Acting Principal's

Report

Mr Lockhart

School Production - We Will Rock You

It is with great excitement and anticipation this Friday is our Whole School Production. Ms Ferguson, Mrs Woodman and other staff members have been coaching and managing a number of students through many months of training and rehearsals. We are looking forward to the matinee session at 1.00pm (school students only not open to the public) and then the evening session at 7.00pm. Good luck to everyone involved.

Naplan

In 2023, the NAPLAN tests were held in March instead of May for the first time with students completing 4 tests across 4 days including Reading, Writing, Conventions of Language (Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling) and Numeracy. The earlier testing has led to important changes to how NAPLAN test results are reported. Proficiency standards with 4 levels of achievement have replaced the 10 reporting bands and national minimum standards that have been in place since 2008.

The 4 proficiency levels are: Exceeding, Strong, Developing and Needs additional support. The standards are reported on a reset measurement scale which means that results from 2023 cannot be compared with results from previous years, however, they do allow for the more precise information from online testing to be reflected in student results.

While the 2023 NAPLAN results cannot be compared or analysed with respect to previous results, they do provide valuable data for our Educators. The results from each test provide insights into areas of strength and areas requiring additional support in literacy and numeracy.

The descriptors for each proficiency standard are:

• Exceeding: The student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing.

• Strong: The student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing.

• Developing: The student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.

• Needs additional support: The student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.

As a college, these testing results form an important part of our approach to providing point-of-need learning for each of our students. The data provided through NAPLAN student results are analysed in conjunction with internal student learning data including our Progressive Assessment Test (PAT) Reading and Maths, Essential Assessment results and teacher assessments of learning progression. One set of data is insufficient by itself, however, in combination with a range of other data sources, it informs the story behind the data for each student and the steps needed to improve growth in their learning.

With the current NAPLAN results now available, this provides an important step in forming our specific and measurable goals for student improvement within the life of this Strategic Plan. It is important as part of this focus that we continue to explicitly include the discussion of learning data within our learning conversations, as well as students active engaging with their learning through knowing where they are going, how am I going and where to next (John Hattie, 2008).

Book Week

Great job to everyone involved, always an exciting time at our College as all our students enjoy dressing up as their favourite character which they have read about. This also brings much excitement and engagement from our students which promotes a greater enthusiasm for reading.

2024 Year 7 Information Evening