Principals Report
It has been a whirlwind of a term, with cancellations brought on by the lockdown and the restrictions afterward, but there have been some good highlights. In this newsletter you will get the chance to read up on where our students have been going this term, enjoy the content.
Our students completed their NAPLAN tests in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in May this year. This was a good opportunity to see how our students have progressed since the NAPLAN was last held in 2019. Results came in online this term and this week the NAPLAN booklets are going out to parents of the students who participated in the NAPLAN. After some good results in 2019 it was pleasing to see that we have maintained our level of results from last time. Across all the year levels we have had instances of students who have performed at personally high levels, showing improvement on previous NAPLAN results or achievement to the Higher Band level indicating performance well above the Standard of Educational Achievement or SEA for that year level. When reports go home this week and are read please take into account that the purpose of the NAPLAN tests is not a pass or fail exercise but is to help teachers and parents in moving student learning forward.
In the tests for Reading, Numeracy and Writing the levels of students achieving the SEA has been a real positive. For students who sat the tests in 2019 results in all tests have shown an improvement or upward trend from 2019, indicating a real improvement in learning in these areas. It will now be interesting to see how students go for the rest of this year, including the PAT tests which students are participating in these last two weeks of the term. In our Early Years learning this progress is also evident. Our Year 1s this term underwent the Phonics Screening check with all students performing really well, demonstrating a really good understanding of Pseudo and Real words and the sounds associated with them. Similarly our Junior Primary students are all progressing well with their Phonological Awareness Skill Mapping which is completed once a term and tests students on their basic identification of sounds associated with syllables, rhymes and the ability to identify sound segments in words.
Lastly I would like to thank our staff and students for the efforts they put in on our Open Night earlier this term. The efforts put in by some of our students to not only show off their work but also demonstrate their learning through a variety of activities was admirable. I would like to wish everyone a great holiday and we look forward to seeing our students back for the start of term four.