Introduction

Mountain Creek High School is the most highly sought after school for secondary education on the Sunshine Coast. The school began the year with an enrolment of 1998. More than 17% of students attending Mountain Creek High were formerly enrolled in private, non-government schools.

Mountain Creek State High School (MCSHS) featured in the Australian Government – Department of Education, Science and Training publication ‘High Demand Government Schools’ in 2005. . The report noted that

Mountain Creek State High School is in high demand because of the innovative approach to organisation and teaching which results in high standards of academic performance, an environment conducive to learning and the school’s capacity to cater for the needs of a diverse clientele.

In 2003 Mountain Creek High School was the first school in Queensland to be accredited with the Council of International Schools. This accreditation assures parents that their school has been quality assured by an external panel of international and national education professionals.

Distinctive Curriculum

Mountain Creek High School is an innovative and progressive school. Its distinctive curriculum is characterised by the following:

• The school has been authorised to offer the prestigious International Baccalaureate Diploma program for senior students since 2005.
• The Zenith Program for students in Years 8 and 9 offers opportunities for academically focussed students to proceed at an accelerated rate through the Middle School.
• The school enrols up to 100 international fee paying students from countries as diverse as Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Columbia, China, Nepal, Japan and Italy each year.
• The school is highly regarded for its sophisticated, state of the art, ICT network.
• The school offers specialist programs for students with interest and talent in the following areas:
  • Creative Industries (Music, Art, Dance and Drama)
  • Public Speaking
  • Rugby League
  • Volleyball
  • Basketball

Key Student Outcomes

National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)

Senior Schooling

Extra Curricular Activities

The Arts

• Jazz Band, Wind Symphony, Concert Orchestra, String Ensemble, String Quintet, Vocal Group, Choir, Junior and Senior Dance Company.
• Dance Company – Junior and Senior
• Vocal group and choir

Public Speaking and Debating

• Legacy Junior Public Speaking Award
• Queensland Plain English Speaking Competition
• Lions Youth of the Year
• Queensland Debating Union Competition
• Rostrum Voice of Youth Competition
• National Nine Junior Newsreading Competition
• Neighbourhood Watch Public Speaking Competition
• Rotary competition: District finals
• Inter-subschool debating

Leadership

• Students have been involved in Year 8 Induction/Orientation Camp, Year 11 Leadership Program and Careers Expo.

Academic

• Excellent achievements in National English, Mathematics, Science, Geography, LOTE Competitions.
• Students have the opportunity to travel overseas -, History tours  Britain, France and Belgium (2008); LOTE - Japan

Sport

• Year 8 - 12 Rugby League Program of Excellence
• Volleyball and Basketball Specialist programs
• Champion School Summer Interschool Sport
• Champion School Winter Interschool Sport
• Champion School Interschool Sport
• Open Soccer, Netball, AFL, Rugby Union, Basketball, Volleyball
• Boys Regional Cross Country Champions
• Queensland representatives AFL, Rugby Union, Swimming, Surf Lifesaving, Volleyball, Basketball
• Australian Champions in Basketball and Volleyball

Staff Information

In 2008 the staff was comprised of 132 teachers. Of those teachers 6% held a Masters degree, 81% held a Bachelors degree and the remaining 13% had Diplomas of Education.

All staff participated in a minimum of 5 days professional development. This activity was supported by a budget of more than $55,000.

The staff retention rate was 97% while the average attendance rate for teaching staff was 97%.

Teacher Morale

In 2008 94% of staff reported that Mountain Creek State High School was a good place to work.

Social Climate

Mountain Creek State High School has a distinctive pastoral care program which is supported by four sub-schools, a comprehensive Student Services faculty, a comprehensive Education and Career Planning program and a student management framework which outlines the roles and responsibilities of the school community in relation to management of students. Our 830 students in the Middle school are divided into four groups of approximately 210 students and are taught by a group of about 30 teachers in each Sub-School.

These Sub-Schools are semi-autonomous units that are self-directing and self-governing. They are responsible for the monitoring of behaviour and progress of students, communication with parents and provision of pastoral care.
They are jointly led by three Heads of Department who assume the multi-dimensional role of Head of Sub–School and are supported by two other Heads of Sub-School who are jointly responsible for the monitoring of behaviour and progress of students in the senior school.

This unique organisation of students and staff has required the redesignation of the roles of a range of people in the school, the establishment of new positions and the re-allocation of resources.

Each Sub-School has its own Sub-School staff amenities building which is staffed by a Sub-School Officer. Sub-Schools have their own reprographic resources, dedicated telephones, ten staff computers connected to the administration network, scanners and printers.

Heads of Sub-School have their own mobile telephones which make them accessible to the staff they support and which allows speedy contact with parents when the occasion arises. Students appreciate this level of contact between school and home and realise that problems and difficulties can be swiftly addressed and resolved.

