K-6 Educational Resources — Board of Studies, New South Wales, Australia
Primary Matters
Primary Matters – December 2005
extracted from Board Bulletin, volume 14, number 6
Contents
Non-government schools – 2004 Annual School Reports
Recent amendments to the Education Act 1990 require a registered non-government school to disclose publicly its educational and financial performance measures on an annual basis and to provide a copy of the annual school report to the Board. This requirement is detailed in the Registered and Accredited Individual Non-government Schools (NSW) Manual and the Registration Systems and Member Non-government Schools (NSW) Manual.
In 2005, the first year for such reporting, each nongovernment school was required to make its annual report for the 2004 school year available publicly by 1 July 2005. Schools were also required to use the Board’s online facility to submit an electronic version of the report to the Board by 31 July 2005.
During August and September 2005, the Board reviewed the annual school reports from all individual non-government schools and a sample of the reports from systemic non-government schools. The review found that:
- generally, schools have comprehensively addressed all of the required educational and financial performance measure and policies
- each report provided a useful overview of the school’s priorities, policies and achievements
- most schools publicly disclosed the report via the school’s website.
The Board is providing feedback about the review to non-government schools during Term 4, 2005.
Annual school reports for the 2005 school year are due to be disclosed publicly and made available electronically to the Board by 1 July 2006.
‘Tutti Fruity Slasher Day’
promotes healthy eating for K–6 students
A Years 3/4 class at Frenchs Forest Public School has been promoting healthy eating through their studies of a cross-curricular unit based on their school canteen. The students have worked on two projects throughout Term 3 and early Term 4 this year, focusing primarily on the PDHPE, Science and Technology, and HSIE syllabuses. Literacy, numeracy and technology skills formed an integral part of the learning process, which involved students working in teams to plan, promote and host a special ‘healthy eating’ day in their school canteen.
The project provided students with an opportunity to gain a first-hand understanding of the role that the school canteen can play in providing a service for the local community of students, staff and parents. Students also developed an appreciation of the special responsibility that canteens have in promoting healthy eating.
The school’s Assistant Principal and project facilitator, Kylie Davidson, said that the activities allowed students to see the everyday relevance and the interconnectedness between classroom learning, the school community and the choices they make in life. They managed this through a scientific investigation of what are healthy foods, and designing and making healthy food to be sold in the canteen.
‘The students are developing the notion of how their choices can affect their health,’ she said.
The cross-curricular unit was organised into four phases: designing healthy food for sale in the canteen on the special day, planning the day itself, hosting the day and then writing up an evaluation of its effectiveness.
In the first phase, students were required to design a salad or smoothie to be sold in the canteen. There were five criteria that had to be met – each recipe had to be in line with the school’s ‘Nut Free Zone’ policy as well as being tasty, affordable, healthy and wellpresented. The students budgeted and went shopping to make their designs. When the salads and smoothies were made, a taste test was conducted on a random sample of students, parents and staff, who were also surveyed on their opinion of presentation. Students worked out the percentage of ‘green’ versus ‘amber’ ingredients in their recipe and graphed the results. Finally, the selling price of each salad and smoothie was determined. Overall results were graphed and compared, and a conclusion was made on the salad and smoothie that best fitted the criteria.
In the second phase the students then formed into five committees to plan for key aspects of the day. Expert advice was regularly sought from the canteen supervisor, class parents and SAS staff:
- Menu Committee – create explanatory note, menu and order form, collection and tallying of orders
- Finance Committee – establish unit selling prices to cover costs and profits, maintain cashbook, handling, safekeeping and counting of monies
- Shopping Committee – construct shopping list to cover required ingredients, purchase of ingredients
- Organising Committee – organise student and parent helpers into groups for making and selling the salads and smoothies, construct a time-table for helpers on the day
- Advertising Committee – make and display posters, distribute reminders and visit classes to build awareness and enthusiasm.
The TFS (Tutti Fruity Slasher) Day – as it was called – was held early in Term 4 and was a huge success. Students and parent helpers were divided into a recess and a lunch group. The recess group prepared and sold five healthy dishes in the canteen during the morning. Meanwhile the lunch group prepared and filled the selection of salad and smoothie lunch orders. The orders were delivered to the classrooms at lunchtime and any leftover recess food was sold by the recess group at lunch.
Overall the class sold 80 low-fat muffins, 35 fruit kebabs, 40 frozen bananas, 60 slinky apples, 30 slurps, 45 fruit salads, 11 green salads and 64 smoothies. Surprisingly, the slinky apples and the fruit kebabs were the first to be sold out. As a result many parents have reported a change in their child’s eating habits, with many students requesting salad at home. There has also been a substantial increase in the ordering of slinky apples in their lunch orders. Unintentionally, a profit of $80 was made and a new bar mix and storage containers are currently being purchased for the canteen.
‘Students wanted to give back to the canteen in gratitude for this unique experience,’ said Mrs Davidson.
In the final phase, students wrote a brief evaluation of their role on their respective planning teams and described what they had learned from the process. By capitalising on the expertise of the Canteen Supervisor, class parents and staff, students experienced meaningful and quality learning experiences both inside and outside the classroom.
The integrated nature of the learning process enhanced students’ skills in literacy, numeracy and technology while achieving outcomes of the PDHPE, Science and Technology and HSIE syllabuses. It was also a lot of fun! This unit of work is quite flexible in its design and is readily adaptable to any school as it is driven by the school community, which makes it relevant and culturally appropriate to students’ lives.