Assistant Principal Report

NAPLAN 2023

This Year NAPLAN testing will take place in Term 1 for all Year 3, Year 5, Year 7 and Year 9 students across all states of Australia. From this year, parents and carers will get earlier, simpler and clearer information about their child’s NAPLAN achievement based on new, more rigorous national standards. 

Education Ministers have agreed to change the way NAPLAN results are reported to parents and carers. New proficiency standards with 4 levels of achievement for each year level will replace the previous 10-band structure that covered all 4 levels tested and the old national minimum standard set in 2008 when tests were on paper. The new proficiency standards include a baseline benchmark to identify students who are likely to need additional support.

The numerical NAPLAN bands and the national minimum standard will be replaced by the following 4 levels of achievement: 

• Exceeding 

• Strong 

• Developing 

• Needs additional support.

Our Year 3 and Year 5 students will complete their NAPLAN testing on the following days in Week 8 and Week 9:

WEEK 8

Wednesday 15th March: 9.30am Writing 

Thursday 16th March: 9.30am Reading

WEEK 9

Tuesday 21st March: 9.30am Conventions of Language

Wednesday 22nd March: 9.30am Numeracy

Please ensure that your child arrives at school on time to be ready to participate.

Joanna Uzunovski

Assistant Principal

Hello Everyone,

Late Arrivals

Arriving late to school can have a huge impact on your learning, especially if it happens often. We have noticed that a high number of students are arriving late for school at the moment, as you can see in the graph below:

Policies for Consultation

As we progress through the process of updating our school policies, some policies require community consultation. We have two policies open for community consultation, the Child Safety Policy and the Complaints Policy. 

When writing school policies, we use the Department of Education templates with the compulsory details included. We make implementation adjustments to suit our school. These are the areas in which we can make changes. These sentences often start with “At Deer Park West we……”

These policies were sent to all families via Compass last Thursday. Please have a read through both draft policies. We are happy to receive feedback and make changes where practicable. 

You can either email the policies with notes about your feedback to the school, or drop off a paper copy with your suggestions/questions written on them.

Please submit feedback by Friday 10th March.

If you would like a paper copy of the policies, please ask at the school office. 

2023 Challenge of the Week

 ‘How many words can you make from these letters:’

The aim is to collaborate with 1 -3 friends or family members (no more than 4 people per entry) to make as many words of 3 letters or more from a given lot of letters, as well as trying to find a word that uses the most of the letters as possible. 

For example, if the letters are P, F, H, U, E, L, L you can make the words: help, full, elf, pull, fuel, helpful.

Week 5’s complete word was CHILDREN. 

Students found many other words such as: child, nice, led, hide, ride, hid, red, hen, line, die, herd, lie, lied, ice, rice, cried, held, dice, hind

Students collaborating earnt a Caught You Doing Right card each. 

The students were:

Emily FB

Alessio (& mum and dad) 1/2A

Hamza 1/2B

Faneend, Jolisa, Adelynn, Litea, Moses, Will, Tyler & Finlea 1/2C

Sabrina, Andrew (& mum) 1/2D

Shona & Isaac 3B

Jiraiya, Azra (& mum) 3C

Imogen, Boston, Tharu, Tha Tha, Aria & Jeslyn 4B

Olivya & Anna 5A

Gurugunn, Shanvi (& mum) 5C

Week 7’s letters are:  D, O, N, T, A, I, C, U, E

Please hand in your words to the office before 3.30pm on Thursday 9th March.

Deanne Scott

Assistant Principal

Most schools are experiencing parking and traffic issues at pick up and drop off times.  Through Melton and Brimbank Police have been out checking on driver behaviour around schools and school crossings.

It has become apparent that too many drivers are not obeying posted parking and speed signs. 

It is important to park legally to provide a safer environment for children.  Double parking restricts the view of drivers and forces children onto the road and obstructs traffic. 

All school speed limits are clearly signposted.  Remember the times and slow down around schools.

If you’re unable to park legally close-by, please park a street or two away and walk to collect the children. It will also teach them about road safety.

Some of the fines include:

Exceeding speed limit by 10km/h but less than 25km/h - $370 and 3 demerit points

Stopped – Double Parked or parked on Nature Strip- $111

Fail to stop and remain stationary at children’s crossing - $462 and 3 demerit points

Use mobile phone while driving - $555 and 4 demerit points

Although the fines are significant the main focus of Police is the safety of the children and that of the crossing supervisors.

Please remember to be patient around schools.  This will provide a safer environment for the children.

Dave SANDERS 

Sergeant 35940- Melton Highway Patrol - Victoria Police _______________________________________ email: dave.sanders@police.vic.gov.au I phone: (03) 9747 7999  DX: 217424   I address: 243-245 Station Road, Melton 3337