A Belconnen superschool struggling with vandalism and disruptive students must refocus on consistent expectations for staff teaching and student learning and behaviour, a review found.
A special purpose review of Kingsford Smith School found that high rates of staff absences in 2022 created an unpredictable learning environment.
Students told the review panel in November last year that teachers spent most of their time managing behaviour and they thought some lessons were not engaging.
Students spoke about threats of violence outside of school hours and that a small group of students were vandalising school property without any known consequences.
Staff absences peaked in Term 2 last year at 19.5 per cent and the rate was consistently higher than the average for other ACT public preschool to year 10 schools.
Staff said at times the school was "overwhelmed" and lacked resources and support from the directorate and allied health services for students with challenging behaviours.
Some staff have stopped completing online reports of work health and safety incidents because there was a lack of follow-up.
A support plan had been in place at the school since 2020 but since transitioning to the monitoring phase the improvements have reversed.
Education Directorate executive group manager of school improvement Mark Huxley said there was not an inherent problem with the preschool to year 10 structure.
"What I can say is that there was evidence through the special purpose review that the report highlights that the systems and processes are in place at the school," Mr Huxley said.
"But I think, as the students point out, that did vary between classrooms and that's been an increasing focus for the school in terms of professional learning for staff and the investment that we're making to improve the consistency between classrooms."
He said the positive behaviours for learning framework was already in place at the school but it wasn't being implemented consistently.
The special purpose review panel recommended the school design a suite of preferred, evidence-based pedagogies and begin frequent formal and informal sharing of successful practices between teachers.
Mr Huxley said the school already had professional learning teams in place and had access to teaching resources from the Education Directorate.
"In terms of the actual professional learning of teachers engaged in the [professional learning teams] they're actually having more time and quarantined time to participate and engage in those things than previously and obviously we're seeing benefits to the practice and consistency of practice in the classrooms."
Mr Huxley could not say the current number of vacant staff positions at the school.
Mr Huxley said the infrastructure and capital works team was currently assessing the school and developing a list of actions to improve the school campus in line with the report's recommendations.
He said early data showed some improvements since the review.
"It is still relatively early, can I say ... but the initial signs are promising for Kingsford Smith."
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