practices (3Ps) to achieve outstanding outcomes in all five priority areas.

At the end of the 2023 school year I wrote in the school newsletter that I believed 2023 was our school’s most successful year in the 24 years I had been the principal of Auburn North. I wrote that I believed it was our most successful year in terms of our leadership, teaching, student wellbeing, student learning, and parent engagement and participation.

I also wrote that we had achieved excellent outcomes in each of these areas because of the way all members of our multi-award-winning Auburn North FAMILY of students, staff and parents had worked together tirelessly and in perfect harmony during the year.

While 2023 was very successful, we have planned for and we expect 2024 to be even more successful for our students, staff, parents, and our school.

We have always had excellent school leaders, classroom teachers, and school administration staff (our wonderful office team and general assistants) however, in 2024 we have assembled the most outstanding team of leaders, teachers, and administration staff I have seen assembled in any one school during my 43 years in education.

We have also developed a range of excellent new teaching and learning programs and practices to implement in 2024 to complement the outstanding programs and programs that are already being used in our classrooms. 

Our students are so fortunate to have such loving, supportive parents, such caring and dynamic leaders and teachers, and have access to best-practice programs and practices.

These factors combined with our students self-motivation will inspire our K-6 students to THRIVE and ACHIEVE in 2024 and become the happiest and brightest young people they can become.

2024 IS GOING TO BE A VERY EXCITING and SUCCESSFUL YEAR.

 

 

OUR 2021 – 2025 SCHOOL VISION and MISSION

 Our school's 2021 - 2025 Vision is:

‘Our Vision is to be a truly outstanding future-focused learning community for all members of the Auburn North family.'

 

Our school's 2021 – 2025 Mission is:

‘Our Mission is to engage students in a truly outstanding education, inspired by expert leaders and teachers in partnership with supportive families.'

 

We believe the following features of our school will contribute to the realisation of our Vision by the end of the 2025 school year:

• Our research-based and evidence-based, data-informed, action-planned culture.
• Our ongoing pursuit of excellence.
• Our strategic utilisation of human, financial, and physical resources. 
• The development and implementation of highly effective leadership, teaching, learning, and parent involvement and parent engagement and participation programs.
• Our commitment to ensuring that our students experience a world-class education because they deserve nothing less.

We have strategically and importantly defined what we mean by “future-focused”. We believe if our students are going to be successful this year, in the future, and become successful life-long leaners they need to:

1. Realise and exceed their full potential academically, emotionally, socially, creatively and technologically to become happy and successful well-rounded young people.
2. Develop outstanding Basic Skills in literacy and numeracy, Technology Skills, and 21^st Century Skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and citizenship.
3. Live and breathe our six school values which are kindness, friendship, respect, fairness, responsibility, and honesty.

In 2024 and 2025 we will ensure our school leaders, teachers and parents participate in a range of high quality training programs and workshops to develop the confidence, knowledge and skills to assist students develop this skill set and enable them to live and breathe our values.

 

OUR SCHOOL'S NARRATIVE

“We believe we have developed a school learning community that is something special, something wonderful, something exceptional. We believe our school community appreciates each individual’s uniqueness and calls forth their potential and provides opportunities for human fulfilment.

We believe our school community serves as a model for what education can become when students, staff, and parents learn, teach, and parent together in perfect harmony to achieve THEIR Vision.” 

 

OUR THEME

Our school is one of the most multicultural schools in Australia and in fact the world. Our students and their families come from more than 60 different countries and speak more than 40 different languages. Our school really is the United Nations. Our school's Theme since 2000 had been that Auburn North provides ‘The Best of All Worlds'. This theme reflected the fact that our school was blessed with a rich tapestry of cultures from around the world, where we respected each other and celebrated our own and each other's cultures.

This theme also reflected the fact that all members of our community believed that our learning community was multiculturalism at its very best and multiculturalism at its most successful. We believed that only in an inclusive public school like Auburn North Public School could students learn one of life's most important lessons. That lesson was that regardless of a person's culture, religion or colour we are all essentially the same, that we all want to live safe, happy, healthy and successful lives.

While our multi-award-winning school had been recognised and acknowledged as an outstanding and high-performing learning community, in 2015 all members of our community believed that we must always be moving FORWARD. They believed that we must always keep our eyes, ears and minds open for better and more effective ways to maximise leadership, teaching, learning and parenting outcomes in our school.

Therefore, our learning community decided that while it was very important that Auburn North students continue to learn one of life's most important lessons and continue to learn and develop outstanding knowledge, skills and attitudes in Literacy, numeracy and all other subject areas, it was also very important that our students develop outstanding Technology Skills and 21st Century Skills to be successful now and in the future in our rapidly changing world.

We revised our school theme and further developed and improved our leadership, teaching, learning and parenting programs and practices to reflect this development. Since 2015 our school theme has been Auburn North provides “The Best of All Worlds for 21st Century Learners”.

