Learning and Teaching News

NAPLAN

NAPLAN is a national literacy and numeracy assessment that students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sit in May each year. It is the only national assessment all Australian students do.

As students' progress through their school years, it’s important to check how well they are learning the essential skills of reading, writing and numeracy. NAPLAN assesses the literacy and numeracy skills that students are learning through the school curriculum and allows parents/carers to see how their child is progressing against national standards and over time. 

 Your son participated in a school readiness test at the end of Term 1 which allowed Marist to not only test our IT systems, but also provided an opportunity for your son to practice using the NAPLAN program.  If your son was away during this testing please access the public demonstration site here, so that he can become familiar with the platform. 

Public demonstration site (nap.edu.au)

Specific timing and requirements for NAPLAN will be emailed to all students and parents next week.

Writing Task Year 7 and 9 ONLY – Term 1

This week your son will receive individual feedback on a writing task they completed in Term 1.  This task was marked by an external marker and will highlight key skills that your son is able to demonstrate or may need to work on in his writing. 

He will spend time during his ASH lesson this week analysing ways in which he can strengthen his writing.  His focus may be on sentence structure, audience or even cohesion.  Each student will have their own goals and being aware of this will strengthen his writing skills which are necessary for English, but also other key subject areas, such as Humanities and Science.

Each student will bring home their script this week and you are encouraged to sit with your son and discuss these results.

Year 10 Subject Changes

As you are aware, Year 10 elective courses run for the entire year. This is in preparation for senior studies where it is highly recommended that boys maintain their course of study for the two-year program. Thus, if your son is in Year 10 and considering a subject change in order to align with his senior course of study, then he will need to come to the ACT Office (via the Studies Office) to have a discussion and collect the required paperwork for changes to occur. Subject changes will be open until Thursday 28 April (Thursday of this week).

Year 12 Reporting and Academic Interviews

Year 12 assessment from the end of last term is currently being marked and cross-marked by teachers. Unit 3 Report Card will be published to the parent lounge in Week 3 of this term. All parents will receive an email once they are published.

Year 12 Academic Interviews will be held later this term (from Week 6). Parents and students will receive an email in the coming weeks providing instructions on how to book in for these interviews with a member of the Academic Care Team (ACT). For ATAR eligible students, the latest ATAR prediction will be discussed.

Year 11 Exam Block, Subject Changes and Reports 

Year 11 end of Unit 1 Exam Block will run from Monday 16 – Monday 23 May. Please ensure these dates are kept free from specialist appointments or other outside of school events for Year 11 students. The exam block timetable will be released to students in Week 3.

For students wishing to change subjects, they will need to visit the Academic Care Team (via the Studies Office) anytime between now and Week 7. Please note these subject changes will not occur until the start of Unit 2.

Year 11 Unit 1 Reports will be published later this term. Parents will receive notification via email when these are available.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Our next round of Parent Teacher Student Interviews will take place online this Wednesday 27 April. Bookings for these are now closed. If you have any concerns or questions about your son’s progress or questions regarding specific subjects, please ensure you contact your son’s teacher.

Learning from Home

If you are unable to attend school due to COVID-19 please access your classwork via the Moodle subject page and ensure you are revising for your upcoming exams.  If you are unsure of what work to complete or require further work or assistance, please contact your classroom teacher for further guidance.

Study Hall

Every Tuesday and Thursday morning the teacher librarians in the senior library offer study hall sessions from 7:45 am to 8:30 am. These are designed to build the student’s capacity to study independently by teaching them key skills for the first 15mins of the sessions and then offering independent supported study for the remainder of the time.

Please find below the outline for the Study Hall for Term 2.