Sally Menadue
Principal, O’Sullivan Beach School phone 83825888 email sally.menadue754@schools.sa.edu.au
O’Sullivan Beach School
‘If our students don’t learn the way we teach them, then we must teach them the way they learn’.
Is it really as simple as that?
What are we doing that is making a difference?
Every teacher is responsible for every child’s learning outcomes – we are a team
We identify and select best practise to achieve optimum outcomes
Our teachers take immediate action when faced with learning needs rather than waiting for a referral to take place
We focus on individual strengths, therefore developing a positive self-esteem in our learners
We no longer expect our outcomes to be the ‘same’ as previous years as we have changed our approaches and demand improvement
Implemented and sustained a whole school belief and approach to pedagogy – we look for trouble in our data – if students are not learning what we have taught, why?
We have a zero tolerance of failure – we take action when our targets are not met
Our rigorous scrutiny and interrogation of our data is followed by proactive approach – immediate action
O’Sullivan Beach school is “Dyslexia Friendly”
Leadership and management – Opportunities for
“teacher talk”, whole school approach
Partnership – Home-school-home, open/honest and timely communication
Teaching and learning – R3, 3-7 Ability grouping, assessment for and of learning, specific programmes (Jolly Phonics), knowledgeable and informed teachers, data to inform and practise
Classroom environment – Multi-sensory, ICT, safe learning environment, conducive to risk taking
All students across our school are benefiting from our obvious, but effective whole school approaches to classroom pedagogy. We see dyslexia as a learning difference rather than a learning difficulty. Our core business is inclusion – making our strategies motivate, engage and empower all learners.
Quality intervention, multi-sensory, whole school agreements, flexible, adaptive and responsive pedagogy, ability grouping

• Everyone is important and valued
• High expectations for all learners
• Differentiation of the way content is taught
• Multisensory
• Highly organised and structured classrooms
• Step by step instructions
• Pause time
• Learners to be the best they can be
Our teachers:
• Are patient, take time to listen and are enthusiastic about teaching
• Ask questions to check for understanding
• Create peaceful learning environments where risk taking is an expectation
• Show as well as tell and allow students to be teachers

• Students are excited to share their achievements with each other
• Students are learning to learn – what suits their individual style best
• Students are openly seeking feedback about their progress and setting achievable goals
• Students are taking ownership and responsibility for their behaviour for learning
• students are choosing to support each other in their learning
• Students feel valued as individuals
• Students re empowered and confident in their risk taking
• Peer relationships have strengthened across our school
• Teachers empowered by talking openly about learning outcomes
• Increased attendance rates and increased parental confidence
• Significant NAPLAN data improvement in the current Year 4 cohort – reading and comprehension
• Incidents in behaviour management declining significantly
• Increased student self-esteem and engagement in learning
• High quality intervention programmes impacting on every student