Monitoring your school’s performance

As a member of a school council (also called school representative bodies or school boards), monitoring your school’s performance is one of your main jobs.

You do this by looking at the reports provided by your school, asking questions and making decisions during meetings.

The below outlines some key areas of school performance that you're likely to come across during your time on the school council.

While you may not be familiar with these processes at first, your principal will help you understand these documents and you'll become more familiar with them over time.

As the school's education leader, your principal brings years of experience and study. You bring your knowledge and life experience too. Together, you work to make things better for the children at your school.

Watch the video

In the video below, you will learn about the body’s role to monitor your school’s performance through:

• providing input into your school’s annual school improvement plan
• providing input into your school’s annual budget
• monitoring and reviewing financial reports.

Explicit improvement agenda

The explicit improvement agenda (EIA) provides longer term goals for making education better for the children at your school.

It's based on the outcomes and feedback from the school review.

It covers things like how the school and community will work to improve the school and learning over the next 4 years.

Your principal will talk to the body when the EIA needs to be updated.

You should discuss this as a group to make sure it meets the needs of the school and community.

Annual school improvement plan

The annual school improvement plan (ASIP) defines the learning areas your school aims to focus on to improve educational outcomes.

Its purpose is to:

• set a clear understanding of your school’s strategic direction for the year
• describe clear goals for improving education outcomes for students
• keep track of how things are improving and if students are coming to school enough
• set out how you will all work to make the school better for the children.

To develop the ASIP, your principal will consult with the:

• school council
• teachers and school staff
• parents and carers
• students.

Your principal has access to various resources that will support you to develop the ASIP.

Once all body members agree to the ASIP, your principal will talk to you at each meeting about how staff are working towards meeting those goals.

Annual budget

Each year, your school is given money to deliver education to students who attend your school that year.

As a school council, you will make sure school money is being spent in a way that will make things better for students and meets community expectations. The Education Act 2015 and Regulations provide rules to guide you on these matters.

Finance reports

The department outlines finance reports the body should get each month so you can ask questions to make sure the money is being spent as agreed.

Get the key financial governance actions checklist PDF (96.0 KB).

Essential costs

The principal and school business manager will speak to the body about what they need to spend money on.

This includes wages for body staff and resources for teaching and learning.

Money left over

If there is money left over after paying for staff and education costs, the body should talk together about how to spend this money to benefit the students at the school.

This might be new playground equipment or a new support program.

Fundraising

School councils can raise extra money for the school through fundraising. For more information, go to the NTCOGSO website.

Audited financial report

School money has to be reviewed, or audited, each year to make sure money was spent appropriately.

The treasurer will present and explain the audited financial report to the body at the annual general meeting (AGM). You should ask questions to make sure money was spent on the things that you planned.

Members approve the audited financial report if it's a true record of how money was spent.

The chair signs the audited report only after it has been passed at the AGM.

The school must then send a copy of the signed audited report to the Department of Education’s chief executive as soon as possible after the AGM.

The Act and regulations provide guidance on the process and requirements for auditing school financial reports.

To find out more about the AGM, read meetings and decision-making.