Sacred Heart Kew

Weekes' Weekly News

Learning, growing and celebrating together...

Dear Sacred Heart Kew Families,

 

I like facts. Here are some. 

 

Bats are the only flying mammals. Fact.

Snakes smell with their tongues. Fact

The national animal of Scotland is the Unicorn. Fact.

Completing a few NAPLAN assessments does not assess the whole person. Fact.

No one assessment can assess everything. Fact.

 

Over the last few days, our Year 3 and Year 5 children have participated in the annual NAPLAN assessments. The following four areas have been assessed: 

 

Reading

Writing 

Language Conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation)

Numeracy

 

Assessing all the above is a great start and quite useful. However, we must not forget that NAPLAN doesn’t assess everything, nor should we use this assessment as the ‘be all and end all’ of any assessment regime. 

 

Here is another fact. 

 

NAPLAN does not assess: 

  • Values
  • Kindness or compassion
  • Social/emotional intelligence
  • Levels of empathy
  • Passions
  • Creativity

The NAPLAN results that parents will receive later in the year do not tell the whole story of your child. The results will not explain if your child was feeling anxious as they sat down for each assessment, whether they might have had a fight with their sibling or other family member on the way to school that day, or whether they managed to achieve the advised 7-8 hours of sleep the night before. The results will also not reflect whether your child is a good friend and/or a respectful classmate each day. 

 

NAPLAN doesn’t assess your child’s character. No assessment can. 

 

Your child (and no one needs me or anyone else for that matter) to say this, but your child is SO MUCH MORE than any assessment results that will be churned out. Yes, we will look at each child’s NAPLAN results, assessing the areas in which they achieved, and the areas that require further focus and development. Along with this, we will continue to celebrate and assist you, the family in growing humble, empathetic and grateful children, developing the whole child here at Sacred Heart Kew. And until the day that someone creates an assessment for all those important things, NAPLAN will just have to do. 

 

Kind Regards,

 

Ed Weekes 

 

School Principal