Therefore, to be high achieving people now and in the future our students this year and in the future will be focussing on maximising their 'Basic Skills', Technology Skills, and their '21st Century Skills.

 

AWARDS ACKNOWLEDGING OUR SCHOOL’S OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCES

Auburn North Public School has been acknowledged as an outstanding learning community by the NSW Department of Education. Over the past eight years we have been presented with a range of State awards acknowledging our excellent performances and results in areas such as leadership, teaching, learning, parent participation, and community cohesion. Some of these awards include the:

• 2023 NSW Department of Education's 'Secretary's Award for School Achievement - Assisting All Teachers Become Their Very Best.'
• 2023 NSW Department of Education's 'Secretary's Award for an Outstanding School Initiative - Developing the Mathematician Project.'
• 2022 NSW Department of Education's 'Secretary's Award for School Achievement - Auburn North's Collective Teacher Efficacy Project'.
• 2022 NSW Department of Education's 'Secretary's Award for an Outstanding School Initiative - Commendation - 'Effective Reading Instruction Project.'
• 2021 NSW Department of Education's 'Secretary's Award for School Achievement - Auburn North's Collaborative School Culture.'
• 2021 NSW Department of Education's 'Secretary's Award for an Outstanding School Initiative – Use of Video for Self-Reflection and Peer Reflection.'
• 2020 NSW Department of Education's 'Secretary's Award for an Outstanding School Initiative – COVID-19 Blended Approach to Flexible Learning Project.’
• 2019 NSW Department of Education's 'Secretary's Award for an Outstanding School Initiative - Leadership for Whole-School Improvement.'
• 2019 NSW Department of Education's 'Secretary's Award for School Achievement - Parents as Partners in Learning Program.'
• 2018 NSW Department of Education’s ‘Secretary’s Award for an Outstanding School Initiative – High Impact Teaching Strategies.’
• 2018 NSW Departments of Education’s ‘Secretary’s School Achievement Award – Maximising the Learning, Social, and Emotional Outcomes for Refugee Students and Parents.’
• 2017 NSW Department of Education 'Secretary's Award for an Outstanding School Initiative'.
• 2017 NSW Department of Education's 'Secretary's School Achievement Award'.
• NSW Director-General's 'School Achievement Award'
• NSW Minister for Education's 'Cohesive Community School Award' (runner-up previous 2 years) 

Our learning community believes that our school will continue to be recognised as an exceptional school if we:

1. continue to develop and implement exemplary professional learning programs and practices.
2. increase further parent participation in THEIR school and in their children's education.
3. assist each student become and remain intrinsically motivated to exceed their full potential.
4. assist all students maximise their Basic Skills, Technology Skills and their 21st Century Skills
5. achieve our 2021 - 2025 School Vision and Mission.

 

K-6 SCHOOL-BASED OUTCOMES, “NAPLAN” and “MY SCHOOL” RESULTS

Two of the main reasons why our school has been recognised and acknowledged as a high-performing school is because our school always achieves excellent K-6 school-based learning outcomes and NAPLAN results. Over the 12 years  the ‘My School' website has existed, our school has usually outperformed ‘Like Schools' in at least seven of the ten areas in Year 3 and Year 5 and outperformed 'All Schools' in Writing.  

Every year since 2017 we have outperformed or significantly outperformed Similar ('Like') Schools in all ten Year 3 and Year 5 literacy and numeracy areas and our school has usually outperformed the state average in eight Year 3 and Year 5 areas.

In terms of student growth or "value-added" between Year 3 to Year 5, our school usually achieves in the top 1% - 5% of all NSW public primary schools. 

These performances demonstrate what can be achieved when staff, students, and parents teach, learn and parent together in perfect harmony to assist students EXCEED their full potential.

 

IN CONCLUSION

Finally, I consider it an honour and an absolute privilege to be a member of the multi-award-winning school Auburn North FAMILY. There are many reasons why I love being the principal of Auburn North and being a member of the Auburn North FAMILY. They include:

Our Students, who are beautiful, who live our six values, who work so hard, and who take great pride in their efforts and achievements.

Our Staff members, who are delightful, positive and happy people who work so hard and so effectively together so that our students love school, love learning, and exceed their full potential in all areas of endeavour.

Our Parents, who are so respectful and kind, who are committed to the education and welfare of their children, and who are so supportive of our staff and school.

Mark Harris

(Very Proud) Principal

 

"We're all different but still the same." Auburn North Student

"Everyone has different beliefs and to live in a harmonious community we must respect the beliefs of others. That is what makes Auburn North so special." Auburn North Student

"I am very impressed by the exceptionally caring attitude of the Auburn North teachers to the students, parents, and all members of our community. I am inspired by the very positive learning attitude of the Auburn North students." Auburn North Parent

"I find our school is very harmonious and like a second home and everyone is friendly and like sisters and brothers to me." Auburn North Parent