Learning and Teaching

NAPLAN Update

Our students in Years 3 and 5 completed NAPLAN online and paper-based in Term 1 this year. As a school, individual results were received late last term electronically and we sent home the individual student profiles during Learning Conversations. Since then, we have been waiting for the release of the State and National results to provide an opportunity to understand how our results compare to those across Australia. 

 

After delving further into our NAPLAN data, we wanted to be able to share and celebrate the results and findings with the school community. For Writing in Year Three students are required to write using paper whereas those students in Year Five type their writing online in the NAPLAN platform. 

 

This year's writing genre was a narrative (story) and the prompt related to including a boat or ship in their story. Writing was assessed against the marking criteria which focused on the key areas:

  • Audience
  • Text Structure
  • Ideas
  • Character and Setting
  • Vocabulary
  • Cohesion
  • Paragraphing
  • Sentence Structure
  • Punctuation
  • Spelling

From the findings we have been able to compare our school cohort results to state results which are displayed below:

Year 3

 AudienceText StructureIdeasCharacter and SettingVocabularyCohesionParagraphingSentence StructurePunctuationSpelling

State Percent

41.67%

46.75%

48.80%

48.00%

41.00%

48.25%

17.00%

37.17%

36.60%

44.17%

School Percent

42.00%

49.25%

49.60%

49.25%

40.00%

48.00%

19.50%

38.50%

37.40%

45.50%

Areas of Strength:

  • Text Structure 
  • Ideas
  • Character and Setting

Areas for Growth:

  • Punctuation
  • Paragraphing 
  • Vocabulary

Year 5

 AudienceText StructureIdeasCharacter and SettingVocabularyCohesionParagraphingSentence StructurePunctuationSpelling

State Percent

50.67%

54.25%

56.60%

57.25%

48.20%

54.50%

27.00%

44.67%

43.00%

53.17%

School Percent

50.00%

54.25%

57.00%

58.00%

46.40%

52.00%

41.00%

45.83%

39.00%

54.67%

Areas of Strength:

  • Text Structure 
  • Ideas
  • Character and Setting

Areas for Growth:

  • Punctuation
  • Vocabulary 

 

Reflecting on these results, we have been proud of how our students have performed and continue to strive for further opportunities to extend and challenge our students writing capabilities. Across our school from Foundation to Grade 6, we have strengthened our writing approaches through conducting termly common assessment tasks (CAT). These allow teachers to assess, discuss and provide clarity around expectations at each year level, as well as providing a collaborative partnership across the school to develop capable writers at St Therese’s. Students are then informed from our discussions through feedback and exemplars which are showcased in our classrooms in the format of our ‘Bump It Up’ walls. Check out what our updated ‘Bump It Up’ walls look like from our recent persuasive writing CAT. 

 

New Maths Resources

We recently received some awesome Maths resources. These supplies will be used by all year levels to support the delivery of our high-quality Maths curriculum.

 

 

Graduate Outcome Awards

Last term we celebrated students who displayed the Graduate Outcome of COURAGE. These students received a Graduate Outcome Award. 

 

Students who graduate from St Therese’s Primary School are people of COURAGE, who are inclusive, and make responsible choices, even when it’s difficult.

 

For the next fortnight, staff will continue to be on the lookout for students who display the Graduate Outcome of RESPECT.