SCHOOL

DARUSSALAM  ACADEMY

(CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SCHOOL)

VISION

1.  STATEMENT: Students of DA should be the best in modern day education as well as aware of Deen’s obligations.

2.  VISION COMPONENTS. Following must be achieved:

a.     All classes’ standards contain vigour and set according to students capabilities.

b.     The standards incorporate Deen’s benchmarks.

c.      These high standards are clearly defined.

d.     All teachers link their expectations to the required standards.

e.     Standards are known to school essentials.

f.      Articulate the learners’ commitment to excellence and equity.

g.     Entire community is driven to pursue the standards.

3.   Students’ performance is evaluated against the standards through assessments / tests and enforces alterations for improvements.

LEADERSHIP

4.   STATEMENT: Strong and effective leadership entail excellence and equity in education, and holding steadfast to the vision; garnering and allocating resources to attain continuous progress / improvement.

5.   LEADERSHIP GOALS. All elements to assume leadership role in their capacity. School leaders hold staff accountable for challenging all students with vigorous curriculum and for demonstrating high expectations for each student. Leadership must be:

a.    Flexible in dealing with change and willing to experiment.

b.    Make decisions based on attaining the most positive results for students.

c.    Use technology effectively.

d.    Address the needs of differences in staff and students.

e.    Builds consensus that guides rather than mandates.

f.     Inspires, persuades, and influences others by their own actions and attitudes.

g.    Stays current on educational research and trends.

h.    Maintains a focus on the possibilities and opportunities instead of the barriers.

i.      Cultivates support for the school and its mission among all segments of the community

j.     Promote distributed leadership, encouraging multiple roles for teacher leaders and tackling organizational change where necessary.

k.   Incorporate alternative structures to address management, discipline, and other functions traditionally performed by principals.

l.     Clarify decision-making authority at all levels and recognize the expectations, requirements, compensation, and recognition of faculty and staff.

HIGH ACADEMIC STANDARDS

6.   STATEMENT: What students are expected to learn, serve as a common target for students, staff and parents.

7.   HIGH STANDARD COMPONENTS: Subject wise standards are clarified to students to achieve and progress in a comfortable climate:

a.    Link to board standards.

b.    Establish measurable benchmarks for all students.

c.     Emphasize conceptual understanding and the application of knowledge, skills, and processes.

d.    Communicate learning expectations to students and parents.

e.    Serve as the basis for instructional methodology, resources, and assessment measures for evaluation criteria.

f.     Are used by teachers to guide instructional planning and implementation for diverse learners.

g.    Guide assessment strategies which inform students, parents, teachers, and other community members about student achievement.

h.    Address students’ instructional needs.

i.     Include academic supports such as tutoring, co-curricular activities and summer classes.

j.     Incorporate cognitive skills development like note taking, outlining, summarizing, synthesis, study skills, test-taking skills etc.

k.    Incorporate use of technology.

HIGH MORAL STANDARDS

8.   STATEMENT: Morality nourishes the soul and creates self esteem. This raises the children caring, contributing, productive, and responsible members of society, advocating for equity, diversity, fairness, inclusiveness, and justice. The school deliberately foster positive character traits in the students

9.   MORAL STANDARDS COMPONENTS: Subject wise standards are clarified to students to achieve and progress in a comfortable climate:

a.    Help students learn and model a core set of values such as respect, honesty, courage, and responsibility

b.    Create a positive school climate free of stereotyping, harassment, hate, and violence and filled with a concern for justice and fairness.

c.    Students respect all staff and each others.

d.    Students and staff are often engaged in service to others.

e.    Families, with the support of schools, help children meet life’s challenges and become healthy, caring, and productive citizens.

f.     High expectations for staff and students include expectations for behavior and result in a positive and safe school environment.

g.    Schools are places children can learn and practice positive interpersonal, cross-cultural, and citizenship skills.

h.    Establish high expectations for student and staff behavior in the classroom.

FAMILY, SCHOOL, COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

10STATEMENT: Students learn and grow at home, at school, and in their communities. Family and community participation in the schools recognizes the important role that families, communities, and schools play in helping all children succeed in school and in life. Partners bring their own strengths, skills, perspectives and knowledge to the educational process, and they all need to be welcomed and respected for their contributions. Parents are their children's first and most influential teachers. Research clearly shows the important role families play in the success of their child's learning, growth, and personal development in school. When families actively participate together, children do better in school and school becomes a better place for all children to learn.

11. PARTNERSHIP GOALS. When parents, teachers, students, and others view one another as knowledgeable partners in education, a caring community forms around students. Successful Schools Have Family and Community Partnerships That:

a.    Include administrative leadership and support for family-school-community partnerships.

b.    Provide well-designed, goal-oriented, and culturally responsive activities developed by teachers, parents, administrators, and other stakeholders.

c.     Are geared to the diverse needs of families and their children and to the particular conditions of each school.

d.    Foster varied and imaginative forms of two-way communication between home and school, address family skills, enable parents and community members to volunteer, provide learning opportunities at home and in the community, include parents in governance and decision making, and promote collaboration with the community.

e.    Build on strengths within the family, the school, and the community.

f.    Recognize that not all parents have experienced affirming and respectful relationships with schools and educators.

g.    Promote health and physical education and co-curricular activities.

h.    The student's family is able to (1) create a home environment that encourages learning; (2) communicate high, yet reasonable expectations for their children's achievement and future careers; and (3) become involved in their children's education at home, at school, and in the community.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

       STATEMENT: Professional development is a continuous learning process across all levels of education for the entire learning community. Quality professional development expands the capacity of the learning community to realize its vision and reach its goals. Professional development ensures that school staff has the content, process, knowledge, skills, dispositions, and accountability to help all students achieve high standards. For school staff, professional development helps enhance their ability and facilitate organizational change.

