From Our Principals

Dear families,

We are already halfway through the term, and we continue to be proud of the calm and connected start to the year.

I would like to say a huge thank you to our students for taking my communication challenge so seriously. Morning gate duty is one of the highlights of my day and it has been wonderful to see so many students going out of their way to say hello, make eye contact, answer questions and even ask their own. We are committed to equipping our students with the skills to be positive, contributing members of society who value kindness. A hello costs nothing, yet it creates meaningful connection and continues to strengthen our community.

We are maintaining our focus on engagement norms and routines to help set clear expectations for our students and their learning environments. These are explicitly taught and consistently supported. Our routines are grounded in how students learn best and provide the structure and predictability that enable students to feel secure, focused and ready to achieve. We place high value on these learning, social and personal behaviours and, as such, we are excited to announce that we will be sending home a Term 1 report that focuses on these areas. We look forward to sharing more information with you over the coming weeks.

A reminder that next Thursday is School Photo Day, followed by a Curriculum Day on Friday (no students in attendance). On this day, we will be participating in three professional learning workshops:

• Functions of Behaviour
• Evaluation of our universal practices, including ‘READY to Learn’
• The beginning of our teaching sprints, with an instructional focus on ‘Think, Pair, Share’

We greatly value this time to learn collaboratively to ensure consistent implementation across the school.

Reminders and updates:

• Late students must be signed in at the office by a parent or carer.
• Please update Compass if your child has any unexplained absences.
• PSW Ormond store will conduct its annual stocktake on Thursday 5 March and will be closed for the day.
• If your child has a music lesson with Kids on Key, please remind them of their lesson time on the morning of their scheduled session.

Please keep reading for more important news and announcements.

With thanks,

Anna-Marie Yelland

Principal

NAPLAN - Year 3 and Year 5

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a literacy and numeracy assessment that students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sit each year. It is the only national assessment all Australian students have the opportunity to undertake, and our Year 3 and Year 5 students will be participating next month.

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 proficiency standards. NAPLAN is just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process. It does not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance, but it can provide teachers with more information about students’ educational progress. NAPLAN also provides schools, education authorities and governments with information about how education programs are working, and whether young Australians are achieving important educational outcomes in literacy and numeracy.

The NAPLAN testing window will begin on Wednesday 11 March and runs through to Monday 24 March. However, we have scheduled the tests at the beginning of the 9-day window, prioritising student needs and allowing time for makeup tests if students are unexpectedly absent. Please see our timetable below, all testing will take place within the first session of the day.

Wednesday 11th March - Writing

Thursday 12th March - Reading

Friday 13th March - Language Conventions

Monday 16th March - Numeracy

NAPLAN is not a measure of lifelong success nor is it meant to be a stressful experience. It is, instead, an opportunity for students to try their best and demonstrate their abilities in different curriculum areas. Our teachers will discuss NAPLAN as an opportunity and ensure students are familiar with the types of questions in the test. We will continue to provide support, guidance, and make necessary adjustments for students so that this opportunity can be accessed by all.