Sub-Schools improve student learning outcomes through the promotion of positive student-teacher relationships. They encourage and support communication among teachers in improving their teaching and enhance collaboration among teachers in attacking school-wide problems. The traditional school organisation minimises collective, collegial behaviour on the part of teachers. “It leads to bureaucratic, rule-prone direction from the top but then creates autonomous teachers who, behind their classroom doors, can readily ignore much of the top-down direction.” Mountain Creek High has been deliberately structured to avoid this.

Central to the concept of Sub-Schools are a number of other beliefs:

• That an organisation’s structure can enhance the working environment for students and teachers
• That a consistent Whole of School Approach to Effective Teaching and Learning is essential to the development of an effective school that seeks to maximise student learning outcomes (i.e. academic, social and personal)
• That teaching strategies and curriculum should focus on the maturity level of students. The more individualised instruction can be the more it meets the psychological needs of students, particularly young adolescents
• That only through the collective efforts of teachers can schools operate effectively. For example, A lone teacher can impart phonics, fractions and the pluperfect tense, or the periodic table, but only through teachers’ collective efforts will schools produce educated graduates who can read and compute; apply scientific principles; comprehend the lessons of history value others’ cultures and speak their languages; and conduct themselves responsibly as citizens. Such accomplishments are the product of a corporate venture
• Teacher Accountability is achieved through ownership, commitment and collegiality rather than through supervision
• In a shared-influence setting, such as a sub-school, teachers have less individual autonomy because the pressure to do things differently comes from a source they need to respond to - their peers. This loss of individual autonomy is offset, however, by the collective ability to do things on behalf of student learning that the teacher is not able to do in isolation
• Learning partnerships are generated
• Sub-Schools foster student growth and development and a deeper sense of belonging for all involved in the school community.

Student Services Faculty

To enhance the sub-school student support MCSHS has a comprehensive Student Services faculty which incorporates a Guidance Officer, a Careers Head of Department, a School Based Health Nurse, a Chaplain( supported by local church youth workers), a large community support network (CYMHS, IYSF, Police Liaison Officer, CADET, MIGAS, ACLAIM) a vocational education officer, two Heads of Student Services (Senior and Middle School), a Special Education Unit and a Learning Support team.

Parent Involvement

Mountain Creek State High School has a very active and committed Parents’ and citizens” Association. To date the P&C Association has been responsible for the provision of

• a Student Services building
• a 25 metre pool and aquatic centre,
• 2 state of the art dance studios.
• Establishment of the Creeker Cafe
• Extension and refurbishment of the Resource Centre

The P&C Association meets the 3rd Monday of every month at 5.30 pm.
The school also has a School Council with membership of 4 parents elected from the P&C. Parents are also involved as volunteers supervising competitions, assisting in the uniform shop, assisting as sport coaches and a small number of volunteers are active in the Creeker café. Parent forums are used to provide advice to administration. Developing positive relationships is central to a sense of connectedness for parents of the school and to the distinctive development of programs and facilities.

Parents and the Community

Our school community values the strong sense of belonging encouraged by positive partnerships between students, staff, parents and community members. Data from our school opinion survey in 2008 for our key performance indicators (safe, happy and learning) supports the positive working climate fostered in our school:

Value Added

Mountain Creek State High is the most desired destination for secondary education on the Sunshine Coast. The very high levels of parent, student and teacher satisfaction attest to community recognition of the outstanding quality of secondary education offered at this school. This is further reinforced by the fact that the school has been accredited with the Council of International Schools since 2003.

School Progress

Mountain Creek State High School continues to be a high demand school. We are committed to providing a rigorous academic program for students, as well as providing alternate programs for students with a vocational education focus. Research, development and innovation are key components of our school’s operations. We are committed to building industry links to facilitate work experience to further enhance the success of our Education and Career Planning program. Facilities development is also a high priority to accommodate the specialist and excellence programs in the current planning phase.

Student Destinations

In 2009 almost 60 per cent of young people who completed their Year 12 at Mountain Creek State High School in 2008 continued in some recognised form of education and training in the year after they left school.

The most common study destination was university. The combined VET study destinations accounted for more than 25 per cent of respondents, including 15 per cent in campus-based VET programs, with almost 8 per cent of Year 12 completers entering programs at Certificate IV level or higher. More than 10 per cent commenced employment-based training, either as an apprentice or trainee.

In addition to the above study destinations, almost 20 per cent of respondents from this school deferred a tertiary offer in 2009.

Many strategies are used by our school to provide appropriate consequences for unacceptable student behaviour. The use of School Disciplinary Absences - suspensions, exclusions and cancellations of enrolment - are consequences used after consideration has been given to all other responses.

The Principal must be reasonably satisfied that grounds exist under the Education (General Provisions) Act 2006 outlined in sections 284, 289 and 316 prior to making the decision to suspend, recommend exclusion or cancel the enrolment of a student.

For further information on suspensions, exclusions and cancellations of enrolment, refer to the policy SMS-PR-021: Safe, Supportive and Disciplined School Environment.

The data are provided in terms of aggregate counts of incidents recorded by the school. The data do not represent the outcomes of any related appeal decisions.