13.   PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COMPONENTS: Effective professional development is linked to the school vision, strategic plan, and specific “real” concerns in the teaching and learning process. The goal of professional development is to promote continuous learning across all levels of education for the entire learning community and to ensure that such learning is incorporated into the teaching and learning process. Effective staff development is continuous over time, research-based, culturally relevant, and connected to personal professional practice. School leaders must make adequate resources available for continuous professional development, support for change, and accountability for results. Subject wise standards are clarified to students to achieve and progress in a comfortable climate:

a.    Focuses on individual and organizational development related to improving student achievement.

b.    Develops expertise in both content and process.

c.     Focuses on teaching and learning for all students.

d.     Is relevant and research-based.

e.     Is sustained and supported by modeling, coaching, and specific problem solving.

f.      Helps school staff meet the needs of a diverse student population.

g.     Is based on up-to-date knowledge about how people learn.

h.    Includes accountability measures for changing practices based on the professional development.

i.     Professional measure of staff and implementation of awards and reforms.

j.     Clear code of conduct and policies.

k.    Promote knowledge of their ability to motivate students and to work with diverse student needs effectively and empathetically.

l.     Promote knowledge to understand students’ psychology and appropriate measures.

m.    Increase the abilities of and opportunities for teachers to work together to improve classroom practices.

n.   Provide teachers with skills in assessing students and adjusting instruction accordingly.

o.    Promote effective classroom management skills.

RESOURCES FOR SUSTAINABILITY

14.  STATEMENT: Critical to any school improvement initiatives are the identification and commitment of adequate fiscal and other resources that

a.    Develops and grow both the physical and human capital within the system for implementation and sustainability of school reforms.

b.    Continuously upgrade facilities, tools, and materials to keep pace with the changing economy, technology, and citizenship expectations.

c.    Adequately staff the initiatives and acknowledge the need for workload equalization and/or reduction.

d.    Provide appropriate time and necessary fiscal support for initiatives to be implemented.

e.    Continuously develop teacher knowledge and skills to incorporate these changes into their instruction.

f.     Move effective practices to full implementation and scale-up.

PRINCIPAL’S RESPOSIBILITIES

    Principal is the pivotal figure in a school. He keeps an eye over all the affairs, check every one for his duties and ensures that they are working in correct manner. He should not keep himself busy in teaching because he has so many other responsibilities to look after. Following duties are performed by the principal in Darussalam Academy:

Þ    All segments /functionaries are working properly.

Þ    Implement policies; admission, discipline, staff enrolment

Þ    Keep check on teachers’ performance and improvement.

Þ    Improve all standards.

Þ    Maintain academic facilities.

Þ    Maintain / liaison with the BISE (board of inter and sec)

Þ    Arrange in service training for teachers

Þ    Update parents about code of conduct and performance of students.

Þ    Organise extra and curricular activities

Þ    Organise functions of national and religious importance.

Þ    Keep the institution adequately staffed

Þ    Maintain accounts

Þ    Cater for adequate facilities like water, parking, seating etc.

Þ    Organise tests / exams

Þ    Council students for better performance

Þ    Arrange tuition / summer classes for weak students


 

THE PRINCIPAL

Introduction

1.     The classroom teacher is the most visible person in child's life at school, but it is the principal who is responsible for providing a high- quality education for all students.

2.     Principals vary in strategy, temperament, and leadership style, but the great ones have four characteristics in common:

a.     They take responsibility for school success.

b.     They lead teaching and learning. 

c.      They hire, develop and retain excellent teachers.

d.     They build a strong school community. 

e.      Be leader and meet the real life challenges of their jobs.

Responsibility for school success

a.     Never stop trying to solve problems.

b.     If a student is having trouble learning, figure out why, whether it is a learning disability, trouble with attendance, or gang involvement

c.      Creative in problem-solving and approach challenges with an entrepreneurial attitude

d.     Find ways to implement good ideas, rather than accepting the status quo.

e.      Face challenges and does not make excuses for failure.

Principal must know:

a.     What challenges does the school face?

b.     What is the plan to meet those challenges

c.      How does the principal get involved when a student is having trouble?

d.     New programs are developed and financed through community.

e.      Innovative partnerships with businesses, local colleges, and health care professionals that help enrich school's curriculum.

Suggestions

a.     Include teachers in the planning and decision making.

b.    Great insight and information for future administrators.

c.      Faculty and Staff at schools tend to stay for as long as that administrator stays.

d.    Administrators tend to function with the use of their ability to show empathy, in understanding the emotional makeup and using skillful measures in treating people according to their emotional reaction

e.      The principal should do yard duty to be a grounded teacher supporter."

f.      Keep an eye on inspirational teacher, who can lead the schools as the next principals, who can give clues and the way to overcome the obstacle.

g.     Superintendent to act as principal if ….. Because everything is only about teaching the students.

h.    The suggestions, ideas and plans are incredible.

i.       Great Parents and Great Students.

j.       very few highly qualified parents in the home resulting in poor quality learners